Caithness Touchscreen Trial

[chird]

I'm investigating the idea of trialling a new community interactive touchscreen project in Caithness during the summer, Wick being pencilled in at the moment. Our touchscreens display up-to-date information and news on local businesses, events, maps, tourism and community groups, and are designed to be a useful resource for locals and tourists alike. If successful we would be looking to roll out touchscreens into other Caithness locations this year, such as Thurso, Halkirk etc.

We already have about 30 touchscreens in the Highlands, in places like Inverness Airport and Eilean-Donan castle, but for this trial we would like to focus on one town to give them the best benefit we can.

To appear on the touchscreens and make unlimited changes to your pages would cost £100 a year for businesses, and £50 a year for individuals/community groups/charities. It's easy to keep people updated about your latest news and events by logging into our website. It also includes appearing on the ipoint.co.uk website, and on all the touchscreens across the Highlands.

I'm looking for your opinion on how many touchscreens would be enough to serve a community like Wick, where would be good locations to have them, and whether you think the town's tourism and business would benefit from such a system. Another thing, for every 24-hour through-the-window screen we install, we could install THREE indoor touchscreens, in busy shops and attractions. Which is preferable? Would you be interested in touchscreens installed in mini-cabs? Wick Airport? On the High Street?

Perhaps you think it's the stupidest idea you've ever heard, or perhaps you think it's great. Either way, I'd like to hear your view.

[Whitewater]

Installation of touch screens in Wick would be a good idea and I'm sure you would get enough support from the local business people. However, I wouldn't advise anything outside on the streets unless it was behind armoured glass. Anything of that nature which would be of help to the general puplic would have a brick through it in a day or two. Touch screens on the gaming machines in the local pubs get smashed regularly.

[chird]

Thanks for the reply!

We do have alarmed vandal-proof touchscreens in development which we may be installing in Inverness High Street (the council is looking at the proposals at the moment) , but they wouldn't stand up to anything like a fence post being slammed into them. Also the laying of underground lines seems to be a major hassle with the council. So I agree outdoor touchscreens are more hassle (but they're pretty smart!)

Our half-way house is to put them into windows of participating high street businesses.Depending on the business who is hosting the touchscreen we can recompense them with free broadband internet access, free advertising and/or perhaps a small fee.

There's also our indoor touchscreens, which can be mounted on a desk or wall.

[webmannie]

What happened to the iPoint screen in the Tourist Information Centre in Thurso?

You can hardly call it 'a new community interactive touchscreen project' more like a 're-launch'

[jjc]

You can hardly call it 'a new community interactive touchscreen project' more like a 're-launch'
Surely that would depend on the content, technology and provider?

[chird]

What happened to the iPoint screen in the Tourist Information Centre in Thurso?...

I took over management of Ipoint in November, I don't know why the previous management took the touchscreen out from Thurso TIC, but it was well before my time. I assume it was because the population is smaller, and they felt this makes it a less important place to cover (the main business at the time being large hotels etc). This is not something I agree with.

I believe most Caithness businesses and groups (not just tourism, but services, restaurants, hairdressers, individuals) would be more interested in keeping the local community up to date if they see that their information is available in a number of busy local places. From our point of view it is a very big change in focus, to concentrate on getting each local community a system where all businesses will be interested in promoting themselves. Frankly our whole business will change.

We're aiming for a 'community billboard', which is of use to everyone. This is a lot different from the tourism focused service we currently run across the Highlands. If it's successful in trial, I don't see why we don't expand it to other localities in Caithness and further afield.

[DrSzin]

Isn't all this information already available (in one form or another) on here? Perhaps Caithness.Org might consider branching out into the fresh air.

Wouldn't it be good to have some or all of Caithness.Org available to tourists, to those without web access at home or work, and to anyone who wants information when they are out and about in Wick or elsewhere?

How about it guys?

Or perhaps a joint venture would make sense?

[champagnebaby]

Something like that is definately needed especially considering we don't have a tourist information office here any more.

Best place to stick it would be beside the railway and police station, might be relatively safe there considering the police station is the only palce in wick with cctv

[Bill Fernie]

Whilst I lke the idea of making the information available on the street it would work out expensive collectively for all the businesses. We have over 1000 in the business index for Caithness. At £100 each that is £100,000. Add to that £50 for say 300 community groups £15,000 I do not thnk many individuals will be willing to pay £50 for page. At present we offer free pages to every comunity group on the main Caithness.org web site. Then we have free pages to all businesses in the Caithness Business Index. They can have additional advertising with banner ads if they want a higher profile and that helps keep the web site going.
We are not in receipt of grants or funding so our only source of income to run eveything is the ads and a few web sites, hosting etc. Our philosophy has been to make it as cheap as possible and where the technology suggests it costs very little then we offer the service free of charge such as the Items for Sale in the Message Board.
We thought about making the web site available in shops for tourists etc but it was going to be too much trouble for the few extra visitors. I saw an excellent service in New York provided by Yahoo in the tourist centre. Several PC's and you could use email etc and it was all free. You could even take a photo of yourself and send it by email. It was so popular there was permanent queues and you were restricted to about three minutes to send an email or two and then you were done.
Maybe this method will work and for local information it would seem to be a way of having information made available to visitors but I doubt locals would use it all that much as they already know most of it. And for what they do not they may use the PC at home or their mobile phone for many services. It could be a little like phone boxes only it might be outdated even faster if folk get access to information whilst on the move.
My reckoning is that most visitors mainly want access to email rather than electronic access to local information. Few people want to spend lots of time on the computer while on holiday. They can do that at home all the time.
It will be interesting to see how it gets on though.
Who cleans the touch screens? Do they suffer from Greasy chips fingers or chinese carry outs late at night.
The answer to having Caithness.org is easy as anyone including businesses can make pc available and switch on Caithness.org or other local web site. Problem is businesses cannot see how to make much out of it for the cost and the space it takes up in small premises. Even the hotels mainly do not offer internet access despite the fact they get requests to use it. That will I think change and may already have although it is not obvious in most hotels here yet.
Still if it gets going you can be sure of a photo here on Caithness.org for posterity

[chird]

I agree with Bill that a 'Caithness.org' on the streets is not a very sensible prospect. It costs virtually nothing to add another page to a website, and it costs very little to run. In fact everyone who advertises on the Ipoint touchscreen network currently gets around 5 pages on our website anyway. Running a regional touchscreen network however is not cheap, each touchscreen costs in excess of £3000, and the cost needs to be recouped somehow. Due to recent changes in the policies of HIE, we too receive no help or funding from the local bodies.

Adding a free email service is a relatively simple thing, and we will probably do it on the new system if connected via broadband.

I don't really agree with a "everyone can just use a PC anyway" mentality, when I'm waiting for a bus or train I'd like to be able to find out what's on in Thurso this week, or check out pictures of the new restaurant in town. We could place them in chip shops, in that 3 minutes you're waiting for your fish supper you can quickly fnid out what's on tonight, or how much the new beauty salon charges for a facial!

I also believe our product is excellent for enticing visitors, including street maps to every location, over 4000 events, and you don't even need to know how to use a mouse.

If anyone actually uses WAP on their mobile phone, I'd be amazed, as it's expensive and useless. A good idea without the technology to back it up, of course in about 3 years we'll probably see Wi-Max phones or something, which will raise the bar again. We'll just have to raise our game too.

The Government is rolling out 7000 touchscreens to deal with access to council services, so they must think it's worth doing. In fact digital signage is currently the fastest growing market in advertising in the world.


"Do they suffer from Greasy chips fingers or chinese carry outs late at night."

Well, for the indoor touchscreens there's no problem, a decision is yet to be made about the through-the-window touchscreens. Should they be 24-hour, or switch off for a few hours at night as to not attract the 'wrong' crowd? Jury is still out.


The answer to having Caithness.org is easy as anyone including businesses can make pc available and switch on Caithness.org or other local web site

Few people want to spend lots of time on the computer while on holiday.

As a side-note you mention hotels getting requests for high-speed internet access, we could perhaps offer high-speed access for roughly £25 a month, which would include an Ipoint touchscreen located at their premises for free use by their guests and visitors. Just a thought.

Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate it.

[the_C.A.S.E._of_death]

Is this the same thing that Plexus Media in Cromarty havce developed and are trying out ?

It's called CommonPlace.

See it here.......

www.commonplace.biz

[chird]

No it's not, it's the first time I've heard of it! Ipoint has been running for over three years now, and is not simply a screen displaying a website, it is interactive.

Because we're interactive and each location has it's own in-built server, we can easily display more interesting content like movies etc. Perhaps we should speak to them though, if only to ask them where they got their idea from! (Actually it's probably closer to SubpostmasterTV than Ipoint).

Since Ipoint is too image-intensive to demonstrate over the net, here are some screenshots I just picked at random, these will change slightly before the trial:

[zappster]

Brilliant... Does anyone else remember the press button& the street will light up thingy that used to be beside DE's?I suppose it was a 70's version of what yer planning!

[webmannie]

Perhaps we should speak to them though, if only to ask them where they got their idea from!

Are you saying it is your idea? I Think many companies will dispute your claim. You only have to google 'touch screen information point' to see how big a technology area it is.

Whilst your information is 'pretty', I will follow your attempt to relaunch iPoint with interest.I doubt very much that iPoint will be a success, it's scope is too wide.

If you are a frequent flyer from Terminal 1-Gate 5 @ Heathrow, you can see how successfull touchscreen systems are at the VisitScotland stand. As I am in the industry I have watched closely with interest. I have NEVER seen anybody go up to one over the numerous hours I have spent waiting to board my flight home. It has a very large captive audience, who obviously have better things to do with their time.

[the_C.A.S.E._of_death]

Hang on, since when has this message board been re-designated as a place to sell your company's products.

We get enough cold calling through phone and junk mail.

[webmannie]

and is not simply a screen displaying a website, it is interactive.


Just noticed the above quote, from what I see it is no more interactive than a website, the only difference is you would be using a finger instead of a mouse?

[chird]

Phew!

webmannie, I was referring to the fact that as far as I am aware CommonPlace is simply a TV screen. You can't interact with it at all. I also realise there is plethora of other touchscreen products, I simply didn't want people thinking we had stolen their idea or something. As I said before I think CommonPlace is more like SubpostmasterTV.

I apologise if I appeared to be trying to sell something, that was not the intention. I was just giving you an idea of what I was talking about. If it's really a problem I can edit out links and images and talk generally about the idea without mentioning our product at all. I just wanted to see what you guys thought.

[the_C.A.S.E._of_death]

apologise if I appeared to be trying to sell something, that was not the intention. I was just giving you an idea of what I was talking about. If it's really a problem I can edit out links and images and talk generally about the idea without mentioning our product at all. I just wanted to see what you guys thought.

Go on then.

[chird]

Go on then.

Fine. in the interest of keeping 'the CASE of death' happy, I have removed all pics and links to current Ipoint stuff. I don't think I can remove much more info without this topic being completely pointless. ok?

I would very much welcome any other comments and suggestions.

[Bill Fernie]

We were prefectly happy for the links etc to be there and if we had not been they would have been gone. Do not feel you need to edit out due to one or two folk on the boards. It is the web masters perogative to decide what is allowed and is not allowed here. In fact the topic you posted is of interest for several reasons. There are many reaosns why rural areas as well as urban areas might have some benefit from what you are proposing. New ways of sharing information and in the easiest forms in the right time and place will make life easier for eveyone.

Whilst there are certainly competitive elements in the proposals we are perfectly happy to see them debated and indeed will watch with great interest any developments making it available on the street.

The links you had were handy to let folk see more of what was being discussed. As far as Caithness.org is concerned please feel free to put the links back on.

[webmannie]

To clarify

I am not against the idea, I just don't think it is a 'killer' application.

What is it that is going to make me want to use it?

I also think you should stick the 'pretty' pictures back on, they help the debate.

As a side note:
The visitscotland stand @ Heathrow was set up assuming that people would be drawn to the touchscreen, the stand isn't even manned or womanned. (sexist joke)

[jb]

Please put the links and the 'pretty pics' back as i have yet to see them.

The idea sounds good but as webmannie says what will make me or someone else want to use it. Located in the right place IE hotel or similar it is a chance for visitors to get an idea of what goes on in the area. Located in a shop window it may give the locals a chance to see what is on tonight or over the weekend in the town. An important point is what will it show when not being touched?? pictures of scenic areas of Caithness or adverts for commercial premises??

Lets get the links etc back and see what you plan.

Also as it is your commercial risk to install and maintain best of luck to you.

[chird]

Thanks guys, images back in!

I totally agree that our touchscreens are predominantly of use to visitors who don't know the area so well, and this will be probably be the main attraction of the system for many advertisers. However this tends to limit a system to tourism-based advertisers, so for ROI limits our installations to larger tourism bases, like Aviemore and the Cairngorms. Down there hotels and guest houses are 10-a-penny, so covering the cost of installs is not much of a problem. When we look at our example smaller rural town - Wick, even if virtually every tourism-based business (restaurants, hotels etc) signed up at £100 a year, we wouldn't pay off a single machine for many years. Not a great business plan!

JB asked - 'what will it show when not being touched??' - and I think this is very important to being able to make rural touchscreens a sensible proposition. You may have seen in many post offices a TV screen displaying ads for local businesses. While I was waiting in the queue I saw three ads for Tain businesses I didn't even knew existed. I've seen many a statistic that shows this type of advertising works well. We'll employ the same idea, our idle touchscreens displaying rotating local ads interspersed with 'whats on tonight' style info. An additional bonus is if the viewer wants to find out more about whatever they're seeing, they can press the screen to find out more. This will work best where local folks are forced to wait around for a while, like at a bus-stop, getting a takeaway, taking a cab ride, a doctor's waiting room or getting a haircut. These are obvious places for sticking a touchscreen.

This potentially allows us to feasibly install in towns around the size of Wick, with a certain amount of local business interest. But what of somewhere like John 'o' Groats, barely 20 businesses in the area? This takes us to the other question, how can we involve the local non-business community more in a touchscreen network, to the point that some will pay a small fee towards it somehow? This is much harder to answer.

The latest idea to cross this divide was to have a seperate section for 'community', where every local could have their own section for £50 a year. This would essentially work like a 'blog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog)', where people could post virtually what they liked, on virtually any topic. Their 'blog' is updated immediately on the touchscreens and is coupled with their own website presence - when they update their blog with new news and views it updates on the local community 'digital billboard' and also on their website. This is moderated to make sure they don't post anything offensive etc. This is an unknown quantity, I have yet to see anyone else try something similar, and we simply don't know how much interest there would be in such a thing. I can think of many an outspoken local who may think it's a great way to get their latest tirade to the masses, but would they pay £50 a year for the privilege?

Another option is to to capitalize on the fact the person is physically there, so offer services such as digital photo-printing, Vo-IP telephone calls, ticket printing, high-speed wireless internet access...but while some of these things might be of interest to one or two people I don't think the demand up here is going to be enough to warrant the prohibitive cost of extra peripherals. If the host venue was willing to pay towards a service of benefit to them (e.g a hotel could have a touchscreen and also offer their visitors a paid-for wireless internet service that we ran for them for about £40 a month) then installations in smaller communities would be easier.