News and views

With less than 80 sleeps to Christmas (yes, we know) many people’s thoughts turn to shopping but how do you do yours? Well according to our online community nearly 9 out 10 (88%) shop online. Unsurprising perhaps, considering many of our members are engaged and active website users.

More interesting, is the fact that nearly 1 in 10 (9%) doesn’t know how to shop online and just a very few (3%) prefer to choose in person.

On Thursday 27 September 2012 six local organisations from across the UK received awards from Esther Rantzen CBE in recognition of their successful Spring Online events held in April which helped others learn about computers and the internet.

The six winning organisations were:

In September's e-newsletter we're talking about this year's special guest at our Spring Online Best Event Awards 2012, learner feedback on our online courses, national campaigns Get Online Week and Older Person's Day and how we've got a guide for every occasion.

You can take a look here, or why not register to receive our newsletter straight to your in-box every month. It's a right good read!

Being able to use the internet does make us feel more connected and less lonely according to a whopping 91% of our online community members who took part in our latest poll, with 7% disagreeing and 2% being unsure.

This result definitely concurs with some of Digital Unite’s other research which we carried out last year among those over 55s who had been using the internet for five years or less. Nearly two thirds (63%) of those we asked said being online can help to reduce feelings of loneliness and nearly three-quarters (72%) thought it can help reduce feelings of isolation.

The results are in of our first exclusive poll among the members of our online community and over half (52%) say that a computer is their most life-changing technological purchase, ahead of smartphones (34%) and iPads (14%).

Our latest e-newsletter is out today and this month we're talking about our digital camera competition, inspiring digital stories, guides galore, our forthcoming Social Housing Digifest, Age UK's iTea and Biscuits, and TalkTalk's Digital Heroes awards, phew...!

Read more here.

...how a Get Online Week grant opened the gateway to computers and the internet for visually impaired people in Lambeth

In October 2010 Digital Unite worked with UK online centres to run a small grants scheme as part of Get Online Week. Those individuals and organisations that ran events during that week were eligible for grants of up to £1,000 to help with their digital inclusion activities.

The rollout of superfast broadband across the UK will see around 90% of the population benefitting from better and more reliable internet access by 2015. But as Digital Unite has long maintained, good connectivity is all well and good but what’s the point if many people don’t have the necessary skills and knowledge to use it.

The team at Digital Unite was pleased to be part of the CHS Housing and Support Congress which took place between 12-13 July.

Here one of our team, Chris Mahoney, Digital Champion ITQ Tutor/Assessor talks about his experience there:

In our July e-newsletter we're talking about our new learning guides, computers for carers, our Spring Online Best Event shortlist and the chance to win a digital camera. Read more here. If you would like to get all of our latest news straight to your inbox each month, just register via the newsletter sign-up box on our home page.

Six organisations have been shortlisted for the Spring Online 2012 Best Event competition.