Gov.uk Beta Site Launched

1 February 2012

Late last night gov.uk launched – I urge you to have a look and give feedback to the team. It’s a beta site but it is an indication of how much change is happening in central government. I started working on the way central govt uses websites in 2010 and with the help of Transform wrote a report calling for a revolution in how government thinks about the Internet. We tried to shift the emphasis onto us, the user, by asking for simpler, more open, cheaper and more beautiful website design.

After the establishment of the Government Digital Service and the installation of Mike Bracken as Executive Director of digital these ideas are now becoming a reality. There is a long way to go but it would be easy to underestimate the sea of change without knowing the amount of talent being built up and the plans ahead. Mike has recruited a band of warriors to help including Tom Loosemore, Mark o’Neil and Felicity Singleton and I am so proud of my small role in their work.  Have a look at the cabinet office blog and please get involved – all of these services get better when we all help improve them.

The prize is big – massive savings, more people online and the UK in a world leading position.

Let's give adults the benefits of digital skills - Guardian Article

17 January 2012

Last week, the education secretary gave schools the green light to overhaul the current ICT syllabus and replace it with a compulsory course in computer science. This is a big win – both in the short term for pupils, who stand to benefit from much more lively lessons in what should already be one of the world's most exciting subjects, but also for our longer-term national economic growth.

Successive governments have been unequivocal about how vital digital skills and infrastructure are for our competitiveness. The UK is the world's largest per-capita e-commerce market and our tech sector already directly contributes 7.2% of GDP – with this predicted to grow to 10% by 2015. Prioritising digital literacy in schools will ensure children reach the jobs market with the right skills to build new businesses, products and services to keep Britain strong. 

Our youngsters are actually doing pretty well under their own steam – 50% of 16- to 24-year-olds already upload self-created content – and an increasing number of organisations exist to match that talent with prospective employers, such as Cisco and Microsoft, or Google and social enterprise Livity's digital marketing apprenticeships, which give unemployed young people roles in top companies such as TalkTalk and Unilever.

These are very welcome advances, but we must also continue to push for greater digital literacy within the UK population at large, 8.4 million of whom have still never used this vital 21st-century tool. Schools and FE colleges could be in the vanguard of this push.

Motivation remains the key reason why most UK adults remain offline – cited by 64% of people. Recent BBC research shows that friends and family play a big role in helping first-time users.

Under the digital champion scheme we launched as part of the Race Online 2012 campaign, we now have 11,147 local digital champions in the UK who are volunteering to share these skills.

Imagine how quickly these numbers would swell if schools started to encourage pupils to sign up as digital champions. It would be easy for every headteacher to ask students to give an hour of their half-term holiday to teach their granny how to navigate YouTube or Skype, or to set up a WordPress site where together they can record their grandfather's memories of the war.

The wellbeing gains of learning to use the web are particularly dramatic for the unemployed (you're 25% more likely to find work) and for the elderly, 3.1 million of whom go more than a week without seeing a family member or friend.

There are thousands of programmes up and down the country that can demonstrate the social benefits for both children and older people of connecting with each other around computers.

The children feel good about passing on their skill, and improve their social and communication skills. The older people feel listened to and valued. The whole process builds really rich links between schools and the community.

So hallelujah for industry, government and schools being bold about using the national curriculum to make sure pupils have the digital skills they need. But let's not forget that we have the assets and infrastructure in our schools to do something amazing by improving digital literacy among the rest of the population, and especially for those 4 million who are struggling on low incomes, with low educational attainment and bleak employment prospects – for whom the benefits of web access are profound.

Roger Belson 1949-2011

10 January 2012

My uncle died recently. I felt privileged to have had him in my family as he was an extraordinary man in many ways.

Our lives had a deep point of connection – he was in a near fatal car crash in 1989 as I was in 2004. However, as a result he suffered from tetraplegia while I am lucky enough to be able to walk. Whether, like me, his interest in the wider benefits of technology grew as a result of his accident I am not sure but I did see first hand what a staggering difference it could make to his life. He never let what had happened to him dominate how he approached the world. Despite his physical challenges he became a county councillor in Oxfordshire where he lived and ended up on the Cabinet. He was also a Director of Regain, a charity helping other peope facing tetraplegia who want to enjoy more independence.

Read more: Roger Belson 1949-2011

Government Digital Service Launch

8 December 2011

This morning I have been at the launch of the 'Government Digital Service' the official beginning of the new team, formed under Mike Bracken to deliver on recommendations in the 'Digital by Default' report we wrote last year. I am still reeling from the energy, excitement and talent that is now being deployed to make public sector services better.

There were some short presentations and speeches from Francis Maude and Ian Watmore, then I did a ten min recap of why I believe this new team and work is so vital.
 

It's pretty simple for me.

The government in the UK has the opportunity right now to not only create a world class tech team that builds extraordinary digital talent and services but also to transform the lives of millions of people by encouraging them online.

For the most socially excluded people in the UK the internet is a vital tool. Government is also one of the key relationships in their lives so brilliant services can and should go hand in hand. There should be the same focus and energy on making customer friendly services as there is at Apple or Google or Facebook.

I want the UK to be a place that has the whole world admiring the way the government has used the internet. Yes we have tech city, yes we have silicon roundabout and yes we have incredible open data – let's not stop there but instead help this new team to shape in a dramatically different way how citizens interact with the state. I want this team to be a place that our best UK talent wants to work – turning down jobs abroad or at a bank or at Google so they can work in the public sector. 
It already happening and this is only day one. Long may it continue.


Looking at the building is a great starting point from which to observe the real change that is happening. Its taken a huge amount of work by the team but they are now located in one open plan and creative space with things on the walls and people talking to each other and smiling which is scarily rare in the world of government departments.

Come and visit and read mike's blog about what they are up to.

http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2011/12/08/new-home-for-gds/

New Connections

1 December 2011

Last night I went to Management Today's Most Admired Companies Awards. The awards have been running for many years and employ a different methodology to many – rather than a panel of judges, companies are peer reviewed. I very much enjoyed the evening for many reasons – not least because I met some fabulous people including the delightful Kevin Costello who runs Haymarket Media as well as Dame Barbara Stocking from Oxfam to whom I have long wanted to say hello.

Read more: New Connections

Go ON Liverpool – by Martha Lane Fox

23 November 2011

One of the things that I have enjoyed most in the last month have been two trips to Liverpool. Working closely with Liverpool Vision and the council, Race Online 2012 has been encouraging local partners to create 5000 digital champions and inspiration for the 92k Liverpudlians who have never used the internet to give it a try. This is a big offline population in a city of 400k and when you combine it with the fact that they tend to come from the lowest income households it makes the problem even more pressing.

I didn't know Liverpool well before starting this role but I am now very impressed with the city. It is the host of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress next year and I think it is the perfect place for it. An example of its pragmatism and tenacity has to be that the council created an embassy in the city of London – aware that some people were just never going to be tempted to do the 2 hour train ride but aware branding and promotion are vital for investment.

The Go ON Liverpool project is going well but I think that the thing I loved most about the city was the incredible spirit of the women I met. Jo Nolan has been our main point of contact at the council and she is indefatigable. Whether it was accosting strangers in the station to get them to sign up or documenting our every move with photos and video for social media, she was brilliant. I also loved visiting Blackburne House, a refuge for women to learn new skills in a safe environment and with childcare on hand. The class of women I met all learning IT skills were fun, feisty and came from all over the globe.

I also did a short speech for WICED – an entrepreneurship network for women and found the buzz and questions a mark of all the great people in the room. I cant wait for my next visit!

Latest ONS Statistics Out

17 November 2011

The Office for National Statistics’ third quarterly report on UK internet use came out yesterday and estimates that the number of adults never to have used the internet has fallen by nearly 300,000 to 8.43M people, or 16.8% of the adult population.

It’s a welcome move in the right direction but to really make the very most of digital technology and ensure that everyone benefits from the massive difference it makes to people’s lives, the UK must continue to prioritise education, accessibility and engagement with IT for its offline citizens.

Race Online 2012 continues to work hard with partners and beyond, to see further improvement. We’re looking forward to seeing the impact of the Give An Hour campaign and our work with the social housing sector and the Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, to help the estimated 4 million people living in social housing who have never been online.

A closer look at the 300,000 fewer offliners suggests that harder-to-reach groups are getting online, supported by the strong work of service delivery specialists such as UK online centres, unionlearn, libraries, Digital Unite and NIACE.

Older people have the most to gain from the web, as mobility and loneliness are more likely to become issues. It’s good to see, therefore, that more than a quarter of a million of the 300,000 are over 55 years old, and 164,000 are over 75 years old.

In fact, older people and those on low incomes are getting online faster than anyone. Those earning less than £300 a week account for 79% of the decrease in employed offliners.

It’s disappointing not to see a decrease in the number of people with disabilities who have never been online. Race Online 2012 is working closely with the government’s eAccessibility Forum to maximise the empowering influence that digital technology often has on the lives of people with disabilities.

Race Online 2012 is working in partnership with AbilityNet, Nominet Trust and the Office for National Statistics, to better measure accessibility as a barrier to internet use. Current data simply says how many people offline have a disability, not whether that disability (or, more to the point, inaccessible technology) is the key barrier.

Around the UK, the biggest decrease in adults who have never been online has been in Cumbria, with a 6.2% drop, and 43,000 fewer adults are now offline in Merseyside, a 3.9% change in the 3 months.

Liverpool is one of the most digitally excluded cities in the UK, so helping people online here is imperative. The Go ON It’s Liverpool campaign is well underway, backed by the Council, working in partnership with Liverpool Vision, Race Online 2012, housing associations, the Health Service, Fire and Rescue, the BBC and others. More than 1,000 people in Liverpool are already pledging to give an hour and help people they know to get online.

• Read ONS’ Internet Access Quarterly Update Q3 2011 findings

Give An Hour

24 October 2011

We live in an age when ‘digital’ is as vital and basic a life skill as knowing how to read and write.  Through Race Online 2012, I have always endeavoured to solve the critical social and economic issues that arise when people are left behind as technology advances.  There are still 8.7 million people in the UK who have never used the Internet, 4 million of which are societies most socially and economically disadvantaged – yet it’s impossible to imagine life without the web for anyone who uses it regularly.  

On 30 October the clocks go back and everyone in the UK will gain an extra hour.  But what does this mean? An extra hour in bed? Or the chance to change someone’s life?   Our latest campaign will run from 24 October - 12 November, and I’ve been told you’ll have to live under a rock to miss it. ‘Go ON Give an Hour ’ is a campaign devoted to inspiring, encouraging and supporting the UK to become a truly networked nation!

In a nutshell we're asking the 30 million people who use the Internet everyday to use the hour they gain to help get someone online.  There will also be a month of taster sessions available (largely run by UK Online and BBC First Click Centres), which Internet beginners can attend if they can’t find someone to help them and want to try it out.

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to our extraordinary mix of cross sector partners that have worked tirelessly to kick start a national conversation around the Go ON Give an Hour campaign and encourage everyone in the UK to inspire real online behavioural change.

High streets and local communities across the country will see the likes of Three, TalkTalk, Mecca Bingo, John Lewis, Job Centre Plus, Post Offices, Libraries, Unionlearn, The Scouts, Age UK and Wetherspoon’s pubs throw open their doors and encourage their staff to Give an Hour and show people how magic the web really is.   Local Schools are being encouraged to get involved too!
 
If someone you know is missing out on the Internet, they're missing out on loads of ways to make their life easier and more enjoyable.  An hour of your time really could make a difference. In fact, it could change their life.  I believe there is both a moral and social case for sustained local assistance to help offline residents across the UK develop web skills.

Anyone is welcome to join the thousands of digital champions who have already signed up to our network.  Please help by pledging to give your hour now! http://go-on.co.uk/giveanhour

I took up a hard challenge I am embarrassed to admit but I showed my father the internet. He is an academic and has resisted constantly! You can see the result here.

Biggest Challenge Yet

12 October 2011

This morning a BBC crew came to my house at the crack of dawn to film me #GiveAnHour of my time to help my father use the internet. He has been on email before but doesn’t use the web and I cant really do my day job with sincerity and know he isn’t online!

The first challenge was getting my dad up, fed and dressed particularly as he had been out for a late night and big dinner! It was also hard to get him to stop focusing on the cameras and to focus on the Apple Mac – but as the hour went on, he did get the message, even if it was a slightly artificial environment.

One of Race Online 2012's key missions is to inspire people who may have never been online to give it a go.  We think that very often people get put off with the language used for all computer related stuff – actually much better to start with things they are interested in.

It took a while to get my Dad engaged and not frightened or sceptical. First of all we searched for alpine plants as he used to work in a garden in Munich and loves them – we found some good pics but they weren’t enough to hold his attention long – then I moved on to one of his favourite subjects – himself :) as he is a writer and a journalist there is a huge amount of his work online and so I showed him all the different bits and pieces.

This approach fascinated him but he was still cynical and not sure if he felt his privacy was being infringed…. By now we had been chatting for about 20 mins and I could tell he was paying attention but we hadn’t found the killer use… yet… Then I started asking him for things on his shopping list and he talked about how he was looking for a certain paint for the outside of his house.  We were off.  

As I showed him not just one but three different sites that stocked it, all at a cheap price and all able to deliver locally he could suddenly see the power of the search engine and he was really amazed at the ease of online shopping.

I hadn’t expected that would be the need that got him all fired up and it took us a bit of time to find the right inspiration but we had fun, a good chat and by the end of our mini tutorial I think he was convinced there were things of value to explore.

I figure he is a tough audience and a proper refusenik so he’s also a good indication of the challenges when helping people.

One Dad down, only 8.7M more people to encourage online….

Womens ICT Lunch, Brussels

5 October 2011

Yesterday I spent the day in Brussels visiting Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the Commission and lead on the entire digital agenda. I like Neelie enormously and am delighted with the way she has embraced our work at Race Online 2012. She is a total believer in the power of making sure everyone, particularly the most vulnerable people, are able to get online.

Neelie had called together a large group of MEPs to talk about technology in Europe with a special focus on how to encourage more women to enter the sector. I gave the keynote speech about my own experiences from my first job at spectrum strategy consultants to lastminute.com to becoming digital champ. The assembled group gobbled up their salmon starters and glugged back wine while I was talking but I think it was well received. After me Cheryl from Greenlight for girls (http://www.greenlightforgirls.org/) spoke briefly about her charity that mentors young women who are interested in becoming technical professionals.

There was then a good debate about the issues at which nearly all the assembled MEPs wanted to speak - it was agreed that education (at any age) is so fundamental in changing opinions about technology and it was also agreed that the tech sector is not helped by the language used - often focusing on programming skills when the talent needed is much broader.

I came away reinvigorated by my day, despite the endless Eurozone headlines - it is extraordinary to see a representative from Bulgaria next to one from Holland next to one from France - all trying to work together on common causes. I was also very pleased that it was proposed each member state should appoint its own digital champion to focus on issues in the sector - crucially how to encourage more use of the internet. Perhaps digital champions will be one export from the UK Govt that the EU embraces!

Last Weeks Diary Column for the FT

19 September 2011

It’s a good start to a week when the first e-mail in my inbox is from Barack Obama. Despite his current atrociously low ratings and all the criticism levelled against him I still feel a tingle of excitement when I read his messages. All right, yes, I know I am only one of 20m or so supporters who receive personalised communications – but the way his team puts technology at the heart of its organisation is still unparalleled over here. On holiday recently I read The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe, Obama’s chief campaign manager during the 2008 presidential election, and was struck by how he compares that race to an enormously ambitious internet start-up – the continual money-raising, relentless brand-building and audience engagement using the most cutting-edge technology. I could certainly see some similarities with my own experiences on lastminute.com more than a decade ago but the sheer scale of the story dwarfed even the most upbeat of our late 1990s dotcom mania business plans. Ten years on from 9/11, it is still striking that, to quote Plouffe, “We managed to secure a man of mixed race descent with a middle name of Hussein the presidency of the most powerful country on earth.”

I have also just finished reading about another American president – and his wife. Hazel Rowley’s Franklin and Eleanor tells the story of the Roosevelts’ extraordinary marriage. How incredible that the scale of his polio was hidden for so much of his campaign – something that would be impossible in this era of constant scrutiny and constant broadcast. However, I think Eleanor would have embraced today’s new technologies with gusto – she would have been able to have a voice of her own and to highlight the causes she cared about. Quite a rebel at heart, I am sure she would have liked the ability to disrupt the status quo.

Race Online 2012 has to work through partners as we have no funds for activity of our own. We need to influence the influencers – hard at any time but especially in this tough economic climate. So earlier this month I headed to Birmingham to address the National Housing Federation Conference. Half of all those who are offline live in social housing and this conference brings together the main organisations, which together house more than 9m people. I reread the statistics on the train journey there and they were sobering. Forty-four per cent live on a household income of less than 10k a year. And yet our work so far shows that if just 3.5 per cent of those people found work by getting online (we know people are 25 per cent more likely to find work if they use the web) it would contribute more than £200m to the economy. I hoped my speech would show that both businesses and residents would benefit greatly from internet access. The crowd of 1,200 seemed very responsive. Still I held my breath as the chair asked for a show of hands from people who were going to help me, then felt quite overwhelmed when the entire audience did so. The race goes on.

It may be fanciful but I like to think that Eleanor would have been interested in Race Online 2012, the campaign I started in 2009 to ensure that everyone in the UK has the opportunity to discover the wonders of the internet. She was certainly deeply concerned about social exclusion and so I am sure she would have attacked this form of it with characteristic vigour. Indeed, having set the challenge to the UK to be 100 per cent connected by the time the Olympics starts next summer, I need her inspiration to keep on at this difficult ambition.

A lot of technology news has hit the main headlines recently so there was plenty to catch up on when I met my fellow board members at mydeco.com , the online interior decorating business set up in 2007 by Brent Hoberman, with whom I co-founded lastminute.com. Nicole Vanderbilt, the Chief Executive, and I were in agreement about the indignity suffered by Carol Bartz of Yahoo! who was fired over the phone after many years’ service. Brent and I reminisced about how we had been so excited to secure a deal to put the lastminute logo on the home page of Yahoo!’s UK site in 1998. No Facebook or Twitter back then and hardly even a hint of Google – the landscape changes quickly.

There was also plenty of talk about 3D printers. I have been fortunate enough to see several in action, most recently at the amazing Ravensbourne College for digital media in Greenwich, South-East London. They allow the user to print out objects – for example, architects to print models – but I have also seen ideas for how they could be used much more radically to change the manufacturing process. It is not too fantastical to imagine being able to design and print out your own dress. Though, for my part, I think I will hold off buying one until I can at least print out my own 3D President Obama.

Let's give adults the benefits of digital skills - Guardian Education Article

21 June 2011

Last week, the CBI pressed the government to apply the same rigour to tackling long-term unemployment as it has shown to reducing the deficit. The scale of the challenge certainly warrants such a focus. In the UK, 2.46 million people are unemployed; 5 million people of working age are on benefits and 2 million children live in households where nobody works. These statistics carry a huge economic and social cost: for society and government, for families and for the individual.

Education and skills professionals are at the frontline in tackling a key cause of worklessness. This work, if the CBI is right, will only become more urgent as the UK moves further towards a high-skilled jobs market, and opportunities for those without qualifications fall sharply.

Digital skills are now vital for education and employment: we know that you're 25% more likely to get work when you have web skills, and, once in that job, you'll earn 10% more. Unison, the biggest public sector union, has just conducted a skills survey of some of its 1.3 million members. Almost half of middle-aged, low-paid women (cleaners, catering staff, carers) argued that lack of digital savvy was their most serious skills gap. Our figures show that 4 million of the 8.7 million UK adults who have never used the internet are from our hardest-to-reach groups.

At Race Online 2012, we are pushing to build a 100% networked nation in the UK by the time of the Olympics. We now have more than 1,100 partners, and many of them have worked with us to recruit a 100,000-strong national volunteer force of "local digital champions" to inspire and encourage people in their communities to go online. This is key, because peers and family members are best placed to encourage the 64% of people who say they have never been online due to lack of motivation. Other partners are working with us to remove the other key obstacle – the cost of kit – by taking part in our national scheme to get high-quality but low-cost recycled PCs to low-income groups for as little as £92. The Trades Union Congress's learning affiliate, Unionlearn, is working with employers and us to ensure that anyone facing redundancy, early retirement or redeployment in the current downturn has these vital skills.

Connecting more people with the web is a vital first step. But the close correlation between disadvantage and digital skills underscores what a vast untapped market there is for great, innovative educational tools to reach and engage our hardest-to-reach groups.

There is a large and growing body of evidence that shows that technology can transform people's experience of education. The clever use of technology lets students study at their own pace, using interactive, collaborative, conversational teaching modules, supported by teachers who can tailor their support to individuals' needs. This is hugely significant, especially for those who might have had bad experiences of the traditional classroom environment first time around.

In the UK, we have a few notable success stories of traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions that are already putting technology at the heart of how they design education for the 21st century, such as the Open University's expansion into digital with its iTunes and OpenLearn channels. We also have innovative platforms such as the secure prisoner learning intranet, Virtual Campus, whose roll-out should be a key plank of the "rehabilitation revolution". Both represent tremendous opportunities to widen access to education.

However, educationists in India and the US are a step ahead in really seizing the chance these new and powerful tools provide to tackle educational inequality. Back in 1999, Professor Sugata Mitra put a computer in a lean-to in the centre of a New Delhi slum. His experiment proved how quickly anyone could master basic computer skills, and showed that with the right content you could inspire the unlikeliest of demographics to engage with informal learning. The results were so convincing that the computer kiosks have been rolled out across the slum and into India's villages.

Technology is helping to shake up formal learning environments, too: in New York, when he was city schools commissioner, Joel Klein pressed relentlessly for people to reimagine schools for the 21st century, particularly concentrating on failing schools. The New York department of education is now embarked on a technology programme, both for education professionals to share strategies to tackle stubborn problems, and to really exploit digital learning tools to improve student attainment.

A good example of that type of thinking is the Khan Academy – a tiny education charity that didn't even exist five years ago, but has now delivered 59m lessons online. The charity grew from Salman Khan's decision to upload chatty, personalised maths seminars on to YouTube so he could coach his 12-year-old cousin in maths. The academy now has 2,100 free learning videos and a grant from the Gates Foundation.

We urgently need education professionals to connect our hardest-to-reach groups with technology. But if we're to build the skills we need for UK plc to stay relevant in the 21st century, we should go further and be bolder. This is not about wiring up more classrooms, but about rewiring our brains to think internet-first in education, so we realise the opportunity to reinvent our institutions of learning for the modern age.

Latest ONS Figures

23 May 2011

A big THANK YOU to ONS for their pledge to provide regular stats with a more representative sample size. The latest stats gives us much more information than we have ever had before and show that in the first quarter of 2011 8.71 million adults had never used the Internet. This represents 17.5% of the adult population with further breakdowns available by age, sex, disability, region and legal marital status.

Read more: Latest ONS Figures

Today's ND11 Event, Billingsgate

21 May 2011

One of the things that plays on my mind a great deal is whether or not we have actually reached any of the most vulnerable people in the work that me and my small team have been doing since the end of 2009. But, I feel more optimistic this week than ever that we now have all the tools available to make massive and groundbreaking strides into the millions of adults in the uk who have not been online. There are three major reasons people have never used the web – motivation, skills and price.

Today we are announcing that this one wobbly champ is going to become a network of many hundreds of thousands of digital champions who will formally and informally train people in the wonders of the web. We have commitments for 100,000 volunteers to get millions more online by 2012. We know that 9/10 people not online know someone who is and we know 70% of people want to learn from a trusted friend so I think this is a vital step. Hundreds of partners from the PO to mecca bingo to the scouts have all said they will help build this network. I owe them big time as my role just got a lot easier! The second thing we are announcing is 3 different deals for a PC, support and broadband for under 100 pounds – we really hope that with this, cost will be taken off the table for people.

Its very exciting to see these two things come to fruition as the team have been working on them for a while as have all our partners without whom nothing would be possible. You can read our press release here, but I am off to welcome 1000 of our new digital champions to ND11 to show them the things we have developed to make their role fun and easier – including helppassiton.co.uk. The highlight of the day will definitely be the show at the end of the day by Stacey solomon, queen of the jungle – I will report back!

There is still so much to do – I feel frustrated at the complexity of some of the myriad of brands trying to reach people who are offline and at some of the bigger companies that have not make the pledges I think that they could. However when I think back over the last year and the momentum that is building then it is very encouraging.

What impact does technology have on our national happiness?

5 April 2011

While our relationship with technology is rapidly evolving, it already underpins every determinant of human wellbeing: it influences our social and family life, our financial situation, our work – both what job we get and how satisfied we are with it – it disrupts some communities and allows us to forge new ones, it impacts health and is an increasingly important lever in how we express political freedom (Layard, Social Market Foundation).

It also has an important and growing role to play in supporting public policy aims, including fostering moral and psychological health (Social Market Foundation). Therefore, as Government sets out to invent new measures by which it might then improve life satisfaction, we believe it’s vital it gives serious consideration to the impact technology has on human happiness. While there is no shortage of surveys, most concentrate on the malign impact technology has on happiness, and what we still lack is data to inform a clear and balanced debate about its impact on wellbeing.

While we need to acknowledge and examine the negative impact technology has on wellbeing – in the relationship between information overload and overwork and anxiety for example – we need to put this in the context of big quality of life gains we realise by access to the internet: in reducing isolation, combating depression, saving money and giving people the tools to explore interests – by producing as well as consuming culture for example – and through access to more responsive services.

And along with gathering data on the positive and negative impact technology is having on the quality of life of the 40 million of us in the UK who use the web, the ONS survey also provides an important chance to explore the effect people’s failure to use technology creates on wellbeing. This, while the founding premise of Race Online 2012's campaign, still remains relatively unexamined. Both in terms of more timely and responsive delivery of services and in expanding our opportunities for work, social networks, and education, vulnerable groups have the most to gain from access to the web.

We would appreciate your contributions to this important area of public policy research under the following three themes:

• Digital services and happiness
More and more of our education, health, housing and leisure services are now delivered online. Government currently tends to measure service delivery on expenditure, so fail to capture the significant upswings in satisfaction from volume, productivity and quality increases that internet-first delivery allows. By capturing consumer satisfaction data, government and charities could get a clearer picture of the benefits of channel-shift.

• Information society and happiness
We work, learn, connect with each other and express ourselves politically online. This will continue to be an area of rapid change. Government statistics are needed to help capture both the malign and the benign impact our increasing use of digital has on our happiness. Government measures should seek to establish how technology improves or undermines wellbeing – both subjectively and objectively.

• Digital divide and happiness
As one of our most recent social inequalities the digital divide warrants particular attention. All the key determinants of wellbeing – material living standards, health, education, personal activities including work, political voice, social connections and relationships, environment, economic security – are now contingent on digital skills but we need more data on the ways in which absence of internet use now impedes wellbeing.

Read more: What impact does technology have on our national happiness?

Opinion piece in today's Times - by Martha Lane Fox

28 March 2011

If Britain is to create new jobs and have an “enterprise-led” recovery we must capitalise on the incredible digital base that we have created in the past 15 years.

We are already the No1 e-commerce country in the world with about 10 per cent of retail business done online — higher than in any other country — and in telecoms and broadband years of competition have opened up the market to give us very competitive pricing. We have very good broadband penetration, with about 66 per cent of homes now having good connections. We have an extraordinary public service broadcaster focused on technical innovation. The BBC iPlayer is world-class and I read recently that there were six billion views on it last year alone. Research by Google shows that technology industries contribute about £100 billion to the UK economy. That’s about 7 per cent of our GDP — nearly as much as financial services. So we have a great opportunity to build on these successes. By embedding digital thinking in more of business, more of government and more of the charitable sector, we can create a truly remarkable digital UK.

The task is how to create more digital entrepreneurs. I am often asked what we can do to ensure that we are encouraging the next wave of companies like lastminute.com that Brent Hoberman and I co- founded in 1998. I believe that three things would encourage more digital entrepreneurs and businesses.

The first is a challenge to funders: it is still hard to raise start-up finance. Not so hard if you have a proven track record or if people can see that you might be a success, but we don’t have enough angel networks. We don’t have enough individuals investing in the really early stages of ideas . Some young entrepreneurs told me recently that my own experience of raising money — two out of three investors immediately turned us down — pretty much fitted with their own experience. And that was 15 years ago.

Brent has tried to help to rectify this, by starting an angel-investing network and a venture capital fund, Profounders, but more people need to take more interest and more risks in our digital future.

The second thing is academic and commercial partnerships, something that the US does a lot better than us, with academic institutions often sitting alongside business campuses. MIT and other universities all over the US all have excellent relationships with business, whether it is Microsoft, Google or IBM. Here in the UK, we are very good at inventing but we are not so good at exploiting technology commercially. So my second challenge would be about academia and commerciality. The University of Cambridge is beginning to do this and Hermann Hauser, one of our great uncongratulated UK entrepreneurs, has put a lot of money into academic research from his microchip company, ARM. There is much to be gained from investing early in invention and therefore in interesting ideas.

The third thing is apprenticeships and encouraging young people — particularly women, of whom there are still far too few in the technology sector. I am talking about apprenticeships and internships in start-up companies and about thinking that beginning a digital business, even if it fails, is a great grounding for a career. Don’t go into a bank , don’t go into accountancy, go into a start-up. You will learn a lot more and will gain more experience. But we don’t encourage that in our young people: in education or when they leave education.

Now, as we face a million young people with the prospect of unemployment, more than ever let’s encourage them into start-ups. Let’s give the start-ups incentives to take them and let’s make sure that we create an army of young people who are inspired by start-up businesses.

Mecca Bingo

25 March 2011

Yesterday I had great fun getting internet training going at a Mecca Bingo hall in Dagenham.  One of Mecca's pledges to the Race Online 2012 campaign was to give members free online access and lessons in what they can do.  It was the perfect place to reach people who are not yet online, and also very interesting to see people use a computer for the first time.  Its hard but amazing when you know nothing and have to overcome that fear – really hope we can extend our bingo partnership!

For more information click here for today's Evening Standard Article

Survive and Thrive

22 February 2011

This week we launched our Survive and Thrive Casebook to encourage charities to use technology both to help themselves but also their end users.  Survive and Thrive is a collaboration from Race Online 2012 with many charities and organisations, including Macmillan, the Big Lottery Funt, NCVO, the Charity Commission, NAVCA, Lasa and CTT.   The Casebook demonstrates how many large and small charities are already benefiting from the impact of thinking digital first.  Comic Relief has opted to move its grant applications processes online, saving time, hassle and paper, while Street League is saving more than £50,000 a year through online tools.

Raceonline2012.org already has a great deal of support across the public and private sectors but I am conscious we need to help charities embed technology in what they do as well.  It has never been more urgent that charities think internet first, not only for their own survival in today's tough funding environment, but also because technology is now key to unlocking some of our most entrenched social problems, from worklessness to health problems and social isolation.

There are heaps of free resources out there to provide support to help use technology better; smart technology use can help those working in the third sector make the most out of their time, stakeholders, communication opportunities, and ultimately impact.

To see a full copy of the casebook click here

New UK Scheme will offer £98 PCs

17 January 2011

Motivation and inspiration are still two of the biggest barriers to using the internet, but clearly perception of price is another big deal for people.  In an effort to bridge the digital divide, a new UK scheme will offer £98 PCs to the 9.2 million British adults who have never used the internet.

I'm absolutely delighted at this great deal!  For more information please see:

FT Article - 17th Jan

Telegraph Article - 17th Jan

BBC Technology News - 17th Feb

Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution not Evolution

23 November 2010

Today Government has responded to my Directgov strategic review recommendations which argue for the simplification and strengthening of digital government to improve the quality and consequently use of Government channels.  Both my report and the Government’s initial response, argue for a Channel Shift that will increasingly see public services provided digitally ‘by default’.

Shifting 30% of government service delivery contracts to digital channels has the potential to deliver gross annual savings of more than £1.3 billion, rising to £2.2 billion if 50% of contacts shifted to digital.  In line with this move, there will be radical improvement to government Internet services to provide higher quality and more convenient 24/7 services to users.

I believe the Government should take advantage of the more open, agile and cheaper digital technologies to deliver simpler and more effective digital services to users, particularly to disadvantaged groups who are some of the heaviest users of government services.

Read more: Directgov 2010 and Beyond: Revolution not Evolution

Latest Blog Post

2 November 2010

Last week Greater Manchester police launched an interesting initiative on Twitter – they posted every call out and incident onto the social network so that anybody choosing to follow them could see what kind of work they were doing. The tweets ranged from the everyday “suspicious driving on m6” to the surprising “man seen with fridge ” to the alarming “young boy walking alone along the side of the motorway”. This week in the midst of the comprehensive spending review a number of councils are beginning to crowdsource ideas for which parts of their services to improve and change. @Leedscutswatch is an idea spawned by the guardian which focuses on the impact of the spending review on Leeds. People can tweet or email their view of the services as they change or suffer budget issues. The information is very local but interesting “building work axed at bromfield inclusive learning centre” or “building work axed at wetherby high school”. I am impressed by both these initiatives as from my limited experience of working in the public sector it can be tough to make bold decisions that could lead to criticism from your customers or end users.

There is a big and laudable push for transparency within government at the moment but with this comes all of the complexity about how you handle feedback, comments, complaints and suggestions. The police were widely congratulated for their day of tweeting but I am sure it led to many interesting internal discussions. In the commercial sector too, the speed and directness with which you can now reach any brand is changing customer relations forever. My boyfriend recently had a bad experience on BA and decided to tweet about it immediately – within a few hours the BA twitter team (or more likely one person somewhere in a tiny office) had responded and even retweeted what he had said. I feel sure that this was a quicker route to resolving his issue than the normal process and full marks to the airline for reacting.

The intimacy and directness of social networks are one of their great pleasures but I think that this opening up of data and the perceived breakdown of the barrier of authority is one of the most interesting phenomenons of the internet and  one that very few retailers have properly begun to exploit and explore. A quick survey of my own twitter followers led to some great examples of how customers felt better treated on the internet than more traditional customer service mechanisms. Perhaps no surprises that ISPs and telco’s were found to be more responsive than calling up to complain. This strikes me as very important -  your social media strategy is normally run by someone who really cares for the brand and the technology  or the channel whereas this is often not the case with outsourced call centres or the  more traditional routes with which customers interact. As @amtstevens said in her tweet to me "Argos over the phone were rude but Argos on Twitter were very polite and helpful." Other people cited @glassesdirect and @thameswater as very responsive.

Read more: Latest Blog Post

Bridlington a-go-go!

21 October 2010

It was a fabulous day as we drew up in Bridlington’s station from Hull and the sunshine really set the tone for our trip.  The entire Race Online 2012 team had come to the town to encourage people to use the internet for the first time.  We picked Bridlington as it has one of the lowest uses of the web in the country but the council are very actively wanting to address this. I was keen to do two things – to meet lots of different people and have the chance to hear how they do or don’t use technology and also to see if our Race Online 2012 partners could offer a more joined up solution for people in the area.

We went to about 5 different venues all of whom had opened up their ICT to help people learn. I loved having the chance to sit down with people who I could help use the internet for the first time - like Bob in the resource centre (where the UK online centre is located).   It never fails to excite me watching someone see the results of a search they have just done tumble out before them.  Bob chose fishing equipment as his first topic and was slowly convinced that it was pretty cool to see every single 6v dry cell battery he could want in front of him.

We travelled between the Job Centre Plus, the 3 mobile bus, the library, one of the schools and McDonalds talking to people and giving them a taster of the web. I met some fantastic people and saw the challenges of helping them but also the benefits when you do. There were many highlights – walking into a McDonalds to hear two 80yr old ladies talking about dongles, watching a man in an AgeUK pop up training spot realise about the existence of dating websites and seeing a man who has severe reading difficulties realise he could search on ebay and not be frightened.

I think we all learnt a lot – I was struck by how everything happens, even in one relatively small town you find a microcosm of the UK. But the 2 big things I will take away are firstly that motivation is such an important barrier to internet use. It sounds too obvious to type but I think it cannot be said enough. You need to show the non-liner that something they are interested in is online and then they are more likely to be hooked. Incentives help. Of all the venues we had organised, McDonalds was perhaps the busiest as people could be tempted in for a coffee... Secondly champions are vital.  I will work hard at the national level to keep this up the corporate and political agenda but I will be useless without regional, local and individual championing.  In all of the sites we visited there were individuals who were the digital champion for that place – it makes an enormous difference to have that leadership and enthusiasm. Every council should  find champions, every library and every JCP has already made that pledge to our campaign. We need to celebrate people that spread the word – both formally and informally – surely the 30m of us who use the web every day can find and support the 9m who don’t?

Thanks for having us Bridlington – especially all the champions and the very patient Paul and Janice at the Marton Grange B&B who looked after us so well – I recommend a trip!

Get Online Week - 18-24 October

19 October 2010

“Do you have to be against that backdrop, Martha? You look as though there is a light sabre coming out of your head.” Not the image I was necessarily trying to project as I chatted my way through eight back-to-back interviews with regional ITV channels to herald the arrival of the UK’s first “get online week”, which starts on Monday.

While 30m of us regularly use the internet, there are still more than 9m adults in the UK who have never gone online. I was offering myself up to the media to encourage friends, families and colleagues to help others take their first steps onto the web. I am lucky enough to hold the slightly grandiose title of the UK government’s Digital Champion – and as such, often meet people who are not online or who have recently started using a computer.

And getting online has changed lives. I’ve met people such as Darryl in Leeds, who fought drug addiction and mental health problems by learning how to make digital music. He sells it online for small amounts of money, giving him both confidence and freedom. There are touching examples, like Cath in Birmingham who told me that when her social housing landlord put broadband in her block and set up a room for people to learn, she thought she would give it a try and was amazed to discover that despite “dropping out of education, working for 20 years in a factory and never really thinking I could do much, I really do have an enquiring mind”.One of the more daunting things I have had to do was to help a very old lady through her first experience of the web – scary for her of course, but also for me as we were live on radio and couldn’t see each other. It seemed to go well after the initial confusion about what she wanted to search for. She wanted “craft work” – rather than the German techno group Kraftwerk, as I had initially understood.

Getting people to engage with the internet is not only a weapon against poverty – it’s a fundamental skill that everyone needs to have if they are to get the same opportunities as those who use the internet every day.

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Having gone on television to ask everyone else to help get their family and friends online, I faced up to some home truths. Yes, Robin Lane Fox – my amazing father and the Financial Times very own dedicated gardening correspondent of 40 years – is yet to embrace fully the magic of technology. This refusenik hasn’t softened much since 1997, when my business partner Brent Hoberman and I had written our initial business plan for the website lastminute.com. I gave it my father to read, but the only comment I got back was that “there are 15 split infinitives in this document”.

An opportunity to try and tempt him online arose this week, as it was his birthday and in a moment of rashness I agreed to his demands to go and see Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. This was an unlikely choice of birthday treat for someone whose brain easily spans “what flower to plant in any space or season” and “Alexander the Great” – but little this great brain suggests surprises me.

I only agreed to the film on condition that he lets me give him a web lesson. Despite already having found a Facebook group dedicated to him, I am still not sure I have convinced him that getting online will improve his life. I think he will regard the whole hour with the same suspicion that will engulf me as I sit through his choice of movie.

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The portfolio life is generally fantastic but occasionally I find the range of meetings surreal. One day this week started in the Cabinet Office in my role as Digital Champion, talking about my review of government websites, and then moved quickly into the world of karaoke and Lucky Voice, the karaoke company I cofounded and now chair. In that office, every day (and often every meeting) starts with a song. It is hard to remain frazzled, grumpy or downbeat if you have just belted out a tune badly and at maximum volume. I felt very old when I walked into the Lucky Voice meeting. The team was abuzz with a new deal with the TV talent show, The X Factor. I felt very out of it when Gamu-gate had to be explained to me [this involved the dropping of a popular contestant at an early stage]. Later in the day, in one of my other roles – on the M&S board – I discovered that the Percy Pig sweet line has far bigger revenues than Lucky Voice. I consoled myself by deciding that if Percy Pig ever released an album I would make sure anyone could sing it.

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And so to Wales, to talk at an enormous local government conference. Perhaps I should have been bolder and livened things up by suggesting a song at the end of my keynote speech. I have yet to mix up my dual roles as karaoke evangelist and digital champion – and I am not sure it would have been appropriate to bring out the microphones at this event – but it might have worked. Speaking in the unenviable last slot of the day, I could see the crowd looked desperate to rush to the bar.

Still, I am tempted to put together a song list for the coalition – quick rendition of “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)”, anyone? I was reminded of a time when a broadsheet editor told me that he had taken his top team and a group of people from the Cabinet Office out for a karaoke evening in a bid to repair relationships that were becoming frazzled. It worked brilliantly, apparently – nothing builds bridges over troubled water better than a bad rendition of Simon and Garfunkel.

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I travelled by train to Cardiff and loved the trip as I was completely engrossed in (the print version of) Jonathan Franzen’s new novel, Freedom. I didn’t notice a long delay on the way home, or the fact that there were none of my favourite biscuits in the buffet car. I was far away with Patty and Walter and the extremely compelling family drama that unfolds before you. I marvel at the way in which Franzen creates characters I would not want to spend more than 10 minutes with in real life, and yet cannot leave alone on the page.

I will be taking Freedom with me to Bridlington as I set off at the crack of dawn this coming Tuesday morning. This part of Yorkshire is one of the most digitally and economically deprived areas of the country and the whole “get online week” team is going up with me. The local people may, quite understandably, run a mile as we try to showcase great websites. Still, we can always try to win them over with a good old singsong.

To find out more about ‘get online week’, go to www.getonlineweek.com

Rescue and recycle – Deptford’s Big Society Efforts

1 October 2010

A member of my team visited a cool project in Deptford last month that really encompasses the spirit of Race Online 2012.  See below blog by Annie Dare for more information.

“We’re the big society, right here,” declares social entrepreneur Darren Taylor.  “Tell David Cameron to come down, he’d think, wow.”

Darren’s giving us a quick guided tour of the freshly painted community resource centre he’s just set up in Deptford, a chunk of the inner south-east London borough of Lewisham.  It’s on the opposite bank of the Thames from the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf and ranked 57th in the 2004 Index of Multiple Deprivation’s audit of English local authorities.   The non-profit centre provides training, recycled computers and broadband to local deprived families, charities and community projects and senior citizens – all without any public funding.

Today’s the start of a 10-week training, kit and connectivity-to-the-home programme Darren’s devised for local over-55s, so there’s a stream of seniors wandering in to the bright riverside venue to ask for information, while those who have already signed up are swivelling around in their chairs asking for help, tapping away studiously, or staring flummoxed at screens.  Darren darts about to reassure them, to answer questions from local voluntary organisations dropping by to find out more or to swap notes with his team – his finance and marketing staff who have been parachuted into training internet newbies for the day.

'What matters most in life is what we do for others' - graffiti in Deptford, near the resource centre

Underneath the resource centre lies a long vault piled high with old computers, heaped into their component parts.  One corner holds monitors, and there are heaps of mice, hard-drives and keyboards.  This kit is basically the organisation’s business model: city companies pay Darren to take old computers off their hands.  Since he started the business 18 months ago, his team has refurbished more than 4,500 computers.  They sell 70% on, with profits and 30% of the kit is earmarked for charities and those joining his training programme.  Local JSA claimants do much of the refurbishment, completing a virtuous circle in terms of skills and employability too.

“We’re stopping kit going into landfill, we’re upping employability, we’re taking on library services and addressing digital exclusion and we haven’t had a drop of public funding,” says the ex-city and council IT procurement professional.

Darren’s got the backing of local housing associations and the London Community Recycling Network, but he wants the project to go national. “I want to work with more housing associations, to get training, computers and broadband into homes up and down the country.  I really think more companies should donate their kit to not-for-profit groups like this, instead of giving a percentage of their profits to CSR programmes.  I can give them such a strong story of what people in communities like this one can go on and do with it.”

Not bad for a guy who got a U in his computer GCSE.

Read more: Rescue and recycle – Deptford’s Big Society Efforts

Directgov Review

18 August 2010

Following the announcement that Directgov has joined Cabinet Office, I’m leading a review of the service to assess how it can be transformed and redirected to further drive efficiencies in the online delivery of public services.

I’ve asked a small group of advisors from business and the public sector to assist me with the review, and I’ve asked Transform to gather feedback from users and anyone with a view on Government digital service delivery on how things should change. It’s not often you get the opportunity to step back and assess how things should be different, so I’m interested in all ideas – particularly the radical and off-the-wall.

This is an independent review for which I’m seeking general feedback, so while I can promise that the Transform team will read each piece of feedback received, I can’t promise to acknowledge all feedback or to include it in the final review proposals.

For more information please visit http://directgovreview.readandcomment.com/ where you can add your comments on each of the four key questions we're exploring.  If you’d prefer to give feedback privately, you can email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

These feedback routes remain open until Friday 3 September.  Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Guardian Activate Summit '10

22 July 2010

I realise I have become embarrassing. I mistakenly think that I have more in common with a 20 year old than a 50 year old despite being nearer in age to the latter. I was recently asked to speak at the Guardian’s activate summit – promoting social change through the use of technology. After my keynote session I was part of a panel of digital oldies discussing the shape of the world with a counter panel of digital kids. It was the highlight of the day. I met 4 bright sassy young people doing an incredible range of things. One had started a basketball community online, one was a professional carer and another the founder of a political campaigning site.

Read more: Guardian Activate Summit '10

The Big Get Together

21 July 2010

Last week saw our first ever partner event where a few of our partners met to explore how they can work together to encourage even more people to get online and benefit from the fantastic opportunities the web has to offer. Designed to generate ideas which will act as the basis for bringing our new ‘Manifesto for a Networked Nation’ to life, the event was a huge success, sparking lots of ideas about how we can inspire, encourage and support people to get online.

The afternoon started with a brainstorm, where partners were encouraged to explore ways and means in which they can bring promises to life.  One of the highlights was a discussion of how to make events such as Get Online Week and itea and biscuits even bigger.  There was an unbelievable response, with offers of free tickets, free hardware and nationwide training sessions open to all.  This section of the event also featured the debut of our new film, produced by Adjust your set, containing some of the fantastic stories from our People’s Taskforce.

Later, everyone was split into a group to encourage collaborative thinking.  Each group created an idea and these were then fed back to be built upon and ‘owned’ by a particular organisation.  Ideas such as ‘e-granny days,’ where kids train their grandparents in schools and ‘Dig IT’, which would use gardening as an interest tool to get people online, were just a couple of the fantastic concepts our partners came up with.

Now, all that’s left is for these promises to come to life.  If you have any ideas about how you or your organisation can help us achieve our goal, please get in touch.  If you haven’t already signed up as a Race Online 2012 partner, join us now and watch out for future events.  A great big thank you to Microsoft who were our generous hosts for the afternoon.

PM backs Race Online 2012 Campaign

13 July 2010

At 4.50pm yesterday, the Prime Minister strode into the Cabinet Office to be greeted by an unfamiliar sight. Our Race Online 2012 People’s Taskforce were sitting excitedly in the seats ordinarily reserved for Secretaries of State and Ministers.  They told the Prime Minister, Secretary of State for DCMS Jeremy Hunt and Cabinet Office Minister and Paymaster General Francis Maude, their personal stories of how technology had helped them triumph over extraordinary difficulties.

Warda Mohammed spoke first. She told the Prime Minister how within five days of qualifying for a computer and internet connection she had started her own business. ‘I realized I could trade on my language skills, and am now a translator, employing two people. I wouldn’t have been able to do this and be a full-time single-mum without the internet,’ she said.  Heather Hawkswood described how important the net had been in letting her, when she was age 19, search for tips on how to handle teenagers when she got custody of her younger teenage sister.  And Alan Thomas talked about how significant it was in helping him find other people who shared his rare degenerative condition, Ataxia.

After chatting with the Taskforce, David Cameron then addressed the Race Online 2012 private-sector partners, ministers, civil servants, community organizers and charity CEOs gathered in Number 10’s garden, all there to celebrate the publication of our manifesto for a Networked Nation.  He gave his enthusiastic backing for our plan to use all the skilled people, plentiful community access points and good broadband infrastructure to bring as many people online by 2012 so we can make the UK a truly networked nation.

He said: ‘We need to ensure that people aren’t being left behind as more and more services and businesses move online.’

Read the manifesto here: http://www.raceonline2012.org/manifesto

Manifesto for a Networked Nation

11 July 2010

Today Race Online 2012 publishes its Manifesto for a Networked Nation.  This Manifesto is a rallying cry for us all to create a truly networked nation – and a chance to get millions more people online by the end of 2012.  An Olympic legacy that would benefit us all – this is a challenge for people and organisations in every sector and in every corner of our country to work together to inspire, encourage and support as many new people as possible to get online by the end of the Olympic year.

Read more: Manifesto for a Networked Nation

Guardian Activate Summit '10

6 July 2010

Reflecting on the Activate Summit at the guardian last week I took away 2 big things as well as meeting a bunch of interesting people.  The first was that it is essential to talk to young people when you reach the grand old age of 37 like me!  I think this is probably true in all aspects of life, but it is particularly true in relation to technology. After doing a short keynote speech I was on a panel during which 4 young people compared their experiences with 4 oldies. There were many reassuring areas of similarity – all of us agreed that entrepreneurialism rests on a ‘just b***** get on with it’ mentality coupled with a passion for your product.

Read more: Guardian Activate Summit '10

My New Role

21 June 2010

We've reached a million...

3 June 2010

For those of you that don’t already know about it Race Online 2012 is a landmark challenge I have set up under my UK Digital Champion role, calling UK organisations across all sectors to sign up as an official partners. Each partner states what they will do to help the 10m adults in the UK who have never used the internet, with a particular focus on the 4m people who are also socially excluded.

Read more: We've reached a million...

Why we must get everyone online

7 May 2010

As I write this, somewhat bleary eyed after a long election night with David Dimbleby, I feel more sure than ever that half of the BBC’s news team must be on some kind of non prescription drugs to have kept going all day and night. The political backdrop is still complex, however, and despite hours of live debate and comment on every channel, it is still too hard to predict for sure how the situation will resolve. Whatever negotiations take place between now and when you read this column, one thing is clear – any government is going to face some very tough choices about the macro climate and some very difficult decisions about cost cutting within Whitehall.

Read more: Why we must get everyone online

My new role as Digital Champion

24 March 2010

My remit has just been expanded to become the UK Digital Champion. My initial task will be to work alongside Tim Berners Lee (inventor of the world wide web) on a digital public services strategy and set up a new unit within the Cabinet Office. This is significant because it will drive the online delivery of public services and put the 4 million people who have never accessed the internet, but who are the heaviest users of government services, at the heart of this strategy.

Read more: My new role as Digital Champion

Please see below this touching email I received today, which highlights the transformational power of technology

26 February 2010

Dear Martha,

I am 78 and look after my husband who has dementia without much help so it is a 24 hour a day process. For Christmas our family bought me a little netbook plus a dongle – and gave me 2 days of instruction. I have not used a computer before but now I honestly find that it has truly made a difference to my life. I cannot yet send photographs or do printing but I am in touch with the world.

Read more: Please see below this touching email I received today, which highlights the transformational...

Read MLF’s more personal thoughts about her role

27 November 2009

It is now five months since I took up the challenge of championing ‘the use of technology to improve the life chances of those people who are most disadvantaged’ in our country.

Read more: Read MLF’s more personal thoughts about her role

The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion

14 October 2009

When I started work with the Digital Inclusion Task Force in June, we were all united by what we believed was the strong moral imperative to make sure the digital divide did not grow any wider in the UK. This report reflects the other part of the imperative, a strong economic case for both the individual and the UK economy as a whole. This work pulls together some new numbers and takes a fresh look at the complex issue of digital inclusion with a highlight on consumer savings, education, skills and employment, health and well-being, and benefits to government.

Read more: The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion

Martha's Mission - digital inclusion

21 September 2009

10m people in the UK have never used the internet. Of those, 4m are also socially and economically vulnerable.

Read more: Martha's Mission - digital inclusion