Net value of a connected community

Peter McCartney, Kate Durrant, and their children - Alex, Max and Nancy

Microsoft's grand experiment at creating a 'cyber-street' in North London could, it appears, pull the plug on claims that the Internet makes people anti-social.

It is a year after the experiment started, which saw more than 30 Islington residents put onto the Internet by the company to see if widespread Net access would change their lives.

In that year, neighbours have used e-mail and a local electronic bulletin board to co-ordinate opposition to a parking scheme, to try to stop burglars, and just arranging to meet each other at the local pub.

Pearson Phillips

Pearson Phillips, a semi-retired journalist and resident of the street, has even started the Barnsbury Bugle, a monthly e-mailed newsletter. Several other residents have joined as contributors.

Mr Phillips had used the Net briefly three years ago, but gave it up.

If the software giant had not offered him a £1,200 computer, free Internet access and £20 towards his quarterly phone bills, he would probably have remained unwired. "I didn't really think there was anything in it for me," he says.

Now, though, he cannot envision life without it.

"It's now part of my whole existence - I can't just give it up. You might just as well say, give up the television or give up the telephone - I use it as much."

"In the last year or so the Net has completely changed, and I didn't realise that email was such a wonderful way of communicating."

The Net brings people together

He believes that it has brought the street's residents closer together as well.

Though he admits that the community spirit was given "a bit of a push" because of the media attention surrounding the project, he says that this would have worn off by now.

"The day I saw somebody put a notice up saying, 'We'll be in the pub at eight o'clock - if anyone would like a drink, please come along,' I realised that this was going to work."

His emphasis on the value of e-mail is echoed by Peter McCartney, a GP and lecturer who lives down the road.

"I think e-mail is fantastic. I think it's going to revolutionise communications - it's already done so for me, and I think it's something everyone is going to be using in the next ten years."

The biggest benefit for him was that the net had enabled him to stay in touch with his partner, Kate Durrant, when she was spending 3 months in Bolivia.

They exchanged e-mail every day - it took 18 minutes each way to La Paz. That compares favourably with the three weeks it takes for post to arrive.

Phone calls were also difficult, as it meant one or the other of them had to wake up in the middle of the night.

He also thinks that the bulletin boards have "definitely improved communication in the street," but he is not as impressed with what the rest of the Internet has to offer.

Not all of the Net is worthwhile

He finds it "very variable in quality... a lot of it is commercially oriented and you find yourself in America much of the time".

Even when the family does find a site of interest, the Net sometimes lets them down:

"After the FA Cup Final on Saturday, we tried to access the Arsenal Web site so we could download pictures and put them on our computer, but we couldn't get in there because there were so many people trying to do the same thing."

Houses on this pleasant street are valued at around ¿600,000

Critics point out that the street's composition is hardly representative of the UK population.

Three months into the project, Pearson Philips said: "My only reservation is why Microsoft didn't pick a typical London street instead of a typical Islington street, largely occupied as it is with journos and lawyers."

But he reckoned nonetheless that it is "the coming thing".

"Yes, it can break down, it can be slow. But so was flying 50 years ago."