1 Overview of Digital Town Project
 
 

1.1 Project Goals
 
 

The Digital Town project is part of a continuing policy of local development. The introduction of new information technologies is not seen as an end  in itself, but is rather thought of as the continuation of an in-depth effort to locally support transversal communications and cause associative initiatives. We are convinced that electronic networks cannot be established in a community if there is not a preliminary development of a dense fabric of human relations.
 
 This project, which was prepared since 1994 and launched in 1996, aims at using new communication and information technologies as catalysts for increasing the density of exchanges between citizens on a scale small territory, within a city.
 
 We are interested in experimenting concrete usages of these new informational technologies, once they are used in everyday life by various citizens and actors who make the richness of a city. What happens in a city where a majority of the population is actively using these tools?
 
Thus our ambition is to be an " urban laboratory of the new information society", and to reach, on the territory of the District of Parthenay, a large critical mass of the population using new technology. Therefore we chose a multisectorial and non segmented approach: we tackled simultaneously all usages of everyday life, so that we can experiment new usages from schools to companies, from administration to culture, from commerce to agriculture, etc.

1.2 Objectives and Methods
 

From this strong ambition follow two major objectives for the project:

Even if the Digital Town project dynamics are local, it is also thanks to external partnerships that this project could take shape and develop.
 
 
The invaluable support of Europe, through our participation in several pilot projects of the European Commission, enabled the Digital Town project to soar and be recognized at the international level. This currently results in our active participation in the European project IMAGINE.
 
 
A certain number of high level industrial partnerships (in particular with Philips, Siemens, Microsoft-Europe, France Telecom, etc.) allow us to continuously develop our project and to try out new tools and new technologies which respond to local practices.
 
 

Lastly, we are opened to share experiences with other local communities, at the regional level (with our participation in the steering committee of project SERISE of the Poitou-Charente Region), at the French, European or international level.
 
 
Started from a strong political ambition, the Digital Town project is being carried out in a progressive and practical way, so as to constantly be able to take into account new grassroots projects and the extremely fast evolution of technologies. Our method thus combines a certain amount of public voluntarism (which impels and creates the conditions of democratic accessibility for all), to a pragmatic and participative approach.
 
 

The small scale of a town like Parthenay seems to be an ideal experimental ground for a global experiment with new technologies. We think we can gain several years by focusing several real scale experiments on the same territory, the same town, in order to truly evaluate the potential of new practices, as well as the urban organizational impact of new technologies. This is a new form of 'city' which we are trying to invent here.
 
 

2 Actions carried out
 
 

2.1 Public spaces for technology access
 
 

The district chose to develop public places, called Digital Spaces , with free access to Internet and multi-media learning. These places allow to prepare the population to new technologies, to develop equal opportunity in the access to technology and to prevent social and financialexclusion generated by these new tools.
 
 

Their development close to traditional existing places enable the population to keep their practices and their reference points. All of these spaces are organized according to the same concept taking into account the various functionality of available tools (In-Town-Net, Internet, electronic mail, CD-ROM, word processing software, photography, spreadsheet, Web page authoring software, etc.)
 
 

The specificity of these spaces lies in the human assistance. Their hosts have to both know the use of technological tools and the sensitivity of their public.
 
 

Overall, these spaces contain 69 computers, scanners, access to a television station documentary videos database system (" La Cinq ") and access to cable television "Tomorrow". These spaces thus make it possible to present to different public the same access to information and multimedia tools.

This free access to information in these open and public places already had an impact on knowledge exchange inside the place, but also on the exchange of know-hows (graphic design, tool usage). These spaces, coupled with the consultation of the In-Town-Net, enable individuals to meet and exchange their knowledge on new technologies and contents. We observed various levels of exchanges taking place: between generations, between users, between organizers, and between organizers and users.
 
 

In 1997, Parthenay's Digital Spaces accommodated over 20000 visitors. Today, spaces are attended by more than 200 people per day.
 
 

2.2 Free access to Internet for all citizens
 
 

Based on the principle that Internet should be accessible to all, the District of Parthenay offers to its citizens free access to the Internet since mid-October 1996, so that the financial cost does not constitute a barrier to the use of new technologies in everyday life.
 
 

This service is directly financed by the town's budget. It was justified by the fact that a private Internet provider could not work in a profitable way on the geographical sector of Parthenay and its area. The existing accesses to private Internet providers made Internet access very expensive, those being distant from Parthenay. The only cost of Internet access to the citizens of Parthenay is now the local phone call to the building hosting the server in the downtown. And a cost zero for access to the Internet from one of the public digital spaces.
 
 

This free Internet access is reserved to any inhabitants, associations, or SMEs in the local call zone of Parthenay. Citizens can get their computers and modems configured for free by one of the town technicians, who also gives them some advises and installs all necessary software for Internet navigation and electronic mail. Free telephone assistance is also available
 
 

Parthenay also offers the possibility to each person to get a free electronic address.
 
 

Any person wishing to create her own Web pages can ask for an ftp access. These pages are hosted for free on Parthenay's server, and accessible on the InTownNet.

2.3 "1000 Micros" initiative
 
 

The initiative " one thousand PCs " was launched by the district in March 1997. This initiative enable a greater number of citizens to acquire computer equipment.
 
 

A fixed price is offered to citizens including the loan of a computer, free connection to the Internet server of the District of Parthenay (InTownNet) and to the Internet, and 200 hours of free phone communication per year, for a sum of 300 FF per month over 2 years.
 
 

This initiative aims to avoid any form of financial exclusion, and to allow the appropriation of new communication tools by the greatest number of citizens.
 
 

This initiative was carried out in partnership with France Telecom, Siemens and CETELEM. As of March 1999, all 1000 PCs have been loaned to individuals, associations and schools, as well as to some small companies.

3 IN-TOWN-NET: a urban Intranet
 
 

3.1 Introduction
 
 

The In-Town-Net Parthenay the Creative is developed around the community server. Just as one speaks about " Intranet " for corporate networks, we decided to set up an " Intranet " for the entire territory of a city.
 
 

The InTownNet was started in July 1996 at Armand Jubien digital public space and is accessible to the entire population since November 1996. The In-Town-Net is intended to be a genuine " electronic mirror of the city ". It is characterized by a unique Intranet including all municipal services, local companies, associations and citizens. On this Web server, a visitor can find all local information in domains as rich and varied as the economy, social sector, culture, town administration, etc.
 
 

The In-Town-Net currently includes many applications:

3.2 In-Town-Net main topics
 

Presentation of the District of Parthenay and Gatine country, various town services, town councils, directory of e-mail addresses

Town administration at your service (on line requests for alcohol sale licenses, for birth certificate, etc.) Information on local communities, State administrations and public companies

Building authority, taxes direction, notaries, geometricians, project superintendents, on-line cadrastal maps, dwellings taxes, street system permissions

Municipal archives, genealogy, studies and reports on Parthenay, Gatine territory association

Information on emergencies, equipments, permanencies, adds, local events, non-profit organizations

Information on economic facts, main resources, companies Web sites, economic actors (companies association, the young economic organization, trade organization, Dynaco)

Cattle market, APVQS, regional products, contacts, rural tourism

Information on facilities for disabled, children, and seniors, local care associations, health

List of search engines, computer professionals and associations, computer town department

News and history about the Digital Town project, description of applications developed within this project

Information on local dance, music, theater, visual arts, regional culture, festivals, media library, movie theater and the artistic resources association

All Sports : collective, individual, leisure

Presentation of the Play House, the games festival, games associations

Access to Parthenay, lodging, restaurants, Country of Art and History, local products

Archaeology associations, what is archaeology, historic buildings, virtual visit of restoration sites, local museum

School establishments, educational resources sites, partners of education, youth leisure

Job information organizations, training and continuing education organizations, job search assistance, job offers and job applications

Network of Knowledge Exchange, Local System of Exchanges, Inter-generations network, trade unions, private individual pages

Local media (Gatine FM, the New Republic), national and international media, Parthenay in the media

Sister Cities, European partnerships in the Digital Town project, Parthenay in the world
 
 

3.3 Results
 
 

As of March 1rst, 1999, the In-Town-Net was composed of more than 37,000 pages, with nearly 10,000 active pages.
 

3,458 electronic addresses are on Parthenay server. And we have more than 200 visitors per day in all public Digital Spaces.
 

4 The IMAGINE Project
 
 

4.1 Introduction
 
 

The IMAGINE project (Integrated Multimedia Applications Generating Innovative Networks in digital European towns), was adopted by the European Commission (DG XIII) within the IADS call for proposals (Integrated Applications on Digital Sites) of the European Union telematics program. Among ten approved projects on digital sites, IMAGINE is one of the only two concerning small and average cities as well as rural areas.
 
 

This project constitutes the second stage of our Digital Town approach, which was initiated in 1994. Its objective is to support a social appropriation of information and communication technologies at the level of small European cities. IMAGINE began on January 1rst, 1998, for a duration of 3 years.
 
 

It is the extension of two pilot projects of the European Commission, METASA and MIND, which were carried out in 1996 and 1997. It will also build on top of the significant effort of new technologies appropriation which is locally carried out in cities like Parthenay.
 
 

4.2 Project approach
 
 

The IMAGINE project proposes an innovative vision of development with regard to technological offer.
 
 

Indeed, this project has the originality to join together in a same consortium :

The IMAGINE project is mainly centered around three application domains (education and training - social integration and labor market - administration), but it also covers other fields like health and electronic commerce. The platform will use the most recent software tools and will be able to integrate a great diversity of terminals (PC, kiosks, Internet terminals, TV, phones with screen, etc.) so as to reach the largest audience. In some sense, the IMAGINE platform will constitute a adaptable toolbox for developing digital city applications.

Resolutely focused on the user, the project should enable the involvement of a critical mass of citizens as users of the new digital services ; it should demonstrate the integrated operating platform on a large scale and in real size; it should carry out a permanent observation of the new practices and new needs ; it should evaluate social factors in appropriation of new technologies, and analyze the economic conditions for the perennisation of the new local digital services.
 

The main results of the project will be disseminated through a European network of "associated" observing cities. A network of 20 to 30 associated cities has been set up. The consortium will organize seminars and digital towns visits for these associated cities. A project Intranet was also created to exchange experiences around the project.
 
 

References
 
 Sophie Deshayes, Joëlle Le Marec, Serge Pouts-Lajus, Sophie Tiévant (1998) "Parthenay, ville numérisée", in "Rapport Observation et analyse d'usages des réseaux"; Culture and Communication French Ministry

(http://www.ac-toulouse.fr/piquecos/pages/rapportMCC.html#4.html)
 

Eric George and Maryse Rivard (1998) "Parthenay... entre passé médiéval et avenir numérique"; University of Quebec in Montréal (http://commposite.uqam.ca/98.1/articles/parthena.htm)
 
Isabel Melis-Juteau (1998) "New information technologies as a tool to reinforce active citizenship in the French town of Parthenay"; European Center for Social Comparative Studies, Amsterdam (http://194.250.166.229/villenum/NEWINFORMATION.htm)
 

Emmanuel Eveno, Luc Jaëcklé (1997) "L'étude des sociologues dans le cadre de MIND" , in MIND report (http://194.250.166.229/villenum /rapportmind.htm)
 

Alain d'Iribarne (1997) "Local Democracy and Information Society: The Citizen/Users as ICNT Co-Conceptors"; Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail, CNRS (http://www.info.fundp.ac.be/~cita/ville/iribarne.html)

"Rapport METASA" (1997) ; by the members of the METASA Consortium (Multimedia European Experimental Towns with a Social-pull Approach), European Telematics Applications Programme

(http://194.250.166.229/villenum /rapportmetasa/tablematieremetasa.htm)