I am very interested in learning more about the impact of digital inclusion on young people, adults, seniors, the community and the economy. I found this report via UK Online Centres Website. I can see how this report and the other resources at this site can go a long way towards explaining why it’s so important for youth serving organizations and any non profit group to increase its use of Internet communication technologies for clients and for community development. I believe Canada is still many years behind the UK in making digital learning accessible and supportive.

The two slideshares I’ve posted give a very clear picture of the cost of social exclusion and the work of the Oline Learning Centres operating in the UK. You can access and Digital Inclusion – a Discussion of the Evidence Base

Benefits to individuals

The accelerating adoption of information and communications technologies (ICT) in the workplace and in everyday life is having important impacts on the lives of the majority of people in the UK. Those who are able to communicate, interact and transact through ICT can benefit in many ways, including:1

• Facilitating communication – allowing people to stay in touch more easily, more cheaply, and in new ways.

• Consumer empowerment – more convenient, cheaper retail opportunities have become available, with a greater range of products available, and more information and price transparency.

• Easier access to information of all types – from public-sector service providers, private-sector companies, voluntary bodies, or social or community groups.

• Reducing the burden and costs of transacting with service providers.

• Improved productivity at work: the majority of jobs now require some use of ICT. Technology is also helping to make the workplace more inclusive, with better opportunities for flexible working, homeworking, and improved access for disabled people.

• Making and maintaining contact with interest groups.

• Improved access to learning opportunities.

Rapid growth in the use of digital technologies in recent years indicates that large numbers of people are convinced of these benefits, and take advantage of them in their day-to-day lives. For example, nearly nine out of ten adults in the UK own a mobile phone, and six out of ten use the internet (Ofcom 2006; ONS 2006a). The UK e-commerce market grew to over £100 billion in 2005, accounting for 5.5% of the total sales of non-financial sector businesses (ONS 2006b).

It is perhaps surprising, then, that there are still large numbers of people who do not make full use of ICT. The observation that non-users tend to be also among socially excluded groups has concern for the digitally excluded in society, and is why HM Government has adopted a Digital Strategy (PMSU/DTI 2005).

In principle, socially excluded people have as much or more to gain from effective application of digital technologies as anyone else: Inclusion Through Innovation (Social Exclusion Unit 2005) highlights that ICT can help individuals to ‘address some of the key drivers of social exclusion’, including:

This list draws largely on Enabling a Digitally United Kingdom (Cabinet Office 2004) and Inclusion Through Innovation (Social Exclusion Unit 2005).

• Early years disadvantage

• Educational underachievement

• Worklessness: with easier access to information on employment opportunities

• Homelessness

• Health and health inequalities: improved access to advice and treatment information (Cabinet Office 2004, p. 21)

• Crime and being a victim of crime

• Reducing isolation, especially for those with mobility problems, or people who feel confined by geographic communities (Loader & Keeble 2004)

Brent Business, Education, Research, Uncategorized, purpose Business, digitalinclusion, Education

Brent Business, Presentation Business, Presentation

How about that folks. The most prolific and bang on author in the business world endorses blogging as a life changing experience. “It’s all about joining the conversation” so marketers, social benefit organizations, businesses and other sectors need to look for ways to participate in this global conversation that has transformed how we do business and relate to each other.

Brent Business blogging, Business

| Stepping Stones

I have finally found a straightforward explanation for web 2.0 that I can use with my colleagues and friends. My discovery comes from gapingvoid: “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards”. I tried explaining the cartoon drawing to a few friends and I discovered that I need to fine tune (practice) my delivery somewhat. The cartoon drawing presents a simple analogy but it brings into play so many variables that illustrate web 2.0 impacts.

the porous membrane: why corporate (and non profit) blogging works.

The other day somebody asked me to explain why corporate blogging works. Sure, we know it’s the hot new thing and people are paying attention to it (including big media)… but why?

Why does it work? Seriously.

So I drew the diagram above.

1. In Cluetrain parlance, we say “markets are conversations”. So the diagram above represents your market, or “The Conversation”. That is demarkated by the outer circle “y”.

2. There is a smaller, inner circle “x”.

3. So the entire market, the “conversation” is seperated into two distinct parts, the inner area “A” and the outer area “B”.

4. Area “A” represents your company, the people supplying the market. We call that “The Internal Conversation”.

5. Area “B” represents the people in the market who are not making, but buying. Otherwise know as the customers. We call that “The External Conversation”.

6. So each market from a corporate point of view has an internal and external conversation. What seperates the two is a membrane, otherwise known as “x”.

7. Every company’s membrane is different, and controlled by a host of different technical and cultural factors.

8. Ideally, you want A and B to be identical as possible, or at least, in sync. The things that A is passionate about, B should also be passionate about. This we call “alignment”. A good example would be Apple. The people at Apple think the iPod is cool, and so do their customers. They are aligned.

9. When A and B are no longer aligned is when the company starts getting into trouble. When A starts saying their gizmo is great and B is telling everybody it sucks, then you have serious misalignment.

10. So how do you keep misalignment from happening?

11. The answer lies in “x”, the membrane that seperates A from B. The more porous the membrane, the easier it is for conversations between A and B, the internal and external, to happen. The easier for the conversations on both side of membrane “x” to adjust to the other, to become like the other.

12. And nothing, and I do mean nothing, pokes holes in the membrane better than blogs. You want porous? You got porous. Blogs punch holes in membranes like like it was Swiss cheese.

13. The more porous your membrane (”x”), the easier it is for the internal conversation to inform and align with the external conversation, and vice versa.

14. Not to mention it makes misalignment, if it happens, a lot easier to repair.

15. Of course this begs the question, why have a membrane “x” at all? Why bother with such a hierarchy? But that’s another story.

[AFTERTHOUGHT:] And yes, this works with internal blogs as well, poking holes in the membranes that seperate people within a corporate culture; aligning “the conversation” internally etc.

The other advantage of internal blogging is that it organises conversation into a long-term manageable form. Two people sharing ideas via blogs is a lot more permanent, viral and useful for the company than two people sharing the same information over by the watercooler.

Brent Business, Education Business, marketing, web2.0