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A website that is on the Internet does not mean it is available to everyone. Most people of the world do not have Internet access, many of those that do have access find it difficult to use and even harder to find what they need.
Cities and Governments put information and services onto the web in the expectation that their duty is done, that people will use it. The barriers to use are wide ranging - do they have a computer, can they afford to run it, do they have the skill to operate it, can they use a browser.
Even if these questions are answered the biggest barrier is the way the Internet operates and the restrictive method followed in constructing it. Often it is the web site construction that is the real barrier to access and usage – actually creating the ‘Digital Divide’.
Government schemes operate on the assumption that this ‘divide’ is the inability to fund networks, i.e. the lack of broadband infrastructure and skills training.
We believe it is user focused digital services that are lacking and in turn this generates user apathy and very low interest in e-Government usage uptake.
Current options favour those with computer skills and the finance to own and operate a personal computer.
This leaves a rather large user gap, probably the majority even in
UK city's like Sheffield and Aberdeen. This is the reason that these city's looked at devising a system that could reach and engage all of the people.
Building a people oriented digital service meant changing the access methods that PC users are happy with but which may prove unsuitable for everyone else. It is possible to re-map Internet Websites with overlays that add intelligent front end navigation structures based around each individual user's requirements.
This is why the Public DataWeb service is radically different from other kiosk and Webphone Internet access services. We use our Information Engineering skills to tailor the Internet located data to make it operate in a manner that any unskilled user can immediately understand and use. This is not by simply providing deep onward links. This is done, but additionally our method actually processes the data from one source and outputs the results into another - moving the internet onwards to true interlinked computing processing rather than a lookup information viewing operation which currently predominates the market.
These same
processes are carried onto our wireless networks for simpler and
quicker services on WiFi / mobile phones |
