Please familiarise yourself with all exits...

Welcome to my brand spanking new blog about my experience and reflections from around 10 years working on digital inclusion. It’s an area that has changed hugely since 2007, and will continue to evolve. However the popular conversations around digital inclusion often haven’t caught up, and it’s time we had more nuanced discussions …and goals. The current drive to move services and service users online is in danger of drowning these issues; I hope this blog can be part of widening the conversation.

When we talk about digital inclusion, and (perhaps crucially) when we look at funding for digital inclusion, the goal is generally stated the same way; “to get people online”. Of course this is a key part of what should be the goal, but often it has had the effect of detracting from the actual goal; “everyone to be online”.

If you work at the coalface of digital inclusion now, you probably have already noticed a change in the last decade – more and more you will notice that learners are less and less “nevers”, and more and more are “ex”. Many of the digitally excluded now have been online at some stage for some period, but they have been unable/unwilling to maintain it for a variety of reasons.

Reasons that digital inclusion has to look at and devote more resource to, if we want to help people both get online and stay on. There is no sense in putting money, time and effort into getting people connected if people pull the plug - or have it pulled for them.

You can't fill a hall through the front door, if the back doors are open. Often digital inclusion effort is complicit in subsequent problems by being too limited in its aspirations.

I present the four "F"s:

Fear

Many users are put off continuing to use the internet because of fear. Thanks to telephone scams, hacks like the Talk Talk scandal, and reams of other news about the rise of cyber-crime, many conclude the internet is not for them any more. Fear of what may happen, or fear their computer has already been compromised and is no longer secure, is leading many of the less confident to put their laptop into a cupboard or the attic or just give it away. Some have actually been a victim of ID fraud, or attempted fraud once and decide they don't want to be again. For many, managing the security of their PC is something they have little or no confidence in doing.

Failures

Some are confident despite problems, but encountering problems can still prevent them getting online. For example, one very resilient learner I saw a little while ago, had had her son (on the autistic spectrum) bring her laptop to a standstill through malware from torrenting. She was simply unable to fix it herself or afford to pay someone else to fix it. A fix is fairly easy and free but a lot of people don't have the skills to find the solution or do it themselves. Equally many people don't have access to a rainy day fund when their device does become a barrier rather than a help to getting online.

Faff

It's hard to argue navigating the internet is not getting more complex. Password rules are getting more and more demanding, people are needing more and more different accounts (and using more and more passwords with different rules) and ID verification methods are proliferating almost as fast as scams it seems sometimes.

My building society now requires me to be a junior Alan Turing, deciphering grid references from a small thin plastic (and very losable) card to enter in verification numbers to log in or do anything else (not to mention use a cryptic pre-set "Web ID" login name that is impossible to remember). Meanwhile my bank has supplied me with a miniature Enigma machine for all new transactions. The risk and the difficulty of providing security online keep being firmly placed in the hands of the consumer and this will prove too much for some.

Funds

Underlying and contributing to many issues of course is money. Fixing problems is a cost barrier to many who are not confident to fix their computer issues themselves, but the cost of being online itself can be difficult to maintain for those who are having to prioritise their spending. Of course, we know that people can actually be better off financially by being online, but for many that message hasn’t yet gotten through, and/or their skills aren’t yet sufficient to realise savings, even those who are online.

Not only that, but getting online can be an expensive business for the many who are not well equipped to navigate the tricksy world of broadband and mobile pricing strategies where price hikes are the norm. Costs can be under £15/mth for the most savvy, maybe even less, but many find themselves stranded on a deal of £30-40/mth and it can become a cost they decide to do without.

Lower costs are most often achieved by cashback offers etc., but many find it hard to then find the higher monthly sums that the initial cashback lump sum offsets and comparing deals can be hard without a spreadsheet. One recent deal brought the monthly cost down from £29.99/mth to under £14/mth for 12mths after cashback, for example. Ofgem has been tackling the opaque world of electricity/gas tariffs in recent times, in my opinion it’s high time that Ofcom did the same for internet.

The Government’s recently unveiled digital strategy promises “access to affordable broadband for all” – this is a promise to be welcomed, but of course it is open to a wide range of interpretations; I hope it will provide genuinely affordable results for people on low incomes ...and with a simple to understand pricing structure.

We can't do much about what would often be the best solutions, systemic change; but there are ways we can minimise the impact of these issues. More in future posts, thanks for reading...