Sunday 10 October 2010

Digitalrevolutions on a small family farm in the UK.

Update: The film is through to the final 5! Judging to take place on November 4th. Mischief night.
This is an entry for the digitalrevolutions competition, run by http://sheffdocfest.com/view/digitalrevolutions
Everyone join in, and lets get some good stuff out there for BCS to promote digital technology for all.
All we need now is ubiquitous access for all...



After I made the above film several people commented on youtube about the network which feeds our farm, its a community network supplying the valleys with a wifi broadband connection. There are other films about it on my youtube channel if anyone wants to look.


Part of the digitalrevolutions film was shown on national news on 27th October 2010. I think it is particularly apt that a film made to promote the benefits of digital technology was selected by the news reporter to demonstrate the growing digital divide. Thus digital technology was used to raise awareness of the growing digital divide, as our two main telcos replicate dual networks in urban areas and choose to ignore the more rural locations, aka the Final Third.
link to bbc report and short video
I was asked on Twitter what our plans for the future are. Well we keep trying to help others get connections, and yesterday I made another little video to show an afternoon's work doing site surveys to help another group further along - the kirkby exchange which their phones are connected to cannot supply them with internet other than dodgy dial up.
They can't get satellite because they are behind a big hill facing south, and mobile doesn't work well there either. Our tests yesterday proved we can get to them, and this is a short 2 minute film showing us trying...



This is a video of Barry, who is retired, and found that the internet has changed his life. Being online has opened up a whole new world for him:


A lady at the fair telling us how her grand daughter got her online, and all the benefits being online has brought her.