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.

Free Internet access for Cuba?

In 2003 I was invited to attend an EC sponsored workshop called EUROLATIS; it was held in Havana Cuba. We had submitted an outline plan for: 'Internet access for the people' after encouragement from a Cuban government official we met at a European conference.
He will remain anonymous as we don't want to be responsible for his safety when the 'revolution' comes...
This gentleman assured us that his country would embrace our concepts of 'public access for all' via our twin methods of deploying touch screen kiosks and adjusting web pages and general navigation techniques to help ordinary (none PC literate) people to use the service.
'Internet access for the people' he said sounded like the kind of thing a good communist regime would want to encourage; "Power to the people; Right On! That was the Cuban ideal, and Cuba should keep up with such technologies..". his sentiments were left ringing in our ears.... so far so good if you believe in 'wishful thinking' and we wanted to believe.

We duly arrived in Havana, we even brought a kiosk to give to the authorities as our contribution to this 'democratising event'. But we should have realised the omens, from the Orishas'; the Voodoo Gods of the Island, when the kiosk could not be recovered from customs, and it was impounded by Cuban 'Red Tape'.

We attended the 'conference' in a huge opulent western style hotel. The breakfast was notable by the vast range of food available, our organising benefactors certainly were impressing us.
That is until we strolled around the back streets of Havana later that night.
It might sound 'adventurous' to wander down these dark streets, due to power failures, but no the Cuban folks we met were friendly and honest. Many invited us into their homes and offered us food. Needless to say they had none of the opulent fair laid on for us by their government!
Many looked poorly nourished, but happy none the less.

These people, as we told them the reason for our visit, became amazed at our stupidity in believing that their regime might allow them free unfettered access to the Internet...contact with the outside world.

They said that several years in prison was the penalty for being caught using the Internet.
They predicted that our mission would fail and that we had probably misinterpreted why we had been invited to their country.

Everyone we spoke to had no faith in their regime nor their leader 'El Comandante' and all longed for change.

The next day; It soon emerged that what the diplomats and the civil servants were interested in was in fact entirely different from our original understanding, they wanted an Internet kiosk access service, only within the hotel complex and resort of Varadero. This is a modern resort for European holidaymakers, few Cubans go there unless they work there.
I guessed they expected us to acquiesce to their real agenda once we arrived and had made initial commitments.
I suspect that American owned companies have serviced their need by now, just as GOOGLE has acquiesced to similar pressure/reward incentives in China.
Probably worse is the news about Yahoo; who have divulged information about Chinese people using the Internet an a a result these people have been jailed.
See http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/08/report_yahoo_helped_.html

We 'silly British' would not agree to the Cuban offer: and the cheeky official wanted a weeks holiday in London for himself and his girlfriend with all expenses paid by us, in return he assured us we would get the contract for kiosks in resort hotels; where ONLY the tourists would be allowed to use it.

Varadero hotels

For a stay in Cuba without 'seeing' Cuba its more like Costa Blanca

FREE Public Internet Access

THIS BLOG IS ABOUT FREE Public Internet Access in the UK

It really does NOT exist; for example using the Wifi connection at the British Library costs £4;50 per hour (as at February 2006). BT payphones with Internet touch screens cost a minimum of £1 for a short undetermined period.
Yes Internet access in city libraries does exist however it is limited to opening times, booked usage times, and the ability to use it.

Other methods are Internet Cafes and home PC use, and the burgeoning WiFi services from city authorities.

What if you cant afford it i.e. paying for usage; a broadband connection a PC and importantly the skills to upkeep your hardware, your files and to have the ability to seek and locate your requirements ? And these skills are required as the Internet has been constructed for users who know how to use it. And governments, city councils and other agencies that want to interact with citizens are putting huge resources into websites to reach citizens, yet finding this spending is not really reaching those in need or even interesting those that can access them.

If you have some areas lacking; then maybe you are on the wrong side of the so called 'Digital Divide'

Whole nations are; and major segments of the 'developed world like the UK have populations unable or choosing not to engage with digital services.

The answer is cohesive digital inclusion; FREE access services available to all, and this means not just the physical availability but also the simplification of these services to an extent were anyone irrespective of computer skills can utilise them.

Access alone will not solve these issues, and having to pay for access makes it worse; fees act as an entrance barrier, masking also the underlying problem of usability.