Get all the official details of Emma's OBE here.
And here's her reaction to it...
Well, what news. I am delighted and still a little stunned to have been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to digital inclusion. A journalist asked me yesterday what I thought I’d been awarded it for. It was a good question. My interpretation would be that it’s for the perseverance and the years, months, hours of work over sixteen years I, and the wonderful people who have worked with me in the past and those who do today, have given to pushing an agenda we still feel totally passionate about.
The first thing that surely strikes me about that statement is that it’s been ‘sixteen years’ – is that not quite remarkable?! We tend to think, I think, digital inclusion and exclusion are symptoms of our time, today’s time. But people like us have been trying to support others to make the most of everyday technological developments for quite a while. This tells me most strongly that the fundamentally challenging aspect of technological adoption – and its greatest potential - is people. No matter how far we’ve come in that time in terms of infrastructure (I used to try to make dial up work by plugging things in randomly under my desk and hoping) and hardware (my first mobile phone was the size of a small dishwasher) in 2012, even people who are comfortable emailing and Googling still need a bit of help to make the most of ‘next generation’ applications. And people who’ve never used the internet need the same levels of explanation, hand holding and encouragement as they did in 1996. Over the years Digital Unite has adapted and evolved the help, support, training and resourcing we give to people - and the people those people help in turn – to ‘unleash their digital talents’. I am really proud we’re still here and we’re still making a difference, and I think really that’s what the OBE is for.
My sincere thanks to all the people who’ve been with me on the ride at different points over the years, starting with Caroline with whom I started on this fascinating journey making websites in her flat in Arsenal fuelled by huge amounts of haddock chowder and smelly cheese. A special thank you also to Gill who worked with me for nine of those sixteen years. And of course to my current team, all of them tremendous. Thanks finally to my friends and family who’ve listened to me banging on for years and supported me with beer and pizza regardless.