12+Villages

toc =12 Villages= **Home page**: http://12villages.co.uk
 * Main Country of Operation:** UK
 * Other Countries of Operation:** N/A
 * Contact:** Steve Thompson

=**Introduction** = There are more details in "overview" below. I intend to add updates to this page in a kind of reverse order blog so that the most recent update will appear at the top. The 12 villages form a Community Network in County Durham UK, the purpose of which is to promote rural regeneration by the advancement of education, training or retraining, the preservation and protection of good health, the relief of poverty, the improvement of existing facilities and to develop and improve the physical and social environment in an effort to enhance the condition of life for the inhabitants of the area in the map on the website.

=Updates= **These will be written "blog like" in reverse chronological order.** =**Session 13/01/2012**=

=**Update - 05/12/2011**=

Ran a session last week but only 4 turned up. The Chair, the Vice Chair, The Treasurer and the Secretary. Furthermore their Internet was not working (I believe it was last used in that building 2 years ago). We still had a useful session and some good discussion. I showed them the presentation of the things that could be done. The presentation was based largely on what I showed at CIRN 2011 - [|Click Here] We planned another session in the new year in a closeby online centre.

=**Update - 18/11/2011**= The planned session did not happen this week. The chair of the organisation had to plan an attend a funeral and his car dropping out of the process lost us two other participants. It was felt it would be better to postpone the session. I asked if they would prefer the new session to take place o their own turf and they said yes. I did wonder about this but it was their idea to come to the University in the first place. This means the new session now set for December will have less technology to call upon. They have one computer and "4 or 6 terminals" (they're unsure how many) I've reflected on what I'm hearing (and what is unsaid) and I have decided to change the session a little. I will make it possible to be a spectator at the session as well as a participant. This will give people a chance to see things they //could// do as well as the stuff they are aware they want to do. I'll send a poster to promote the "event". The actual taught session will have less in it to make for a slow and easy start. On the same day a key member of CRaNE was to have attended the training session. Obviously I could not do this for one and so we just had a meeting and an update. See CRaNE-News wiki page.

=**Update - 14/11/2011**= I have begun to make the preparations I outlined at CIRN11 in readiness for the first session with this group this coming Wednesday. Whilst at CIRN I prepared some of the session materials particularly the session outline. I intend to use my CIRN presentation (slightly edited) as an opener to raise awareness of what we are aiming to achieve. I have not met everyone who will be there on Wednesday so awareness building is necessary. I think there may be a dozen people so I have begun to pre-create the web accounts we will use. I have also started to edit the Google Apps Education Edition [|website] to make up to date and fit for purpose.

=**Overview **=

The 12 villages form a Community Network in County Durham UK, the purpose of which is to promote rural regeneration by the advancement of education, training or retraining, the preservation and protection of good health, the relief of poverty, the improvement of existing facilities and to develop and improve the physical and social environment in an effort to enhance the condition of life for the inhabitants of the area in the map on the website.

The purpose of the website and the enterprises that will evolve from it is to add digital activities that will enhance all of the above and more. 12 Villages is a Community Network in County Durham. The purpose of this site and the enterprises that will evolve from it is to add digital, community media, social media activities to physical activities of the network. The villages concerned (see below) are considered to be the most deprived in County Durham. The ultimate aim is to create a “Village Hub” that is effectively a “Digital Village Network”

//A **Digital Village** is a space where a community expresses their identity though ICT and Digital Media. This may be from an artistic, heritage, or economic perspective or a mixture of all three.This can be done through poetry, digital stories, community newspapers online, image collections (old and new), audio (Internet radio, oral history), animations, video, and text. To engage in the activities the participants need to learn new skills and so the Digital Village also becomes a learning community. [ [|steve thompson] ]//

The intention is to use technology to provide services and development for a group of very rural villages and settlements where physically networking is very difficult. The work will begin with the 5 Westerly villages and will eventually roll out to all 12. These villages are:

Bearpark (w), Bowburn, Brandon (w), Cassop, Esh Winning (w), Kelloe, Ludworth, New Brancepeth (w), Quarington Hill, Sherburn Hill, Ushaw Moor (w) & West Rainton. (w) denotes a Westerly Village

Work is funded by ERDF

=**Feed from project website:**=

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