Issue 93 
15th September 2003
 
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Kilkenny Information Age Town - An Update

The main objective of Kilkenny Information Age is to position Kilkenny at the forefront of ICT developments, to create an awareness and competency amongst the community and to identify technology opportunities for local economic development.
Kilkenny initially received a grant of €1.3 million from E
ircom, the primary telecommunications provider, towards the promotion and implementation of information and communications technologies. Subsequently a further €1.3 million was granted by various government bodies.

According to Project Manager, Marion O'Neill "ICT Centres of Excellence will be the platform for the development and expansion of digital technologies and knowledge - based industries. Towns and cities like Kilkenny must meet the challenges posed by the emerging knowledge based society, by establishment centres that influence, innovate and shape the creation of new industries and employment in a region."

So what's the progress?

In total over 40 projects have been undertaken with some great successes and others that delivered mixed results. A flagship project has been the development of the website www.kilkenny.ie. This includes a Business Directory which allows every business in Kilkenny (city, of course!) to have it's own web presence; it's a free service. Another major success has been the involvement of schools in the area - every local school participated and benefited; by developing their own websites and by identifying projects which were implemented by students with the assistance of new technologies.
To a large extent, though, many of the 40 projects were attempting to break new ground, so it's not surprising that not all were feasible - attempts were made to install internet kiosks but these proved too costly; the application for funding to provide a satellite-based broadband service was turned down; a proposed website to store the historical archives of Kilkenny was deferred as the organisations that would have to supply the archives did not have the available staffing resources required to implement the project.

There is, however, plenty to look forward to; the government's Serpent Initiative has chosen Kilkenny as one of the 5 urban centres to benefit from a Broadband service. And there's another key project already moving forward, "The Kilkenny Maltings Enterprise Centre", which will provide new-media-friendly accommodation for local innovative companies and start-ups.

For any community interested in adopting new media technologies for the general benefit of the community, the recent report which outlines the various initiatives, the successes and the challenges, is a great starting point. Here's the link…

http://www.kilkenny.ie/KIA_final_report_web.pdf