AIMES Launch

Friday 22nd JulyDIGITAL CHALLENGE: CREATING A DIGITALLY ENABLED SOCIETY COMMUNITY GRID

DIGITAL CHALLENGE:COMMUNITY GRID

TransformationalICT to Bridge Digital Divide

Com

mun

ity Private

VoluntaryPublic

PartnershipsIn

clus

ion

Com

mun

ity

Education

Health

BusinessAccess to Technology

Public e-S

ervicesDelivering real social, economic and environmental benefits for local communities and new commercial opportunities for the private sector

UTILITY DEVELOPMENT

Time

Qua

lity,

eco

nom

ies

of s

cale

2005 Decoupled production & consumption, enabling on-demand access, economies of scale, consumer flexibility, new devices

1918 in London alone, there are 70 authorities, 50different types of systems, 10 different frequencies and 24 different voltages

The Electricity (Supply) Act, 1926 integrates the British electricity supply industry by establishing a132,000V AC synchronous grid under the Central Electricity Board (CEB).

PROCUREMENT UTILITY

Task Console

Main Menu

Navigation Tree

Search

Adoption of best practice procurement, minimising errors and reducing invoice mismatching

On-demand solution contributing to reduced transaction costs of up to 75%

Increased buying power for SMEs by aggregating their procurement, reducing costs and monitoring and improving spend management

Improved buyer / seller communication through a single shared infrastructure

RENDER UTILITY

MEDIA

MARKETING ARCHITECTS

FORENSICS

RENDER NEWCO

Computing Utility

COMMUNITY UTILITY

‘Grid Power Stations’• 10000 Sq. Ft buildings housing powerful servers • Fast reliable internet connections • Latest software • Affordable prices

Mesh hopper WiFi• Wireless beacons provide a WiFi connection to homes across the city.

NetVoyager e1020 Thin Clients• Low cost thin clients • Automatically connect to the Wireless network • Access to the reservoir of computing power• Simple, cost effective and efficient technology

COMMUNITY UTILITY

Multimedia CapabilitiesCost-effective broadband

Internet access

iPod

Digital Cameras

External USB Storage

Microsoft Office Capabilities

Access to Council Services

Access Various Zones and Applications via a Portal

Thin Client PC

Teaching & Learning Resources Newsgroups

Grid

Grid

Grid

Grid

Grid

Grid

FUTURE VISION To create Community Grid - a fifth utility

to bridge the digital divide, transform business and provide unique opportunities for communities and individuals across the region

By lowering the barriers to entry (for both cost and access to technology), the grid model of computing has the potential to create a step-change in productivity, economic development, community learning and social inclusion

Experience at the AIMES Centre at the University of Liverpool shows that the grid model of computing can play a major role in bridging the digital divide - narrowing the gap both between large businesses and SMEs and between affluent and deprived social communities

BENEFITS

Providing services to businesses, schools, community organisations and individuals, Community Grid would comprise a network of computing resources connected using a high-bandwidth backbone

Businesses The power available through the Grid, and its reliability, will dramatically change the cost of

ownership in the same way that the advent of a utility model for electricity did 100 years ago

Public Services Access to improved e-service delivery and breaking down the barriers to inclusion

Community Community Grid provides access to technology and affordable computing to community areas,

addressing the issues of social and economic exclusion associated with the digital divide

DISCUSSION

Professor Dennis KehoeAIMES

Tel. 0151 795 0100Web: www.aimes.net