The Air That I Breathe

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We all know those pubs and other places proudly without WiFi so people can reconnect with the lost art of conversation and each other. That's a good thing in some ways, enjoying a pint without muppets keep checking their phone, snapchatting or looking for Pokemons (now don't get me on that one...).

In a general sense though, getting everyone access to the internet, particularly for our customers in socialhousing, is as essential as making sure we connect them to water, sewage, electricity & gas supply. We need to design connection to broadband into our new builds. A connected neighbourhood can be a happier and more prosperous one. Or at least one possibly making similar savings to everyone else.

There are several ways of doing that too. I have mentioned many in my blogs here, including services provided per block/scheme or secure wifi. Secured rather than public being the key to better outcomes. While changing wifi passwords might be irritating, they do prevent some other issues.  Getting more free wifi in town & urban centres can increase footfall, although brings a different raft of issues.

I have read many newspaper articles about how restricting wifi, constantly changing passwords in public places, has reduced anti-social behaviour.  See some examples here:

http://www.northwichguardian.co.uk/news/14....
http://www.forth3.com/localnews/glenrothes...

Even though the 'yout' of today pretty much have a data package on their Smartphone's, often its only 1GB or less per month. Without wifi, that allowance might be gone pretty soon.

Another recent London Evening Standard article, suggested parents should switch off (or control) wifi late evening to restrict how often they go online. See http://www.standard.co.uk/news/education/teachers-call-for-parents-to-turn-off-the-wi-fi-9261228.html

Regular changes of wifi password at home can have its own benefits. A change as soon as the kids have (officially) gone to bed, might be just what you need and will get some of those chores done quicker, particularly as wifi is about as important to them, as the air that we breathe these days.

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://archive.org/details/@housingitguy

Related Post: How well do you handle FOI requests & data retention? 

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The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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I Promised You A Meracle

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I was chatting with a client the other day and digressed on to getting tenants on-line, how we crack that particular conundrum. One tool to help us get our customers connected is Meraki, originally a MIT start-up research project, but now a Cisco product. It was a truly organic product, providing neighbourhood access to the Internet and giving away repeaters. Cisco acquired Meraki in 2012 for an estimated $1.2 billion.

In combination with companies like Purple WiFi, Meraki can control who accesses your internet points, when and why, all remotely. Sounds like magic eh? Well it sort of is. Check it out here https://meraki.cisco.com/products/systems-manager

A cloud based dashboard guides you through controlling your networks, whatever devices are connecting. That includes IOS tablets/phones, Windows devices, Chrome, OSX or Android. it's all covered buddy. Maps easily tracks who is on and for how long. Also what apps they can access and have in their group or on their device.

The human element is taken out, all the MDM is completed remotely. Access can be easily revoked if users transgress. Your users can be restricted to specific apps that you control. Systems Manager can be downloaded for free, you might want to try it around your home. Surprise your kids by limiting their smartphone and Xbox access until after 9am, you will be surprised how much more they lie in...

Contacts and clients in the sector all tell me great things about it.

Cisco are at the forefront of providing the plumbing on the ground for our future connected societies and citizens. Access to these innovations is as natural as providing fresh water and mains electricity to homes last century. We need to get on and start building this century's infrastructure.

Related Post: Qlikview, an in-memory reports KPI dashboard worth a look...

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You can link with me on LinkedIn here - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy It would be great to connect !

Simple Minds - I Promised You A Miracle.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS As usual, if there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, or you could benefit from any of our services please get in touch and let me know!

You can access a quick list of blog posts here
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Home Computer

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Working in housing or general IT nobody can have missed that channel shifting going on, to try to drive customer requests towards the web.

I was only with a customer this week where they are looking to make this a reality to reduce customer service centre traffic and also improve satisfaction. The latter a tall order as there is a battle to drive the general public onto the internet to access services and particularly those categorised as “Digitally Excluded”. Top of the list include many residents in social housing and the elderly.

In the UK, government agencies have seen huge success in driving much traffic on-line and reducing back office jobs. Some that I use a lot are buying my car tax disk and filing income tax/vat on a regular basis. These work very well and have weaned us off using a post office (dwindling in number) or local tax offices by providing the convenience of doing it yourself.

Universal Credit, just a few days off now is structured around internet access being key. Putting aside the flaws of bedroom tax and other aspects of changes, this will be a big ask, particularly for many claimants who have had no real access to computers or web enabled smartphones. This news article from Wales earlier this month http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21733644 highlights some of the difficulties.

Indeed, the community library at Grappenhall (see http://grappenhall.org.uk/)  that I am involved with, has a catchment area of affluent retirees, who are cash poor and need a way to access benefits. In a climate where we are losing libraries because its perceived we all use the internet to garner our information, the community library is proving a useful hub in helping these people access the benefits to which they are entitled.  

A number of RSL’s have woken up to the agenda of digital exclusion and are doing what they can to provide access for residents, also silver surfer training. This can save £250 or more annually on shopping costs as well as plugging them in to the new online benefits culture. In theory, particularly older claimants can be signing up to all the benefits they don’t know about currently, as with UC they will all be in one place.

Johnnie Johnson Housing Trust are one local to me that I am aware of that are providing internet access at many of their retirement schemes. They have also provided some degree of training and shared access equipment where practicable which is fantastic for their customers. While nobody would claim this was a silver (surfer) bullet, it’s a great step forward and over a couple of years has increased internet penetration for them from around and estimated 6% to nearer 40%. Not to forget too, the wifi provided can also be used by housing staff to access main systems via the internet or Citrix Receiver. I have myself become a fan of ‘Receiver’ using it on an iPad touch. It’s easily usable on even a small device like that for small amounts of work, rather than spending much more cash on dedicated mobile solutions.

Another avenue is the refurb of old smartphone kit for the digitally excluded and supply ultra-cheap or nearly free. See http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2013/03/28/moduslink-and-newton-circus-join-forces-increase-digital-inclusion A great idea and a super name in ‘Silverline’ geddit? Now this is one angle that might work for our demographic. It would be hoped that sons & daughters might gift tablets to their parents to get them on-line, but older devices and targeted apps might be the way forward.

If you have some initiatives on-going as usual, please get in touch. Thanks everyone for getting in contact, feedback always welcome!

Read on to : The Channel shift Agenda - Are you embracing it?

You can link with me on LinkedIn here - uk.linkedin.com/pub/tony-smith-bsc-hons-acih/a/979/351/ It would be great to connect !

Kraftwerk - Home Computer.


(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

PS If there are subjects you might like me to tackle on this blog, please get in touch and let me know!

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