The LAMBDA project: using advanced telematics to deliver services and information to rural areas

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. The LAMBDA project was a two year European funded project to bring practical services and information to remote rural areas. It has utilised multimedia, interactive public access terminal units linked by ISDN to service provider sites. The project has involved the local communities at all stages and has shown how a combination of social science and technology research can be combined to develop a project using advanced telematics with, in the main, non-technical users. In the Highlands of Scotland a close collaboration with the local community has been set up to develop an interactive, multimedia unit that is accessible and easy to use by all the local people. The unit delivers services, not just information, to the remote areas in the Highlands. A comprehensive evaluation of the first 6 months of the running of 7 community units and 9 service provider units has been completed. The units deliver information on the local council, give access to a videophone to government officers, enable people to order their library books, browse the library catalogue by looking at the images of the front covers, listen to clips of CDs and see clips of videos. They can also access welfare benefits databases to work out their entitlements and access an advisor via the video phone, access distance learning packages alongside videophone access to tutors, and browse images of artefacts from distant museums.