The Digital Villages Research Network

Interesting findings from the Joseph Rowntree Fund about how computers and the internet are no longer seen as luxuries but are vital to working-age households for full participation in society. This is set in the context of the Minimum Income Standard which asks for public views on what is essential to everyday life for a ’socially acceptable’ standard of living. Read more on the article in the Guardian or the full report at JRF.

The research network has been busy preparing for interviewing in the third phase. We are currently finalising our interview materials and conducting pilot interviews with network members. Pilots are going well and the interview questions are working to generate the rich stories about ICT use that we had hoped to get. We really appreciate all of the work that CRs have put in to date on this and look forward to interviewing in local communities.

We have also prepared our interim report which is available to download in the document library filed under research report. Many thanks to Kathryn S for her brilliant work on the design. All comments on the report are welcome and do disseminate widely.

It’s an important day for the country with the general election, so it will be interesting to keep an eye on ICT and digital inclusion policy in the coming months.

An interesting perspective on the economic benefits of internet use from the government’s Champion for Digital Inclusion.

Here is an extract of key findings from the report commissioned by the champion (2009: 2): 

• 10.2 million adults (21% of the UK population) have never accessed the internet.
• Households offline are missing out on savings of £560 per year from shopping and paying bills online.
• Home access to a computer and the internet can improve children’s educational performance: if the 1.6 million children who live in families which do not use the internet got online at home, it could boost their total lifetime earnings by over £10 billion.
• Unemployed people who get online could increase their chances of getting employment with an estimated lifetime benefit of over £12,000 for every person moved into employment.
• People with good ICT skills earn between 3% and 10% more than people without such skills. If the currently digitally excluded employed people got online, each of them would increase their earnings by an average of over £8,300 in their lifetime and deliver between £560 million and £1,680 million of overall economic benefit.
• If all digitally excluded adults got online and made just one digital contact each month instead of using another channel, this would save an estimated £900 million per annum.
• The total potential economic benefit from getting everyone in the UK online is in excess of £22 billion.

Read the full report at http://raceonline2012.org/sites/all/themes/raceonline/files/pwc_report.pdf

Interesting bit on the BBC website. Martha’s own site is also quite intersting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8302598.stm

http://www.marthalanefox.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/12/digital-inclusion-martha-lane-fox

I went to York St John University last night for a lecture by the Chair of the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) and the Government’s Rural Advocate, Revd Dr Stuart Burgess on the vitality of Britain’s rural communities. Entitled ‘Rural Idyll or Vibrant Communities’, the lecture provided an  interesting overview of some of the main issues affecting rural communities today – not least the Digital issue!

The CRC  have a report coming out on Tuesday (23rd July) about rural digital inclusion. One of the key points made last night was that broadband and mobile networks are crucial to the sustainability of rural and remote populations. It will be interesting to see what they recommend for improving broadband access!

I also heard about some examples of innovative practice in communities across the country that people might be interested in taking a look at.  These are some of the projects that got a mention:

WIRE – Women in Rural Enterprise [Provides business support to women in rural businesses.]

Ashton Hayes, Cheshire – Aiming to become the first carbon neutral village in England

Blisland in Cornwall -  They have a general village website but it was the Amenity Centre that was discussed last night as an example of a successful multi-purpose village building.