A community project

Extra-ordinary General Meeting Paid-up members should have received a copy of the Chairmans Statement May 2008 announcing a meeting on Friday 6th June 2008 at 7:30pm in the Scout Hut to discuss a proposal to wind down Rural-WEB. The proposal was carried - see Minutes of EGM June 2008. Note that it is not intended to withdraw service to any member before 30 September 2008 and that club activists are happy to help members decide how to obtain an alternative service.

Rural-WEB is a community organisation, formed in 2003 to bring the benefits of broadband Internet to the village of Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. At the time the arrival of such a service via the telephone network was a distant dream. Things changed - most of the Country is now broadband enabled - but Rural-WEB continues to provide a broadband service by wirelessly distributing broadband access from a few high quality feeds.

Rural-WEB received a substantial grant from the regional development agency, emda, to kick-start the project during the period September 2003 to December 2004. Further support was received from the Leicestershire Rural Partnership. In addition to establishing a village-wide wifi network some other community applications, such as the Community Centre IT Outreach activity, were assisted by the project.

 

In spite of "competition" from low-cost telephone based services, Rural-WEB continues to provide a service to a significant number of Internet users in Woodhouse Eaves, and to a few in the neighboring village of Swithland. New members are still welcome, particularly those in range of our existing wireless nodes. The service is no longer at the "cutting edge" of technology (though we are looking at developments which will enable us to improve it), but it is still useful and economic for many.