1. AIMES Launch Friday 22 nd July DIGITAL CHALLENGE: CREATING A DIGITALLY ENABLED SOCIETY COMMUNITY GRID

2. DIGITAL CHALLENGE: COMMUNITY GRID Transformational ICT to Bridge Digital Divide Community Private Voluntary Public Partnerships Inclusion Community Education Health Business Access to Technology Public e-Services Delivering real social, economic and environmental benefits for local communities and new commercial opportunities for the private sector

3. UTILITY DEVELOPMENT Time Quality, economies of scale 2005 Decoupled production & consumption, enabling on-demand access, economies of scale, consumer flexibility, new devices 1918 in London alone, there are 70 authorities, 50 different types of systems, 10 different frequencies and 24 different voltages The Electricity (Supply) Act, 1926 integrates the British electricity supply industry by establishing a 132,000V AC synchronous grid under the Central Electricity Board (CEB).

4. PROCUREMENT UTILITY Task Console Main Menu Navigation Tree Search  Adoption of best practice procurement, minimising errors and reducing invoice mismatching  On-demand solution contributing to reduced transaction costs of up to 75%  Increased buying power for SMEs by aggregating their procurement, reducing costs and monitoring and improving spend management  Improved buyer / seller communication through a single shared infrastructure

5. RENDER UTILITY MEDIA MARKETINGARCHITECTS FORENSICS RENDER NEWCO Computing Utility

6. COMMUNITY UTILITY ‘Grid Power Stations’ 10000 Sq. Ft buildings housing powerful servers Fast reliable internet connections Latest software Affordable prices Mesh hopper WiFi Wireless beacons provide a WiFi connection to homes across the city. NetVoyager e1020 Thin Clients Low cost thin clients Automatically connect to the Wireless network Access to the reservoir of computing power Simple, cost effective and efficient technology

7. COMMUNITY UTILITY Multimedia Capabilities Cost-effective broadband Internet access iPod Digital Cameras External USB Storage Microsoft Office Capabilities Access to Council Services Access Various Zones and Applications via a Portal Thin Client PC Teaching & Learning ResourcesNewsgroups

8. Grid FUTURE VISION  To create Community Grid - a fifth utility to bridge the digital divide, transform business and provide unique opportunities for communities and individuals across the region  By lowering the barriers to entry (for both cost and access to technology), the grid model of computing has the potential to create a step-change in productivity, economic development, community learning and social inclusion  Experience at the AIMES Centre at the University of Liverpool shows that the grid model of computing can play a major role in bridging the digital divide - narrowing the gap both between large businesses and SMEs and between affluent and deprived social communities

9. BENEFITS  Providing services to businesses, schools, community organisations and individuals, Community Grid would comprise a network of computing resources connected using a high- bandwidth backbone Businesses  The power available through the Grid, and its reliability, will dramatically change the cost of ownership in the same way that the advent of a utility model for electricity did 100 years ago Public Services  Access to improved e-service delivery and breaking down the barriers to inclusion Community  Community Grid provides access to technology and affordable computing to community areas, addressing the issues of social and economic exclusion associated with the digital divide

10. DISCUSSION Professor Dennis Kehoe AIMES Tel. 0151 795 0100 Web: www.aimes.net