In developing these pages, we believe that

We believe that a community information should be maintained as far as possilbe by those who own the information and

• up-to-date
• easily accessible
• relevant to the region it seeks to serve
• free at the point of access

In addition, any delivery system should be owned and controlled by the community it serves.

1. Community participation.
   Community networks and similar information and communication systems should be designed with the participation of the communities that they aim to serve. This should include offline as well as online methods to ensure awareness and encourage participation by the widest possible cross section of the community.
2. Social inclusion.
   Networks should be designed and managed to ensure that all sections of the community have access, and as far as possible there is 'something for everyone'. This will include ground work to investigate what the community's needs and wants are and ongoing evaluation of those needs. There is a need to provide access to the less well educated, elderly people afraid or uncomfortable with the technology, people on low incomes who cannot afford the hardware and those for whom English is not the first language. Spaces for children to contribute
3. Partnership.
   Community networks should be partnerships of public, private and community interests to ensure they reflect this holistic approach.
4. Content and communication
   Network users should be encouraged to contribute as well as receive local content, engage with wider online communities of interest, and use the network to address and resolve local concerns. Pointers to technical reosurces to enable independent spaces
5. Freedom of speech.
   Networks should include independent discussion forums which guarantee freedom of speech within the law.
6. Training
   
7. Evaluation.
   Networks should be designed with clearly stated objectives whose achievement is evaluated and publicly reported
8. Sustainability.
   Unless networks are intended to be short-life projects they should be designed for operation beyond the start-up phase.
9. Interoperability.
   There may well be more than one network in a community, each developed for different audiences. These networks should be designed so that they can be linked to create an integrated communications platform.
10. Leadership.
    Local authorities should play a leading role in promoting these principles, and the mechanisms by which they can be implemented - but should not assume that they are the sole public network or platform managers: that may be the role for a partnership body.

These guidelines have been developed from the UK Communities Online campaign

Find a Community Venue courtesy of Community Base