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Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in

Manchester, UK, 1989-1999


Vassilys Fourkas
As the world is becoming both digital and urban, cyberspace advancements pose a
serious challenge to the study of modern cities' development. This research work
stresses the importance of investigating the intervention and effectiveness of public policies and agencies that involve the development of the cyberspace in urban
restructuring. Thus, the present paper reviews and analyzes the deployment of
urban cyberspace policy initiatives in Manchester, during the 1989-1999 decade,
reflecting critically upon the questions raised from the literature regarding the
cyberspace paradigm in urban policy and planning.

Introduction: Cyberspace and Urban Policy


Cyberspace, a term coined by the cyberpunk American writer William Gibson
in the early 1980s, is a living virtual space b a c k e d by t e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
infrastructure and developed mainly over the network o f Internet and the World
Wide Web, the Internet's main multimedia backbone. It is c o n c e i v e d as a "living virtual space" because although it is accessible and operates only on screen
interfaces at the same time it is c o n c e r n e d with actual information, c o m m u n i cation, and various types o f interaction as well with the diversity o f personal
interests and values. It is able to embrace and integrate m a n y forms o f h u m a n
activities related to real places and physical p r o x i m i t y / m o v e m e n t (i.e., shopping and banking). The development o f cyberspace is characterized as a highly
urban p h e n o m e n o n ; c y b e r s p a c e does not d i s s o l v e cities but it is r e c u r s i v e l y
Vassilys Fourkas graduated in Civil Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessalonica in
1993 and he then followed a post-graduate research program in the area of computer-simulation
techniques in urban planning, at the University of Venice-Dept. of Architecture-DAEST/Italy. He is
currently working at the Egnatia Odos SA, as the Head of the Observatory Unit which is concerned
with the measurement, evaluation and study of spatial impacts caused by the Egnatia motorway (a
TEN, EU-funded project). His academic and research interest focuses on the issues of virtual geography, urban cyberspace planning and virtual cities in relation to modem urban regeneration strategies
and plans in European Union. In September 2003 he received a post-doctorate grant from the Greek
government (Greek State Scholarship Foundation) to carry out a research project regarding the development of Greek cities over cyberspace.

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy, Spring 2005, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 86-111.

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linked with them. It is based on an urban nodality as cities concentrate the


Internet's network hubs and nodes as well as most of registered Internet connections/users (Moss and Townsend, 1998; Zook, 2000; TeleGeography, 2003).
The locational pattern of usage and development of the Internet in cities is
marked by certain social divisions that have geographical expressions, and
thus are reflecting actual geographical segmentations and social inequalities.
Therefore, although we tend to think of cyberspace as a space that is characterized by equity, obviously, higher concentrations of the poor are strongly
correlated with lower densities of those with Internet access whereas higher
densities of the rich are correlated with more wired communities.
Urban government has historically tended to be divorced from telecommunications policy and development, which was until recently supported by a
national hegemony and then by market hegemony. Nowadays, however, the
development of cyberspace is seen as a key-means for the social, cultural, and
economic regeneration and that is being grasped by many cities internationally. As a result, and within the "information society" context, many city governments have introduced various initiatives involving cyberspace within urban
policy. The current burgeoning importance of cyberspace, which has become
much more visualizable and tangible through the multimedia interfaces of the
Internet and the Web, fundamentally challenges the modern paradigms underpinning urban planning and policymaking. Therefore, the shift in terms of
urban policy and planning is concerned with the fact that it is no longer reasonable for local authorities, policymakers and planners to ignore cyberspace,
as they did in the past with telephony and early Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) networks. A fast-growing wave of urban experimentation with cyberspace has been emerged in the 1990s, "which promises to
have major practical and theoretical implications for how we might consider
the future of cities, urban policy and planning" (Graham, 1999: 10).
The European Commission has considered urban and regional authorities
as key players for the future development of the Information Society in Europe for a number of reasons (CEC, 1998). First, it is argued that, through
their sheer scale, cities and regions represent a major client for ICTs developers. Second, with a unique overview of society as a whole, within their jurisdictions, cities and regions have a key role in the development of integrated
applications and in ensuring the development of ICTs for sectors of the population that the market is reluctant or slow to address. Third, because they are
democratically accountable and have formal powers, cities and regions generate a very specific set of technical, organizational, and regulatory issues for
ICTs development. Fourth, cities and regions have a key role in the regulation
and development of infrastructure, although this varies from country to country and city to city, whether as direct infrastructure providers, or more commonly through a role for public authorities in the regulatory process.
However, the review and survey of the European experience prove that no
single model for deploying cyberspace policy initiatives exists for European
cities, and shows the importance of the various approaches by geographic
location, development policy priorities and city size and profile. Different
assumptions and objectives according to geographical and socioeconomic

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positioning in the European economy are likely to affect these initiatives and
lead to a variety of policy stances and corresponding application areas. The
main objectives can be summarized as:
"Economic development," where it is believed that cyberspace plays a critical
role in creating competitive advantage and regenerating the local economy,
through the promotion of the "information and creative city." The "information city" concept lies on the construction and availability of advanced ICTs
networking infrastructure and an intense attraction of related economic activities. The "creative city" concept lies on the upgraded role of local, cultural,
and creative industries (SMEs activated in the fields of visual arts, performing
arts, film, TV, Internet and multimedia, publishing, design and fashion, music, night-time economy, tourism), which have been drawn into the heart of
the entrepreneurial shift in urban management and development (see Verwijnen,
1998).
Second, "community cohesion and development," where local authorities
deal with the "digital divide" that is considered as a main threat for the further
fragmentation and duality within post-industrial cities. The development of
Community Information Networks (CINs) considered of great significance
towards the provision of a new urban public space over the Internet. CINs are
geared therefore towards a local audience with the intention of enriching community life and promoting universal access and participation to the development of the information society.
Third, "urban governance, management, and planning," aiming at the modernization, improvement, and democratization of public services provision,
planning process and decision-making system through the Internet/Web. It is
generally agreed that the management of information and communication
systems may improve public authorities' productivity, decision-making, management of urban infrastructures, as well as to augment the communication
channels between them and citizens using various ICTs applications such as
touch screens, info-kiosks, smart cards, videotext terminals, free telephone
lines, web sites, and so on.
Finally, we should highlight the "holistic approach" as it includes and coordinates urban cyberspace policy initiatives in all the above areas. In this case,
the development of strategic view is based on clear political objectives, involvement of all sectors and actors, strong private-public partnerships, proper
evaluation of pilot project results, complimentary training, and awareness rising. This policy stance is actually concerned with a small number of cases
where all sectorial and focused projects are integrated within a single, strategic, policy program.
In general, the key features of successful urban cyberspace policy experimentation in EU have been summarized by Cornford and Naylor (1998: iv-vi)
as follows: First, the development of explicit policy programs is often developed on the basis of early projects and their transfer from the experimental
stage to the "full scale" deployment stage. Second, cyberspace is incorporated within the wider context of their general strategies in fields such as internal organization, economic development, democracy, and service delivery.
Of particular importance, is the deployment of online applications in conjunc-

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tion with wider organizational and cultural changes in the public administration, the re-engineering of service delivery functions and the establishment of
new structures such as decentralized offices in neighborhoods. Third, the strategies of successful cities have the explicit backing of the leading political
actors, often the mayor but also other leading politicians. Fourth, these strategies have been also developed in the context of a specialist ICTs institute,
unit, or committee that can provide an institutional driver for cyberspace within
the administration. Fifth, these new institutions are often semi-autonomous
from the municipal administration, enabling them to bring in new skills and
attitudes, to break with the bureaucratic traditions of public administrations
and thus to form effective partnerships with the private sector based on clearly
understood mutual benefits and a shared vision of the central aims of a project.
Sixth, successful development is associated with having a critical mass of
research projects funded by the European Commission and national governments. Seventh, holistic policy frameworks are actively participating in European inter-urban networks such as Telecities, I by seeking out partners for
projects, and establishing a genuine division of domains between partners.
Eighth, in the most successful cases of cities there is an increasing focus on
the integration of applications from different areas to provide a single, integrated information and communication environment for citizens, local business c o m m u n i t i e s (in particular SMEs) and f u n c t i o n a r i e s within the
administration. In terms of technology these systems are 'open' that means
they avoid getting administrations tied into a single supplier and facilitate
further development and integration of applications.
Based on the above context, the presented in this paper research work is
ambitious to provide an analytical review of urban cyberspace policy initiatives throughout 1990s in a characteristic de-industrialized European city:
Manchester, UK. It may be soon to evaluate the urban cyberspace policy
framework in the city of Manchester on its various long-term goals, but it
is certainly appropriate to monitor and assess its progress towards these
goals. The paper concludes by discussing the basic issues resulted from
this review and by pointing out the urban policy aspects concerning the virtual/real city interplay on the basis of identified contradictions that condition
this interplay.

Research Methodology
Since this study is an attempt to explore and explain the deployment of
urban cyberspace policy by finding out, describing, and analyzing attitudes,
features and conditions involved in the field, Passive Observation in information systems appears to be the most appropriate method to adopt. Remenyi
and Williams (1995: 192) point out that the Passive Observation is being used
when the researcher does not conduct an experiment and has to rely on existing evidence, using interviews, written reports/documentary sources, questionnaires, statistical data, etc. Further, through the selection of a "case-study,"
the research seeks to examine if, why and how the development of urban
cyberspace applications are interrelated to urban policy. As Yin points out,

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case studies are the preferred strategy when "how" and "why" questions are
being posed, when the investigator has little control over events, and when
the focus is on contemporary phenomenon within some real-life context (Yin,
1994: 1).
Following these suggestions, the research on Manchester urban cyberspace
case study involves three research techniques: (1) navigation on, and retrieving information from, local web sites; (2) documentary analysis; (3) semistructured qualitative interviews with 30 people involved in key organizations
and key projects. The principal questions which constituted the main interview schedule and elicited open-ended responses, were concerned with: (1)
description of each project history, conceptual framework, economics, relation to other similar initiatives, activities and demonstrations, as well as problems and future plans; (2) critical view on the virtual city's development so
far, in relation to local cyberspace policy initiatives; (3) the relation between
virtual city and urban restructuring; (4) the issues of coordination between all
the different actors and the integration of all different projects.
The analytical review is divided in two phases: 1989-1993 and 1994-1999.
The emergence of the Web in 1993 remarks this chronological division, considering its widespread use crucial for the exceptionally fast diffusion and
popularity of the Internet. Based on this division, the paper reports the research results by giving two accounts. The first is concerned with the identification of the basic features and the conceptualisation of the shifts that
characterize the development of urban cyberspace policy in these two phases.
The second account concerns the analytical review of the main cyberspace
initiatives in the city during the two phases, as well as, in cases that accurate
data were available, the detection of critical or ineffective operation. Both
accounts include the mapping out of the policy levels and key bodies that are
involved.

The Case of Manchester, UK, 1989-1999


The overall target of urban restructuring in Manchester during the 1990s
was to establish a stable base for economic restructuring, to restore the physical appearance, and encourage the rehabitation of the inner-city area, and
eventually promote the city internationally. To cope with the issues of competitiveness and effectiveness, local government has deployed an entrepreneurial concept, which is characterized by close partnerships with private
developers/investors and local actors (musicians, media, local entrepreneurs).
Strategic and wide entrepreneurial partnerships and inter-agency working, alert
and supervisory local authorities, and effective city marketing strategies have
been considered as critical processes for success. The aspects of the urban
restructuring process has been also addressed in terms of advanced ICTs networking infrastructure, multimedia production and distribution, on-line information, city-related Web pages etc. The crucial question is if and how these
developments are interrelated and in which degree they are associated and
reflect the above discussed city's profile, the urban restructuring strategy and
its implementation process.

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The First Wave of Initiatives, 1989-1994


Manchester's interest in cyberspace emerged in the late 1980s, reflecting
mainly an identified necessity to establish advanced ICT networks infrastructure in the city, so to gain competitive advantage in trying to address the socioeconomic decline resulted by the strong de-industrialisation process during
the 1970s and 1980s. More precisely, "the switch from more traditional property-based initiatives to one which was technology-based came about because
key officials and politicians became convinced of the pervasive influence of
this technology across all sectors of the local economy" (Gibbs and Leach,
1994: 212). The policy shift then took place considering that in some other
parts of Europe (like Germany, Holland and Scandinavian countries) there
were already innovative urban regeneration initiatives using ICTs--basically
online information and communications services, and public tele-centres. Such
as, the resulted initiatives were two: the establishment of a local ICT network-the Manchester Host (or Host)--and, in parallel, the establishment of access
and training centres in the city area--the Electronic Village Halls (EVHs).
The Manchester Host (or simply Host) was a local ICT network developed
under a partnership between Manchester City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University/Centre for Employment Research ( C E R ) - - n o w called
Manchester Institute for Telematics and Employment Research ( M I T E R ) and Poptel Ltd. The development of this partnership was the result of the
professional position that key-individuals had at the time in these three organizations, and who were already linked with each other through their involvement in left-wing student groups in the 1976-1979 period. Manchester Host
was established and operated by Poptel based on the GeoNet system, an international user base originated in Germany, offering a range of services in a
text-based environment: e-mail (with Internet and X400 messaging), fax and
telex facilities, bulletin boards, access to local and external online databases
and networks but not all services that had been proposed from the study.
However, the Host was not capable of supporting more than 2,000 registered
users, while only 16 and eight simultaneous users could access the Host and
the database servers respectively (Graham, 1996: 114). The overall aim of the
Host was to offer low-cost, effective and wide-ranging information and communication services to all those in the city who would be otherwise informational disadvantaged, particularly SMEs and non-profit organizations. A crucial
target was considered, to develop and then establish a "critical mass of local
users," especially in terms of SMEs, so that the Host could be popular enough
in the region in order to attract more users. However, after two years of operation the Host's development failed to meet the above targets, especially in
terms of SMEs networking. As Table 1 shows, in a total number of 700 users
in February 1993 only 62 were firms.
Most importantly, due to bad evaluation and bad advice the Host system
was not compatible at the outset with the Internet. The technological limitations of the system were the basic reason that early efforts for EC's funding
failed: in 1993 the Telecommunications Directorate (DGXII) considered Host
"not broadband enough" (Graham, 1996: 162). Besides, it was from the be-

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TABLE 1
Users of the Manchester Host Computer Network, 1992-1993

Type of user
Voluntary Organizations
Education/Training
Local/Central Government
Firms
Individuals
Unions
Total

1992
No
113
61
50
47
40
32
343

%
32.9
17.8
14.6
13.7
11.7
9.3
100

1993
No
199
104
130
62
161
44
700

%
28.4
14.9
18.6
8.9
23.0
6.2
I00

Change 1992-1993
No
%
+86
+ 43
+ 80
+ 15
+ 121
+ 12
+ 357

+76.0
+ 70.5
+ 160.0
+ 32.0
+ 302.5
+ 37.5
+ 104.1

Source: Gibbs and Leach, 1994:219

ginning made clear that Host is never to enjoy stable, core revenue income
from the City Council or elsewhere, assuming that the subscription-fees would
be enough to secure self-funded and long-term operation. In 1993 Poptel was
under increasing pressure from users to provide more access to the Internet.
But although the initial plans was to transfer Host to a "virtual city" on the
Web, closely modeled on the systems developed by Amsterdam (DDS) and
Bologna (Iperbole), what finally happened was the Host's conversion into an
Internet Service Provider (ISP), being anymore synonymous to Poptel. Therefore, in summer 1995, Manchester Host started to operate as full ISP owned
and managed by Poptel, hosting most of local public organizations and communities web pages, the City Council and the Labour Party web sites, and
having approximately 5,000 subscribed users in the whole.
Graham has argued that Host is the first municipal effort in the United Kingdom "to apply the principles of quasi-public provision, so familiar in urban
transport infrastructure to the development of local electronic infrastructure"
(Graham, 1992: 776). Further, he characterizes the Manchester Host project
as one amongst the most influential urban d e v e l o p m e n t projects in 1990s
Britain (Graham, 1996: 109). However, the previously presented findings provide evidences that these enthusiastic views are rather challenging: the Host
did not achieve to overcome the symbolic level and to provide the basis for a
wide and inclusive development of Manchester over cyberspace. Basic reasons for that were the wrong selection in terms of technology applied and the
dependence on short-term funding. Hence, while the Host might be conceived
as a pioneering project, its overall assessment proves its failure to meet the
targets of the initial idea and plan.
On the other side, the Electronic Village Hails (EVH) are community centres that provide access and training to ICTs, originated in Scandinavia in the
mid 1980s as a means of overcoming the isolation of sparsely populated rural
areas. In Manchester, the Centre for Employment Research proposed the establishment of EVHs in 1991 so to provide a "local window" to the Host and
subsequent ICTs networks. In 1992 three EVHs were officially launched, focusing in supporting groups facing social exclusion and discrimination in the
labour market and local SMEs: the Women's EVH; the Manchester Bangladeshi

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Association EVH; and the Chorlton Workshop EVH. Therefore, the EVHs
started to operate as a socially complementary initiative to Manchester Host,
to give access to ICTs for citizens who do not have a PC (or a telephone) and
to provide training courses to ICTs. Although the Host Project was essentially
dismissed in 1995, EVHs continued to operate as buildings-centres equipped
with PCs (approximately 80 in all EVHs, August 1999), modems, scanners, printers, faxes, a wide range of software, full- and part-time training staff, administration staff, crbche workers, cleaners and of some voluntary workers. Although
each EVH is broadly linked by a shared history they operate independently and
have their own individual briefs and objectives, as well as separate web sites.
The full assessment of their operation in terms of objectives and outcomes,
efficiency and effectiveness requires specific research that is outside the remit
of this research. Besides, visits from researchers are restricted and data regarding statistical records of trainees are not given, as a matter of policy. Based
on the key findings and pinpoints from three evaluation reports (Basker, 1992;
Ducatel and Halfpenny, 1993; IBM, 1997), as well as on data collected from
our interviews it could be briefly argued that similarly to Manchester Host, the
main EVHs' problem is concerned with the absence of long-period funding so
to confront problems regarding both capital and running costs. Moreover,
despite the dependence of the EVHs on technology, there appears to be no
technology policy at any of the initiatives. As a result, although the EVHs
have created demand at a community-based level, they failed to deliver better
results as their hardware could not keep pace with the advances of technology
and also their activities could not be planned for long term due to the unavailability of secured funding and full-time staff. Besides EVHs have been criticised
as projects which concentrated resources into a few centres, without a proactive work in order to meet grass-root needs within the city (Ducatel and
Halfpenny, 1993). So their effectiveness and response to the designed targets
were found limited---except of the Women EVH (WEVH)--because they did
not achieve to reflect flexibly in local realities and needs. The WEVH is considered as the most successful because, operating in a professional basis, it
looked for and gained alternative sources of funding to make the initiative
almost self-supporting.
Nevertheless, it is widely recognized that the EVHs did try initially to break
barriers that community groups, like women and ethnic minorities, had to
deal with in order to gain access and training in new technologies. With their
physical presence helped to make ICTs policy more tangible across the city,
supporting also the diffusion of the ICTs' use among local groups that offering them free access and training. Besides, the "Manchester EVHs" initiative
was internationally recognized in 1996 when it won the Bangemann Challenge Award in Stockholm and thus EVHs actually constitute one of the flagship projects of the urban cyberspace policy developed in Manchester.

The Second Wave of Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives, 1995-1999


While the introduction of urban cyberspace policy in Manchester in 1989,
and the first wave of initiatives were clear enough, focusing on two inter-

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related projects, the second wave is by far more complicated. Actually, in


1994-1999 period there was not simply a wave of ICTs initiatives but rather
continuous waves of initiatives, with the involvement of many new bodies
and individuals, making the research field more complex and broader. Due to
the multiplicity of initiatives, several acronyms that are accordingly used for
brevity's sake within the text are explained in the abbreviations provided at
the end of the article.

Identifying the Basic Policy Shifts


During early 1990s, colossal advances occurred in the global ICTs field as
the Internet dominates over all other public networks (like the French Minitel
and the international GeoNet) and a greater technological convergence is developed over the web, which is gradually becoming the most popular virtual
environment worldwide. Undoubtedly, the Manchester Host project strikes
very little in front of the global Internet/Web projects, something that was
practically demonstrated through its failure to meet policy aims and its final
abolishment. Besides, in reviewing the local economy's trends in 1994-1995,
it was clear that actually there was indeed an economic reanimation in the city
but it had nothing to do with the cyberspace initiatives developed in the previous period. The evidence of new start-up firms that were happening in the
City had nothing to do with the Host and the EVHs. There was evidence of
new jobs and businesses emerging, but these were more related to cultural
industries such as music, nightlife, multimedia design, and fashion.
Of particular significance for this policy shift was the visit of a Manchester
City Council's study group in New York in summer 1996. Manchester's representatives were specifically updated for the close collaboration between local authorities and the New York's New Media Association 2 in developing the
Silicon Alley, a specialized "multimedia district" in the core of the city's centre where more than 700 micro and small ICTs and cultural firms are located
giving a considerable boost in local development (see Graham and Marvin,
1999). Thus, by this way, the New York's Silicon Alley model was seen as a
possible model for Manchester and it was decided to copy some elements of it
on the basis of four main points: the growth of multimedia micro-businesses;
the development of new peripheral Internet Exchange Centres and Metropolitan Networks; the development of local e-commerce applications; and most
importantly, the marriage of these technology-driven developments with cultural growth. This policy concept in practice is translated as the provision of a
supportive f r a m e w o r k - - a network of collaborative business and agencies as
well as the necessary technical infrastructure--to small creative enterprises.
In technology terms, there was an admission of failure in the initial adoption
of no-Internet technology. Moreover, as already examined, the rapid diffusion
of the Internet/Web, posed stress on the direction of the Host. Eventually the
Host is put "out of contest" in 1995 and the Internet/Web platform was adopted
as the main technology.
On the whole, the basic policy shifts can be summarized around the following points: (1) extending partnerships; (2) European networking; (3) focus on

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creative SMEs; (4) expanding access and training projects; and (5) adapting
Internet/Web technology. On this basis, in the next sections the paper will
examine the actual policymaking process beyond the political rhetoric and
through the critical review of resulted initiatives and projects.

Analyzing the Basic Policy Initiatives


In comparison to the first phase, the research met considerable difficulties
to comprehend and map out the whole context of urban cyberspace policy
deployed in the second phase. This happened because of the large number of
initiatives and projects in which many local, public and private bodies were
involved in the field in order to take advantage of available funding and to
develop projects suitable to their specific interest. Moreover, there are no feasibility studies and evaluation reports, as well as independent assessments for
this period. Nevertheless, the research located and investigated 22 initiatives,
which are briefly presented in Table 2. Several projects were excluded since
they were covered by the activities of larger and thus financially more significant initiatives or because there was no indication for any kind of involvement in the Manchester's "urban cyberspace policy" agenda.
Hence, Table 2 maps out the deployment of urban cyberspace policymaking
through the classification of the resulted initiatives and projects according to a
chronological order, pointing out also the total amount of financial input (funding). The table includes a checklist on the right side that indicates the character of each initiative regarding the four major areas of urban cyberspace policy
applications as identified earlier. In summary, more than s
million matching funding from the European Union, the British government and private
resources have been invested, while more than 50 public and private bodies
have been involved in the development of these initiatives, which in their
majority are economic development driven. In order to provide a critical and
on a comparable basis review, the next sections discuss further, but briefly,
the most important urban cyberspace policy initiatives in Manchester according to the four major application areas, as presented earlier in this paper.

Area 1: Economic Development


It is often argued that as the ship canal--the biggest civil engineering project
in the city during the nineteenth century---changed the social and spatial structure of the city, similarly the computer networks will shape the Manchester's
future in the information age (i.e., Manchester City Council, 1999). The initiative that is mostly discussed under this view is the Greater Manchester Information Network Group or G-MING. The G-MING project originated in 1993
when a feasibility study was funded by the six local Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) to examine the scope and potential for a high speed Metropolitan
Area Network. Gradually the Manchester City Council recognized the potential of G-MING, getting involved in the project and supporting its further development. The argument was that in order to p r o m o t e M a n c h e s t e r as
"European regional centre" it would be very important to build networks, to

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Table 2

Mapping Out the Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in Manchester, 1994-1999


Initiatives/Projects

Electronic Village Halls (EVHs)


Develop Manchester as a Centre of
Excellence in ICTs (1994)
Manchester Telematics and Teleworking
Partnership (MTTP)
Manchester Technology Management
Centre (MTMC)
Manchester Community Information
Network (MCIN)
Greater Manchester Information
Network Group (G-MING)
Northern Quarter Network (NQN)
Information Society Initiative Local
Support Centre Manchester
Manchester Multimedia Centre and
Network (MMCN)
Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts
(IDEA) - Getting Online (GO)
Manchester Technopole
Information Society Awareness (ISA)
Manchester Network Access Point
(MaNAP)
INFOCITIES

Year of
Launch
1992

Urban Cyberspace Policy


Application Areas
1
2
3
4
?
?

1994

1994

1995

1995

1995

?
?
?
?

1995

1996

1996

.9

?
?

1997
1997

1997

1998

?
s

s 1,000,000

1998
1998

1997
1998

?
?

1996

1997
Telematics for Micro and Small
Enterprises
Cyberschool
Centre of Expertise in electronic
Commerce (CEeC)
TeleCity
Manchester City Council IntranetExtranet
Centre of Excellence in IT skills
North West New Media Network
(NWNMN)
Cultural Industries Development Service

Funds

s
s

?
?
?

1999

?
?

1999

1999

put in the physical connections, to invest in real infrastructure. By August


2001 G-MING has reached a total of 32 sites mostly in the central and south
part of the city, serving a number of important public buildings such as the
Town Hall, hospitals, libraries, and clusters of high technology at the Manchester Science Park, but being still far from the target to serve the whole metropolitan area.
On the other hand, the promotion of e-business in Manchester is extremely
heterogeneous as there is a variety of government, local authority, and other
agencies providing a wide range of related services to local enterprises. Though,
it is in the area of local economy/market that one can identify the strongest

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overlap in the objectives and activities of the different ICTs initiatives and
involved agencies in Manchester. On the one hand agencies like Manchester
TEC and Manchester Business Link have been involved in the field since
early 1996 through the introduction of governmental programs, such as the
s
million Information Society Initiative (ISI) and the s
million ICT Learning Centres. The local authorities' ICTs policy intervention has mostly focused on Manchester's cultural and creative SMEs, with Manchester Technology
Management Centre and the Manchester Multimedia Centre and Network as
the primary initiatives. Both are joint initiatives between the already partners
in the Host, therefore the Manchester City Council and the Manchester Institute for Telematics and Employment Research (MITER) at Manchester Metropolitan University. The MTMC is operating as a business consultancy that
aims to provide free-of-charge services for developing and supporting processes of innovation, technology transfer and spin off. Although official records
are not yet available, from January I996 till September 1999 no more than 80
local enterprises have contacted the MTMC for various kinds of consultancy
and support for developing e-business applications such as commercial Web
sites. In early 2000 MTMC was virtually transformed in a new project, the
North West New Media Network (NWNMN). Funded with s
by the
ERDF the NWNMN, aims to "recreate" or replicate the pre-digital industry
supply chains within a digital network. It comprises 80 creative companies in
the printing, publishing, media broadcasting, web design, music, advertising
and marketing, architecture, graphic design, entertainment, education, animation, and multimedia sectors. On the other hand, as its name indicates, Manchester Multimedia Centre and Network is a twofold initiative: First, MMCN operates
a high-bandwidth (ATM) network as a local Intranet (within the MMCN's media
labs) and in a wider context as a major ATM hub on the G-MING Metropolitan
Area Network. Second, MMCN is a physical centre, part of the Manchester
Institute for Telematics and Employment Research (MITER), within the Geoffrey
Manton Building (Social and Humanities Studies) of MMU. The Multimedia
Centre comprises a small training lab but it does not provide formalized training courses. Though, it may include training as part of its activities, in collaboration with other initiatives. In addition, while Manchester Technology
Management Centre is offering access to specialists' consultancy, not cash,
the MMCN differs in that it is a capital and revenue project and it is able to
provide capital grants. For instance, in 1997, the MMCN awarded a small
number (12) of local small companies with grants of s
to s
to
provide multimedia equipment for small innovative companies and other organizations in a series of two calls for project proposals.
Besides MTMC and MMCN, another two initiatives have been established
to promote the use and exploration of ICTs by local cultural SMEs: the Northern Quarter Network (NQN) and the Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts
(IDEA). The Northern Quarter Network (NQN) initiative was launched by
Manchester Institute for Popular Culture (Manchester Metropolitan University) in order to provide support and development opportunities for cultural
SMEs located in the Northern Quarter Area of Manchester City centre. At the
beginning the City Council was not enthusiastic about the idea as its intention

98

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy / Spring 2005

was to focus on the built environment, but it was finally convinced due to the
enthusiasm that the association of businesses in the area showed for the project.
Therefore, while the emphasis of local authorities was on built environment
and hard regeneration projects, the NQN initiative focused on the exploitation
of the Internet so to develop and manage a 'virtual workspace without walls'
that would foster the networking between SMEs and promote their activities
and products across the world. As the project evolved and gathered feedback
on its work, it posed new issues for policy and action. This has resulted in a
set of 'spin-off' projects, which emerged out of the NQN work program and
the conclusions drawn from it (see Blanchard, 1999). By November 1999 the
Northern Quarter Network was eventually absorbed by its "spin-off" but
citywide "Cultural Industries Development Service" (CIDS) initiative as a cultural business support agency over and off the Internet. On the whole, although the NQN was a local scale pilot project, with only two persons as staff,
a very limited budget, and a relative brief time horizon in which to maneuver,
it delivered pioneering work regarding the marriage of cyberspace and culture-led urban regeneration policy.
The collaboration between the City Council and MMU on the particular
field encompasses also Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts (IDEA) initiative. IDEA was established to put together ICTs applications, training, and
support for small creative industries, to give that sector the skills that may
need to use the Internet. IDEA was established to put together ICTs applications, training, and support for small creative industries, to give that sector the
skills that may need to use the Internet. In addition, IDEA provides a modular
multimedia-training course for beginners, improvers, and specialists, constituted by two sessions of five weeks each, which requires registration fees of
s
Furthermore, and similarly to the CIDS' Showcase project, the IDEA
Web site demonstrates various digital arts projects produced in IDEA's workshops. On the whole, the contribution of IDEA to human resource capacity of
Manchester's creative industry would appear to be significant, especially in
terms of the quality and relevance of training to industry needs.

Area 2: Community Cohesion and Development


Along with the central issue-aim of economic development, the urban
cyberspace policy in Manchester in the 1994-1999 period has also maintained
the aim to overcome the problem of social exclusion from "technologically
advanced islands" within the city area. Despite the policy rhetoric however,
as Table 2 indicates, the range of initiatives in this area of urban cyberspace
policy interest is limited compared to the range of economic development
driven initiatives. In general, the main focus here is concerned with developing a network of local ICTs access and training centres around the city linked
to the Multimedia Centre and Network (MMCN), promoting these initiatives
through the 'Information Society Awareness' project, and developing the
Manchester Community Information Network. Apart from these, worth mentioning are the related activities of Workers Educational Association (WEA)
and the Getting Online (GO) and Cyberschool initiatives. WEA and GO pro-

Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in Manchester, UK, 1989-1999

99

vide free or at low-cost access and training to multimedia and Internet/Web


technologies to citizens, while the Cyberschool aims to provide corresponding services to Manchester's schools.
The most important project in this area is the Manchester Community Information Network (MCIN). It was established in April 1995 after a competition,
launched by the Manchester offices of Management Consultants KPMG, as a
non-profit-making company limited by guarantee, aiming to bring together
public and community information providers in order to develop an integrated
and free-of-charge community information database. The MCIN Board, which
was set up immediately after the launch of the project, comprised of information providers from the voluntary sector, the City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University, North Manchester Healthcare NHS Trust, the public library
service, the Poptel and, of course, the Management Consultants KPMG. The
MCIN offices are located in Moston, North Manchester, unlike most ICTs
related organizations that are located within City Centre-Universities-Science
Park area. Since its inception in 1996, staffing levels of MCIN have varied
depending on circumstances and funding availability. On the other hand, Web
space and technical support have been provided by Poptel/Host (Internet Providers) and equipment donated by KPMG. In September 1999 information
providers include twelve public organizations from the Greater Manchester
Area. The MCIN has been active in two key areas of work: public access to
computer terminals and information kiosks, and a "community information
network" web site, upgraded, and renamed as "'mymanchester" in summer
1998. Regarding the first area of MCIN's work, it has located ten computer
terminals in six different sites in North Manchester in a variety of public settings. According to the evaluation report by SEMA Group (1998), a total of
68,115 information transactions were logged over the aggregate total of 554
days (November 1996--June 1998) that the six kiosks were available. The
overall trend, though, shows that kiosk usage has been decreasing over time.
Moreover, the process for user account creation has proved to be highly unreliable; of a total of 1693 registration attempts, 809 (48 percent) were unsuccessful. Average user session duration was approximately 35 seconds. This
indicates that a typical user would use the kiosk either out of curiosity or to
satisfy a single specific information need.
On the other hand, the "MyManchester" web site launched in 1998 as a
community-portal site, which would inter-link and eventually integrate a wide
range of Web sites that offer information and communication services to local
c o m m u n i t y over the Internet. Spawned from the M C I N ' s web site at
www.mcin.net and thus exclusively managed by the MCIN, "MyManchester"
(www.mymanchester.net) is primarily targeted at Manchester's citizens and
secondarily at its visitors. The web site does not offer exclusive content to
users but mostly links to organizations and agencies related with the subsections' topics provided from the developers of the site but also from other
individuals that can add a link to the site. The breakdown of these links by the
11 sub-sections indicates that the issues of "Advice and Support," "Community," and "Leisure" have the largest concentration. In "discussion forums"
provided, one of the main sections of the site, users can find a list of all gen-

100

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy / Spring 2005

eral discussion forum and bulletin board topics that involve training and volunteer opportunities, local events, funding/grants, community notices, jobs
computer issues/licenses, healthy living networks and the web site itself.
No statistics on the Web site's operation were available as a matter of policy.
They will be released on a forthcoming evaluation report from MCIN. However, through observing and participating in "User Forums," we found out
that their use is limited and most of the contributors are staff and volunteers
from MCIN who usually update various news and events. More specifically,
only 32 users are registered and the statistics on threads (discussion subjects)
and postings in July 2001, shown in Table 3, indicates that the "Local Events"
forum is the most popular, followed by "Community Notices." These results
are in line with the large concentration of links observed in the "Advice and
Support," and "Community" subsections discussed earlier.
In July 1998 MCIN secured s
matching funding for the next three
years from the ERDF and the Lottery (Manchester City Council, 1998: 13),
but the estimated amount of money needed to meet the MCIN's Board target
to establish 300-500 kiosks by 2002 was s163 million. Overall, MCIN operation is very much based upon the availability of funding, having similar
therefore problems to EVHs' operation, particularly in terms of staffing and
technology upgrading issues.
Area 3: Urban Governance, Management, and Planning
This area of policy interest and intervention is mostly related with the development and operation of various Web sites. Approximately 50 Manchester
based public organizations have developed Web sites through which someTABLE 4
"MyManchester" Web Site: Statistics on Threads and Posts in "User Forums" for
July 2001

Community Bulletin Board


Training & Volunteer Opps
Local Events
Funding/Grants
Community Notices
Jobs
Community Discussion Forums

Threads

32
62
36
41
18

43
76
43
48
25
18

Have Your Say


Computer Issues/Licenses
Healthy Living Networks
Mymanchester.net
What Do You Think of Our Site?
Add a Site

Posts

3
17

8
43

Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in Manchester, UK, 1989-1999

101

one can get access to information services provided by these organizations. In


addition, MCIN although it was examined under the theme of "community
networking" is also highly related to the present area since its function is
aiming to integrate various information resources in the Manchester area. Furthermore, the city council through its web site is aiming to modernize and
democratize the public services provision process and to improve the communication between local authorities and citizens.
The city council's web site (www.manchester.gov.uk) is primarily aimed to
offer free, effective and wide-ranging information and communication services to residents and non-residents of Manchester. The range of objectives
include, among others, highly ambitious rhetoric such as the development of
a Web site at the leading edge of digital publishing, and the ability of users to
participate in the planning and decision-making processes. As the profession
of site's owners/managers indicates, the contents and services are predominantly concerned with a wide range of information regarding the Manchester
City Council's structure, activities, and services. It includes online versions of
the council's agendas, reports, calendar, and minutes of meetings, providing
also information on electoral services, planning terms and regulations, the
decision-making process, councilors and local MPs. On the other hand, the
"Council Services" part of the web site basically provides descriptive information on the council's various departments/offices regarding the range of
services, areas of liabilities, terms and conditions, and contact details. It is
subdivided into six sections that are managed and regularly updated by the
corresponding council's departments/offices: housing, municipal libraries,
education, leisure, social services, and advice. The web site's managers have
not deal yet with the statistics of the web site, although it was scheduled that
by the end of 1998 they would produce a progress report and summarize the
site's growth. This never happened first because of the focus on the site's
information base and the Intranet project and, second because of the inadequate Internet services provided by Poptel. Nevertheless, the research managed to access a limited range of web site's statistical data for the period
February-May 1999. According to these, the average of weekly requests is
43,895 corresponding to 6,456 users, far smaller figures compared to those of
the "Virtual Manchester" Web site (www.manchester.com), which is a clearly
private initiative. In terms of where from users access the site, the web statistics indicate that 42 percent of the users access the site from the United Kingdom, 44 percent from other countries (20 percent from the United States), and
the rest 14 percent is of unknown origin.
A closely related, if not twin project is the development of the Council's
Intranet/Extranet system. As Figure 1 illustrates, thanks to the Intranet/Extranet
the Council's various offices can get gradually FTP access to the web server.
To be more precise, the Intranet/Extranet project started in autumn 1998
and is considered strategically important in managing public information services within the Town Hall and its associates, and responding to central governmental exhortations to have 25 percent of public services online by the
year 2005. Besides, the Extranet system will integrate the city council's Intranet
with a wider communication network that includes other local information

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy / Spring 2005

102

FIGURE 1
Process of Developing the Manchester City Council's Web Site through the Intranet/
Extranet System

I Info~rnatl(~ is placed
Intemet/Intranet by
or Corporate ~ r n a s t e r

Doporln3onl

MCC
i~l
INTRANET~

Poptel/
Internet

Webmaster necelvesInfo vta


WIZARD or D~3arllT~tal
WeDmaste~ to input onto
Internet/lnlranet, Llalses wltr~ Vvlzard
for cofl:x:~ate Issues

I W!zard agree strateg~ decL~ion


which may affect corporate
cllrect;on of Internet/lntranef. Where

necesso~, submlt proposalsot


reporls ~o COGII or II Woadncj Potty
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receive proposalsfrom ~l~bmaster

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V~ornaslers ttlen cocr,~rls document
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rnay be necessary

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I

providers such as the Manchester Community Information Network, the Multimedia Centre, the Tourist Information Centre, etc. Council's employees will
also be in a better position, working together corporately and responding to
enquiries more effectively. On the other hand, and by general consent, the
Intranet/Extranet system should be developed much earlier, as the foundation
for Internet/Web applications, something that happened in most of "best examples" in the European Union like Antwerp and Bologna. This did not happen basically because the city council's ICT network platform was based on
Manchester Host technology that was inadequate.
Holistic and Strategic Approach
During 1994 the Manchester Host initiative had the last chance to keep its
central role in Manchester's ICTs policy field through the integration over it
of all 40 small sectorial and organizational projects that constituted the
Manchester's "Arts-Business-Community Network." Although this attempt was
not successful, it eventually had a share in the inclusion of a strategic initiative named "Develop Manchester as a Centre of Excellence in ICTs" among
the 42 urban regeneration strategic projects in the City Pride Area (Manchester, Salford, and Trafford). However, the initiative became quickly inoperative. Nevertheless, it confirmed the policy shift towards the development of
wider and stronger partnerships, so to build up, as strong as possible, a culture

Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in Manchester, UK, 1989-1999

103

of awareness and use of ICTs by as wide a cross-section of society as possible.


This policy commitment lead to the establishment of another strategic initiative in the same year (1994), the Manchester Telematics and Teleworking
Partnership (MTTP). The MTTP was established as a joint initiative between
the initiators of Manchester Host in order to bring together a wide range of
local agencies to discuss, explore and exploit the potential of ICTs in local
development. MTTP was established in order to support and coordinate the
necessary local partnerships that the EC considers important fact to subsidize
an ICT project. The element of central coordination of funding permitted the
initiators of MTTP to claim for the first true attempt to develop a holistic urban
cyberspace policy approach. However, to the extent that the partnership is
operating without a formal structure and frequency of meetings, and an integrated management plan, but rather as a kind of group of people who arrange
the funding bids, serious problems have been caused in terms of developing a
truly holistic framework for policy action. Nevertheless, MTTP has being active during the whole 1994-1999 period, receiving and administering more
than s million funds from EU and UK government.
Its importance was acknowledged by the city council when in 1997 was
considered as the main backbone of the "Manchester Technopole" strategic
initiative, in the context of the second "City Pride" urban regeneration strategy. But like its similar predecessor "Develop Manchester as a Centre of Excellence in ICTs" initiative of 1994, the "Manchester Technopole" reflected
hype of political rhetoric and the need to include ICTs in the overall urban
regeneration strategic planning. Hence, the "Manchester Technopole," except
its literary inclusion among the strategic projects of the "City Pride 2" prospectus, in practice was never active. It should be noted that during the 19971998 period MTTP was somehow set aside due to the operation of Manchester
INFOCITIES initiative.
Following on from the official launch of the project at a European wide
level in The Hague in March 1997, the Manchester-INFOCITIES project was
launched on 26 June 1997 by 15 local partners. Therefore, the INFOCITIES
importance is based on the fact that around it a formal grouping of initiatives
and organizations, a wider group outside MTTP, has gathered, to create a new
local "virtual city partnership." This shift is strongly promoted by some bodies like the city council and the Multimedia Centre, arguing for instance that
INFOCITIES group is becoming quite powerful and seeks to organize and
coordinate various future plans for EU effective funding and to make the
relation between basic actors more serious, so new projects to begin to spin
out of it. However, the function of Manchester-INFOCITIES as a central coordinating body that would develop a holistic urban cyberspace development
approach has not been yet achieved properly. The basic reason for this failure
was that the INFOCITIES has focused on seeking and biding for funds available from the EC's programs, rather on shaping a strategic view on how to coordinate and eventually integrate the various initiatives. Similarly to previous
initiatives, therefore, the INFOCITIES' operation has been characterized by a
basic problem: the overlapping fields of various initiatives combined with the

104

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy / Spring 2005

continuous need for securing funding, as most of the projects are dependent
on short-term funds, has resulted an opportunistic and competitive environment, although promoted as a strategic and collaborative one. Eventually the
INFOCITIES has indeed enabled Manchester to build new projects and acquire new funding, particularly in the field of "ICTs and cultural heritage,"
though it has caused confusion and low effectiveness in terms of developing
a holistic urban cyberspace planning framework.
Therefore, the crucial issue with reference to the inexistence of a strategic
initiative that would truly provide the basis for a holistic ICTs policy framework has been actually confessed in the city council's latest "Manchester's
Telematic Strategy" consultative report (Manchester City Council, 1998), conducted by the Economic Initiatives Group. The report does not analyze the
nature and different aspects of the problem but it states that:
Whilst there has been a great deal of activity, however, there is less evidence of a
coordinated approach, of adequate linkages between projects, or of local benefit accruing to residents as a result of this activity. The purpose of a new ICTs strategy should be
to establish a policy framework within which: (a) existing initiatives can be located
and linkages established between them to minimise duplication or competition and
maxirnise value to the city; (b) new proposals can be appraised; (c) future demands for
resources can be evaluated; (d) local benefit can be an explicit, and wherever possible,
quantified output, whether measured in terms of jobs or in broader improvements in the
economic and social prospects of local people; (e) the City Council's role in relation to
the development of the ICTs sector can be better defined and clarified (ibid: 5).
Furthermore, this report, for first time, brought down to earth the great expectations for "miraculous" potential of ICTs on local economic restructuring,
pointing out that "the influence of telematics cannot simply be regarded as
always and naturally beneficial to the economy as economic phenomena such
as 'downsizing' and 'jobless growth' are also made possible by these new
technologies" (ibid: 3-4). The fundamental outcome of this report was the
proposal of an "integrated action plan," while for evaluating progress and
assessing outcomes six key indicators have been determined as follows: (1)
investment; (2)jobs created and/or safeguarded; (3) training facilities and resuits; (4) content production; (5) number of local users; (6) wider economic,
social, and environmental impacts.

Synopsis and Concluding Remarks


The much wider, compared to the first, second wave of urban cyberspace
policy initiatives in Manchester is characterized by the increasing number of
new bodies involved. This is clearly demonstrated by comparing Figure 2,
which outlines schematically the development of urban cyberspace policy
initiatives in the 1989-1994 period with, the corresponding for the 1994-2001
period Figure 3.
Figure 2 outlines schematically the development of urban cyberspace policy
in Manchester in the 1989-1994 time period. The Manchester City Council's

Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in Manchester, UK, 1989-1999

105

Economic Initiatives Group, along with the Centre for Employment Research
at the Department of Social and Humanities Studies-Manchester Metropolitan
University, and the Soft Solution-Poptel Ltd constitute the group of core players. Of great significance for this partnership was the pre-existence of social
and political relationships between key individuals involved in these organizations. Exploiting their professional positions in the three central organizations they eventually achieved financial and political support from both central
government and the city council. "The influence of British national urban and
telecommunications policy seems to have been less important than the social
and political processes of problematization, in influencing the design, initiation, and development of the Host" (Graham, 1996: 8). On the other hand,
both regional and European policy levels were not essentially involved politically, institutionally, or financially in this first period.
As shown in Figure 3 regarding the second phase, the shift in policymaking
towards extensive partnerships, necessary for funding reasons, brought into
the picture all local educational institutions and several private companies
along with other urban and regional agencies like the Manchester TEC, North
West Arts Board, the Salford City Council, the Museum of Science and Industry and two local high schools. A noticeable change is also that all local computing centres and departments from local universities have been gradually
involved, especially through infrastructure projects like G-MING, MaNAP,
and CEeC.
The core players group, however, consists of the partnership around the
Host initiation: the City Council's Economic Initiatives Group (EIG-MCC),
the Manchester Institute for Telematics and Teleworking Partnership at
Manchester Metropolitan University (MITER-MMU) and Poptel Ltd. Thus,
initiatives such as the Multimedia Centre and Network (MMCN), the Technology Management Centre (MTMC), the Manchester Telematics and Teleworking
Partnership (MTTP) have been results of the partnership and constitute the
most promoted initiatives. The crucial role of the City Council in getting access to funding resources resulted though a remarkable change in the map.
Manchester City Council, through the Economic Initiatives Group (EIG), is
virtually an inner-core player, thanks to its political power to manage the main
funding resources from the EU and governmental programs and being the
link between the various initiatives and consortiums. Around Poptel, also, a
network of local Internet and advertising companies (like Millaer-Schiller, Web
Promote and ManchesterNet) have been actively involved in several initiatives but with clear profit-seeking purposes.
The proliferation of projects and partnerships, involving public and private
local bodies is a positive evolution in terms of policymaking. Especially, the
involvement of all local educational institutions, several schools, development agencies like Manchester TEC, Manchester Airport as well as of big
ICTs companies like SEMA and ICL can be characterized as policy achievement. The fact that there was an effective involvement in urban cyberspace
programs launched from regional, national as well as European authorities
can also be considered as policy achievement. The sector that has mostly
involved in this supportive framework is related to "creative industries," es-

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108

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy / Spring 2005

pecially small multimedia, arts and music enterprises that are located in the
city center.
On the other hand, the previously reported critical review of the main initiatives demonstrated a strong "funding-seeking" approach rather a comprehensive strategy for d e v e l o p i n g urban c y b e r s p a c e applications. Thus, the
fundamental critical point on policy approach developed by the core players
is concerned with the focus on getting successful funding based on a tactical
opportunism and not in a strategic planning. Despite the intension to integrate
the whole range of initiatives, the "funding-seeking" approach is working in
favour of developing a competitive relation between various initiatives, especially those with overlapping interests, instead of promoting the collaboration
between them. It can be argued that the "funding-seeking" approach adopted
by the core actors tends to produce, without malice, a clientele system.
It was evident that, due to a particular understanding of funding bodies and
of ICTs, a small group of people around the core players had the ability to
work upon the development of projects outside the usual framework of public
accountability--"working independently as policy makers, funding producers and over-seers of project delivery" (Harvey, Green, and Agar, 2000: 13).
It seems that the development of urban cyberspace initiatives, or the so-called
"virtual city," generates a layer of expert developers and intermediaries both
within public organizations and initiatives, as well in the thriving "creative
industries" sector of cultural, arts, multimedia and Internet companies. Moreover, it became apparent that, as much as anything else, it is the pace of technological change, in particular regarding the Internet/web growth that absorbed
or displaced most other forms of cyberspace. This explains the failure of
Manchester's brave pioneering efforts at a municipal-driven cyberspace policy
and the subsequent flourishing of private sector initiatives.
The research findings show also that Manchester City Council never took
full ownership of ICTs policy initiatives because it did not really have a proper
strategy beyond securing piecemeal funding, especially from EC's programs.
The MTTP's role to operate as an inclusive decision-making organization has
not worked yet, while the operation of the INFOCITIES group is mostly characterized by a process of building up proposals for new projects/funding. This
political inadequacy, along with the inherent intangibility and local/global
grounds of ICTs initiatives, constitute the basic reason that local politicians
are not yet convinced of the potential impact of these initiatives in local development. Besides, the attempt by a team within the City Council's Economic
Initiatives Group to develop an integrated, strategic policy framework is actually aimed to cover and monitor the whole range of initiatives, determining
coherent and tangible criteria for assessing their effectiveness in terms of local
development. On the other hand, and with the benefit of hindsight it has to be
mentioned that policy initiatives based solely on the use of advanced multimedia technologies were really a waste of public money, such as the "Mad for
IT" Web site. On the whole, it was proved that Manchester is a proper case
study in order to draw lessons from both positive and negative aspects, as
well crucial details for the discussion regarding the deployment of urban
cyberspace policy initiatives and virtual cities.

Urban Cyberspace Policy Initiatives in Manchester, UK, 1989-1999

109

Finally, we should be aware that the virtual city differs to the actual one in
terms of four basic aspects: First, it comprises a real but virtual place accessible only by Internet users irrespective of location; thus compared to the
actual city it is far less socially inclusive and spatially definite. Second, the
effects of virtual city's development on the real city are hardly tangible and
visible, and thus difficult to measure and assess. Third, in contrast to what is
happening in terms of the real city's development, local authorities cannot
take the overall control of the virtual city's development. Fourth, it is observed that the development of virtual city, especially in relation to urban
policy, is characterized by serious contradictions. On the one hand it promotes the collaboration between cities, as well between local bodies and specific projects, the de-centralisation of d e c i s i o n - m a k i n g s y s t e m and the
modernization of public services' provision. On the other hand, it causes competition between cities as well between local agencies and projects in bidding for
governmental and European funding programs. It further produces a concentration of power and decision-making system around the group of local bodies and
individuals that have access to and make use of the virtual city. The same is
valid in the domain of public services where computer illiterate citizens cannot take advantage of the modernized, online, delivery of services. As Ducatel
and Halfpenny (1993: 367) argue, "policies which concentrate resources into
a few centres are antithetical to the spirit of information network formation,
and create barriers to future development in information flows."

Appendix
Abbreviations
BT
CAB
CeeC
CER--MMU
CIDS
DDS
DoE
DTI
EC
EIG--MCC
ERDF
ESF
EVH
EU
G-MING
ICT
IDEA
IRISI
MAGIC

British Telecom
Citizens Advice Bureau
Centre of Expertise in electronic Commerce
Centre for Employment Research--Manchester Metropolitan
University
Cultural Industries Development Service
De Digitale Stant (Digital City Amsterdam)
Department of Environment
Department of Trade and Industry
European Commission
Economic Initiatives Group--Manchester City Council
European Regional Development Funds
European Structural Funds
Electronic Village Halls
European Union
Greater Manchester Information Network Group
Information and Communication Technology
Innovation in Digital and Electronic Arts
Inter-Regional Information Society Initiative (EU)
Manchester Gateway to Information for the Community

110

Knowledge, Technology, & Policy / Spring 2005

MAN
MaNAP
MCC
MCIN
MIPC
MITER
MMCN
MMU
MTTP
MUWIC
NQN
NWNMN
SMEs
UCP

Metropolitan Area Network


Manchester Network Access Point
Manchester City Council
Manchester Community Information Network
Manchester Institute for Popular Culture (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Manchester Institute for Telematics and Employment Research
(former CER; Manchester Metropolitan University)
Manchester Multimedia Centre and Network
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Telematics and Teleworking Partnership
Multimedia for Women in the Cultural Industries
Northern Quarter Network
North West New Media Network
Small and Medium Enterprises
Urban Cyberspace Planning
Notes

1.
2.

www.telecities.org
www.nynma.org

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