The Digital Detriment – A Minority Report for Digital Exclusion? January 19, 2012
The scene from Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks through the adverts but with somebody else’s retina scan has become iconic. Advertisers argue that they are only giving us those things in which we are interested hence Facebook knows what you like but Google knows what you want whereas Amazon knows what everybody like you had. We have to take stock of what we are bringing into the living room when smart TV’s arrive complete with apps and channels controlled by app providers not independent broadcasters. Take this a step further and consider the Minority Report for the range of digitally excluded groups, not just those with skills and access issues; when the internet speaks to them personally when they struggle with personalized health care for instance how will their decision making be influenced?
Big Digital Society, I Think Not December 21, 2011
There have been a couple of articles this week which do nothing to make me feel any less concerned that we are failing to address the fundemental need for a knowledge society so that the benefits are there for everybody and not just the few.
Rethinking Digital Inclusion December 2, 2011
It’s time to look again at the policies we have adopted and to un-tick some of the boxes in order to re-visit what we mean by digital inclusion, to understand the importance of a knowledge society and to think again about how we might realize the benefits.
Unpicking Personalised Learning October 2, 2011
I owe everything I am to my parents; they saw to it that I had an education. I went to one of the early comprehensive schools where the ideal of equal opportunity for all set the baseline for what we did. Being the 60’s we were “banded” then “streamed” this was the time of the 1940 Education Act. I left there with 10 average ‘O’ levels and 2 good A levels and my parent saw to it that I went on to higher education. I returned after my first term, an alien. Suddenly nobody spoke the same language, I was adrift. In 1974 I emerged, the product of a Christian socialist education and entered the teaching profession. Hold that thought.
Moving on or moving back? August 13, 2011
The new world of “Big Society” and citizen choices is, in reality, one of fixed price interventions where individual clients are invoiced and performance is measured in outcomes. What does this mean in reality? It means that front line organisations will need to know which clients were marketed using which channels, which clients responded to the marketing by accessing services, which clients were repeat customers and which were lost and why. What were the complimentary services delivered to those clients and what were the organisations that delivered them?
Back to Basics Get The Inclusion Initiative Right August 4, 2011
In 2011 Citizens Online and Penval undertook work to identify the potential for digital inclusion projects in parts of Glasgow. To those who have worked in the digital inclusion arena for a while the anonamised extract below would seem to be a statement of the obvious; yet, when the headline is the British obsession with smart phones rather than the exclusion of a whole sector of society then perhaps it is time to revisit the basics.
Therefore it’s unacceptable…. July 23, 2011
It’s a fair question, isn’t it? Government invests all that money in local government IT; then supports all of that community based activity: digital inclusion advisers, digital mentors, UK Online Centres, Race Online 2012; what does it get for its money?
Dear Don Tapscott July 18, 2011
On Twitter @cyberdoyle recently re-tweeted a Chinese proverb; “The person who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt the person doing it.” I’m pleased to say that as well as @cyberdoyle I have followed Don Tapscott on Twitter for some time. I like his speculative thinking and his willingness to consider as possible those things which make others roll their eyes and shake their heads. I don’t have to agree with everything he says, but I’m happy to explore the possibilities.
DAA11EU Impressions and Reflections June 24, 2011
Conferences come and go but there’s always something that sticks in your mind. The Digital Agenda Assembly 2011 was structured around the pillars of the Digital Agenda and sought to set the scene for European Activity to achieve the targets for 2020. So what sticks in my mind? The venue; Autoworld was a pretty spectacular [...]
Dear Cisco May 30, 2011
I’ve been following @ciscosp360 for a short while, they followed me and every now and again they say something really interesting but on Wednesday night they started broadcasting and I pointed out to them that, well, it’s not necessarily the best way to engage. Clearly I hit a nerve – oops! I feel I owe them an explanation.
