News

Kent could be cashing in on the benefits of green energy if new proposals for a 300-acre green energy park near to the Pfizer plant in Sandwich go forward.

Rural communities in Kent which have slow broadband connections will now be able to bid for another source of funding to bring them up to speed.

One of the country’s most important historical monuments is being restored, thanks to ground-breaking technology.

Survey Inspection Systems (SiS), is using specialist surveying technology to help English Heritage restore Dover Castle, famous for its labyrinth of secret tunnels that stretch out under the English Channel.

It will provide video images from inside chimney flues and other shafts as part of the £5m project.

GO (Gazette Online) has learned that under a government-funded initiative to speed up the use of open source software in the public sector, Shepway District Council will head up the project.

The initiative, known as the Open Source Academy, is funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's e-Innovations investment programme. It is due to be formerly announced later this month.

Mark Taylor, the executive director of the Open Source Consortium (OSC), which is one of the organisations involved in the initiative, said the UK public sector is lagging behind other European countries in terms of open source take-up, but claimed this project is likely to change that.

"This project is critical to allowing us to crack the public sector in the UK," said Taylor.

The Academy includes various projects, such as a platform based  open source technologies that will allow local authorities to get together on open source software developments.

This project, which will be run by Shepway District Council, will be similar to Sourceforge.net, a web site which catalogues thousands of open source applications. "It will be a Sourceforge for councils," said Taylor.

Local authorities can already share code through web sites, such as the Local Authority Software Consortium, but Taylor claims the collaborative effort is limited as it runs on proprietary Microsoft technology.

"We want to prove that open source is what the winners adopt," said Taylor. "There have been suggestions that only poorer councils adopt open source — this is not true."

Organisations involved in the Open Source Academy include Bristol, Cheshire, Birmingham and Shepway Council, the National Computing Centre, the University of Kent, the Institute of IT Training, OpenForum Europe, the Open Source Consortium and Socitm — the professional association for public sector IT managers.


 

Following a government announcement outlining its energy plans, Shepway residents will be given their first chance to learn details of a potential new nuclear power station at Dungeness.

At the beginning of the year the government outlined its energy plans in which it stated that nuclear power should continue to make a contribution to security of electricity supply and helping to combat climate change in the UK.

British Energy, owner and operator of Dungeness B nuclear power station, is holding the meeting at the Lydd War Memorial Institute, Station Road, Lydd TN29 9EB on Wednesday April 16 from 6:30pm - 8:30pm. to discuss the potential new nuclear station.

It will allow the Romney Marsh community to discuss British Energy's work on preparation for new nuclear build, the process for site selection, and to hear more about the Government's response to the public consultation held last year.