Stuart has written up his thoughts on the session on ‘digital mentors’:

“just a few attributes there and it gets me thinking where are the people with these attributes right now? They’re out there doing the work already! Independently in many cases (and often for free). I see the ’surgeons’ from the social media surgeries who don’t have the weight of targets and crap access / tools and red tape to bog them down. This freedom allows them to do their stuff and it works. “

At the unconference I led a session on “defining digital inclusion” — born out of a long held worry that different people and organisations don’t quite mean the same thing when they talk about digital inclusion.

I talked about how I felt that the definition needed to be platform agnostic, and have room being able to find out how to do something rather than explicitly having a particular skillset. We discussed how it was definitely separate from digital engagment, and how it was often closely connected to social inclusion.

We also looked at how it was placed with the issue of access (both in terms of accessibility and physical access) — we thought that maybe the three are looked at in the wrong order.

Traditionally the problem seems to be trying to be solved in the order:

Access -> Inclusion (skills) -> Engagement (motivation)

but motivation and engagement (which is closely tied with social engagement) is such a strong driver to the skills and to the access that it needs more attention. Engagement isn’t transactional, in the same way that inclusion isn’t tool-based skills — so money (savings!) isn’t a motivation to engage. The group felt that more work towards social engagement was the real driver, that digital isn’t as separate as some approaches seem to be.

Certainly We Share Stuff’s idea is that people learn the tools (and to make decisions about which to use and how) because there is a motivational reason for it. Often we hope that the digital engagement is a driver to wider social engagement too.

I was surprised that we were all pretty much agreed on what we meant by “digital inclusion” — that it was (and this is my wording, worked out now):

the confidence to use technology when appropriate, and to know where to get help if needed

How well does that sit with organisational definitions? Or yours?

Led by Alison V Smith.

Audio from a session on working to digitally include young people — led by Carl Plant, and first, Saul Letourneau:

Antonio Roberts on his unconference:

“Although there are government plans afoot to get more people online in some way (access to TV, PC or mobile phone Internet access) does that mean someone is digitally included? Is it measured by the amount of comments people leave on blogs or if they even have a blog or Internet presence? What does digital mean anyway? Most of the things in my kitchen are in some way digital, so does that mean I’m somehow more digitally included than my neighbour? Also, what about those who just simply have no desire to go onto the Internet?”

Getting to the Unconference

The venue is BVSC in Birmingham City Centre, 5 minutes walk from New Street and Moor Street stations, as well as the new Digbeth Coach Station. Being a Saturday there is some free on-street parking nearby, although there are plenty of paid car parks nearby. BVSC has a small number of free spaces for disabled people visiting by car, these need to be booked in advance. Maps and more details are on the BVSC site.

View Digbeth & Environs in a larger map

What’s an Unconference?

If you’ve not been to an unconference before then this site has some good advice on how they go — in essence we will create the agenda for the day as we go along, with people volunteering to lead sessions and groups splitting up and forming as necessary.

Schedule

9am – Registration and breakfast
9:25am – Welcome
9:30am – 10:45 am Residents University Discussion
10:45am – 11am Session planning
11am – 12pm Morning session 1
12pm – 1pm Morning session 2
1pm – 2pm Lunch break — see this map for the many options nearby
2pm – 3pm Afternoon session 1
3pm – 3:30pm Coffee Break & networking
3:30pm – 4:30pm Afternoon session 2
4:30pm – 5pm Wrap-up

What do I need to bring?

Yourself, a laptop if you want to use one (there will be free wifi) and anything that you may want to use in a session. We’ll have a projector if anyone needs one, but we expect the day to be a bit more informal than that.

If you’d like to make sure there’s an audience for a session you’d like to run, or would like to collaborate — or even organise to share transport on the day why not use the comments here. Look forward to seeing you on the 23rd.

Sponsored by

We’ve happy to announce the details of the Digital Inclusion Unconference. It’ll be held at the BVSC in Birmingham city centre on Saturday 23rd January 2010, (9am – 5pm).

The event is free, thanks to our sponsors — head over to Eventbrite to sign up.

Join We Share Stuff and other people working with those that don’t or can’t take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet for a free unconference. A day of discussion and talks with those developing new practices in Digital Inclusion that will leave you with new ideas to try — and a bulging contact book of like-minded professionals and volunteers.

The Digital Inclusion landscape is changing fast, policy and practise are altering as never before. As we are often working in isolation, despite digital connectivity, it will be valuable to join other practitioners and share more of your ideas and experiences.

It’s a chance to talk not so much about policy — and money which distracts from the work itself at many turns — but about the methods and techniques of how to best help people gain opportunities and abilities — in social, community and employment.

The unconference is a chance to work on the issues from the point of view of the practitioners. In an unconference the venue is the only thing fixed, attendees can create as many sessions as they wish on any topics of their choosing — it’s ideal for an event where sharing of practise and open discussion is the aim.

Taking place in central Birmingham, we expect civic-minded social tech experts, those involved on the ground in communities and Digital Inclusion workers to come together and push the debate forward.

Sponsored by