Table of Contents
Comments
Commenters
The Government has today [29th January, 2009] published a plan to secure Britain’s place at the forefront of the global digital economy. The interim report contains more than 20 recommendations, including specific proposals on:
- next generation networks
- universal access to broadband
- the creation of a second public service provider of scale
- the modernisation of wireless radio spectrum holdings
- a digital future for radio
- a new deal for digital content rights
- enhancing the digital delivery of public services
The Digital Britain Report underlines the importance of the communications sector, its crucial contribution to the economy and its role in building Britain’s industrial future.
“This report sets out a strategy for building a knowledge economy where our most valuable assets are the skills and innovation that underpin our digital industries. This is absolutely vital if Britain is to benefit fully from some of the greatest economic opportunities on offer this century.”
“Britain has always led the world in content creation – with the best music, films and TV – and it is vital that we carry forward this strength into the digital age. This is a significant Report for the creative industries, taking steps to establish workable systems of copyright in an online age and to preserve choice of public service content. But it is only the beginning of the process and we need to work hard in the coming months to secure workable solutions.”
- upgrade and modernise wired, wireless and broadcast infrastructure;
- secure a dynamic investment climate for UK digital content and services;
- provide a range of high quality UK made public service content;
- ensure fairness and access, with universal availability and promotion of skills and media literacy; and
- develop the infrastructure, skills and take-up to enable widespread online delivery of public services.
In addition to specific commitments, the Interim Report outlines Britain’s progress in building a digital market-place, while also setting priorities for industry engagement ahead of the publication of the final Digital Britain Report, due before the summer.
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“The innovation, creativity and vitality of our communications industries rightly demand clarity from Government on its role and a framework for the future.”
“Delivering Digital Britain will depend upon a smart industry, working with a committed Government to produce lasting solutions.”
Tags: Andy Burnham, Britain, broadband, Business Secretary, communications industries, Culture Secretary, digital, generation networks, government, lasting solutions, media literacy, Minister for Communications, online age, Peter Mandelson, public services, Stephen Carter, UK, United Kingdom, widespread online delivery, wireless radio spectrum holdings, workable solutions, workable systems
A perfect example of thinking INSIDE the box.
A report like this could only have been produced by authors without a single original thought between them. It is not even clear that they understand how the internet actually works or even live in the real world.
Sad and pathetic is the best I can say.
There is no such thing as a knowledge economy. Its a meaningless phrase. All products and services in modern economies depend on knowledge of one kind or another. You cannot build a knowledge economy, it is not a well defined task, and you could not tell when you had done it if you tried to do it. The attempt will just lead to wasting large amounts of money. What you need to worry about is whether public policy makes it easier or harder for companies to use IT.
I have to disagree with the previous comment. The movement of information that digital communication enables means that it’s possible to make money from having and sharing information- as opposed to having and hoarding information.
When Google made their search service so valuable that they could sell billions of dollars/pounds of advertising there, they benefited from the knowledge economy. When a shop gains a customer because they found them through a Google search, that’s a benefit of the knowledge economy. When a blogger gets a job because their blog proved their understanding and passion and turned them into an attractive candidate, that’s a benefit of the knowedge economy.
Personally, I’m glad that the report uses this phrase, as opposed to “information economy”- which implies that having and owning information (rather than knowlegde) is the key to economic growth.
I could find no reference within the report to climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions. Given the recognition of the primacy and urgency of the need to address climate change [1], joined-up thinking demands that a strategy addressing any aspect the core national infrastructure should take into account consequences for the environment.
More specifically, ICT is potentially either a part of the problem [2] or the solution [3], and decisions on ‘Digital Britain’ will have a profound impact upon Britain’s ability to meet target on greenhouse emission reductions.
1 “The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change presents very serious
global risks, and it demands an urgent global response. […] [W]hat we do in the next 10 or 20 years can have a profound effect on the climate in the second half of this century and in the next” Stern Review http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/stern_review_report.htm
2 “By 2020 it is projected that consumer electronics products, combined with ICT equipment, will make up an extraordinary 45% of all appliance related electricity use in the home.” See Owen, P., Energy Saving Trust (2007), ‘The ampere strikes back: How consumer electronics are taking over the world’, http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/content/download/179814/436687/version/1/file/TheAmpereStrikesBack+24thJuly07.pdf.
3 “ICT itself can be a powerful enabler and transformer of carbon reduction throughout the rest of any organisation’s carbon footprint.” See Information Age Partnership (2008), ‘DRIVING THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE: How ICT can enable the carbon-effective organisation’, http://www.iapuk.org/files/ICT_&_Environment_VirtuousCircleReport_30.06.08.pdf
I disagree with Peter as well. There is such a thing as a knowledge economy although it is vaguely defined and still in its infancy.
The knowledge economy refers to the practice of converting data into knowledge. Whether ithe data is harvested, collected, mined or otherwise obtained; data and more importantly its refined state of knowledge is a resource which will be traded, bought and sold like any other.
Just like the new carbon credit economy or economies of recycling and selling generated power back to the grid it has been created and continues to be built and expanded.
Of course, an alternative view to that given above regarding global warming is that videoconferencing and streaming media (no more books / newspapers / CDs / DVDs etc) are likely to decrease humanity’s reliance on raw materials and processes the produce carbon (if you are globally-warming-minded that is).
I’m sorry Roger Smolski sees the report as “sad and pathetic” – I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the openness to new ways of doing business that are evidenced in the sections I have read (and I’ll freely admit I haven’t read it all).
I’d add that something that should inform thinking on the development of “digital Britain” (not a great phrase it has to be said!) is that processes / developments should be based on an “opt in” philosophy as far as possible: as I’ve said elsewhere, Google (the company) are a good model to follow in terms of web strategies (read what Jeff Jarvis has to say about them in his just-published book for further info). One of the interesting facets about their many applications is that the trade-off between the individual and the company in terms of the sharing of information. I don’t mind giving them my location for use on their Latitude service as it means I can share this information with my friends. Similarly, I use their email service despite the fact that they use a keyword searching algorithm to show me ads they think I might be interested in because the trade-off – a useful, easy to understand email setup – is worth it. If the government wants to sell the idea of ID cards, make them useful on a daily basis and people are more likey to sign up; force people to do so and they will run a mile (I know I am). The same should apply to thinking about the internet. Demonstrate the positive aspects of any plans for development and don’t implement things because the old business models are failing to adapt.
[...] writetoreply have added the Digital Britain report on their website. They’ve also included the ability to [...]
In defense of the report (which I actually have read all the way through, several times) I think that Lord Carter has had a difficult and complex job on to get it right, and now with the responses they might stand a chance of doing a better final report. Not many people in power who have the final say have a true perception of broadband, or computers for that matter. They have secretaries.
The secretaries do all the things that need doing. If any of the writers of this report lived out in the countryside, on a minimum wage, with children, elderly parents and defra to deal with they would know a bit more about how vital ICT is in this day and age and would have no need for such reports, they would have taken steps to lay fibre to the home by now instead of just talking and writing about it.
ok the report condenced.
“she shall promise to use big words like modernisation alot to make you beleive things will change. but not tell you that in most towns nothing will change, the internet will still travel down the same copper wire, and we promise to tell you how great the internet is, but nothing about the specifics of how we can make it greater. i have been paid thousands of pounds to write this which is going to be written off under the governments bank buyout schemes. i hope you enjoyed your wasted taxes reading what i have wrote at your expence, goodnight”
you have to look at the bright side Meek, at least people have a chance to reply, and hopefully someone in authority will read the replies and listen to the people. Perhaps they will light the fibre to our towns as well as our cities, and then it will reach the villages and hamlets, and before we know it there will be universal access, just like electricity and water. If we don’t speak up in the right places then your take on it will be true, we will be neglected. We have to make our voices heard, the little people want what the big people have, which is the utility known as broadband. We expect to pay a fair price, but realise we may need government help to get access to infrastructure that the incumbent hasn’t maintained for many years. Fibre is all over the place, unlit, unwanted. It needs lighting and using for the benefit of all.
Sad again, that those same idiots that came up with spurious details in Digital TV for landlords, where it must have been written by someone with absolutely no knowledge of digital technology, or broadcasting. Talking about return paths for digital terrestrial television and about upgrading aerials for that….when the twats don’t realise the return path is a telephone line! On digital tried that….went bust. Yet these clowns write these brochures that give totally duff information only for local authority clowns to then install brand new systems that do nothing more than existed previously!
When building a knowledge economy, expansion will happen if the infrastructure to transport it is available. The sooner FttH is implemented the sooner innovation will mushroom and this country will continue to lead the way in content creation. Limit the people to an obsolete copper network and the creative industries will eventually shrivel and die as new innovators will not be born and those that exist will relocate.
“Delivering Digital Britain will depend upon a smart industry, working with a committed Government to produce lasting solutions.”
You Said It.
Cut out the middle bit and go straight to FttH which will deliver a Digital Britain to be proud of.
You CANDO it if you really want. JFDI.
Britain has led the way in content creation but will soon lag behind if a 2meg USO is the best it can do for this country. I was on a 2meg connection today, trying to upload photos of a village fair to t’internet. Greatly compressed, but it still couldn’t hack it. I could access email, Egovt and websites, but anything creative was impossible. 2 meg is better than dial up but sucks as far as creative industries and innovation is concerned.
Agreed. Korea are reported to be getting 1Gb broadband by 2012 http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1050752/korean-broadband-reach-gbps-2012 So how Digitial will Britain really be if it can’t match this rate?
that’s the whole point, we will be out of the digital world, but will still be able to access Egov LOL. We must make sure our infrastructure can cope with the demands the people will shortly make upon it. The obsolete copper network cannot do this. It has served us well all these years for phone and 1st gen broadband but now the time has come to replace it with fibre, which is cheaper and can deliver Next Gen Access.