About Race Online 2012 and Our Vision

"What's your email address? Let me send you a copy of the digital photos I took. Look on Facebook. Find us at web page www. This is the world we live in, and as an individual not able to understand or apply these terms I felt like a dinosour "

-Frederick Briggs, 72, Race Online 2012 People's Taskforce

THIS WOULD BE AN OLYMPIC LEGACY THAT WOULD BENEFIT US ALL

40 million adults in the UK already use the web.  If a fraction of us chose to share those skills, exploiting our existing network of community access points, we could inspire and support millions more to try the internet for the first time.

We are calling upon industry, competing for more online customers, government, needing to deliver more for less and charities, wanting to better support the people they help. They need to act as a collective force to deliver positive social change.  Our ambition is to get everyone of working-age online by the end of this Parliament.

Our specific recommendations for action are:

• To inspire  more people to try the internet
• To encourage people to go online and reward them for doing so
• To support those who need a helping hand

We need to recycle and join up our existing infrastructure to exploit the assets and the skills we already have.  The total benefits to the UK will be in excess of £22bn and households will save £560 a year: it improves children’s educational attainment and leads to a lifetime earnings increase, helps unemployed adults find work faster, improves quality of life for over-65s, can reinforce and build social networks and allow government to make efficiency savings in public service delivery at the same time as it empowers individuals.

One example: to give over-65s the same amount that the average household saves from shopping and paying bills online via the state pension would cost government £6bn a year.

 The 10 million people in the UK who have never been online are already missing out on big consumer savings, access to information and education. They will be even more isolated and disadvantaged as government and industry expand ever faster into digital-only services.

Our recommendations for action are based on tackling barriers:

- Inspiring more people to try the internet

• Leaders in industry, government and the charitable sector should embed our challenges into their plans.
• Industry and media partners should develop strategies to communicate the positive benefits of the internet to 10 million potential new online consumers.
• Funding organisations should develop plans to do more to support charities, social enterprises and community groups to raise awareness of the benefits of internet.

- Encouraging people to go online and rewarding them for doing so

• Government should expect people of working age to use key online services and signpost those who need help to web access and training points.
• We should expect adults starting informal or formal education, training and welfare to work programmes to have basic IT skills.
• Race Online 2012 partners from all sectors should develop a package of rewards for going online and passing on web skills.

- Supporting those who need a helping hand

• People must know where they can find local web access and/or training points and where they can go to get assistance with online public services, supported by local digital champions in every community.
• We should work towards ensuring that people have easy and affordable access to the internet in the same way they can access water, electricity or gas.
• Industry should ensure that products and services are usable and accessible for older and disabled people.

We are aiming to sign up 10,000 partner organisations and individual advocates to help us achieve our goal.  Can you help?  Join us now.

• Read our full vision in our Manifesto for a Networked Nation
• Find out more about Martha Lane Fox's role as UK Digital Champion.
• If you want those stats and other research, click here.