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FOIA/DOC/O

“PROVISION OF INFORMATION”

By e-mail: [FOI #38987 email]

Council Offices, Wellington Road

Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside.

OL6 6DL

Call Centre 0161-342 8355

FAX 0161-342 2747

Minicom 0161-342 3170

Your Ref FOI/ICT/LB/01

Our Ref FOI/ICT/NC/15710

Ask for Norman Crawford

Direct Line 0161 342 2197

Date 15/07/10

Dear Mr Billington

Re: YOUR REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

UNIQUE REFERENCE NUMBER: FOI/ICT/LB/01

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council in June 2010 and which the Council has considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I understand this request to be as follows:

“Under the freedom of information act I would like to ask the following questions:

1. How much Tameside Council has spent building the virtual Second Life Service. Please include a breakdown of costs including monthly rent, the number of staff using the project and the cost of their time etc.

    

2. Which department took the decision to build a Tameside Second Life Service.

    

3. Correspondence, documents and emails relating to the Tameside Second Life Service.

    

4. How many people visited the Tameside Council Second Life Service and how many people submitted questions via the Second Life Service.

    

5. How long has the Tameside Council second life project been available and if it has been abandoned, when was this and please include correspondence from staff on this decision.”

I am pleased to advise that the Council can provide the information that you have requested where we hold it. I have summarised the information as follows:

  1. How much Tameside Council has spent building the virtual Second Life Service? Please find a breakdown of costs below.

    1. £3250 for initial workshops (see details in the document attached)

    2. £16925 for the development (see details in the document attachment labelled Tameside SL Pricing - basics only.doc)

    3. £9940 for rental and support to April 2010 - breakdown below

      4. Training

      £500

      Island rent and operations management from 01/01/09 to 31/03/09

      £1200

      Island rent and operations management from 01/04/09 for 12 months

      £4800

      Registration portal from 01/01/09 to 31/03/09

      £300

      Registration portal from 01/04/09 for 12 months

      £1200

      Custom surname from 01/01/09 to 31/03/09

      £90

      Custom surname from 01/04/09 for 12 months

      £350

      3 days of development / support

      £1500

        1. Aquafer Museum £6,150

        2. Black Knight on a horse £400

      Staff time was not recorded but there was only one person who spent any significant time on this project and as this was a co-ordination role only as all development was carried out by the company contracted to do the work.

      1. Which department took the decision to build a Tameside Second Life Service? ICT & Transformation Services following approval.

      1. Correspondence, documents and emails relating to the Tameside Second Life Service? There are no emails from that time frame as we do not keep them that long. The documents from the project are attached to the email accompanying this letter.

      1. How many people visited the Tameside Council Second Life Service and how many people submitted questions via the Second Life Service? The number of visitors was not stored in the Second Life service so we do not know how many visitors there were. The site is no longer in existence. We have no way of knowing how many questions were submitted via second life as we linked to the council website for relevant items and so requests would have come via the website.

      1. How long has the Tameside Council second life project been available and if it has been abandoned, when was this and please include correspondence from staff on this decision? It was a proof of concept project with a finite resource so we did not continue the project.  We were looking at innovative and modern ways to communicate with citizens at reduced costs and on-line transactions are the cheapest way to do this. As interest in second life did not expand we decided not to go to the next stage. The site was not retained after the contract ran out on 31st March 2010. There is no correspondence on this decision.

      The Council will not be charging you for the time taken by council officers to find, sort, edit or redact the requested material.

      Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries. Should you be unhappy with the way in which your request for information has been dealt with you may wish to submit a written complaint, to Sandra J Stewart, Borough Solicitor, at the above address providing details of your concerns.

      Yours sincerely

      Norman Crawford

      Norman Crawford

      Assistant Executive Director - ICT Services