Article

A political helping hand

Government-driven kiosk initiatives dominate discussions during opening day of Kiosks 2002 seminar.

February 7, 2002

LONDON - From local tourism information to advertisements to employment opportunities, kiosks offer a variety of services in England. And various government industries are fueling these kiosk projects.

Officials involved in three separate government initiatives took turns making that point during the first day of SMi's two-day Kiosks 2002 seminar on Feb. 6 at the Hatton conference center in London.

While other speakers discussed the challenges of implementing successful kiosks and different technological advances that could affect the kiosk industry, the focus was clearly on government-driven programs. The session began and ended with discussions of British government projects, while a county government official explained what her area is doing to develop a regional kiosks system.

Dave Waltho, director of Your Guide strategy for Consignia, which has developed the Your Guide program for England's postal service, said it is conceivable that kiosk programs will eventually be adopted for a variety of government services.

"The whole idea is to bring a lot of government sectors in and say `This is how it works for us. How can we make this work for you,' " Waltho said.

Showing initiative

Kiosks are benefiting in part from an English government program dedicated to getting everyone in the country online by 2005.

The program, augmented by television commercials featuring celebrities and television stars, does not specifically involve kiosks, Waltho said. But all three government-oriented speakers on Feb. 6 said the program had helped raise awareness in all technology fields.

The Your Guide program arguably takes best advantage of England's online enthusiasm because of its versatility. The kiosks are part of a five-pronged program - including telephone service and such low-tech avenues as counter assistance, leaflets, and expert advice sessions - designed to introduce customers to various government services.

The program, which in the pilot stage at 269 postal branches in the Leicstershire and Rutland areas, is designed to offer advice on money matters, local government services, jobs and training, and various benefits.

The six-month pilot program, which ends on March 1, has demonstrated to Waltho the significance of offering various channels.

Through December, the five programs had accepted more than 640,000 unique uses, including 391,938 kiosk requests. On the kiosk side, 29 percent of the requests were for local information and 25.4 percent for information on jobs and training. By contrast, benefits and information requests made up 71 percent of the counter assistance requests, as compared to 9 percent on the kiosks.

"That suggests to us that different consumer groups are using different channels to reach different subjects," Waltho said.

Other kiosk programs, however, have not had the benefit of backup information sources.

The Jobpoints kiosks are currently one of the largest in the industry, with nearly 9,000 deployed since last year by England's Jobcentre's employment service to help unemployed Brits seek jobs. But Guy Browes, Jobcentre project manager, said the kiosks had to be designed with the understanding that most of its users are not Internet savvy.

"We found that 18 percent of our clients have access to the Web," Browes said. "Most of our clients don't have access to the Web and aren't Internet technology literate."

Browes said the key was to make the touchscreen kiosk simple to use and offer access to all of the roughly 500,000 jobs that are available on average in the service's database. The result, according to Browes, is a survey taken by the service showing that 81 percent of Jobcentre's users are happy with the kiosk and 92 percent of them found Jobpoints easy to use.

"(The kiosks) actually improved our image in the eyes of our customers," he said.

You can do it

Government kiosk deployments can work at the regional level just as well as the national level, insists Jane Beckford, project manager for the Lancashire County Council.

Five years ago, the council launched LINKS (Lancashire Information Network Kiosk Service). Beckford said the program, which offers tourist information and community services throughout the county's 12 districts, was difficult to deploy at first because the council wanted a kiosk designed to meet its needs rather than purchasing pre-designed kiosks. The LINKS program kiosks currently in use were manufactured by RSL.

"We spent five years developing the technology and five years battling the Internet technology people and Internet people who said we couldn't do it that way," Beckford said.

"What we've found is that as long as you can assure a results at the end of the process, you can sell it," she added.

Lancashire is primarily a rural area, with 1.1 million people spread out over 2,897 square kilometers. Each of the area's 12 districts have their own Web pages available on the kiosks, adding another layer of specifically designed information on the area.

"We had to find ways to join the information so that people could get it easily without being confused," Beckford said.

Move them out

Many of the other speakers during the first day of the conference focused on different ways to deploy kiosks.

Roger Price, commercial director for kiosk deployer Blazepoint, discussed different elements necessary for deploying outdoor kiosks. Along with making the units safe from vandalism, he pointed out that the touchscreen needed a color-brightness sensor to handle differing levels of natural light.

He also noted that the machines needed to be durable because of the potential high level of usage, noting that some companies build peripherals based on military standards.

"An outside kiosk will see in a week more action than a military printer will in a year, so it has to meet some exacting standards," Price said.

Kiosks.org Association executive director Craig Keefner, making the first of two presentations during the conference, discussed different forms of biometric technology currently available. The various facial- and hand-recognition systems have received considerable attention since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but Keefner said it was still early days in the sector's development.

"It's an industry in search of a compelling mass application," Keefner said. "It shows promise and people in the industry are enthused. But there's no short-term assurance of success."