HUBS Mobile Cybercafe

A central part of the HUBS project is the ability to take technology to the people, rather than expect them to travel to colleges or other traditional education provision. Now their anyone's first taste of technology can take place in a community centre, in a library, or even in a tent!

Making Connections

New technology has made it possible to break out of traditional training models by using laptops and other mobile equipment to take the classroom to the student.

Many people who would use existing IT training facilities are prevented from doing so by problems of distance, transport, convenient timing and other physical and psychological barriers.

Mobile training is not new in the local area, but it is currently quite limited, and there are few people able to offer mobile Internet training and even fewer are committed to working with disadvantaged communities.

Using community centres

Within every local community are places which provide specific services and a point of contact for all sorts of people. These include traditional 'church hall' type community centres, libraries, community-owned buildings, doctors surgeries, school halls, scout huts and so on.

These centres provide a useful meeting space for people, in which they can arrange their own meetings, set up their own activities and be encouraged to develop contacts with other people in the local area. A healthy, vibrant, well-developed community will often have a well-run, well-resourced, accessible community centre at its heart.

SCIP has already worked with a number of community groups who use or help run their local community centre. By working with the organisations based in the centre we have been able to provide services which fit in with local people's needs, as well as supporting the activities of groups such as the mothers and toddlers, youth clubs and older people's groups.

A mobile training facility

Using a suite of laptops we can deliver training in any room large enough for upwards of four people to sit at a desk. We will have up to ten laptops available and use a radio-based network to provide maximum flexibility.

The computers can be set up and taken down quickly and easily, and connected to the Internet through either ISDN or a normal telephone line. The laptops will work on their own, or can easily be networked.

The computers will have CD Rom drives so we can run all sorts of applications, including games, entertainment, leisure and business software. They will be easy to use -- we'll have a mouse and keyboard for people who find laptops too fiddly -- and we'll have various adaptations made to cater for people with special needs.

Supporting existing provision

The continued development of training and education is recognised as a key part of the growth of strong communities. The explosion in the use of Internet and communications technology challenges many of the traditional approaches to teaching and learning across all parts of society, whether provided by statutory, voluntary or private sector organisations.

We recognise the shortcomings inherent in not having permanent resources available in a colmmunity centre, but we hope we can offer people a stepping stone to owning and running their own euipment.

Costs

By targeting the most disadvantaged in the community we must recognise that cost is a significant barrier to access to computer resources. Some of the resources we provide will be free, others will have costs attached to help meet the costs of providing them.

We will introduce a pricing policy which prioritises the people least able to afford access, such as those on benefits. We will also seek to provide affordable resources for others, in a field where the costs of specialist Internet training can be prohibitive.

HUBS has received capital funding from the Government Office of the South East through its Skills Challenge Programme.

HUBS is supported by Sun Microsystems

HUBS is managed by
Sussex Community Internet Project