Archive for the ‘Digital Family’ Category

Click here to view our activity report f

rom

April 2011 to March 2012, there has been a slight delay in this being published due to local changes within the City!

A reminder to all that most of Birmingham will switch with the Sutton Coldfield transmitter. This will happen on the 7th

and 21st of September 2011. For those who are already watching digital TV, you will need to retune your equipment on these dates.

For more information about the switchover, you can visit:

• Digital UK – 08456 505050 www.digitaluk.co.uk
• Switchover Help Scheme – 0800 40 85 900  www.helpscheme.co.uk

We have a couple of updates on EU bids that the Digital Birmingham team have submitted in the last few months:

DISCOVER is through to next round!
Our proposal for the EU CIP Call 5 which looked at “Digital Inclusion Skills for Carers bringing Opportunities, Value and Excellence” has passed the first evaluation and is one of two bids being looked at favourably for funding.

Networking intelligent Cities for Energy Efficiency
The EUROCITIES NiCE FP7 proposal has been accepted and negotiations are now in progress. The project will directly support the delivery of the Green Digital Charter, of which Birmingham is a signatory. This will include development of a framework for reporting the ICT carbon footprint and including ICT related

carbon reductions as part of the Covenant of Mayors and learning exchanges with other cities.

Watch this space for further updates…

It’s been a busy three months for the DB team, see attached the first installment of our quarterly update April –

June 2011.

Image courtesy of Daimler AG

Yesterday Raj Mack attended the award ceremony for the European Award of Excellence “City for Children” held in Stuttgart as part of

their Annual Conference Cities for Children where the innovative Keeping IT in the Family initiative was named as winner in category 2 (training for parents and educators). Led by Digital Birmingham, the initiative was created in 2008 as a way of bridging the digital divide – getting children within some of the city’s less affluent areas to help teach their older relatives about how to use computers and other modern technologies for everyday tasks.

In winning the award, Birmingham has beaten stiff competition from across Europe, particularly Munich and Nis and it’s a real boost to see Keeping IT in the Family recognised in this way. It has proven to be an excellent scheme that has passed knowledge across the generations as well as being transferable to other towns and cities in the UK and beyond.

Please click here to view images from the two day event.

It’s Adult Learner’s Week from 14 – 20 May 2011!

If you are looking at tracing your family history, why not pop along to one of the free taster sessions taking place across various libraries in Birmingham. Click here for more information.

2010/11 was a busy year for the Digital Birmingham team where we

delivered key objectives within our four key working areas; Succeed Economically, Sustainability & Climate Change, Digital Participation & Engagement and Raising the City’s profile, as well as the office move of course! 

Please click on the document below to view our project highlights from 2010/11 and also a snapshot into the 2011/12 priorities.

We thank all of our partners and colleagues for all their support in 2010/11 – we look forward to working together and forging new relationships in the year to come.

‘Say It Online’ has been working with a diverse group of Birmingham’s resident families, sending them out to local arts & cultural activities, then asking them

to document their experiences about Birmingham online.Celebrate these experiences with the ‘Say it Online’ Awards Show at The Studio, Birmingham on Thursday 24 March 2011.

More info at http://www.sayitonline.co.uk/

A European project designed to monitor and change the behaviour of households with regard to their energy usage has clocked up some remarkable results in Birmingham.

Over a twelve week period, the homes taking part in the trial, run by Digital Birmingham and Family Housing Association, saved over 10 tonnes of CO2, with some households saving around £35 per month in electricity costs.

After monitoring their results for just one week, the average household in the Birmingham trial cut their energy usage by eight per cent. Research at the end of the 12 week trial showed that the number of people always turning off their lights when they leave a room, unplugging chargers from the mains, never leaving appliances on standby and boiling just enough water for one person when they use a kettle had, on average, doubled over the period.

To read the full press release, please click here.