A poster in Newham advertises the new mobile information scheme. October 23 2008. Photo by Kylie MacLellan
By Kylie MacLellan
LONDON, Oct 24 (Docklands Wire) – One of London’s most deprived boroughs is using mobile technology to make information on its activities and services easily available to residents who do not have internet access at home.
Newham Borough Council has launched a website, desgined to be used on mobile phones, to enable residents and visitors to access a wide range of information and services in one central place, without the need for a computer.
By texting the word Newham or typing mynewham.mobi into their phone’s internet browser, people can use the site to look up job vacanies, find a local councillor or book a doctor’s appointment. The site also has local news, maps and travel information.
“It is all geared towards the 2012 games and getting local information in a much more accessible way,” the site’s editor, Kulbinder Mann, told Docklands Wire.
The borough’s Carpenters Estate was one of seven communities chosen in 2004 to take part in the government’s Wired up Communities scheme, which investigated the impact of internet access on the opportunities for people living in disadvantaged communities. It found just 22 percent of residents on the estate had used the internet at home.
“We have over 1,000 users already. The fact it has been well received shows that is the direction people are going now with mobile technology,” Mann said.
MyNewham, set up in partnership with Transport for London and SNT Mobile, allows community groups such as sports clubs and voluntary organisations to share information.
More than 60 percent of the Olympic park will be in Newham. Ian Tomson-Smith, of SNT Mobile, said the four other Olympic host boroughs – Greenwich, Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Hackney – were also considering launching similar mobile sites.
