Earlier this month, Chamberlain Forum hosted an event with the government’s digital inclusion champion, Martha Lane Fox, as part of her visit to Digital Birmingham. The idea behind the meeting was for Martha to learn from those present, and to take their inputs back to the government so that they can encourage the 10 million UK residents that do not have internet access or skills to start getting online and developing those skills. It became clear quite quickly that the issue was less about delivering skills to people’s doorsteps, and more about ‘seeding’ communities with those skills, and removing the barriers to their smooth passage from person to person – this mirrors Resident University’s approach, which is based on helping community networks to learn and expand their skillset.
Also, there seemed to be an unaddressed fear that the digital world is replacing, rather than enhancing and complementing, the analogue world – public and private sector service providers seem to take it for granted that their customers have internet access and the skills to use it, which can cause considerable distress for those that are left behind.
What ensued was an interesting discussion, and one which continued for some time after Martha left. Firstly, it became clear that although the focus of the meeting was on ways in which we can draw older people into the digital world, they are not the only demographic that are ‘disconnected’ – both in a digital and a social way. So when these skills are ‘seeded’ into places and people that are best-placed and enabled to pass them on, we cannot assume that, for example, school-age children are getting a sufficient digital grounding simply by virtue of the fact that they are in school. Notably, young people, particularly NEETs (Not in Employment, Education or Training) that lack the networks associated with those occupations, are among the most likely to be excluded in an online sense.
There were also some excellent examples of active citizens and community groups striving to pass those skills on to disconnected members of their communities, often in spite of limited capacity. At the Birmingham City Centre Neighbourhood Forum, regular, mobile surgeries hosted by Podnosh are available to help people at all ability levels enhance their digital skillsets. And in Sheldon, workers at the local library have been teaching local people how to get the best use out of the digital world, from ordering shopping online to sharing photographs with family and friends. However, they only have so many computer terminals, limited bandwidth and no wireless connectivity – and efforts to address this by increasing bandwidth and installing a wireless hub have come up against layers of local government bureaucracy, as well as funding issues.
More pressingly, the library staff themselves are stretched to the limit – helping people to connect at their own pace, and in a way that is useful and meaningful takes a lot of time, and as the librarian job role is so fluid, it can be hard to do everything that their job role encompasses. Ultimately, the role that many outer city libraries are playing in terms of digital engagement is completely taken for granted. As community centres that are both open and trusted, they have a vital role to play in increasing digital engagement in a more relaxed, non-curricular capacity. However, the funding cuts that are likely to land heavily on such places will limit the scope of this role, and could see many libraries wound down or even wound up.
Of course, there is potential to tie in digital engagement with various types of community centre, and this will need to happen in order to spread the burden more evenly. The experience of both the ‘seeds’ and the learners in Birmingham demonstrates that not everyone learns in the same way, but that everyone gains something from the chance to do so – indeed, learners can progress to becoming seeds quite naturally.
But – and this is a big but – question marks remain over the ability of local public agencies to deal with the digital agenda (including inclusion) in a constructive way – and a recent swathe of errors from those public agencies have done little to assuage that fear. However, Digital Birmingham has the potential to be a vehicle that enables a more intelligent, responsive and reflexive approach to the digital agenda, and it is hoped that their influence will be felt as that progresses.
