The development charity ruralnet|uk is breaking new ground in bending the latest web-based technologies to its purpose, claims CEO Simon Berry.

With the launch of its first ‘web widget’ - delivering services seamlessly via others’ websites; the first is on the website of the Essex Rural Partnership, and more are set to follow, to support communities who are rethinking rural service delivery in the wake of the government’s restructuring of the Post Office network.

The charity works through supporting local action on the ground: “As a national organisation,” says Simon, “we complement what is already going on. We aim to be “always there but never intrusive”. We add value to local action and help to make it more efficient and effective by encouraging knowledge transfer and helping people to avoid re-inventing the wheel.

“Acting in this way online has always been more of a challenge and we have expected people to come to us to access our online support services. That is, until now”.

Simon credits the breakthrough in thinking to a strategic planning session run with staff a year ago. ruralnet|uk delivers the net:gain strategic planning programme for Capacitybuilders across England, and used the methodology in-house. “We don’t like to ask the organisations we support to do things we haven’t tried ourselves,” says Simon. “We took our own medicine - and, in spite of the fact we consider ourselves good at technology, it’s had far reaching consequences. One thing that emerged very clearly was the need to act in the online world in the same way as we do in the real world: ‘aligning our ICT to our business’ - as the jargon puts it. We realised what really means and we’ve rebuilt our computer systems so that we can deliver our services locally, through existing local online activity. Local people no longer have to come to our sites to access our services, they can access them from the virtual places they usually go to.”

So how does this work in practice? What does it look like? It’s called a ‘widget’ and the first one we have deployed sits on a webpage dealing with Post Office closures on the website of the Essex Rural Partnership. When a visitor looks at the page with widget displays the last three questions asked in ruralnet|uk’s Experts Online service and enables local people to register or log into the service to ask their own questions.

This initiative, called ‘Rural Services Support’, is being funded by the Commission for Rural Communities and supported by a consortium of national organisations including Post Office Ltd. The Experts Online service will be made available, using these widgets, to all local groups and organisations providing support to local communities through the Post Office closure process and beyond.

For more information about Rural Service Support, contact ruralnet|uk on 0845 1300 411 or email rssupport@ruralnet.org.uk

Notes for editors:

1. To register for Rural Service Support go to:

www.expertsonline.org.uk/rssupport

2. Organisations supporting Rural Service Support include: Action for Market Towns, Action with Communities in Rural England, Commission for Rural Communities, Post Office Ltd, Postwatch, Local Government Association, National Association of Local Councils, Pub is the Hub, ruralnet|uk and the Village Retail Services Association.

3. net:gain is a startegic planning process delivered through local centres. See www.net-gain.org.uk

4. ruralnet|uk is a rural regeneration charity which promotes a living and working countryside and finds new and effective ways to help rural communities improve and strengthen their local economies. It supports agencies working on the ground to alleviate disadvantage, to enable social inclusion and social enterprise. It works through promoting and enabling collaboration, research, consultancy and knowledge and information transfer. With local partners, it supports projects which put ideas into practice at the local level. It has specialist skills in information, communications and collaboration technologies and wide experience covering their potential and their appropriate use for rural areas. For further details go to: www.ruralnetuk.org

5. Information about the Commission for Rural Communities and its work can be found in its current Annual Review at: www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/publications/annualreview20062007