Your chance to ask a question at first ever Digital Question Time in Hull
Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by helen in blogs, featured
You know you’ve arrived when you’re asked to be on a panel of experts, although the last definition of ‘expert’ I came across involved the following:
1. An unknown drip under pressure
2. Someone who comes from out of town and shows slides
3. A person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy
So bearing these in mind I’m looking forward to my debut as an ‘expert’ with excitement and a slight sense of trepidation. I am equally worried as not only am I the only female on the panel but also the only one to admit I have a cat!
All this aside I’m hoping the night will fuel debate and argument over the future of digital. In my opinion the opportunity to discuss the many issues and themes surrounding the topic are highly current as we look towards the prospect of new government and more importantly transformational change. The Digital Economy Bill is the catalyst and for me represents the old school perception of the Internet and this we must change. There is a deep paradox between what we are challenged to do at a European level; be more creative, innovative, productive and lean and the barriers that are placed in the way. If we are truly committed to getting more people online then we must make the mechanism for access easier, we must allow sharing and collaboration in order for creativity to take place and we must challenge interventions which only serve to protect a minority of financial interests.
I really hope that the first Hull Digital Question Time will fuel the wider agenda and provide a forum for discussion on how we as communities, regions, and a nation use the power of digital for the greater common good. I don’t have a problem with moving public services online, providing people with more choice or driving a creative economy only if it is not at the expense of the excluded. C.K. Prahalad (2010) in ” The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits” suggests that to create a digital elite is to exclude the potential of the mass market. I rest my case.
Come along to the debate on the 26th May at Hull Uni to ask your question.
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