Digital Birmingham's official response to Digital Britain report

Digital Birmingham welcomes the publication of the Digital Britain Final Report. In our opinion it marks a real opportunity to extend the work that Birmingham has already undertaken on a number of fronts and validates the City's efforts to embrace technological change and reinvent itself as a 21st Century Digital City. The Digital Birmingham partnership is well placed to work in collaboration with citizens and businesses to maximise the benefits of new digital technologies for the benefit of all.

Digital Birmingham is a city-wide partnership designed to encourage people, business and communities to gain the benefits of digital technologies. It is helping Birmingham make the transition from an industrial city to a digital city by driving forward the use of these technologies in order to increase prosperity, knowledge and the quality of life of its citizens. Our executive board has many major local organisations and includes International and UK organisations such as Microsoft, Cisco, BT , Virgin Media and the BBC; leading players in delivering the technologies identified in the report. This response has been created by the Digital Birmingham team on behalf of the city and is not intended to represent the views of our individual membership.

Digital Infrastructure

Digital Birmingham believes that future home and business broadband connectivity will be fibre to the home and not merely fibre to the cabinet. It's heartening that the government recognises that getting the digital infrastructure right is vital and that the case for Next Generation Broadband access is now made. The proposed Next Generation Final Third Project, intended to extend access to the final third of consumers who will not be served by the market alone, provides an opportunity for Birmingham to connect all its citizens to high-speed networks. This is welcomed and the strategic work that Digital Birmingham has done to date in highlighting the benefits of Next Generation Broadband can now be further developed and extended.

One benefit of having already examined this area is that we are well placed to respond to the Technology Strategy Board's call for initiatives for a 'Next Generation Digital Test Bed'

Supporting a Vibrant Digital Economy

Birmingham's Creative Industries sector are already a significant contributor to the City's economic growth, equal in size to the financial sector. Creative and Media companies are transforming their business models for the digital economy and producing new models of interactive engagement for both commercial and public service benefit.

Many of our digital content companies are now serving international markets. Developing a balance between using new digital networks to expand markets whilst protecting creative copyright is of some concern to these companies. We welcome the guidance given in this area to protect creative content but especially welcome the sentiments that new business models need to be developed in order to engage consumers that are now used to treating digital content in a very different way to physical assets.

The investment being outlined by the Technology Strategy board to develop test beds around new business models for digital content is very welcome. Creating competitive digital cities is vital to the UK's economy and Birmingham would be well placed, with suitable infrastructure investment, to become a 'Digital Test Bed', making the most of a fibre network that can attract international businesses to the region and support existing ones to create innovative new business models.

Indeed, strong partnerships between innovative businesses, local universities and regional support agencies are already in place to help meet the Technology Strategy Board's vision of everyone being able to benefit from the creation, distribution and consumption digital content and services

The support that digital media companies are receiving from Advantage West Midlands, Screen West Midlands and Channel 4's 4iP fund is specifically aimed at those companies that are willing to try out new models of income generation and of interactive engagement. Birmingham-based companies have directly benefited from support received and initiatives such as Talk About Local, cited in the report are helping further support the transformation of online civic engagement.

Digital Skills

It's encouraging that the report sees digital skills as a key aspect of life skills. There is recognition that existing initiatives have a role to play and Birmingham already has a Skillset Media Academy (based at Birmingham City University) which is cited as a model of good practice. Digital skills are also vital to ensuring all businesses feel the benefit of digital technologies. Digital Birmingham's business panel is well established to offer strategic guidance for taking forward the report's recommendations on digital business skills and recognises that businesses need targeted business support to help them understand the potential business benefits of ICT.

Digital Dividend

Digital Birmingham has already begun the process of talking to partners about how to create benefit from the spectrum that will be available for use after digital switchover. We believe that regional consortia are best placed to identify services and content that can meet the needs to citizens still eager to benefit from public service media. Birmingham is well-placed to respond to the proposal to have one English region act as a pilot for a new model of regional news provision. The investigation into funding mechanisms to kick-start regional initiatives is to be welcomed. Initial funding would go a long way to help consortia work towards sustainable business models and identify best practice elsewhere.