go to home page | go to navigation | go to page content | go to contact | go to sitemap
Home > Cases > Cities working on e-Inclusion > Gaming the Tibby
practice Gaming the Tibby

Gaming the Tibby

2931 Visits
| Comments |
starstarstarstarempty starIn order to vote, you need to be logged in!

Web address of the case:

http://www.sandwell.gov.uk/tibbington

Country of the case:

United Kingdom

City/region:

Sandwell, West Midlands

Posting Date:

4 September 2008

Last Edited Date:

02 October 2008

Author:

Jackie Bell (Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council)
tags

Participation | urbanism | games

Gaming the Tibby LogoJackieBell's picture
Editor's Choice 2008

Type of initiative

  • Project or service-imgProject or service

Case Abstract

To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first uses of computer gaming technology in community engagement and involvement – anywhere in the world. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC), Digital Native Academy (DNA), and Midlands Architecture and the Designed Environment (MADE) delivered Gaming the Tibby which is also know as My Space on the Tibby. Arts Council funded (via MADE’s Creative Communities programme), the project used computer gaming technology to engage hard-to-reach groups, involving them in the regeneration of open land in the centre of the Tibbington Estate, Tipton (know locally as the Tibby). DNA developed an interactive, accurate, virtual 3D map of the heart of the estate using existing computer games technology modified using Ordnance Survey data and digital photography. Tools within the "game" allowed participants to develop and illustrate their ideas about the use of the open space. Local residents and service providers were trained to use the software; these facilitators then shared their knowledge with groups of residents. They remained on-hand when the ‘game’ was used, dealing with any arising issues – about the game, local services or life generally. Their involvement right down to delivery meant that the community was actually delivering the project for itself, they were engaged in every level of involvement with the project. The outputs of the project were recorded by the computer during play. Some of this information was then downloaded to DVD providing feedback to users and accessible information to interested parties. Furthermore, the outputs are fed into a masterplanning process being run to consider the regeneration of housing, infrastructure and open spaces on the estate, providing a direct link to decision making and change processes at the highest level. The facilitator delivery mechanism is being replicated to ensure full community involvement in all aspects of masterplanning.

Description of the case

Domain
eInclusion
Topic
ICT and Marginalised youth | ICT and community development
Sector
Environment | Local/Regional Community Development
Date
January to March 2008
Date operational
January 2008
Target Users
Young people at risk of marginalisation | People living in poverty and/or precarity | Disadvantaged/deprived communities
Target Users Description
SMBC delivers local authority services in a deprived, urban environment. The historically important manufacturing, heavy industry and mining based economy has collapsed leading to poverty and worklessness. The heart of Tibbington Estate, forms the second most deprived super output area (SOA) in Sandwell; where Sandwell (when ranked by average rank) is 10th most deprived local authority in the country. Nationally, the SOA falls within the lowest achieving 1% for income and education, and the lowest 10% for employment and health. The community is disengaged and hard to reach. We targeted young residents; particularly those not in education, employment or training.
Scope
Local (city or municipality)
Status
Pilot
Language(s)
English

Policy Context and Legal Framework

Gaming the Tibby fits with strategy and policy at European, national and local levels.The game is easy to use and the project reaches the most marginalised of hard to reach people. This works towards ensuring ‘no citizen is left behind’, inkeeping with the EU’s E-government Action Plan.

Also targeted is the UK’s Transformational Government agenda. Value for money has been a byword of the project and paperwork has been absolutely minimal, electronic outputs being fed directly into change processes making efficiency and effectiveness a reality. Taxpayers have benefited through these efficiency gains. Savings remained within frontline service budgets.

Engagement and participation has been the backbone of the project, offering a new technique for communication/engagement. This offers increased choice. The game is personalised to the Tibbington Estate.

The addition of gaming as a participation method gives public servants (and others) better tools to undertake their jobs, and therefore the opportunity to provide better service.

Feeding outputs into masterplanning ensures policy makers will be better able to achieve intended outcomes in practice. Computer games are designed around users, not service providers. We have made playing computer games and being involved in decision making / change processes the same thing; piggybacking on game developers’ user focus.

The innovative delivery methodology demonstrated professional planning, delivery, management, skills and governance resulting in successful outcomes and increased confidence by citizens and politicians in the delivery of change by public services. Communities are doing for themselves, not being done unto.

Locally, SMBC’s Local Area Agreement includes National Indicator 4 – number of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality. Our success supports this. Additionally, one of SMBC’s key priorities is ‘Every Child Matters’ – aligned with the national strategy. Via this project we fully involved this group in changing their own futures.

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative
Participation
Overall Implementation approach
Partnerships between administration and/or private sector and/or non-profit sector
Technology choice
Not applicable/not available
Funding source
Public funding national
Project size
Implementation: €500-999,000
Yearly cost:
€500-999,000

Implementation and Management Approach

The project arose following the demolition of houses in a square at the heart of Tibbington. The land forms part of a masterplanning exercise for the locality. Keen to fully involve the community in future developments, staff and residents considered innovative engagement methods. This project was one such idea.

Partners from statutory, voluntary and commercial sectors united, streamlining delivery, depth of knowledge and input, accessibility and efficiency. Partners were:
- DNA (a private sector interactive digital media company) designed the ‘game’, training facilitators in its use, providing an interactive, accurate, virtual, 3D view of the open space, drawing in young people. They added value for money, ‘gaming’ experience and expertise.
- SMBC utilised established networks, partnerships and equipment via the Safer Stronger Communities Fund programme, saving time and money and enabling residents to deliver in their own community.
- MADE, the regional architecture centre in the West Midlands (UK) introduced funding and free access to architecture professionals (for managers and participants) adding depth of learning and understanding to this super-efficient model.

The delivery model is innovative - facilitators (residents and service providers) were trained and utilised their own networks, engaging people inaccessible to the statutory sector.

Technology solution

Gaming technology, in its current form, is perhaps the least innovative in terms of interoperability when compared to other 3D software platforms such as GIS or CAD. The benefits of interoperability are much less clear in an industry where competition takes precedence over collaboration unlike the building or engineering industries where real cost savings and improved productivity have come about due to mature interoperable software systems. In fact syntactic interoperability has still yet to be achieved in gaming technology, a prerequisite of semantic interoperability.

Research is currently underway to address this issue but in terms of the pilot project, the technological choice to work with proprietary games technology was driven by its potential to engage with the end user (a potential which was proven throughout the project) and to look at issues such as interoperability as part of the evaluation process and in mapping out the way forward for further exploitation of the technique.

Impact, innovation and results

Economic effects
€5-15,000

Impact

Gaming the Tibby delivered across the board. Seven facilitators were trained only one of whom was born within the digital age (digital native) and 40 marginalised users participated improving ability to access digital technology and community involvement.

Extraordinary efficiency and value was achieved, including savings through minimal paperwork, benefiting taxpayers. Professional games can cost millions of Euros to create - our project manipulated an existing game and was fully delivered for just over €6,000. Savings were made by utilising existing networks and equipment. Savings were reused, enhancing frontline service delivery. The outputs (produced from user input – no paperwork) are being fed into a master-planning exercise (regarding regeneration of housing, infrastructure and open spaces on the estate) directly affecting decision making at the highest level, embracing shared services culture and increasing user confidence in SMBC’s change delivery. The project offers a new instrument in Europe’s engagement toolkit, allowing public servants (and others) more options to provide better service.

Our partnership approach enables integrated support from three social sectors to projects self delivered by the community. Partners shared strategy and political approaches to community participation, regeneration and digital technology. Political support has also been forthcoming. Councillor Derek Rowley, SMBC’s cabinet member for safer communities, said: “This project is groundbreaking. Never before has computer gaming technology come together with community consultation in this way.

The end result is that Sandwell Council manages actively involve people who wouldn’t usually speak out, and the young participants get to have loads of fun. There are also opportunities for further training.”

Outputs are accessible, without specialist knowledge, via the DVD. Project details, outputs DVD and full evaluation are available on request. Website coverage includes firstsite.org.uk, sandwell.gov.uk, digitalnativeacademy.com, made.org.uk, idea.gov.uk (the UK’s local government best practice site - we are due to go live end Sept 08) and practice.eu, bringing the project to an international audience.

Innovation exists throughout this project – the use of gaming in this context, the game itself, the delivery model, the partnerships, the use of existing networks, the outputs, the accessible DVD, the direct feed into master-planning – the list goes on.

Information sharing has meant that the successful, modern, coordinated, replicable delivery model has been adopted by SMBC’s Housing Strategy Division aiming to ensure maximum community involvement in master-planner selection processes on three separate estates. We also plan to run another digital project, broadened to cover the whole estate to further enhance master-planning on the Tibbington.

Track record of sharing

This project was run as a pilot for a very short term (3 months). The plan was that should the pilot prove successful then funding would be sought to run another, similar project, broadened to cover the whole estate to further enhance master-planning on the Tibbington. Due to the huge success of the pilot, information has been released through a variety of networks and work is underway on the next phase.

The learning has been shared via openly accessible information via a plethora of websites – examples have been listed previously.

Within SMBC learning has been shared between officers and partners. The excellent delivery model has already been ‘borrowed’ by another division, Housing Strategy. Due to the modern and coordinated approach, Housing Strategy Division have decided to adopt it to involve community members in the selection of masterplanners who are being engaged to deliver on three separate estates. We also plan to run another, similar project, broadened to cover the whole estate to further enhance master-planning on the Tibbington.
On Wednesday 1st October 2008, Gaming the Tibby was shortlisted for Best Partnership Project by the Guardian newspaper as part of its Public Service Awards. The winner will be announced on 25th November 2008.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - Perhaps the biggest unknown at the outset was whether gaming technology could actually be used within a statutory setting for community engagement. This pilot has clearly demonstrated that this can be a successful approach, gaming can enable communities to deliver for themselves. The approach has led to other successes including personal achievement for some of the participants. One long term unemployed young resident volunteered as a facilitator, then to coordinate the whole delivery and has now found sessional work as a direct result of his involvement. Two young residents represented the project at Midland Architecture and the Designed Environment (MADE)’s symposium ‘Under the Influence: The Power of Young People to Inform Public Space’ – engaging with national policy makers.

Lesson 2 - The networking model used to deliver the project enabled the community to deliver and reached large numbers of otherwise inaccessible people. The adoption of this model – local facilitators to accessing groups in which they are already active – is now being tested by Housing Strategy in different geographical areas. The model has been tweaked slightly as we learned during delivery that identifying a ‘lead’ facilitator would accelerate delivery. With the new projects, lead facilitators will be identified early in the process.

Lesson 3 - Community involvement and community consultation are different, and involvement is not impossible. Historically there has been a trend towards asking people what they would like. This results in members of communities coming forward as representatives, as others stay quiet. There is no evidence that such representatives actually provide a full community view. Improving access via different routes improves numbers of people involved and depth of involvement (engagement being stronger than consultation). Our project has taught us that the hardest to reach people can be fully engaged through innovation.

Multimedia Content Select a Tab

    There isn't any image for this case
    There isn't any Video for this case

    Jackie Bell

    11 November 2008 | 2642 Visits | Rating: No votes

    Hi All,

    My apologies - the previous link to our website was incorrect (typing error). Have a look at www.sandwell.gov.uk/tibbington.

    Also, more details about this project are available on the IDeA website: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8987381

    And there is a very detailed case study now on the mcegov website: http://www.mcegov.eu/media/627/gaming%20the%20tibby_%20final%20revised.pdf

    Jackie

    gaming | learning | e-learning | computer | dvd | young | involvement | Participation

    children participation and edemocracy

    03 October 2008 | 3437 Visits | Rating: No votes

    Dear Jackie: your case is a wonderful experience about how gaming technology can end up creating new participatory spaces for children. You may be aware of the work of Roger Hart that designed a participation ladder to explain how genuine children participation can be enhanced for the sake of sustainable development. This ladder is to be found at http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl/greenervoices/images/ladder.pdf.
    The ultimate step in the ladder demonstrates that the best situation for children participation is when child initiated decisions are shared with adults. Your case tends to proove that this is the case in your area. Could you facilitate some examples of what has been achieved and some ways to access the game with more details: screens, even a way to be able to test the game and see how it could apply in other environments?

    gaming | Children

    Participation and gaming

    06 October 2008 | 0 Visit | Rating: No votes

    Hi Ullmo! Thank you for your interest in our project. We are really pleased with how it went, especially since the estate we were working with is so very deprived and disengaged. It just goes to show that the answer to engagement is to approach people on their own terms. I think this applies to adults just as much as children. The ladder of children's participation that you describe is new to me, but I have consulted Arnstein's ladder of participation which is very similar (but adult focussed). It makes logical sense, doesn't it - if we engage people by utilising something that they would be doing anyway, then they don't have to go out of their way to participate. All we need to do is identify people's current activities and motivation, add a little innovative thinking, and we have a pathway to participation.
    We are due to undertake a masterplanning exercise for the whole estate, and the results of our project will be fed into this process. The masterplan involves a full review of the whole estate and surrounding green spaces - including transport, economy, architecture etc. So the young people's opinions will directly affect decision making around regeneration. Young people have come up with some fabulous suggestions from model railways to community buildings, a fishing lake or play and picnic areas. We are working on getting an 'outputs' DVD online (I think we are going to have to stream it through YouTube) but I need to deal with a few technical details first. One of our partner organisations, Digital Native Academy, works in the field of 'serious games'. Their web site, www.digitalnativeacademy.com demonstrates some screen shots of the game. They will also be able to discuss with you the future of gaming in participation - or even how gaming solutions can be tailored to your field of work. Its well worth contacting them.

    citizen power and children participation

    07 October 2008 | 0 Visit | Rating: No votes

    Hi Jackie; thanks for your asnwer. It is quite fascinating to compare Arnstein's http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participatio... and Hart's approach (see link in my first contribution).
    The concept of citizen power must be interpreted not as bottom-up approach but as a pledge for dialog between citizens and policy makers based on reciprocity and active listening. Mutual trust and respect is at the core of this democratic approach. We do have quite a good lot of experience in stimulating children's participation at the local level. The concepts of action competence - capacity fo young people to change things - and ownership - appropriation by the young people of the needs for change - are central to our work.
    I was wondering whether you could be interested in sharing more thoughts with other colleagues working in the field of urban planning and child participation. If it were the case I could facilitate the contact with Ray Lorenzo from ABCitta in Milan that is one of the best expert I know in the field in Europe.
    One interesting issue is the role of ICT and social networks to boost children participation. One of the major obstacle is still in the required dialog with adults that are not only not always prone for dialog but also very often digitally illiterate.
    I will get a look at the game once the site you mention is activated..-. Digital divide is everywhere

    Anomymous
    Anomymous
    Edit Delete

    Hi

    07 October 2008 | 0 Visit | Rating: No votes

    Hi Ullmo, thank you for your interest in the project. Our site is going through some major changes and should be up and running very soon.

    If you would like to contact us directly my contact email is steve@digitalnativeacademy.com

    What might be of interest to you is our company LearnPlay Foundation that works with disadvantaged communities, schools, care homes using computer and video games to engage with learners to develop transferable skills and innovation of educational content.

    The website link is www.learnplayfoundation.com

    Regards

    Stephen Hands

    Director
    Digital Native Academy

    Content & Strategy Director
    LearnPlay Foundation

    DVD now available!

    17 October 2008 | 0 Visit | Rating: No votes

    Hi Ullmo!
    Sorry about the delay in responding to your message. I would certainly be very interested to speak to Ray Lorenzo about his work in involving young people in urban design. Would you mind passing my contact details onto him?
    You will be pleased to hear that I have overcome my issues with the DVD. It is now available on our website, www.sandwell.gov.uk/tibbingon. If you select the 'partnership projects' heading, you will see 'Gaming the Tibby' listed. There is some text about the project and about half way through there is a link to the DVD which is streamed through YouTube.
    Kind regards,
    Jackie

    Typing mistake!

    11 November 2008 | 0 Visit | Rating: No votes

    Hi Ullmo - sorry - typing mistake in my previous message. Our website is at www.sandwell.gov.uk/tibbington.

    Print Print this document
    In order to send a message you need to be registered at least one month and have earned more than 150 kudos.

    See Related Content

    About Us · Rules of conduct · Important Legal Notice · Contact Us · Site Map · FAQ · Glossary · RSS
    eGovernment