Some 12,000 homes in six communities across England will be wired up either with computers of digital TV as part of the Wired Up Communities programme. Because technology is creating a divide between those who can access the digital world and those who cannot, it is crucial to find out what difference it makes to those on the wrong side of the divide. This pilot programmes will explore the effect computers have on people’s lives. The homes selected for wiring up represent most of the people on the wrong side of the digital divide and they include those who come from semi-skilled or unskilled family backgrounds.Training and support will be offered to those receiving equipment, and a specially designed website will be set up to encourage participants to access learning and employment opportunities on the web. A range of technologies will be tested, including broadband and narrowband access, satellite communications and digital television.

Read more on FINDING THE BENEFITS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE…

The move away from top down control of public services, seen in a number of recent initiatives, was boosted by the launch of bottom-up regeneration management. Some 80 areas of the UK have been invited to become one of the 15 pathfinders in Neighbourhood Management.It has long been recognized that existing resources are poorly used and that local service provision fails to meet residents’ expectations and needs. . The National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal showed how core services in many deprived neighbourhoods are compromised by their failure to work with each other, with local people and with organisations from other sectors. Experience and evidence suggest that a response at the neighbourhood level is required to address these problems.The pathfinder initiative will help communities set up and test new approaches to delivering regeneration through bottom-up Neighbourhood Management. The aim is to support deprived communities and local service providers in working together at the neighbourhood level to improve and ‘join up’ local services. It will also seek to make those services more responsive to local needs and ensure they deliver priority outcomes on the ground.

Read more on BOTTOM UP REGENERATION STRATEGY LAUNCHED…

Beeby M, Booth C

The Learning Organization, (UK), 2000 Vol 7 No 2
Start page: 75. No of pages: 14

Explores the similarities and differences between the literature on strategic management, particularly the literature on networks and alliances, and the literature on learning organizations and organizational learning. Reviews the roles given to networks and knowledge within the strategic management literature in detail before relating this to the literature on organizational learning and the learning organization. Sees the emergence of the concept of ‘dialogue’ as being one of the most significant recent developments in organizational learning theory and discusses the nature of these dialogues. Examines this concept of organizational learning in detail, setting out the cycle of learning (experiencing, processing, interpreting and taking action) that takes place within the network of levels.

Read more on NETWORKS AND INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING…