New Digital Strategy Launched
Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit & the DTI have published a new Digital Strategy - Connecting the UK - which Blair and Hewitt say, in its foreword, is:
a clear sign of our continuing commitment to ensure that everyone in our country has the opportunity to benefit from the transformative power of ICT.
It contains a seven point plan, under three broad headings:
Raising our game:Making the UK a world leader in digital excellence
- Action 1: Transform learning with ICT
- Action 2: Set up a “Digital Challenge” for Local Authorities
- Action 3: Make the UK the safest place to use the Internet
- Action 4: Promote the creation of innovative broadband content
Constructing a robust strategy to achieve our vision
- Action 5: Set out a strategy for transformation of delivery of public services
- Action 6: Ofcom’s strategy should consider improving competition and take-up in the broadband market
Tackling social exclusion & bridging the digital divide
- Action 7: Improve accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded and ease of use for the disabled
- Action 8: Review the digital divide in 2008
Launching the strategy, Patricia Hewitt said:
We aim to make the UK a world leader in digital excellence with public services that are even more responsive, personalised and efficient than the leading companies that have successfully deployed the internet to serve their customers.
We are committed to ending the digital divide for families with children, and the Prime Minister’s strategy Unit and DTI, in partnership with industry aim to make the UK a world leader in digital excellence and the first nation to close the digital divide.
Included within the strategy are a number of specific policy proposals - or restatements of existing ones - including plans to:
(1) launch a ‘digital challenge’ modelled on the European City of Culture competition, which the government describe as ‘an exciting opportunity for local authority partnerships to develop and showcase really innovative ways of modernising public services and engaging the hard-to reach with the digital world’. It will, they say, ‘establish by 2008 universal local access to advanced public services delivered through and powered by information technology. The winner will have the opportunity to demonstrate the ability to transform service delivery through a holistic use of technology to deliver truly modern services for modern citizens’.
(2) ‘embed’ ICT in education by aiming ‘to give secondary school pupils – including those from low-income backgrounds - the opportunity to access ICT at home and ensure schools can buy equipment at the lowest possible prices through a national procurement scheme’, plus a ‘virtual learning space’ for storing documents for all learners.
(3) ‘create the safest possible online environment’ by ’setting up a multi-agency national Internet safety centre to deter criminals targeting the UK for Internet crime and reassure parents’.
(4) stimulate ‘innovative broadband content’ because ‘content [...] is the main driver for increasing the effective use of ICT’. The government claims ‘We are already a leader on mobile and wireless technologies’ and says ‘We want the UK to be a world leader in allowing people to use or reach any content, with any device, anywhere, anytime’.
(5) ‘draw up a vision of public service delivery transformed by modern technology and a strategy for achieving that vision’. (Hasn’t this already been done?!?) They say that, as part of that strategy, they ‘will consider how it moves its business to a wholly digital environment where it is appropriate and cost-effective’. They argue Private-sector services transformed by modern technology to give more choice, greater personalization, convenience and flexibility have become enormously popular. There is a real opportunity to transform public service delivery if government seizes the opportunity offered by effective use of modern information technology in a strategic way’.
(6) ask ‘Ofcom to take account of the prospects for home broadband take up, with a particular focus on uptake amongst the more disadvantaged’ and for Ofcom to ‘monitor take up across social groupings and age bands to give a clear picture of the development of the market and the prospects for widening access to broadband technologies’.
The strategy also includes a number of proposals for tackling multiple dimension of the digital divide. They say they are ‘committed to improving accessibility to technology for the digitally excluded and ease of use for the disabled’. To this end, they propose to:
- ‘take further steps towards closing the digital divide by building on the network of UK Online centres and other communal access points - giving adult learners the support, incentives and skills they need to make the most of ICT. We will also ensure that every adult who enrols on a basic skills course is given an email account’.
- ‘assess any changes necessary to the Home Computing Initiative to make it more attractive to lower earners and to businesses to implement.
- ‘give a clear commitment to ensuring that all government websites and online services present no barriers to use for those with disabilities. We will also raise awareness both in private and public sectors about these barriers.
They claim that ‘these measures will make substantial inroads in creating a more digitally inclusive society’ and they ‘also expect the market to drive take-up and use, through the creation of new and innovative services, falling prices and awareness-raising’.
They also commit themselves to reviewing the position in 2008 ‘in order to explore whether further action is necessary to close any residual digital divide’.
