I’m really excited about the research symposium we’re holding tomorrow in London – and I was even more excited when I learnt that “symposium” is the Greek for drinking party. Unfortunately, I can’t promise anyone coming to the symposium a glass of wine, but I think I can promise knowledge which is a pretty good substitute, and doesn’t give you a hangover!

Planning for the symposium started me thinking about the great research we’ve done in the past, so I had a scrabble around the office and found a set of UK online centres research reports, dating all the way back to 2005.

One thing that struck me reading them is how much some things have changed, and others haven’t. Our first report, from March 2005, focussed on the delivery of e-government services. Although we now call it “digital by default”, seven years later a different government is as committed to online service delivery as the previous one. In fact, the quote from one of the first digital policy papers, Connecting the UK: The Digital Stategy, applies today: “ICT can either create the new class divide or can reduce barriers. Our policies have to ensure the latter.”

In 2007, we published Understanding digital inclusion, a groundbreaking piece of research that brought together 40 different sources to define what we meant by digital inclusion, and the barriers that people face when getting online. This report was so important to the landscape at the time, and marks a nice parallel with tomorrow’s symposium where again we’ll be bringing together a group of people to share their work and define the landscape.

In 2008, we published a report on the economic benefits of digital inclusion, where we attached a cost to getting the population online, not only to bring savings to the government but to stimulate economic growth. This was one of the most important things we did, and really helped to prove why the internet wasn’t just a nice-to-have, but something vital for the whole country.

Later that same year, we published Digital inclusion, social impact: a research study, which investigated the social impact the web has on communities, something which is again playing a major role in the work we’re doing.

Times might have changed, but our commitment to policy and research, as well as the delivery side of digital skills, hasn’t. We’re not printing the same glossy reports we were a few years ago, but we’re still dedicated to leading the way in digital skills research. In February, we published our Jobs and the internet white paper. It was only available online, because of course we’re digital by default now, but it provided a vital insight into why, with so many people out of work, being online has never been more important. And one thing that definitely has changed is the number of people who are offline. It’s surprising, even to me, to look back on our first research report from 2005 when 51% – the majority of the population were offline. Today, it’s 8.2 million – just 16.3% of the adult population, showing just how far we’ve come. I’m really excited about tomorrow, not because I think we’ll find the silver bullet, but because I think by getting such bright minds in a room together we should all be able to learn something which will make all of our work that little bit easier.

You can take a look through our research on our website here. 

Next week, we’re holding a research symposium together with LSE Media Policy Project. I’ve written a blog for them here on my thoughts about the digital skills landscape and what I’m hoping we can gain from the symposium. I’ve shared this post below. 

There are a lot of people who’ve got a stake in digital skills, as Ellen’s already mentioned in the blog she posted earlier this week. In a lot of ways, this is great. Every little helps when getting people online and so the more people that can help, the better!

The only downside is that, with lots of different partners all working single-handedly to bridge the digital divide, we can sometimes get a bit caught up in doing our own thing and can forget to pop our heads up and remind everyone else just what, why and how effective what we’re doing is.

Here at UK online centres we’re pretty good at measuring the impact of the work we’re doing. In fact, measuring the social impact of the work we do in communities is something we’ll be really stepping up in the coming months, and this is something we’ll tell you more about at the symposium.

We’re good at measuring our impact, because we know how important it is – to us, to our partners and most importantly to our funders. Most of the partners we work with are pretty good at measuring their impact too. But the issue for me, and what I’m hoping we can address at the symposium, is one of collaboration.  In order to be sure of the real impact we’re having on influencing behaviour, we have to share our knowledge, expertise and findings so we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.

The list of attendees for the symposium is pretty impressive, and I’m sure all of you attending will be really keen to share what you’ve been doing – and I don’t blame you! I’m sure it will be a fantastic forum to bring together a like-minded group of people so we can all make sure we’re working to a similar goal. I can’t wait to see you there!

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be able to take a trip up to the top of the BT Tower for the launch of Abiltynet’s Technology4Good awards – and the rain even cleared long enough so we could all appreciate the fantastic view over London! The venue was the perfect setting to celebrate these awards, the Oscars for those who improve lives through IT, and the fact that the awards are now entering their second year shows just how popular they’ve been, and how important it is to celebrate some of the great work being done in this area.

We might be sponsoring the Community Impact Award, but there are lots of other categories which I’d really encourage you to apply for, whatever you’re doing to use technology to improve lives. I’m helping to judge the awards again, so please do make my job as hard as possible – I can’t wait to read again about all the great initiatives out there. May be the best one win!

Last Thursday I had the chance to speak at the Housing Technology Conference about the benefits of getting social housing tenants online (slides, as always, are available here – and you can also watch a video of the event here). It made me realise that I haven’t yet blogged about the work we do with social housing providers, and the huge digital gulf that exists for those living in social housing. Did you know that half of everyone who is offline lives in social housing?  It’s a pretty big number – and understandably these people could probably benefit the most from the money saving benefits, not to mention the social ones, that being online could bring.  

And there’s an incentive for housing organisation to get their tenants online too. I’ve talked before about being ‘digital by default’, and how moving services online can save the government money – and it’s not just the government who can save. If social housing providers can get their tenants online, they can start delivering better and more targeted services, which are often a lot more cost effective too. 

We’re making progress working with housing providers, and they’re making the right noises – 36% plan to write a digital strategy and 17% have a digital strategy already which has full organisational commitment (a pat on the back to them!). However, 16% do not have a digital strategy, although they’d like one, and 4% have no strategy, and no plans to put one in place. Which makes me think that some of these organisations might need a bit of a hand getting started. So of course we’re ready to lend one!

We’re inviting all those with a stake in getting people living in social housing online to join our Digital Housing Hub. It’s a neutral venue, so we won’t be bombarding you with messages about how good we are at getting people online (although we are!). It’s a place to share ideas and best practice, bounce ideas off others who have already done what you’re thinking of, and somewhere to network and meet others who are in the same boat. So whether you’re a social housing provider, a policy maker or you help people to get online yourself, do sign up. And once you have, don’t forget to shout up and tell us your ideas, because it’s by working together that we’ll make the most impact. 

It’s that time again, and this morning we’ve all been keenly waiting for the release of the latest ONS figures that show how many people in the UK have never accessed the internet. As we were hoping, it’s good news – the number of people who have never used the internet before has decreased to 8.2 million, down 229,000 on the previous quarter.

So, while the figures are positive, and at UK online centres we’re certainly proud of our contribution to them, this is no excuse for us to rest on our laurels. We need to continue working harder, thinking smarter and doing more to bring this figure down and ensure we continue closing this gap and sharing the benefits of being online with everyone.  

I’ve talked on my blog before about the work we do with Jobcentre Plus, and with our new campaign – New Year, new online you! – now in full swing it seems like the perfect time to talk about it again. Luckily, with the release of our new research report – commissioned from ICM – I’ve got a good excuse!

The report presented some really interesting facts – and for my lucky blog readers here are the most important ones. 72% of employers wouldn’t interview an entry level candidate who didn’t have computer and internet skills. That figure is huge and this number rises to 82% in Newcastle where unemployment rates are high and people are already struggling to find work. 

Our new report shows 25% of jobs are only advertised online, meaning offline job seekers can’t find a quarter of the jobs available. Again – it rises a lot higher in some areas. You’d be especially unlucky to be an offline job seeker in Liverpool where nearly half – 46% – of all vacancies are only advertised online. I talk a lot about the importance of digital skills, I do believe what I preach,  but even I was shocked to discover that being offline in Liverpool means you’re missing out on almost half of available jobs. 

That’s why our campaign, and our ongoing partnership with Jobcentre Plus is so important. Hearing it from me is all well and good, but take it from the horse’s mouth and have a look at some of these case studies that show just how much of a difference being online has made to a group of really inspiring job seekers. John Shrimplin, one jobseeker from Newcastle who has found work thanks to getting online says: “I honestly think the internet is the only way to find work now. You only have to go to the job centre to see that everything is ‘apply online’ or ‘email your CV’. Before I learnt how to use computers, I just wasn’t hearing back from employers at all and it really could be quite disheartening.”

There are a lot of stats about job seeking and internet skills floating about, and we’ve been wading through a lot of them for the campaign. To try and make sense of all the numbers (my favourite job!) we’ve put together a paper that highlights the most important research in this area. I don’t think we can improve the job prospects of hundreds of thousands of the unemployed unless we do more about digital skills. Take a look at the paper here. 

A lot of people have recently told me how useful they find my Slideshare account, so I’ve put my favourite jobs and the internet stats into an easy-to-read format just for you. And it’s all free to download and use when you’re short of a slide or two.

I’m sure this isn’t the last time I’ll blog about unemployed people and their digital skills. Universal Credit is launching Autumn 2013 and will shake-up the benefits system, making it even more important for job seekers to be confident on the web. I’m open to debate so do share your views. 

Amongst all of the other things we’ve been doing to get OCF up and running as a new organisation, before Christmas we put out the call for people who would be interested in sitting on the Online Centres Foundation board. There was a great response, and so (drumroll please…) I’m delighted I can now reveal our fantastic list of new board members.

Our chair will be Lord Knight of Weymouth, Jim Knight, Labour MP 2001-2010 and former Schools and then Employment Minister, and then becoming a Life Peer in 2010; Jim is currently working with ITN Consulting, TSL Education, Apple Europe, and Alderwood Education. Jim has long been a supporter of UK online centres, and is passionate about the benefits being online can provide to everyone.

Joining him will be five external board members:

Roger Darlington, Chair of the Digital Consumer Expert Group, Member for England on the Communications Consumer Panel, and Deputy Chair of the Policy Stakeholder Committee of Nominet.

Simon Milner, UK Policy Director at Facebook

William Perrin, Founder of Talk about Local and of the charity Indigo which works with technology developments in Africa

Nick Stanhope, CEO of We Are What We Do

Liz Williams, General Manager of Corporate Responsibility at BT

I was bowled over by the quality of the people wanting to sit on our board, and also their commitment and real passion for supporting the organisation and moving it forward to become a sustainable social enterprise. In the end, the candidates were so strong that we chose five external board members instead of the three we’d originally set out to find.

Of course, we wouldn’t be a staff-owned mutual without electing some staff directors, and so I can now introduce you to them as well:

Pete Carr is our Community Champions Manager and works on the community hub programmes for UK online centres. Pete was Director of Gloucestershire Open College Network before managing learndirect hubs.

Vic Stirling is the Quality and Audit Manager for UK online centres, and has lots of experience in managing networks and funding.

Charlotte Wheat is UK online centres’ Senior Marketing, Training and Communications Manager, and is an expert in running large-scale marketing campaigns, partnership working and building brands. Before joining UK online centres, Charlotte worked for The Princes Trust.

And I don’t want to be left out so, as Chief Executive, I’ll also be part of the board.

Bringing the board together is one of the things that’s exciting me the most about our new organisation, and I know that all of them – internal and external – will have a huge part to play in the future of Online Centres Foundation. Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest, and I don’t think I can stress enough just how flattered I am to have such big names wanting to play on our team. I can’t wait until out first board meeting.

I took this photo on Monday night at the Age UK Internet Champion of the Year awards, something I was lucky enough to be asked to be a judge for. Awards were presented to the four wonderful people in the photo, and they all had very inspiring stories. I had a lovely chat to Brenda O’Mulloy, who you can see on the left, who first got a laptop after her husband died as she felt quite isolated. Amazingly, she had also been tracked down on Facebook by an American soldier who had stayed with her family during WW2 who she had lost touch with – and she was surprised everyone aged 82 wasn’t on Facebook!

The awards were presented by June Whitfield who said that to use the internet you need the “3 Ps” – patience, perserverance and practice – and these four champions certainly demonstrated that in spades! In the spirit of our new campaign,  New Year, new online you! I think the fourth “P” could stand for public services, which can help make a lot of things like learning about pensions or finding out about jobs a lot easier. I might be shoe-horning this reference in slightly, but you can read more about the campaign here and I’ll be blogging about it soon so do forgive the tenuous link. 

Congratulations to all the winners and runners up – I’m sure they will go on to inspire lots more people to get started online.