Spreading the benefits of digital participation: RSE Inquiry Report
Friday, May 2, 2014 at 11:30AM The Final Report of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Inquiry into digital participation was published on 30 April 2014. The Report is available from the RSE website in PDF, eBook and HTML formats. If you would like a printed copy of the report, please contact Susan Lennox at slennox@royalsoced.org.uk. A copy of the presentation given at the launch event is also available on the website.
I attended the launch of the report at Edinburgh University on Wednesday along with Ian McCracken, Bill Johnston and Jenny Foreman from the CofP, Sean McNamara from CILIPS and Amina Shah and Gillian Daly from SLIC.
Professor Michael Fourman who chaired the inquiry gave a fairly short presentation which focused on access and infrastructure issues although he did give libraries some attention but mentioned only the public library sector. He rightly drew attention to the digital divide and exclusion. New analysis of the digital divide in Scotland suggests that extremes of exclusion vary greatly between postcodes, with almost one in five Scottish households (18%) in postcodes where most of their neighbours are likely to be offline. About 800,000 households are offline. Remote rural communities account for some of these areas, but many more correlate with communities already facing other forms of deprivation in Scotland’s towns and cities. These areas should be seen as priorities for action, if the digital divide is not to exacerbate existing social divides. He also focused on the importance of ‘digital privacy’ something which was taken up in discussion.
The Report makes recommendations around affordable access, motivation and the skills needed both for everyone to get online, and for a flourishing digital economy. It comments on the responsibilities of a digital society to create an environment in which the benefits of being online are not outweighed by the risks, and calls on the Scottish Government to take strategic oversight of Scotland’s digitisation, including the impacts on fundamental issues such as privacy, surveillance, freedom of expression and data protection.
The increasing focus on human and social issues was very welcome. Much of the time was taken up with questions which included contributions from the voluntary sectors and those concerned with older computer users. Amina Shah, speaking for SLIC, spoke about training issues and the need to work in partnership with others referring to the government’ plans to move benefits registration and payments online as an example.
Something that both Michael Fourman and Professor Alan Alexander, the RSE general secretary spoke about at some length was access to IT facilities in schools and colleges by the general public outwith standard hours and holidays. Although a good point it does raise important issues about support and security and how this should be funded which both Michael Fourman and Professor Alan Alexander made light of, yet when I suggested that the agenda should move more to training and skills issues Michael Fourman spoke at some length about the staffing issues which this would raise. While there is some truth in this a training base exists, much of it provided by libraries on which further developments could be based.
The interim report, published at the end of 2013, dismissed libraries in six inaccurate lines but, thanks to our representations the role of libraries receives adequate coverage although this is still seen in terms of public libraries with the role of other sectors still not understood. However a successful exercise in advocacy on which to build I think
John Crawford
Reader Comments (2)
Hello, i am monica . I was working at betting online company in cambodia. if u interesting about Agen Bola Terpercaya please visit my site. Thank You Very Much
Hello, i am monica . I was working at betting online company in cambodia. if u interesting about Agen Bola Terpercaya please visit my site. Thank You Very Much