Surviving Vandalism

The Street Kiosks in Aberdeen have operated 24 x 365, for over two years and have not experienced any further vandalism until recently, when the Castlegate unit was attacked.

Initially, in the first months of installation, some kiosks were vandalised.
The councils project officer commented that 'as the kiosks were architecturally unique and a very obvious addition to the street scene, their presence was noted by the more dodgy street inhabitants, and night time drunks. He compared the city to the human immune - antibody system. Something suddenly and alien appears in the major city arteries (Streets) and the city's night people attack it!'

It may be a prosaic description, but might hold some truth as the service became understood as valuable to everyone including the potential attackers (like the immune system) the Umbrella kiosks were deemed to be beneficial and so were left alone by the vandal squad.
Two years later an isolated incident:



Vandalism, unfortunately is part of the street scene in our city centres. Because we are aware of it, our systems are hardened for the street environment. Although the protective laminated glass was fractured, the touch screen and the VDU below survived and continued to operate. It was then a simple matter to replace the protector glass. It is unlikely that ordinary street kiosks could endure such harsh treatment and be so easily repaired whilst keeping up an uninterrupted service!

Wi-Fi iKiosk

It's nice to discover how people out there are making use of the Ikiosk and the Wi-Fi Network services.
We just found this public photo in flickr.




"I was using a street kiosk to work out where there might be free wifi in Aberdeen. The answer turns out to be by the kiosk. Now I am sat on the steps of His Majesty's Theatre, along side that very kiosk, uploading this very picture. Meta, man. "


http://www.flickr.com/photos/shermarama/887102265/

This Blog discuses the need for free public access services.

It shows from start to finish how we installed an entirely free public access service in the city of Aberdeen Scotland.

Touchscreen kiosks in the city centre streets.

The Umbrella kiosks also provide a free Broadband WiFi network.

This Blog relates our experiences and our reasons for doing what we do.

Content – Usability - Relevance

It’s what the service does for the users – the people, that is of paramount importance.

The services must be of personal value.

The user must gain something from using it.

It must rapidly deliver their request.

The general public are not the general Internet users. The Internet was built by technicians and they built it with common utilities that they assume the user has the experience to operate.

Our systems reach the general none technical users, by simplification of these current web techniques.

We re-purpose the content from its source to enable every user to access it, this also makes the process far quicker for the technically proficient too!

When a service is clearly presented with all the cities information – relevant to the user and packaged into a simple navigation procedure, it becomes all inclusive; from the user perspective.

This objective becomes much more important for wireless mobile users. Our WiFi systems carry over our touch screen data re-purposing experience, crucial for the navigation and small screen limitations of the handsets.

We have carried out extensive usability and accessibility studies and linked the results to the real information and service needs of the people. Then we put it all together into a cohesive service exhibiting the same common throughout interface, with web site plug ins.

Our systems are proven: people use it repeatedly and rely upon it for their daily, weekly, information and services. They don’t have to think about training the usability factors are so simple the question never arises.

European governments are dismayed with the uptake of their ‘E’ services by the public and spend millions on PR and training campaigns. When the answer is MAKE IT SIMPLE : make the computer services people literate not the people computer literate! And of course make these services relevant and of value to the users.

Learning from the street

After installation, the Umbrellas became the target of the 'night people' the verbally abusive drunks and the crack addicts with their vacant haunted eyes and pale complexions. One lot, unable to behave when drunk, becoming mindless wreckers, the others have a single minded attention for stealing for drug funding.

Like the worried normal people in Aberdeen warned; the Umbrellas became a target.

The WiFi aerials were stolen, these are commercial items and can only be trophys, of no re-sale value; but it stopped the service for a while.

The VDU screen units were systematically attacked with incredible force. We guessed that persons repeatedly ran at them and kicked them with all their weight in the hope of opening them, so they might steal the internal components. How this was not captured on the Police CCTV leads you to believe that the police don't want to confront these lunatics...

However the experience has made us even more aware than we thought we were, in deploying vandal hardened street equipment.

The result is an even more robust system. But the questions raised are a valuable insight into our societies reluctance to curb street drug and drink addiction and anti social behaviour.

Apparently these folk have human rights that override everyone elses!

Pessimism

At the beginning of this 'diary - blog' was a segment about repression in Cuba. In that country the Dictators government does not want the general public to have access to the Internet, and possibly as an island it may be more able to protect its borders from democratic freedoms, than the communist regimes of Eastern Europe who failed. These factors come in TV Radio and now Internet access; showing what freedoms and opportunities others have.
A nations greatest assets are its people, and if the people have access to the innovation, and the vehicle of communication that has been adopted in almost all developed nations; they have the means of production and imagination combined. This is how a society moves forward. The debate regarding the Digital Divide, the haves and the have nots, the emerging technical and financial elite etc., has been covered in the news, the press and the Internet itself.
democratic governments encourage Internet access as an education tool, in the knowledge that nations that do not embrace this world-wide communication network will inevitably find themselves on shores that the tide has gone out from.

Access to Free Internet services, we believe is inevitable.

In nations with dictators or nations without the finances to use modern Internet technologies because of understandably more pressing needs: first prioritising a need to feed or provide utility service infrastructures, such locations will not benefit currently from public access Internet .

Its more ironic then, when a city such as Aberdeen, a developed city in a developed nation; the prosperous oil capital of Europe has a significant pessimistic population that feel that providing free Internet services in its streets, will fail due to the anti-social behavior of a small section of the city population.

These people, who attack and destroy public services have become 'little dictators' whom we have allowed the freedom and human rights to walk all over us. The Cubans have no choice, but how have we allowed our society to degenerate towards a similar result?

When installing the Umbrellas in Aberdeen's streets our installation team were constantly harangued by the public; mostly the over forties who objected to the service because they believed that the street drunks and the street junkies would destroy it.

A few said the service was a waste of money - a waste of money to provide modern digital service for Free, for all the cities people and visitors and especially those that are socially excluded with no digital access at home....

The questions we asked between ourselves, were how come such a large part of the population were so pessimistic. Our conclusion is that most law abiding people see the things they value trampled down by a small amount of people who appear to have no common or community decency. The law abiding folks have seen a constant erosion of the values they were brought up with and in frustration at constant stories of perpetrators of crime getting away with it, they have become very pessimistic indeed. The vast majority thought the infrastructure we were installing was a good idea, especial those with children or grandchildren who told them about the 'Web', but all said the street people would wreck it.

This state of affairs tells us something about ourselves and our society. In a common struggle you have society values, when you have enough and no struggle for common bettermen, self seeking takes over as individual freedoms override a commitment to the community.

Should we allow a small minority to hold such sway over us just like the dictators who keep their populations down by repression, are these people armed with their knowledge of the law of getting away with it; going to rule us?

And yes,

Yes they did attempt to wreck the Umbrellas.....

Public Access WiFi MESH

Launched from the street Umbrella's via the low power antenna at the top.

Again this service follows our concept that cities should provide access for their citizens and visitors and tourists for FREE. The WiFi service is modified; following our concept of tailored and relevant content, resulting in the services provided by the Umbrella WiFi MESH having unique characteristics, in fact they are 'managed' for navigation, mobile screen size and usability, furthermore the content is 'tailored' to meet the needs of the location.

VOIP Telephony is also available.


A Few associated links on the subject of Digital Access:-

USA Community Internet

http://www.publicinternetproject.org/press/pip_press.html

Self Service Kiosk Org.

USA

UK JobPoints

Access Lounges ! Paying for access

BT Ditch public kiosk plans

Aberdeen Umbrella's official launch

Councillor Kate Dean and Members of The Royal Signals Regiment

Umbrellas At Night

Soon after the launch of the kiosks, our automatic statistics showed a high level of usage.

In fact the usage is higher than any other published public access statistics.With only four umbrella street kiosks so far deployed: a hundred thousand hits per month is being achieved.

The significant fact of kiosk usage is that the service is of value and being used by visitors and citizens.
This might look an obvious statement, however it compares favorably with access on the city website, does the website reach the people in the same effective way?

Umbrella's for every city?

The concept of digital service provision for citizens and city visitors, probably needs to be funded as a FREE public service, as most if not all commercial ventures to achieve it have so far failed.
BT introduced street kiosks in the belief that people would pay to use them to locate Internet and services. With hindsight this was naive wishful thinking. The fact that the Internet is difficult to use for many people, that it was built as a desktop PC user interface, and that often searches are less than specific, all become factors for a poor user experience, a fact compounded by the need to insert more pounds!

see: BT Ditch public kiosk plans

The Umbrella kiosks are not only FREE to use, most importantly they have systems built into the user interface to assist the user to more easily operate and connect to Internet based services.

The twin approach of Free usage and tailored usability features are the key to providing a really useful public service

Architecturally designed the umbrella kiosks fit into most street locations and add value with their appearance and the services they provide. In Aberdeen planning permission to locate them was made simple due to these facts. The kiosks are outside listed buildings and far from detracting value they add something and even something more at night.

Building and Delivering

The first Umbrella kiosks were built at our factory.


The ground works were simultaneously finalised in the streets of Aberdeen.

The Ahab crane+truck collects and delivers the completed Umbrellas.




The Lord Provost said: ‘It’s fitting that one of the initial four iKiosks located in the City is being placed outside the Art Gallery because they are such a stylish, eye-catching design. But it is their practical use as information tools, for locals and tourist alike, which I find most exciting.'


The Lord Provost of Aberdeen welcomes the kiosks and Grampian TV News cover their arrival.

Installed into their final locations, the kiosks are hooked up to power and telephone lines.

Building & Depolying Aberdeen Umbrella's.

Aberdeen was the second major city to adopt the Public DataWeb service and the first in Scotland.

The Umbrella concept was only in outline design drawing stage and had to be 'speeded up' to meet the cities criteria for an operational service to be fully delivered in four months, from outline design to street operation.

First draft artists impressions

The design was already on the drawing board, and was granted official 'Design' status by the Design's & Patents Office.




The design was fabricated into a stainless steel prototype, followed rapidly by the production models.



Special effect LED lighting was integrated into the design.

Why we choose this design:-
Street 'furniture' with a service focus.
Completely new concept in kiosk design, and 24 hour outdoor operation
Moving away from the 'box' concept
Attraction: an interesting looking object
360 visibility
Functionality: twin screen operation; with wheelchair access

On board services provided:
Public access Internet - FREE
Public access VOIP technology
Transaction capability: card reader/printer onboard
Architectural lighting
Security/ vandal safe features
Large 20" touch screen and VDU display

The Umbrella provides public services of value and its an
attractive piece of 'street art' that every city should want!

Umbrellas in production

The Umbrella iKiosk

The Umbrella is a new concept in public utility street furniture, it is designed to be both attractive and functional. It has a 360 degree presence, can be clearly seen, lights up at night, provides shelter and importantly it gives FREE Internet access via its twin touch screens and the broadband low power WiFi access aerial mounted above its canopy.
The unit is made in stainless steel with a central pole mounted into a base in the street. (Power & telephone connections are channelled from under street conduits.)

The top unit is an umbrella made from stainless steel struts holding 8 segments of clear plastic (1/2” thick vandal proofed ‘Macrolon’) forming and octagonal umbrella.

This provide shelter for the users of the digital utility services which are presented on twin screens below.

The screens access the Internet utilising touch screen technology.

The opposed screens provide simultaneous dual access

The lower unit accommodates wheelchair users.

The Internet services are FREE with the plus factor of usability criteria being built into the navigation interface. This is achieved in several stages:-
Pre-handled 'deep link' connections to services
XML/Webservices - UK EGIF compliance resulting in content re purposing.
Internet access is fully available however due to the service being provided by a city then some sights are disconnected.

The Digital Trade Roots

Our bias has been to develop and deploy a service for all. We believe that cities should fund effective digital access for their citizens. Its common sense as privately financed systems follow strictly commercial objectives, and do not have a mandatory requirement to include everyone, those that have less computer skills, the old, the disabled and the poor, they are the digital divide. But deploying a digital service that includes these people has to address usability equations that in reality benefit everyone; making the service ubiquitous, simple and with universal access.

Public DataWeb evolved from the EC funded ‘Telematics’ project called 'Public DataWeb'

It was predicted in 1995 that the Internet would become the common carrier for digital services

Therefore the ‘projects’ vision was to provide a ‘utility, service for all.

The Internet in its early days was elitist, and today in 2006 it still is.

The danger inherent within this is that populations and nations that are not involved with the communications network adopted by the planet will miss out. History shows that those nations and peoples not involved with the commerce and trading roots of the past were marginalised. The international trade routes of the the clipper ships, the internal roads, railways and electrification of nations, clearly shows how communication mainlines evolved and flourished, historical fact shows those distant and unconnected were marginalised.

The Internet overcomes 'distance' and sets a level playing field for nations and more importantly individuals and businesses to benefit.
We wanted to investigate and provide methods that enable everyone to become connected if they choose so, and for this to be irrespective of a financial or skills requirement.

We set about building public access methods, others did the same but from a commercial aspect aimed at people paying for use.

We built public kiosks, with touch screen user interfaces, and began to put simplification templates over some of the complexity of the web.

Others introduced pay for use options, without modification of the services that were primarily built for desktop PC operation.

Over the years kiosks came; kiosks went, our systems evolved.

Our approach was at variance to the commercial methods providing revenue to service 'gatekeepers'. To fully accomplish our aims we needed to deploy our systems, and for that we had to find city authorities with a similar vision, it had been possible in the past.

Utility services were placed in the public domain in the Victorian age by city Fathers and other public spirited benefactors, libraries, schools, water, roads, railways and in Europe the telephone, were all introduced with public subsidy.

Sheffield was the first city to embrace our concepts, and over five years we worked with the city to generate and test public access methods. This experience has given us a great insight into the real day to day issues that arise when developing and evolving a digital public service.

Some issues encountered: Vandalism, remote system monitoring, weather proofing, durability, 24x7 maintenance, glare wash out, touch screen navigation of the Internet and so much more.

In 2006 we had evolved our techniques and learned from five years operational experience to emerge with a street and indoor kiosk service that also provides a unique WiFi Mesh system, with the backbone street units being totally re-designed.
The parasol or Umbrella kiosk was born.

First Kiosk, Stockholm

Water Festival: Central Stockholm 1997 First outdoor public kiosk

Public DataWeb built the first series of street kiosks for the Stockholm Water Festival in 1997

and in Sheffield in 2000.

The advantage of this type of kiosk is they can be installed for free in exchange for advertising wrapping around them. However this obscures their function to a great extent. the Umbrella is the answer but the cost of it and the service has to come from public funds.

We learned that these enclosed booth type kiosks and even kiosks simply with a front and a unused back surface had problems. We learned from operating live public kiosk services, then redesigned the kiosks, ironing out all the features that resulted in under usage. Basically these 'usability' results are 360 vision and access and illumination; this knowledge resulted in our design for the Umbrella iKiosk.