Blog and news category

We loved being at the event in Durham! Thank you so much to the 80+ people who attended. Here are a few of Emma Weston's thoughts from the day...

"There’s nothing quite as powerful as getting people together to share, listen and learn about things that are important to them.

Today in Durham the energy was palpable. People came from all sorts of places, with all sorts of experiences; colleagues in local authorities, health, community and charity sector, as well of course with our corporate partners Capgemini.

That mix made for rich exchanges. Despite the challenges and the scale, and ubiquity, of digital exclusion there was also a lot of hope and collective gasps of wonder that there is now a team of 20 people in DSIT tasked with promoting and supporting digital inclusion.

The Four Pillars

We workshopped DSIT’s definition of digital inclusion, which they’ve grouped into four pillars on the themes of access, skills, services and confidence. The brief was to surface the How and the What associated with each theme: as DSIT write their digital inclusion strategy, what would we be collectively asking them to do, and how should they deliver it? It was a brilliant exercise we all got stuck into. We’re going to write that up and share it.

It made me think...
  • People make stuff happen. The more people – in all sectors - who get involved supporting others to be digitally included, the further we are going to get, faster. (We’ve always believed that, it’s why we’ve focussed on champion models.)
  • Can there ever be enough sharing and networking? (clue, no) connections were made in that Hall that will make a difference to both practitioners and the people they work with.
  • Language and terminology can be a barrier to engagement and we all need to watch our words. And awareness raising and communications are continuous requirement.

You can access everything from the day here - download slides, find resources, apply for Let's Get Digital and leave feedback (be nice!).  We had a brilliant time and we can't wait to see what happens next! 

You can also read more from our lovely friends at Capgemini about the project's launch.

 

What do we do?

Find out how we can help you run successful digital inclusion programmes. 

What is Digital Inclusion

Why does it matter? And what can be done about it? We've pulled together some great resources.