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.
Some of you may already subscribe to our e-newsletter, Go Digital. If you don’t, please do!
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.
A lot of background work has been going on over the last few months, ever since Cllr Paul Tilsley (Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council and Chair of the Digital Birmingham Partnership) announced the creation of a Digital District in the heart of Birmingham. A previous blog detailed an event that happened on 14th October at Fazeley Studios, and as always at Digital Birmingham - we like to tell you how it went.
More - A sign of the digital times: Birmingham’s first Digital District
As you may be aware, we publish a newsletter called Go Digital on a regular basis. This targets the general public and interested parties, and enables them to find out about not only Digital Birmingham’s projects and activities, but our partners as well. To subscribe to this newsletter, please visit http://www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/subscribe.
But this is not the only way we communicate with those around us. After feedback from our Executive Board, our Business Development Manager Nicola Bryant, created what is now known as the “Headline Report”. This does exactly what it says on the tin really, it provides the headlines regarding the Digital Birmingham programme within a snapshot in time.
If you are a stakeholder within the Digital Birmingham partnership and would like to register your interest in receiving the Headline Report in the future, please email us at digital@birmingham.gov.uk. If you would like to have a look at previous reports, please visit www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/about/headline-reports.
This month - how Birmingham works with other cities, the launch of Total Place, our new Digital District and the planned Hello Digital 2009 business conference. Find out more now!
Cllr Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, started the ball rolling in June this year with his announcement of Birmingham’s new Digital District. Now an event is on the annual calendar, well seminar to be exact, for policy makers and stakeholders from the city and the region to network with other European cities that have established their digital districts already.
The seminar, “Developing Birmingham’s Digital District”, has been organised by Birmingham City Council and Birmingham City University. It is being held in association with Digital Birmingham, Hello Digital, West Midlands in Europe, Fazeley Studios and 2009 Year of Creativity and Innovation. It takes place on 14th October.
To register for the event and to get all the information you will need, please visit our dedicated events page www.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/events/developing-birminghams-digital-district.
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.
The regional launch of the Digital Britain event in Birmingham on 17th June was a great success. We would like to thank everyone who took part (sponsors, delegates and the organisers themselves) both at the ICC and Unconference at Fazeley Studios.
Many thanks to the expert technical support from Aquila TV and Rhubarb Radio at both the ICC and Fazeley Studios.
Our special thanks go to Lord Carter and his team for their time and for making the events possible. And to the Technology Strategy Board for their valued input.
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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