Nicola Bryant
Simon Whitehouse
Claire Davis
Donna Galt
Annette King
Nikki Spencer
Following on from the Martha Lane Fox visit to Birmingham last week, I have attached the discussion notes from the parallel workshop that took place and findings shared with Martha Lane Fox. Any thoughts, please let us know and we can feed these in.
I have also included a short video clip where Martha Lane Fox talks about her role as Champion for Digital Inclusion.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.
Digital Birmingham are going to have a busy autumn with a real focus on digital technologies. As part of Birmingham’s Digital week of events 18 - 22 October, we are organising and bringing together linked events that will include the Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum, Beyond 2010, Birmingham City Council’s Local Government Day ‘Sharing Experiences and Shaping Public Service’, the Hello Digital business conference, and the Say Hello public programme.
These are all part of a wider Hello Digital programme of events and activities that is enabling the widest possible audience to engage with technologies and explore new opportunities and innovations.
We are currently scouting around for speakers and we thought it would be interesting to canvas suggestions from the public. If you’re reading this, then that’s you. So, have you seen somebody speak who made you walk away buzzing with ideas? Is there somebody that you think would be ideal for any of the events that we are holding?
As part of the Martha Lane Fox visit to Birmingham, we ran a workshop to engage people working in digital inclusion with those in economic development and regeneration; staff promoting jobs and skills with those advising businesses and helping communities. The aim of the workshop was to examine the importance of the digital inclusion of citizens and businesses (i.e. their access, confidence and competence in using digital technologies) to enable economic recovery.
Catherine Marshall, Member of the Digital Inclusion Task Force who attended the workshop has kindly provided us with her reflections on the workshop:
As a member of Martha Lane Fox’s Digital Inclusion Task Force, I was delighted to be invited to attend the event hosted by Digital Birmingham Yesterday
Supported by an impressive turn out of delegates from Birmingham City Council and the surrounding Boroughs the event gave an invaluable opportunity to discuss some of the barriers that prevent those who are most socially excluded accessing digital technology, and explore what intervention or strategies need to be applied to overcome these difficulties.
As always, there is no one size fits all, and as Digital Inclusion is inextricably linked to Social Inclusion, understanding the complexities of the task at hand is as intricate as the solutions need to be.
All recognised the solutions needs to be applied at grass route level; and being provided with snap shots of on the ground work that is taking place, is always a constant confirmation of this, proving how being digitally connected dramatically improves peoples life chances and opportunities.
The event was incredibly positive, acknowledging that getting people on line is a matter of urgency, and the need to make an impact, by promoting social responsibility and the common goal, with the need to encourage pledges from all areas including the private sectors, to get on board and work together to close the digital divide.
As Martha concluded, “working together, there is an opportunity to achieve something really special”
It is clear that Digital Birmingham has the determination to make a real difference and achieve the ‘really special’ results it is looking for.
Catherine Marshall
Member of the Digital Inclusion Task Force
We’re pleased to be welcoming Martha Lane Fox, Champion for Digital Inclusion and some of her Digital Inclusion Task Force to Birmingham today. We have a full morning planned with visits to meet families who have benefited from the award-winning Aston Pride Computers in the Home project; and residents of an Erdington tower block (Windsor House) who have been provided with computers and broadband connectivity in a six month trial to promote broadband uptake in social housing.
In addition to meeting the city’s residents, Martha Lane Fox will also be holding talks with community representatives, regional policy makers and business heads to discuss key priorities for the Race Online 2012 strategy and the city’s drive to address digital inclusion in achieving economic recovery. She will be meeting with Deputy Leader, Cllr Paul Tilsley where Martha’s ‘Ask’ to Birmingham will be to look at ways in which we could act more as a corporate citizen by engaging our workforce in helping to reduce the digital divide.
The full day’s programme is here for more information and we’ll let you know more about the day as it unfolds.
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From 2nd to 4th February 2010, the best Digital specialists from around Europe converged upon the RAI centre in Amsterdam for the Integrated Systems Europe 2010 event. Now in its 6th year, the ISE Show allows companies to showcase their hardware to audiences that over the three day event now is in excess of 25,000 attendees. The businesses vary from audio to visual hardware and in a visual format, from small format to large format screen.
The attendees also come from a wide spectrum of businesses, with the wish to see the best cutting-edge digital technology available and how the technology is used in a multitude of environments. Pebu represented Digital Birmingham at the event to look at the opportunities for project partners linked to innovations in digital signage particularly in connection to the digital events that we are delivering in autumn 2010.
Pebu have delivered cutting-edge technology before this event, at Hello Digital 2009 having a number of touch-screen technology pieces, including the Panasonic 103″ touch-screen, which at the time of the event was the World’s largest touch-screen.
The following Case Study highlights the key areas of the show and allows the partners of Pebu an insight into how these technologies will enhance the propositions that Pebu will look to deliver.
The Multipack is “a community of multi-talented Web professionals from across the West Midlands” who meet every fortnight in the Old Joint Stock. Paul Lloyd from the group is arranging a hack day as part of his a.green:focus project on Saturday 20th February at One Black Bear, 191 Fazeley Street.
The aim of the day is to
build a Web site or app that encourages Web people like us to think about how we can reduce the size of our carbon footprint, both in the office and on the road.
Paul has provided the following details for the day
## Date
Saturday February 20, 2010 (and possibly Sunday if we decide we need more time)
Jon Hickman is part of the Interactive Culture research team at Birmingham City University and is working with Digital Birmingham on the project outlined below. This post first appeared over at the Interactive Cultures blog.
I will be spending much of the coming year or so working with companies across Birmingham on social media and web-based projects. The project, which I am delivering on behalf of Digital Birmingham, is a small part of a much larger programme utilising Working Neighbourhood funds managed by Birmingham City Council. The project will work with sixteen organisations between now and March 2011, and will also lead to a number of events; I will of course also be looking for opportunities to develop some academic outputs from the project.
The project builds on our experiences in our recent project, the AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship in New Strategies for Radio and Music Organisations. I will be demonstrating simple uses of technologies that could make a difference to companies. We will prototype new ideas for our partners, using simple and accessible technologies that could help to make life easier, open up new opportunities, or speak to different audiences. The prototypes will be informed by our research and teaching activities within Birmingham School of Media.
If we are to believe the “slip ups” from Cabinet members about the date of the General Election, the 6th May 2010 is only three months away. Although many people will try, no-one can estimate who will be the country’s next Prime Minister and government party.
However, as time gets closer to the date in May, the three main parties are starting to release snippets of their manifestos to encourage would-be voters. The Conservative Party are no different…..
More » - Digital Manifesto
Recently read an article which reported that Alzheimer’s could be staved off by becoming web-savvy. Dr Gary Small, an expert on ageing at the University of California, Los Angeles, said “Our findings point to an association between routine internet searching and neural circuitry activation in older adults.
Google, more than ordinary reading, stimulated the brain regions controlling language, reading, memory and vision.”
The study of UCLA’s Memory & Ageing Research Centre, used 24 adults aged 55 - 76, half of whom were used to performing web searches. Dr Small added: “it seems people who are more adept with internet technology are likely to remain mentally agile.”
If the above is true, I think the DB team must be the exception to the rule as we all seem to be suffering from one mental dysfunction or another, but just not Alzheimer’s!
Digital Birmingham is a Birmingham City Council initiative and part of a city wide strategic partnership of more than 30 public, private and voluntary organisations
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