Monday, July 27, 2009
Digital Britain, conferences and speakers: young delegates’ observations.
The Digital Britain White Paper was published in June launching the government’s proposals for improving access to digital technology in the UK, legislative schedules were released shortly after.
The report sets out the government framework of proposals to address the issue of preparing and providing the population with digital access, opportunity and technology. The report sets out a commitment to give universal broadband access by 2012. The White Paper follows extensive research and consultations. One of these targeted consultations was with young people aged 11-16. A group of young people attended the Digital Britain Summit in April 2009 and as well as attending the general event also had specifically tailored sessions of their own. The tailored sessions focused on discussing two key questions:
What do young people think the government should be providing for their future in terms of digital technology and inclusion?
How do young people see the future will be in terms of technology and everyday life?
The young delegates expected much more voice activated technology with finger-print security. They saw issues of space and memory on technology eradicated and it being commonplace for people to write and create their own games on computers and consoles.
The expectation was for more entertainment to be viewed on large screens in stadiums across the country and less of people travelling to the actual place of a sports or music event itself.
They expected technology to remain a key feature of education and schools as well as entertainment and also to be changing and updating as often as it does today. There was no anticipation from the 11-16 year olds that technology would plateau at a point in the future.
The young people expected to be able to access the internet through fingerprint security and to be able to use electronic books which they could add comments to themselves as they read them. There were also several suggestions across the discussions of the expected use of microchips being embedded in ears/heads to allow access and control of technology by thought.
Some of the most insightful observations made by the young people were away from the specific subject of Digital Britain and about the nature of inclusion in society.
The final summary/review of the Digital Britain summit from the young delegates is included below in full.
"The young people – the majority of whom have never attended anything like this before – commented on the difficulty/inaccessibility of the language used when they listened to speakers in the main conference. They described it as speaking ‘in code’.
This is also where they talked about the ‘trap of new technology’ when they noticed that several people attending the Summit were using their laptops or Blackberries during the speeches. A couple of the young people had said that they saw people using twitter or a social networking site, and that several others were checking, reading and responding to their emails.
They also commented on how they were struck by the predominantly white, suited, middle aged men make-up of the speakers and Summit attendees and asked why weren’t there more women there, and more black people? “
To read the Children and Young People Consultation in full click here.
To read the Digital Britain Report in full click here.