Connecting Communities: Universities partnering with business to unlock creative potential in rural communities

摘要

The project worked with three village communities- St Agnes (Cornwall); Ystrad Mynach (Wales); and Fernhurst (Surrey)- over a period of twelve months. The nature of the engagement differed between communities and was subject to the robustness of the broadband service, as well as additional local factors that affected the context of the engagements. There was limited success in our ability to connect the three communities together, but the project produced a set of highly successful outcomes, including additional activity within communities and insights into the benefits of superfast broadband for both universities and rural communities. It also successfully demonstrated the use of additional bandwidth to create co-presence in an online environment.