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Digital Inclusion – Is There Always A Business Case?30. September 2009 – 18:03 by Dan Jellinek |
On Monday night I helped to organise a ‘fringe meeting’ at the Labour Party conference –the annual members’ conference organised by the political party currently in power in the UK (though not, most people predict, for much longer).
The official business of the conference consists of stage-managed debates involving party activists, interspersed with excitable set-piece speeches from high–profile politicians including the Prime Minister.
But the real fun happens outside the main venue, at a network of hotels, bars and pubs hosting the fringe meetings – semi-formal events of all sizes focusing on key political topics.
Our meeting was hosted by the Sussex Community Internet Project (SCIP), a local non-profit body I chair which provides IT support to community groups and charities in Sussex and the surrounding area. The subject was ‘Digital inclusion’ –how to ensure everyone is included in the digital revolution, which of course is a key first step to e-participation.
Our speakers included Graham Walker, director of strategy at the UK’s new Digital Inclusion Taskforce (led by the recently-appointed ‘Digital Champion’, dot.com entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox).
It seems it will certainly be worth following closely the work of the taskforce (which, ironically, does not yet appear to have its own website). From what Graham Walker told our meeting, a large part of the agency’s work will be to draw together and champion existing digital inclusion policy strands such as an imminent project to fully fund home computers for all families with school-age children. He also said the starting point for both spreading projects like computer funding to different areas of government like job-seeking, or for starting up any other brand-new digital inclusion project, will be to analyse their business case – for example, if you spend x on getting hard-to-connect people online, then you will gain 2x through economic benefits, or save 2x by steering people away from benefits or crime.
All well and good, but do all such projects have a raw or easily measurable business case? Take broadband for example. Part of the digital inclusion agenda is to ensure as many people as possible, including those living in remote rural areas, have high speed internet access. But clearly this is not commercially viable, and surely it might sometimes be hard to draw up a solid ‘socio-economic benefit’ business case as well, other than to simply say it is the fair thing (usually) to do? Others (including one attendee I spoke to) might take a harsher view and even just say that if people want to live in remote areas, they shouldn’t automatically expect high-speed internet access.
It’s a tricky area, and time will tell how much the taskforce can achieve, particularly with an apparent three-year time limit (and perhaps even less if a different incoming government decides to put the brakes on).
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3 Responses to “Digital Inclusion – Is There Always A Business Case?”
By Fraser on Oct 2, 2009
You can’t choose where you live but I agree the question about paying for infrastructure is tricky. Roll on the broadband tax!
I think there are significant ‘economic’ advantages to being online. Just think of all those coupons, deals, discounts, comparisons, shopping opportunities which are otherwise missed.
I’ve been working on a project called eClinics (www.e-clinic.org) and there is a very compelling business case. The question in my mind is often “is there sufficient demand?”.
By Georgia Sigala on Oct 6, 2009
Different countries go a different way.
In Greece the EU Digital inclusion fund is being put into good use: all first year gymnasium students (i.e. age of 12)are being given a free netbook, a choice of digital camera or multifunction printer, and most importantly free broadband access.
For most children of that age this would be a dream come true as most families cannot afford the equipment let alone the connection costs.
There is a catch though: if your teacher does not have internet access at school, how is he or she going to help you use this advantage?
Plus the free broadband access is not for your student life (i.e. till you finish Lyceum or University) - it is, as the advert of an electronics company aptly put it, while ’stock lasts’.
However it does mean that a good base of internet users is being readied for the next roll of digital services in the country.
Catch ‘em while young….comes to mind.
By Julia Glidden on Oct 7, 2009
It has always struck me that there is a strong case for arguing that broadband, like electricity, is a public utility and should therefore be publicly funded. This notion is quite different, however, from a ‘business case’ in the classic economic sense of the term. Private sector notions like business cases and sustainability have been all the rage in public sector in recent years. Yet, in my experience I have rarely seen the public sector deliver on these notions. Perhaps, because as Dan suggests, there is not always a purely economic case for doing things. Sometimes it is simply the right thing for society to do. Seems to me it is time we started talking more about ’social value’ and less about business cases per se.