As far as I can see there is nearly no difference at all between the relative levels of political sophistication – although it is

As far as I can see, there is nearly no difference at all between the relative levels of political sophistication – although it is true that the Ku Klux Klan don’t often turn up at the Robe and Rabbit. For instance, I am engaged in writing a novel of the old West (provisionally titled Wild Man, Wild Horses) and have used the Net to discover what kinds of guns my hero would have been familiar with, how big the ponies that pulled stage-coaches were and what Apaches would have eaten in the evenings. If you know what you want to find and how to search for it, it is spectacularly helpful. Specifically, I wish to challenge you on a number of your charges:You say that the Net is “a morass of rubbish”, which it takes a lifetime to find anything useful in.Not true, Janet Well, not totally true First, it depends on what you mean by “useful”. We haven’t met, but my mother was once in the audience for Ready Steady Go, which either you or Cathy McGowan presented. She can’t remember which, but whoever it was trod on her toe as she was dancing to a Kinks number.You may even remember her – she was wearing a scarlet PVC mini-skirt and cross-your-heart bra – coincidentally the same as you! She is amazed at how good you look, given your age – and says how remarkable it is that you should still be so au fait with the youth scene.But we at Flames cybercafe, here in Crouch End, London, wonder how in touch you really are after your vitriolic attack on the Internet and those who surf it, in your Channel 4 programme this week.

An open e-mail to Janet Street-Porter from Digby Ponder and three others

Wednesday 20 March, 20.20.12
Dear Janet. In isolation, telecentres or telecottages may not reduce pollution, especially from travel, to the extent that environmentalists want. “If you can’t live in a village with a telecentre, you still have to travel to it,” Dobbs points out.The televillage is designed for pedestrians, and cars will be kept out of sight behind the houses. But houses in the development are not cheap; there is no public subsidy for the project and it must cover its costs.The smallest, two-bedroom, cottages start at pounds 49,950, which is in line with local property prices.

Crickhowell, and the surrounding villages in the national park, is a desirable area. Dobbs claims that there is no premium for the additional features of the televillage. At the top end, a five-bedroom house costs pounds 179,000.Looking at the village – with just a showhome, show office and Dobbs’ own house built, the rest a construction site – on a cold Welsh morning, it is hard to visualise Dobbs’ vision of a wired-up community at the forefront of a technological revolution. But interest has been strong and eight of the 34 plots have been sold.To work, a community must be more than the sum of its buildings.

“A televillage is more psychological than technical,” Dobbs says. He puts much store by the business benefits of like-minded people exchanging ideas, contacts and even work.As much as 70 per cent of the UK population could telework, according to its promoters. “I have to think that televillages are the flagships of the way all communities will go,” says Dobbs.. It offers the housing of the telehamlet, and the business space of the telecentre.The combination of business and housing space also meets Dobbs’ environmental goals.

In total, there will be 14,000 square feet of business space on the development.Crickhowell is the second development of its kind by Dobbs’ company, Acorn Televillages. The first he describes as a “telehamlet”, and was built at Perton Farm, in Herefordshire The televillage is the next step up the evolutionary ladder. At Crickhowell, management consultants and software developers could be joined by furniture-makers and blacksmiths.Another aim of the development is to provide spin-off jobs for people from the village, and even attract the sort of firms that will persuade local young people to stay in the area, or return there after college These are likely to be hi-tech organisations. He describes this as a “mosaic of jobs”.Full-time teleworkers will share the workspaces with local people, who can rent them for their businesses.