Digital Britain Report

  1)      What is the purpose of the report?

The purpose of the Digital Britain Report is to check how digital technologies adapt and improve over time. It also works try and improve new technology for the use of other people, always working to make its technological advances easy for the use by general consumers.

2)   What are the 5 main objectives set out by the report?

·         Modernising and upgrading our wired, wireless and broadcasting infrastructure to sustain Britain’s position as a leading Digital Economy.

·         Securing a range of high quality public service content, particularly in news.

·         Providing a favourable climate and innovation in digital content, applications and services.

·         Developing the nation’s digital skills at all levels.

·         Securing universal access to broadband, increasing its take-up and using broadband to deliver more public services more efficiently and effectively.

3)  What are the 7 main achievements that the report highlights?

·         An analysis of the levels of digital participation, skills and access needed for the digital future, with a plan for increasing participation, and more coherent public structures to deal with it.

·         An analysis of our communications infrastructure and capabilities, an identification of the gaps and recommendations on how to fill them.

·         A statement of ambition for the future growth of our creative industries, proposals for a legal and regulatory framework for intellectual property in a digital world, proposals on skills and a recognition of the need for investment support and innovation.

·         A restatement of the need for specific market intervention in the UK content market, and what that will demand of the BBC and its role in digital Britain. What that means for the future of the C4 Corporation. An analysis of the importance of other forms of independent and suitably funded news, and what clarification and changes are needed to the existing framework.

·         An analysis of the skills, research and training markets, and what supply side issues need addressing for a fully functioning digital economy.

·         A framework for digital security and digital safety at the international and national levels and recognition that in a world of high speed connectivity we need a digital framework not an analogue one.

·         A review of what all of this means for the Government and how digital governance in the information age demands new structures, new safeguards, and new data management, access and transparency rules.

4)     What were the Governments targets by 2012?

·         Deliver the Universal Service Broadband Commitment at 2Mbps (in more than one in ten households)

·         Public support for the network, so customers in the Final Third, who can’t be reached by the market, can enjoy next generation broadband.

5)      What examples does it outline that the internet is useful for other than social networking?

·         Communication

·         Self-Publishing

·         Job Applications

·         Online Banking

·         Online Shopping

·         Health Services

6)       What is the fundamental reason for improving Digital Media in Britain?

Building a Digital Knowledge Economy

7)         How does the digital sector in Britain compare to other countries?

It says that the digital communications through network are getting much better in other countries than Britain, eg) countries around the Pacific Rim are adopting next generation networks. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany, France and Finland they have all adopted national broadband or wider digital strategies.

8)    Indicate some of the negative factors for people not accessing the internet.

·         They are unable to access some information.

·         People without the internet are expected to be at a considerable disadvantage. This is because people expect that more vital services will be delivered solely online in the future, or be provided offline in a way that penalises people who access them in this way, perhaps at a higher cost or lower quality. It is expected that people could lose access to a wide range of services and activities: shopping, banking, school work, public services, and downloading TV content.

·         There’s less access available to entertainment.

9)        What percentages of jobs require digital skills?

90%

10)      How many people in Britain still do not use the internet? What were some of the main reasons for people still not using the internet?

15 million adults

·         Financial/ resource exclusion such as can’t afford or no computer accounted for 30% and the remaining 18% intended to get internet access at home within the next six months. This evidence suggested a strong correlation between experience of the internet and the intention to receive it at home – 72% of this group were internet users outside of home.

·         42% of people interviewed were willing to pay something for an internet connection, 13% would get it if they could get a free internet connection and a computer, but 43% would not get it even if both were free and said that it was irrelevant to their lives.

·         Within the 30% of those in the financial/ resource exclusion group, two subgroups were identified – 26% were those whose main reason related to costs or equipment and 4% were those who said they did not have the knowledge or skills. 55% of those who cite cost live in social category D/E homes.

·         Awareness of the internet has widespread with only 3% of respondents saying they have never heard of it. Use outside the home also varied widely: 32% of respondents used the internet outside of home; 24% were non-users with indirect access via family or friends carrying out tasks on the internet on their behalf; and 43% were non-users without access either directly or indirectly.

·         Within the self-excursion group, two subgroups were identified: 37% for whom the internet was not of interest and 5% who said they did not need it at home because they were happy with the access they had. Respondents who said they were indifferent tended to be older and did not use the internet.

11)   Indicate 6 positive factors of increasing digital participation in Britain?

·         Online Shopping

·         Wider access to entertainment

·         Better access to television.

·         Better control over under-age children

·         Easier to do school/general work at home

12)   Give some examples of how you think improving access to broadband to all homes will vastly improve people’s lives.

I think that having the internet accessible in every household gives potential to students that come from a lower social category to have a better education, I think it could also prevent students being teased for not accessing the internet as plenty of students speak about videos on YouTube for example and if someone didn’t have access then they would feel outcast. Another advantage of having the internet available to households is that it could introduce people to job opportunities, it could improve awareness about embarrassing situations as e-mail is available and online healthcare, I think that it would make people much more open minded to technology as a whole if broadband was introduced to every household. However I think this providing the access is used correctly and not for illegal reasons as the internet plays a role in plenty of crime.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is a social networking service launched in 2004 and was created by Mark Zuckerberg; it is privately owned and operated by Facebook Inc. Facebook was created with the intention of allowing peers and families to communicate whilst away at university, allows students to make new friends or to communicate about essays due with class mates, however since then the reasons behind the expansion of Facebook is to allow people to meet new friends.  The social networking site as of July 2011 has over 800 million active users and according to Social Media Today, in April 2010 41.6% of the United States population had a personal Facebook account. Facebook is worth approximately $15 billion, companies such as Microsoft purchased a share of 1.6% of Facebook which cost $240 million. As of April 2011, Facebook has over 2,000 employees and offices in 15 different countries.
Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising, Microsoft is Facebook’s exclusive partner for serving banner advertising, and therefore Facebook only serves advertisements that exist in Microsoft’s advertisement inventory. Facebook is used for many different things depending on the user, some bands use Facebook to promote themselves, students use the site to interact with other students, generally the whole sites purpose is to allow its users to meet new people or interact with friends. Despite controversy Facebook has made many changes in an attempt to increase its privacy as pictures, personal information and contact information are shown on personal profiles, the site allows its users to communicate either privately through messaging or chat or publically using wall posts. Facebook is free to use and only makes a user’s name accessible to others, users are able to control who can search for them in privacy settings, there are regular updates made to the site offering much more privacy and features for its growing amount of consumers.
Facebook is accessible on most platforms, it can be downloaded as an application on iPhones, Blackberry’s can access the site, most mobile phones with internet either come with a Facebook application and when they don’t it’s easily accessible using 3G. Primarily Facebook is an internet social networking site but many handheld devices such as iPads and some iPods can access the website also. Facebook was originally named ‘Facemash’ and then ‘The Facebook’ created for students to communicate around Harvard University in America, however it eventually ended up being accessible by other universities in the Boston area. Finally it expanded to all universities and high schools around America for people aged thirteen and over to use, however it was discovered in May 2011 that there are 7.5 million children under the age of thirteen using Facebook, thus violated the sites terms. Facebook is globally known, there are a few countries that have banned access to the website for various reasons but it is still to this day the most used social networking site.

Web 2.0

The term Web 2.0, invented by Tom Berners-Lee, is associated with web applications that allow people to participate with information sharing, the working with different products or systems without restriction, user- centered design and the working together to achieve a goal on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 site allows its users to communicate and work with each other in social media as creators of their own content, which in contrast with websites is a breakthrough as websites only allow viewing of content that was created for the viewing of others. A few examples of Web 2.0 are social networking sites such as facebook and twitter, blogging sites such as tumbler, file sharing sites and wikipedia where multiple people can define things to inform others.

Web 2.0 has had a great deal of impact especially in education. Many colleges use Web 2.0 as students can use a college blogging site such as www.blogger.com to interact with other students which proves very advantageous in a student’s learning curve as when a topic on a certain subject proves difficult they are able to view input from other students, which in turn helps with the completion of set tasks. Alongside this many students use social networking sites, particularly facebook, to interact with each other. This is again advantageous as it not only allows relationships between students to develop creating a much more comfortable atmosphere but colleges can create pages within the social networking site which informs students about set tasks and deadlines. There are a variety of benefits in Web 2.0 as its consumers are to an extent the creators, this is advantageous as it allows room for rational debate and participation, there’s also room for intertextuality as links can be posted about magazine subscriptions, new television shows and advances in technology which promotes businesses from all different platforms.

There are disadvantages of Web 2.0 though as there is possibly too much freedom, it leaves room for SPAM and ‘trolling’ by irrational users. Trolling has been a problem within the Web 2.0 community as the use of this means that radical trust is involved, however some users purposely post things on to websites with the intent to receive an emotional reaction from other users whilst being able to conceal their identity and remain anonymous. Web 2.0 was surrounded by controversy due to people trolling, after the suicide of Alexis Pilkington, anonymous posters began trolling for reactions across various message boards, referring to Pilkington as a ‘suicidal slut’ and posting graphic images on her facebook memorial page. Across media platforms Web 2.0 has been criticized as the freedom given means that false information can be written as fact by users, which then brings the gate-keeper principle in to the subject as something that was heard could be misperceived and then explained on sites as fact. In the United Kingdom any contributions made to the internet are covered by the Communications Act 2003, sending messages that are ‘grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’ is an offence, two persons have been imprisoned in the UK for trolling already.

Web 2.0 has impacted the expectations of audiences in many ways, there are positive effects such as easier interaction allowing a business’s product for example to be improved due to rational debate etc. However alongside this it has impacted the expectations of the consumers negatively as now not all information on the internet as a platform is believed to be valid.