Digital Britian Unconference Update

So, Broadsight are spread thinly this week. While Alan is sunning himself at the Telco 2.0 Conference in Nice, the rest of the team were at the Digital Britain Unconference at the ICA in London.

It was an interesting and worthwhile event, set up as a reaction to the lack of consultation during the preparation of the official Digital Britain Report. As many readers will know, the official interim report leaves a lot to be desired. Without wanting to rehash all the arguments, the government seems to be perpetuating vested interests (e.g. traditional content owners) at the expense of, well, everything else! There is a nod to inclusion with a 2Mbps universal service obligation, but that seems inadequate and the thinking is confused.

The Unconference was a useful "mass brainstorm" and the crowd sourced some interesting points that were missing for the report e.g. enforceable privacy, building an innovation culture, user generated content from individuals and communities. Many people were concerned and rather cynical about the approach to copyright, of course.

I know that the organisers (that includes us btw) are going to write this up and present it to Stephen Carter as part of the consultation before the final report is written and we should be grateful to them for doing this, as a necessary process.

However, my overriding thought is that this is all so important for everyone that it shouldn't be left to a small group with a special interest in the technology. We wouldn't leave civil engineers as the only people to respond to proposals to build new roads, but "digital" is still seen as a ghetto and not the infrastructure of everyday life.