From e-engagement to e-encouragement (Local, Digital, TV)

Robert Blackwell of Simply Digital Consulting has been sharing a vision for 'IP with everything' and digital inclusion through Digital TV.

To move the digitally excluded up the 'skills escalator' will require new drivers - including a focus on fun and entertainment.

It will be iPlayer and not Directgov which drives new engagement and invites new people onto to the digital skills escalator.

To paraphrase Robert's slides and talk:

The things we think are important for young people
E-democracy
WWW Access
Transactional service
Self-help & online health services
E-commerce
Being able to push public service information

The things people want
Entertainment

And Robert explained that we can't look to just deliver digital inclusion via PC and Keyboard. With content as king, good local information delivered through IP connected televisions will be the platform to include many.

Robert offered us five top tips.

FIVE TOP TIPS

To ask for change in behaviour from another you must first show how you will change and show what is in it for them;
We need to Change from 'Belief' doctrines to 'Faith' based approaches of encouragement and enablement
From 'I believe you will be better if you use these tools' to 'I have faith that, given these tools, you will innovate and do great things'.
Change and new working practices have to be actively managed by specialist teams otherwise buy-in or acceptance will never be achieved
Imposing our own highly developed PC and 'e'-skills on others is a recipe for failure and dissatisfaction
Do not underestimate the fear of change and suspicion of the state

What do you make of a digital TV future? How do we motivate and encourage increases in digital skills and inclusion?

Comment

You need to be a member of Digital Engagement to add comments!

Join Digital Engagement

Comment by Tim Davies on April 28, 2009 at 10:58am: In Q&A: There can be big barriers for people with disability in accessing Digital TV:

-Remote controls can be tricky to use for those with disability;
-Electronic programme guides tricky for those with dyslexia;
-Programmes end up marked as 'with audio description' but on E4+1 turn out not to have it;

A: Accept there are some problems

-Digital TV lacks a search facility - would be great if we could get that.

-Standard consumer TV might have software that is not very suitable for those with disabilities - but next generation of Digital TVs are predominantly software. Accessibility features can be added on, for example, linking up a full QWERTY keyboard. And the next generation of digital TV will also have search features. The tools are very customisable.

-Young people are watching TV even less. You need to look at the needs of each user group. When we put National Volunteering Database onto Community Channel it took our developers 8-months to get it working on the platform. It needs to be easier to get content onto those platforms quickly and easily so that the content is there for people to find.