 GTC regularly develops concepts and project profiles for clients, and to examine or promote novel approaches to technology for communities and social enterprises. Much is written about turning a business plan into a technology strategy but there is little about leveraging technology for the benefit of the wider community. Here we describe some of the concepts and methods we use to produce technology plans and concepts. We are happy to discuss how GTC can help you leverage technology in your community, social enterprise, or third sector organisation.
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Technology Concepts for Communities and Social Enterprise
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There are over 200 community networks in the UK, leading the world according to the OECD. However, many of these first generation networks are typically based on commodity wifi technology. As with any high-tech organisation, the time has come for a technology refresh - the speeds offered by 802.11 networks is no loinger remarkable and struggles to support many of the new services beginning to appear. So what is the alternative? One thing is certain, next generation community infrastructures will be more complex to install but that shouldn't put communities off - a well planned and installed infrastructure is still something which any community can own, manage, and most importantly benefit from. GTC's understanding of community models and available technologies makes us an ideal partner if you're planning to update an existing community network or embark on a new project. With a professional and experienced partner on your side, the opportunities for community broadband open up. No longer limited to commodity technology, the possibility of fibre-optic networks, for example, becomes a reality. With vast performance and a very long viable life (in excess of 20-years), fibre networks deliver speeds which allow you to realise your imagination without compromise, and their reliability means no late night calls and streched support rotas. GTC delivered a presentation on how the Dutch village of Nuenen has taken this step, and how this can work for any market town or regeneration area. Click on the link to see the preseentation, or contact us for more information.  Fibre - Small is Beautiful |
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Technology plan workshops |
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Methologies and approaches to technology plans
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Many communities across England took part in the Market Town's Initiative; a programme to help rural towns to take stock, and to develop ideas and consensus on where they would like to be in the future. The result is often an impressive document, providing a detailed and honest audit of the town, a view of the towns direction and goals, together with a list of projects needed to achieve their end goals. If a market town were an established family business and had just undergone the same soul-searching process, it is likely to reach for the IT department to see how technology might help make the process of change quicker, cheaper or simply more interesting. Market towns rarely have this resource to hand, so GTC has developed a process, involving workshops and interviews, to produce a Technology Plan which does exactly this - it delivers a detailed and creative assessment of technology opportunities linked to the MTI Action Plan. Communities have found the process of developing the Technology Plan useful even before the report is published; it challenges ideas and priorities, and seeks to identify linkages between apparently disparate facets of the Action Plan, to maximise the return. Not all of the outcomes involve technology - GTC believes technology is only great when its intelligently and sensitively applied to a problem, its not a panacea, so some problems are better solved in other ways. GTC is happy to talk to parish councils and MTI committees about how we can help turn an Action Plan into a reality.
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Museum moves into the community |
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Technology Concepts for Communities and Social Enterprise
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GTC developed the concept of moving the museum into the commuity for a market town project in Oxfordshire. The community had long wanted a museum and had an interesting story to tell but the cost of buying and adapting a building was prohibitive - a traditional museum was never going ot be realistic. GTC's concept was to locate the exhibits in their native environment, creating a much better context for conveying the town's story, and to use a combination of technologies to guide and inform visitors on a walk around the town. In themselves, each of the technologies were tried and tested, in some cases technologically quite boring, but when combined they created a single integrated technology platform which touched on many of the goals the community had set itself; improving tourism, documenting their heritage, providing new opportunities for local businesses, linking schools and colleges with the town plans, and so forth. Community Concept - Open Museum (647.75 KB) |
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Community Concepts 
