Scottish Government

SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE CENTRAL RESEARCH UNIT

Agricultural Policy Co-ordination and Rural DevelopmentResearch Programme Research Findings No. 13

A Rural Community Gateway Website for Scotland - Scoping Study

Jenny Brogden, Joanna Gilliatt and Doug Maclean
Lambda Research and Consultancy Ltd

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Main Findings

• There was support amongst rural communities for the creation of a RCGW, which should be piloted for a year initially. During this time the website, and the use made of it by its user base should be evaluated.
• During the pilot period, responsibility for the operation of the RCGW could rest with a body external to the Executive, with an interest in and knowledge of rural issues. It should be funded to enable it to employ staff for the purposes of supporting the website; it may be necessary for the body identified to liase with other bodies involved in rural affairs to seek accommodation and other facilities for housing the staff.
• The website should be easy to use and should provide: easy access to all information relevant to rural communities, including information and advice on services; 'added value' links to other relevant sites; mechanisms for encouraging people and organisations to share their experiences and to learn from each other; a 'knowledge bank' and library function; a means of participating in consultation exercises; facilities for searching and site personalisation; a mechanism to enable users to contribute content to the website; a 'human face' to support users in finding information.
• It should not: replicate information held on other sites; duplicate the purpose served by local community websites; or be allowed to become out of date, or lacking in up to date references and material.
• A network of "rural animateurs" could be co-ordinated to actively promote the RCGW locally, encourage contributions to it, and encourage people and organisations to use it.
• The RCGW could be developed from scratch, working to the functional specification contained in the scoping study, or from the existing prototype website developed for the scoping study.

Background

In May 2000, the Scottish Executive published "Rural Scotland: A New Approach". As part of the follow-up to the document, Ministers asked the Scottish National Rural Partnership (SNRP) to convene a group, which would bring together service providers "to identify innovative approaches to providing services in rural areas and to consider how these examples might benefit and be replicated in other parts of rural Scotland". The Group also offered recommendations on how local rural communities might be helped to identify their realistic service needs and to work with providers to achieve these.

In its report, Services in Rural Scotland, the SNRP recommendation the establishment of a rural community gateway website (RCGW). A gateway (or portal) website differs from other types of website, in that it tends to have little of content of its own, but offers facilities for directing users to other sites. Some sites do this simply by proving a series of links to other sites, but others add value by offering facilities to users, which help them to find the particular sites that will be of greatest interest to them. This might include offering information on what each linked site offers, search facilities, and facilities to enable users to express their information needs, so that others may respond to them.

A RCGW has considerable potential for assisting people and organisations living and working in Scotland's rural communities. For example, it could provide a rich library of resources; access to advice and information; facilities to enable networking and the sharing of information amongst rural communities and between rural communities and government.

However, the demand for, and practicality of, creating and maintaining such a web-site was untested. This research sought to examine the potential demand for the site and identify the necessary functionality and content of the site.

Aims of the Study

The aim of the scoping study was to determine the nature of the demand for a RCGW and to:

• assess the views and requirements of potential users of the website on its format, content and the uses to which it should be put;
• assess the views and requirements of community groups with existing websites, who may wish to be represented on the site;
• address technical issues related to the development of the site, including examining alternatives for hosting and maintaining the site, and developing a prototype.

Consultation with National and Regional Organisations

The first phase of the research took the form of consultation with a range of national and regional organisations with an interest and involvement in rural issues. This consultation included a range of discussions, individual face-to-face interviews and telephone interviews. Issues covered during this initial consultation included: the level of support for the concept of a RCGW; and whether the proposed site would cut across or duplicate work already being undertaken by existing websites.

Consultation also looked at the management of the site, how it should be organised and controlled. This revealed very positive support for the concept of a rural community gateway website, as well as providing numerous suggestions for features it should include (and of those it should avoid).

The initial consultation was followed up with over 1700 postal questionnaires to relevant organisations and individuals, and then with interviews and group discussions with specific organisations to explore the detailed design requirements for the potential website.

Research suggests that the website should include:

• easy access to all relevant information on rural issues, regardless of where it is held, who provides it, or the form it is in;
• a link to other relevant sites, adding value to these links by including information to explain why the link may be useful, to whom, and for what purpose;
• mechanisms for encouraging people, community-based projects and organisations to share their experiences, and to learn from each other;
• a knowledge bank, through a library of information and resources, a series of "surgeries" and through an on-line conference type of technology;
• an easy means of participating in consultation exercises;
• a search facility - which includes not only the content of the site itself, but the contents of all the documents and files in the library, and the key words relating to the links to other sites;
• personalisation - offering the option for each user to specify the content and complexity of the website, as they see it, and to specify their particular areas of interest;
• prompting - enable users to set automatic prompts on the site, to trigger the website to send them an e-mail whenever a new entry is added;

Research suggests that the website should

• be operated and managed by an organisation which is itself committed to rural issues, and which can provide a human face to the content of the website;
• be easy to use, with on-screen help when required, and back-up support from support staff when required; cater for the needs of people with disabilities;
• allow easy maintenance by providing a mechanism within the website for users to contribute content to the website;
• allow the provision of related services such as providing knowledge support;

and should not:

• replicate information held on other sites;
• duplicate the purpose served by local community websites or local rural organisations;
• be allowed to become out of date, or lacking in up to date references and material

The overwhelming response from all aspects of the research was that a RCGW would be welcomed.

A prototype website was created in response to these requirements and was demonstrated at the Local Rural Partnership conference in Glenrothes on 25 October 2001.

Implications

Taking into account the consultation responses, the study suggested that the website should include the following features:

• a "library" acting as a repository of information relevant to rural issues;
• a "contacts" area, providing contact details for relevant individuals, organisations and groups;
• a "what's on" section with a calendar of events of interest to rural communities;
• a "forum" for people to raise issues and contribute to discussion of them;
• a "surgery" (or "on-line conference") where users can discuss issues with experts and other prominent individuals at pre-arranged times, or can seek advice on particular issues;
• a "search" facility, for searching not only the content of the whole site but also to be able to search library items which are not held on the site itself;
• site personalisation allowing users to indicate their areas of interest, so they can be kept up to date on newly added information in those areas - this is likely to require users to register, or log on, with a username and password;
• a "notepad" facility, where registered users can store information they want to have easy access to in the future.

The study suggested that:

• The evaluation of the pilot should examine the use made of the website by the user base, the traffic volumes generated within the website, and the value that the website offers to its user base.
• On completion of the pilot period, which should be not less than a year, the future of the website should be based on the evaluation.
• For the longer term, allowance should be made for adequate publicity about the site, and to ensure that the site is appropriately resourced.
• The website should be hosted by a commercial hosting company, or on an existing web-server, to avoid incurring capital expenditure and to provide the flexibility to expand the site capacity according to demand.

About the Study

The consultants for the community based research were Lambda Research and Consultancy Ltd. The consultancy team were Jenny Brogden, Dr Joanna Gilliat and Douglas Maclean.

The approach taken involved seven main elements:

• desk research to identify individuals and organisations that should be involved in the consultation;
• an initial consultation with national and local organisations to explore their response to the concept of a RCGW;
• a questionnaire sent to a wide range of potential users and groups with existing community websites, to elicit their views on, and requirements for RCGW;
• telephone follow-up of questionnaire respondents, to elicit more in-depth views about the concept of a RCGW;
• development of a prototype RCGW;
• consultation with groups and individuals on the prototype website and on the potential use of such a website;
• a feasibility study and analysis of options for the development of a RCGW.