WIREDGOV

Lord Carter’s field of digital dreams can’t be achieved with a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality, and people must receive the same investment as pipes and sites.

The warning comes from internet training network UK online centres, which today welcomed Digital Britain, but called for less emphasis on the 10% of the country not connected to broadband, and more focus on the 33% of Brits who don’t use the internet at all.

Managing Director, Helen Milner, says: “Great infrastructures and top-notch content are meaningless if 17 million people still can’t, won’t or don’t take advantage of them. The social divide emerging between the haves and have-nots of technology cannot be fixed merely by building access or beautifying what’s accessible. Those on the wrong side need motivation, skills and confidence more than they need extra mega bytes. Unless people and pipes receive equal investment, digital Britain will be held back by default. It’s still people power which drives the UK, and people who will be using the pipes to find and do jobs, spend and save money, communicate, transact and create their own content.”

UK online centres are based in deprived communities, and target those who are both socially and digitally excluded. They’ve found that digital inclusion can lead to social impacts, and improve not just individual lives but entire communities. The organisation believes this is the key to achieving a truly digital Britain.

Helen continues: “It’s great to see digital developments recognised as an area for policy development, but in digitally future-proofing the nation we cannot afford to leave anybody behind. The economic and social angles of this agenda are intertwined, and I want to see the final report make more of media literacy as a cornerstone of its plans to make Britain 2.0 Great. To do so, there must be effective collaboration with Paul Murphy’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which launched last year and looks in greater detail at how to reach and engage those at the bottom of the social and digital pile. These must be acknowledged as two sides of the same coin, they must be accorded the same value and resource, and they must be taken forward hand in hand.

“Together, Digital Britain and the Digital Inclusion Action Plan provide us with a unique opportunity, and we’ve got to get it right first time if we’re to achieve the ambitious targets set for 2012. I’m looking to government to ensure coordination and to provide strong leadership so Britain reaps both the commercial and the cultural benefits of technology.”



For more information on this press release, please contact Abi Stevens on 0778 666 0689.

Notes to editors

. UK online centres engage with adults who have low or no skills in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), or who do not have access to ICT at home or at work.

. There are approximately 6,000 UK online centres across England, which provide free or low cost access to the internet and email, and deliver online courses to help and encourage learners to progress on to further learning opportunities.

. UK online centres provide access to technology and support in using it to around three million people a year. An estimated two thirds of those people are from the most deprived wards in England. More than half are not in employment, one in ten has a disability, one in seven is over 65, and one in five is from a minority ethnic group.


. UK online centres are managed by Ufi, the organisation also behind learndirect.