Swinging & Flowing: Inclusion & Diaspora

Section Divider: Heading intro here.

Swinging & Flowing: Inclusion & diasporaHelen Milner

Chief Executive, Online Centres Foundation

26 April 2012

Note: Some of the pictures have been deleted from the slide deck originally presented at UC Berkeley on

26 April 2012. I replaced images with text where relevant in order to reduce the size of the file and

keep the original data so that none of the meaning has been lost

2,271,944,524Number of internet users in the

world February 2012

32.7%That’s 2,271,944,524 as a % of the

world population

% of each country/continent’s own population who are internet users

Digital Inclusion: US & UK

• Between 2009 and 2011 an additional 2% of the US population became internet users– USA 76.3% (Nov 2009)– USA 78.3% (Dec 2011)

• Between 2009 and 2011 an additional 7.7% of the UK population became internet users– UK 76.4% (Sept 2009)– 84.1% (Dec 2011)

UK online centres: a national organisation

• Government funded organisation leading, coordinating and supporting a national network of 4,300 venues

• Provide:– A learning website for people new to the internet– National campaigns and support local events– Training and grants to train volunteers & centre staff– Some grants to c. 1000 centres & outreach activity

p.a.– National partnerships

Technology + Community + Scale

National + Local

Smarter GovernmentAnnounced: December 2009Started delivery: April 2010

£30m for UK online centres over 3 years to get 1 million more people to become internet users (at about $50 per person)

Why do we need to put public services online?

1m online for £30m: How are we* doing?* UK online centres

1 April 2010 – 22 April 2012

People• Need access to good quality, convenient and

reliable information and services– Tax, education, driving, law, benefits, jobs (Gov)– Grocery shopping, learning, news, cheap goods (Life)– Shopping, weather, catch-up TV, hobbies (Leisure)

• Need to communicate with friends and family• Need to be part of a community

– Local community: development– Collaborating with others beyond local area

LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_VVZLAsjUw

Why do we care who uses internet?

We’re creating a new inequality

Percentage UK population use of the internet

Source: ONS 2010

Internet and peoples lives

3.00

3.50

4.00

4.50

Self Confidence

Overall happiness

Quality of life

Ease of organising social gatherings

Informed on current affairs

Skills to get a new job

Confidence talking to different people on different subjects

Confidence expressingviews to key

decision makers

Connection to family andfriends who aren't local

Informed on local affairs

Internet user Internet non-user

“Does the internet improve lives?” Freshminds April, 2009

More confident

Happier

Better quality of life

More informed

Comparison of Internet Users and Non Users

Confident of their skills to get a new job

UK online centres users lives – before and after

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

I do not feel concerned about my levels of qualifications ,training or skills

n=75

I do not feel concerned about my work position

n=51

I do not feel concerned aboutmy health

n=75

I felt part of my local community

I communicated as much as I would have liked

with my family

I communicated as muchas I would like to with friends

"Yes" Before "Yes" After

“Does the internet improve lives?” Freshminds April, 2009

Communicate more

Feel more connected to local community

Feel less concernedabout skills, workand health

Comparison before and after using the internet

In the UK

• £276 savings a year by being online for the households with the lowest income

• 25% of all new jobs advertised only online

In the US

• 80% of Fortune 500 companies have online only job applications

• Students with broadband at home achieve 6 – 8% higher high school graduation rates

How do UK employers feel about IT skills?

• 72% of employers wouldn't even interview entry level candidates who didn't have basic IT skills

ICM/UK online centres survey, February 2012

The internet makes you happier than money

• The BCS research found that: ‘IT has a direct positive impact on life

satisfaction, even when controlling for income and other factors known to be important in determining well-being’

Source: The Information Dividend: Why IT makes you ‘happier’, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT by Trajectory Partnership, September 2010

100m Americans do not have home broadband

66m Americans are digitally illiterate

Who is offline in the UK? (has NEVER used the internet – UK population)

Who is offline in the USA?

1 in 5 American adults do not use the internetSource: Pew “Digital Differences”, 13 April 2012

Isource: Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/unitedstates.htm#MA

Similar stats

• Missippi 59.3% (June 2010), Lithuania 59.5% (March 2008)– (Gates Foundation invested $15.2m in Oct 2007

for four years in internet in libraries in Lithuania)

• Alabama 65% (June 2010), Hungary 65.3 (Dec 2011)

• USA 78.3%, France 77.2 (both Dec 2011)• UK 84.1%, Norway 97.2%, Australia 90%

• Main reason don’t use the internet is lack of interest in both US (31%) and UK (64%)

• In the US internet adoption has leveled off• In both countries the rate of use by people

already online is increasing rapidly

Source of 64%: Ofcom UK Adults’ Media Literacy Report, 2011

Source of 31%: Pew “Digital Differences”, 13 April 2012

USA, % adults who use the internet, by race/ethnicity

Source: Pew “Digital Differences”, 13 April 2012

USA, % adults who use the internet, by annual household income

Source: Pew “Digital Differences”, 13 April 2012

Why is there such a difference?

• Between 2009 and 2011 an additional 2% of the US population became internet users

• Between 2009 and 2011 an additional 7.7% of the UK population became internet users

Could the US achieve more?Are there things to copy from the

UK model?

There are three main barriers why more people don’t more go online?

Freshminds 2007 and 2009

3,800 Community Partners + 500 Access Points

Pubs

Cafes

Community centres and events

… and churches, libraries, mosques, youth groups, mobile

Broadband Minister opening a centre in a barn

3800 Community Partners+ 500 Access Points

• All independent• Not owned, managed or directly funded by us• Not a franchise• Sign up to a minimum offer of free support

and access for learning and use of the internet• All reflect the local community they are in

The centres are independent of us, and represent the community they are in

Broadband take-upby area variesfrom 50% to 80%

*IMD = Indices of Multiple Deprivation

Example centre websites replaced orginal graphics:

• Pakastan Welfare Association http://www.pwaslough.org.uk/

• Bangladeshi Islamic Centre: http://bicentre.org.uk/• Somali Centre of Golden Opportunities

http://www.somaligolden.org.uk/• Bangladesh Youth & Cultural Shomiti

http://www.bycs.org.uk/• Migrants Resource Centre

http://www.migrantsresourcecentre.org.uk/

Unemployed % Disabled % BAME % Aged 65+ %

North East 33,835 48 20 8 18

West Midlands 92,950 40 23 31 19

Yorkshire and the Humber 48,530 32 27 11 26

North West 76,368 33 29 20 21

East Midlands 25,093 37 26 15 23

South West 20,918 29 33 5 30

East of England 24,555 27 29 10 29

South East 38,685 33 31 17 29

London 99,835 32 13 64 12

England (all learners) 460,768 34 26 23 21

Monthly user survey April 2011 – February 2012

Why would a community organisation want to be a UK

online centre?

1. Online learning games and courses for people who have no

or little internet skills or confidence

Our digital literacy content: New improvements

• Will make our learning environment mobile and tablet friendly

• XML based course engine allows for quick translation & localisation

• Use of HTML5 local storage will enable completion of courses when no internet connection is present and synchronisation back to the server when internet is present

2. Training for staff and volunteers

Supporting Volunteers and Digital Champions

● Supported and trained over 3000 volunteers in 2011/12

● Online Become a Digital Champion course

● Supporting your community to get online workshops

“We held a Supporting your community workshop at our City Library,We had lots of opportunity to network and gain fresh approaches tovolunteer working – would highly recommend and very much worthorganising for our staff and volunteers " Sarah Graham - Project Officer Newcastle Libraries

3. Web and freephone search facility

• And the centre search is syndicated as an API and a widget to other websites such as BT (a national telephone and broadband supplier) and Gov.uk the new Government domain

4. Being part of a network – marketing events, facebook,

twitter, link to national partners & policy

Partnership campaigns & events

For example, Get online week• Annual event for 5 years (each Autumn)• 50,000 people got online during Get Online Week

all together in 2007, 2008, and 2009• 90,000 people in 2010 during Get Online ‘Month’• Mass publicity (newspapers, television, radio

interviews, corp partner links, blogs, social media)• Mass coordinated marketing packs – locally

delivered• Local events – over 1500 events in 2010

Three national marketing campaigns a year, supported with local marketing packs

• We also have a twitter account @ukonlinecentres

• And a YouTube channel UKonlinecentresvideos

5. And we give out some grants

Connect 2 Compete: C2C

• The US solution?• $4bn public-private-non profit initiative• A national platform for digital opportunity• Including low cost broadband and computer,

and digital literacy content

Or, are smart phones the answer?% American adults who go online wirelessly with

laptop or cell phone

Source: Pew “Digital Differences”, 13 April 2012

Technology changes everything and changes nothing

Technology has already revolutionised the way most of us live our lives

The goal is not to get people using technology, it’s about the how people use technology to have a positive, and transformative, impact on their and others’ lives

983,682Finish the 1m people online and save the UK Government £127m net (that’s $205m net)

It’s not about technology, it’s all about people

Thank You

helen@ukonlinecentres.com@helenmilner on twitterwww.ukonlinecentres.comwww.go-on.co.uk