Richard Kingston School of Environment & Development University of Manchester [email_address] www.ppgis.manchester.ac.uk Mapping for who? access issues and the digital divide Mapping for Sustainable Communities Workshop UCL, 17 th June

Background 12 years experience developing web-based PPGIS, Developing, designing and implementing tools to assist public participation in real environmental decision making problems technology there to complement not replace a suite of public participation methods 1 st ever on-line PPGIS mirrored the Planning for Real process in digital form http://www.ppgis.manchester.ac.uk/projects/slaithwaite/ other projects, publications and links are here: http://www.ppgis.manchester.ac.uk/

12 years experience developing web-based PPGIS,

Developing, designing and implementing tools to assist public participation in real environmental decision making problems

technology there to complement not replace a suite of public participation methods

1 st ever on-line PPGIS mirrored the Planning for Real process in digital form

http://www.ppgis.manchester.ac.uk/projects/slaithwaite/

other projects, publications and links are here:

http://www.ppgis.manchester.ac.uk/

UK Citizen to local authority contact by channel 2006 Low take-up was seen as one of the main barriers to successful implementation. UK came bottom in a Eurostat survey of take-up of e-government services by businesses, and below the EU average in terms of take-up by individuals (EC 2005). Source data: IDeA 2006

Low take-up was seen as one of the main barriers to successful implementation.

UK came bottom in a Eurostat survey of take-up of e-government services by businesses, and below the EU average in terms of take-up by individuals (EC 2005).

Source data: IDeA 2006

Volumes of contact to LA service across all channels, Jan-Mar 2008 Majority of people who access LA services are those least likely to have Internet access

Majority of people who access LA services are those least likely to have Internet access

Internet take-up in the UK by socio-economic group and age 40% of UK households do not have home Internet access socio-economic status would appear to be the most significant divider in terms of internet take-up, followed by age (Ofcom, 2007)

40% of UK households do not have home Internet access

socio-economic status would appear to be the most significant divider in terms of internet take-up, followed by age (Ofcom, 2007)