On-line bouquets

May 12, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Politics, Public policy 

It may be a slight disillusionment with the Big Society project, but I sense I am danger of becoming predictably critical of the Government. So it is a relief to be able to say something nice for a change.

I have just returned from chairing sessions for the 2011 National Digital Inclusion conference. I chaired the whole conference for the last two years but this time the organisers had the impetus of Martha Lane Fox’s Race Online 2012 campaign and lots of corporate partners so they were able to go upmarket and book Jon Snow. It was only when the great man pulled out at the last minute that they had to revert to yours truly (to be honest I’m happy nowadays even to be a substitute).

Anyway, Martha had done really well with her campaign. She was able to reveal yesterday that she has more than met her target of identifying more than 100,000 volunteers to help get the missing nine million on-line by next year. Just as importantly she has achieved something I always failed to do when a Government insider: get a joined up and ambitious approach to technology across Whitehall.

She told the conference she had spoken to a cabinet committee comprising 16 ministers and got them all to sign up to the idea of ‘digital by default’. The idea is simply that digital only should be the basis for new services with the parallel use of paper based systems having to be justified, rather than the old way of assuming paper and adding digital later. Of course, as Martha recognised, there are issues of access and inclusion but digital by default is a powerful way of increasing on-line take up and making real cost savings (something we all support).

Then following Martha was DCMS Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, (thanks a lot by the way to the tweeter who sent me a message just before I introduced him saying ‘make sure you don’t make the same mistake as Jim Naughtie’). Jeremy’s big moment was when he announced a new Government target that 90% of the country should have access to super-fast broadband by 2015, which is apparently a more ambitious target than any other major European country.

It is a common, and I think often fair, criticism of the Coalition that while it is very determined about cutting the deficit it doesn’t have anything like such a clear and credible story about supporting growth (or at least not one that goes beyond a standard free market assertion that a smaller state creates more space for the private sector). It remains to be seen how credible Jeremy hunt’s commitment is and it is, of course, one thing for 90% of the country to be able to access super-fast broadband, it is quite another for nine in ten people to actually have that access themselves.

But if we do hit the target it will make a genuine contribution to making possible major advances in public service delivery and engagement and a step change in productivity. It would certainly be good news story for the voters just before a General Election.

Share

Tags: , , ,

Can the RSA help close the digital divide ?

April 29, 2009 by · 39 Comments
Filed under: The RSA 

I am speaking this afternoon at an NCVO conference on civil society leadership. If I get the chance to talk about what we are trying to do at the Society, I’ll describe how I see the challenge of Fellowship engagement.

There has been some progress over the last year or so but from a relatively low base of activity. The challenge lies in trying to doing three things at once:

• lower the barriers to wider and more ambitious engagement
• grow the capacity needed for the Fellowship to be creative, networked and outward looking
• develop the right content propositions; what is it the Fellowship could actually do to make a difference?

The third of these has often felt the most difficult. Which is why a light went on in my head at yesterday’s National Digital Inclusion Conference.

I was really impressed by the many people I met involved in social media and community websites. As I  have said in previous posts, the best of these sites really add capacity and strength to a community.  HarringayOnline, for example, has 1500 local people signed up to a site focussing on just one ward. 

But running theses sites is in most cases a hand to mouth labour of love.  This is where the RSA  Fellowship with its skills, resources and connections could make a difference. So – working I hope with William Perrin whose Talk About Local initiative aims not only to support existing sites but to help set up hundreds more – my idea is to organise a training day at John Adam Street and to bring together enthusiastic Fellows from around the country with the mission of twinning up with existing sites or developing new ones. We’ll even try to find some money to provide a small start up funding pot.

On-line community media is a good thing in itself, giving people information and making connections.  But more exciting is the way in which this new collaborative infrastructure could provide the basis for a whole range of face to face initiatives. Not only is a very small portion of the country served by a good community web site but most sites that exist are only scratching the surface of what they could achieve once they have built up a significant local following.   

I’m never sure how many Fellows read this blog but I would be fascinated to hear what they – or anyone else – thinks.

Share

Tags: , , , ,