Digital Britain Unconferences

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Read more! After attending the Digital Britain Summit recently via the backchannel aka Twitter, it was no surprise that those of us on Twitter decided that an unconference was in order. There are now multiple events planned which will be taking place all over the nation from May 5th 2009 (prior to the publication of the Carter Report) and you need to be there!!

Firstly, the Summit was pretty appalling really. There was 100 times more controversy, joined up and future-proofed thinking, experience, expertise, and passion on the Twitter channel. The backchannel was the place to be, though sadly, the majority of the "decision makers" have probably never actually tried Twitter and were no doubt unaware of the furore ongoing there during the Summit. Hence the unconferences for the digitally aware.

You can find more info here about the Digital Britain unconferences or of course on the #digitalbritain channel on Twitter.

Secondly, the fact that a not for profit site - Write to reply - could produce a working and popular method to seek public comments on the DB report against a Government produced DBERR comment site (which didn't actually accept any comments for the first few days) is an indication of the state of understanding of IT and usage by government in this country. Write to reply have now set up the Fake Digital Britain report and anyone involved in any way with Digital Britain, NGA (Next Generation Access), broadband etc would do well to keep abreast of the latest postings there and contribute.

For those in this country who sell/export/use their digital skills (never mind what Stephen Fry said about using a mouse, some of us have world beating digital skills we are selling to other nations who have a stronger currency than the pound), it has become increasingly apparent that the government and the telcos in this country are completely out of touch with what is required to be a digitally connected nation.

FTTH it has to be. No interim measures, no false arguments about expense, no technical disputes, no dithering. FTTH. No half-hearted USOs that were ten years out of date before conception. No rural areas last. No last century, trad telco ownership models. No suits. FTTH owned by this community which is the UK - citizens and businesses.

Many are no longer just blogging or talking/shouting at events but are taking the situation into our own hands, and barcamps, mashup events etc will bring together those who can JFDI and make FTTH happen in the UK. Already there are projects flying under the radar which intend to turn this ludicrous broadband situation on its head.

It will no doubt prove not too difficult to show those who have exhibited an almost criminal incompetence to lead this country into the light for the last 25 years (yes, it really was 1984 when FTTH was first proposed on a national scale in this country) how to JFDI Fibre To Every Home.

Please forward this blog post, or pass on the links to the unconferences and other resources mentioned to ANYONE you know who cares about the state of this country, their business, the economy, their community, their children. Solving this problem affects everyone of us, now and in the future.


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Digital Britain Report Forum goes live

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The discussion on Digital Britain is now online (sort of). The website has been launched this afternoon to allow all of us to clamber into the debate about the future of Digital Britain and contribute to the report.

It is just a Wordpress blog but there is a video from Stephen Carter, encouraging us to get engaged, and the press release states that there are links to the relevant blogs etc. As with all Govt IT and website projects, this one has some teething problems and has blatantly not been in a test period or sandbox first!! No blogroll, no way to register, and hence, as yet, no discussion. But hopefully, these will all be solved over the coming days and it will be interesting to hear from the many who have views on this matter. Please promote the site widely. The government needs to hear from all of us. Read more!

How bad is it in broadband Britain?

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Read more! I thought I would video my attempts tonight to watch a Youtube video or something on iplayer and share the pain. I have now spent over an hour trying to upload a 16.7MB, 1min 13secs video to illustrate the problem of buffering, downloading, poor connectivity etc by showing exactly what it is like here in the UK.

I have to admit defeat. Or perhaps success in proving my point?

This is on a connection which speedtests have running at almost 2Mbps, in the middle of the night, when the rest of the village is asleep so contention should be at a minimum. Imagine if I was trying to share a video of a wedding ceremony, or similar, with family overseas. It would be a far bigger file than this, and my chances of sharing it during this lifetime from a UK connection would appear to be slim to zero. To be brutal, I couldn't even share it with my next door neighbour, which also highlights the idiocy of everything going out to central peering points unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, if the UK really thinks it can get away with a 2Mbps USO without any reference to quality, latency, symmetry etc either in 2012 we are, to be downright honest, knackered.

So, just a reminder to all, comments etc are due in within 3 weeks (March 12th) to Carter's Digital Britain team. Email digitalbritain@berr.gsi.gov.uk expressing interest in commenting and they will get back to you. Honest. Just who knows when - we emailed them within an hour or so of the report being released (Jan 29th, 1.29pm to be precise) and have heard nothing, yet. Read more!

Socio-economic impact of FTTH

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Read more! There is an awful lot to look forward to at the FTTH Council Conference in Copenhagen in a few weeks time, but one of the highlights for me has to be the evidence promised in the new report from the Council and Ovum.

As I wrote in my open letter to Stephen Carter,

*The social capital must be weighed up with the capex and opex when assessing the financial viability of fibre. *

It looks as though this report may well provide enough data to finally do that, at which point surely FTTH becomes even more of a no-brainer?

This is what the "teaser" email says for anyone who has not received it:

The results and full report of a groundbreaking study into the socio-economic impact of European FTTH deployments, undertaken in conjunction with analyst firm Ovum, will be unveiled by the FTTH Council Europe at its annual conference in Copenhagen next month. The study has been carried out using a wide range of metrics that determine relative ‘prosperity’ and its correlation to FTTH deployments at the local/regional level.

In summary, the study will deliver definitive results to the following questions:

- Which socio-economic benefits does FTTH engender, and to what extent?

- How does FTTH change the way in which subscribers use telecommunications services?

- Does adopting FTTH increase customer satisfaction in broadband services?



“Advocates for FTTH frequently use the hypothesis that it enhances social inclusion and positively impacts the social and economic welfare of its consumers, and this study is designed to substantiate that claim once and for all,” explained Joeri Van Bogaert, President of the FTTH Council Europe. “This is one of the exciting new developments most keenly anticipated by our delegates who are looking forward to learning the results at next month’s conference.”

The study will test the presence of quality of life improvements among FTTH subscribers by using a large range of metrics (from levels of computer literacy to distributions of income/wealth), and validating these further via consumer interviews and surveys in order to provide accurate social commentary. The study will further apply detailed comparative analysis with areas not currently served by next-generation fibre broadband services. Full details of the study’s methodology and findings will be disclosed at next month’s annual conference.


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The consistent lack of consumer and community input

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Read more! Just before this Carter Report comes out, (any time now, am fed up with hitting f5 on the DCMS site!!) I was just looking again at the steering board. Although it is no doubt indeed made up of experts in their own fields, where are we being consulted, and our views represented? It seems rather telling once again that those driving the Digital Britain agenda fail to include consumer and community representatives.


I know it is an old beef of mine, but considering what a huge proportion of the nation we make up (ie 100%!!!), it occurs across the board.

ISTM that across policy making in general there is a failure to seek out and then listen to the voices of the people for whom the decisions will have the most impact, or be of the most concern. Where it does happen, many times it appears that it is just lip service being paid to our inclusion as stakeholders.

This doesn't just seem to be a Westminster Village lack of hearing aids, but across many councils and public sector bodies who seem to be too busy attending internal meetings to hear the views and opinions and concerns of those whom they are tasked to "serve" - I presume that is where the term 'civil servant' comes from.....

My inbox and phone over the last few days (as it has been now for a decade) have once again been flooded with people for whom broadband in this country is currently poor, and many of these people feel that they cannot be heard in resolving the issues and shaping the future.

These are not just people complaining. These are people with some pretty exciting ideas about how to solve the problems and move a broadband-enabled UK Plc forwards at the rate required. And you can find great consumer and community suggestions on every forum and website where broadband is mentioned, from The Register to the BBC, Samknows and ThinkBroadband, to consumer sites such as MoneySavingExpert and beyond.

Are they being heard?? Today may well give us that answer...

I've personally this week received suggestions about extending the gas pipelines whilst laying fibre; a levy instead of a USO to create a pot for the disconnected areas; auctioning off the content provision once the network has been built as a mutually owned utility; femto and pico cell suggestions for FiWi, etc. There have been queries about quotes for rural digs that have brought together farmers, landowners and digging experts to discuss the best route forward for JFDI dig where you live broadband. I have had a very interesting conversation at a Burn's Night do with a rural female (aged 60+) who puts most of us to shame in understanding the technicalities of her broadband problem and what she has done to try to solve it.

There are people in rural areas using the internet in ways that I suspect many in London (or even the local councils) are totally unaware of, because of rural isolation, poor employment prospects, lack of and/or a diminishing number of facilities townies take for granted, and so on. But it's not just in the countryside, necessity is breeding innovation in towns and cities too.

We need to find out what people are using the Net for, why those who don't use it don't, those who can't use it can't, and how to educate those people so they are included in our digital society.

This report is due imminently. I await it with a growing interest to see how and whether it has addressed many of the issues that face the citizens and businesses of this nation. Not just the media, broadcasters etc.

The UK, IMHO, is not made up of people just willing to sit back and consume ignorantly, but ever more apparently, it is becoming a nation where people want engagement, innovation and interactivity to bring the best for the population.

Action is and will be taken by those who know what is required and will find the way to do it from what I am hearing, if they have to. If it comes down to a repeat of "Dig for Victory", I think we may see that if this report misses the targets.

Back to hitting F5..........
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