An open source solution enabling councils and registered social landlords to deliver video-based interactive eGovernment services is set to be made available through national government procurement frameworks in October.
Since November 2003 residents at the Carpenters Estate in Newham, East London, have been testing the prototype system to access a range of digital services. The government-supported RegenTV project uses the emerging Internet Protocol Television (ipTV) technology, which can deliver broadband-speed web access, digital TV, video-on-demand and PC-type services through a single connection to a TV set.
The initiative was one of a number of local government initiatives supported by the first round of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's e-Innovations funding programme.
The project built upon the existing ipTV service on the Carpenters estate set up by an earlier Department for Education and Skills pathfinder initiative. The aim was to covert this into a scalable open source product and service model that can be rolled out across the country.
Partners involved in the project included Newham Council, IBM, London Connects, social enterprise Newham.net, as well as the East Thames housing group, who are confirmed as RegenTV's first customer.
"For us, the attraction of RegenTV is that it supports the building of strong communities on our estates, while at the same time providing us with a way of talking with our residents in the comfort and security of their own homes", said June Barnes, East Thames Group's' Chief Executive.
Regen TV's software runs on the open source Linux operating system, with 'free to air' English and foreign language TV stations feed through from local satellite antennae and applications hosted on back end servers.
One of the system's most successful aspects has been to make community films available via the video-on-demand feature. Over 100 films about the estate and local issues have been produced, many by local people, which the project says has been a major driver in encouraging take-up and usage.
Michael Mulquin, chair of Newham.net describes the project as a "major step forward in facilitating social change and helping to bridge the 'digital divide'".
The complete solution will be available through the GCat Government IT Catalogue, with a service-only option offered through the S-Cat national procurement framework.
RegenTV also runs a series of monthly open days where those interested in the projects can find out more about its work, with the next taking place in Stratford on 18 July. For details, email Rick Smith at Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!.
Quelle: eGov monito, 13.06.2005
