What is “Enlightening”?

In a partnership between MarketStream - a London and Wales based market research technology & communications company - and Canllaw Online, a network of research centres of excellence will be established across Wales.

“Enlightening” will be a multi-million pound innovative and exciting project using the latest two-way satellite and market research technology to benefit young people and providers of services to young people in Wales.

The project has received substantial financial backing from the European Space Agency. Further bids are being submitted to realise the project to its full potential.

"The Enlightening" Project represents a key market development opportunity for the mrStream system set up in the ARTES 3 programme of the European Space Agency. With this initiative, broadband interactive satellite communications will play a crucial role in facilitating the deployment of novel multimedia applications, where contribution and distribution of data will be hosted over the same infrastructure. We think the possibilities for this kind of application are immense, and just emerging". Francesco Feliciani, European Space Agency

“Enlightening” will consist of a network of approximately seventy centres, across Wales, for the purpose of excellence in the generation of research about issues that affect young people by young people. Using far-reaching investigative tools, coupled with the most recent satellite developments, the project will collect and collate the content of reports, surveys, video clips, photographs, essays, poems (you name it!) compiled by young people and the information gathered will be fed back to developers of services for young people.

"We believe that consumer insights are likely to be the most important source of customer and value creation in the next few years. We believe that organisations that are going to win are going to really be aggressively building this capability in the next few years". Michael O'Donohue, Consumer Insight Expert, McKinsey & Company

“Enlightening” will enable young people’s information service providers to draw from young people their ambitions, dreams, concerns and fears – to find out where they are, where they’re going and what information they need to get there.

The project is currently in its pilot phase, with satellite technologies available in 3 sites strategically positioned in urban and rural settings across Wales.

The first all Wales project in the pilot / proof of concept phase using the technology is an evaluation of young people’s thoughts and opinions on Public Transport. The survey uses web, SMS and traditional paper formats to gather quantitative evidence, whilst video clips of interviews and focus groups provide qualitative evidence.
The second “Enlightening” project investigated young people’s understanding of government structures and this evidence was submitted to the Richard Commission.

Benefits to Wales:

The “Enlightening” venture, with its satellite technology, is crucial to the development of information service provision in Wales, offering immediate access to a network of research centres. The technology provides broadcast quality audio and visual files, even in those areas of Wales where traditional broadband proves difficult to install.

A multi-channel system will document young people’s thoughts and feelings from their own perspectives, alongside quantitative analysis on a range of topics under the Canllaw Online Info Index headings, allowing direct access to information that is crucial to the growth and expansion of service provision for young people.

The beauty of “Enlightening” is that using the technology & software available, young people can give their views on any subject in the medium that they are most comfortable with, be that in the form of a rap, dance, song, piece of music, essay, survey, interview, group discussion, or an amalgamation of all of the above…the possibilities are endless. The initiative can be used to benefit the individual, or a group, or a whole community, with the information and input being stored, catalogued, shared and debated.

“Enlightening” will empower young people, building self-confidence through active engagement and contribution. Young people will see how every single voice is important and can impact on how things are done, and those young people involved will develop crucial market research and social insight skills.

" Developing consumer and social insight skills amongst the young people of Wales is an essential life skill – wherever young people decide to work, whether in the public or private sectors, the ability to research, collect data and present that data effectively, will help their individual careers and will help Wales succeed in developing highly innovative & insightful commercial products and public services". Tony Bowden, Managing Director, MarketStream Limited

Each of the centres will be generating content – enabling young people to learn from each other through the pooling of knowledge – establishing a collective of knowledge to benefit all. Content can vary, with local or national significance. Young people can benefit from each other’s abilities, as they pass on experiences and “how to” skills both practically and theoretically.

Through the mining of information using multi-platformed technology, young people across the whole of Wales will not only build better research skills, but also directly input into a quantitative and qualitative hive of management information.

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it”.
Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850)