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.
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.
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!
France & Germany line up to bash Internet Explorer
Here’s a link to the article that might be of interest to you!
Well, it may be 5 years too late but at last Central Government has decided to catch up with the times and revise the primary school curriculum to include Internet Safety and prepare our children for the digital age.
It has long been the belief of IT educationalists that there is no point in restricting young people’s access to the wealth of information held on “t’internet”. But, wouldn’t it be better preparing our future generations by providing them with the knowledge and understanding of not only the benefits, but the dangers of “t’internet” and enabling them to make informed decisions and judgements for themselves. Because we all know, if you tell a young person not to do something … the likelihood is that they WILL go and do exactly what you’ve told them not to!
Birmingham Bulletin the City’s own e-mail alert service delivered a great news story today into my in-box which I have to tell you all. Birmingham has got its very own digitally enabled news site. You must visit www.Birminghamnewsroom.com as its a one stop shop for all the news from the City Council.
No more do I have to go hunting for information across various websites to get the latest news. It has rss feeds, video, twitter, flickr and links to Birmingham own Youtube channel. It is great to see that the City is at the forefront of embracing new technologies and social media and this can only enhance Birmingham reputation as a leading digital city.
It’s taken me a while to write about Timetric after I saw Andrew Walkingshaw present their software with Emma Mulqueeny at Local Gov Camp last month. Essentially, Timetric is a set of web services which allows you to do a number of nifty things with datasets.
Yeah, really.
As their name suggests their raison d’etre is “graphing, tracking and comparing the movements of data over time”. Which is a subject both interesting and, like a lot of statistics, much abused. One of the things that I really like about Timetric is that they reference the source data they construct their graphs from. More - Timetric: Letting you tell a story
4iP, Channel 4’s innovation fund for digital media, has started announcing its grant awards and it’s good to see that Birmingham has a part in them.
Will Perrin’s Talk About Local is a collaboration with UK Online Centres to establish a network of tools with support for individuals and community groups to set up their own online presence. Because of the strength of blogging talent in Birmingham, more particularly the many people using social media to increase civic engagement and give people a voice in their community, Talk About Local will be doing a lot of it’s early work in the Midlands. Much of this will be in Birmingham but the Black Country and Stoke should get a look in as well. More - 4iP Projects Announced
Anyone living or working in Birmingham can now take advantage of the Citysave credit union scheme from the comfort of their own home if they have digital tv. Subscribers to Sky Digital, Virgin Media and Freeview broadband services in Birmingham can use their remote control to access information about the scheme by choosing “Looking Local”. More - Beat the credit crunch! Start saving through your TV.
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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