Bristol plays host to Martha Lane Fox – the Government’s Digital Inclusion Champion

by Stephen Hilton on July 29, 2009 · View Comments

Martha Lane FoxConnecting Bristol is delighted that Martha Lane Fox, Digital Inclusion Champion and co-founder of LastMinute.com,  will be visiting Bristol on Friday to find out more about the city’s work on Digital Inclusion and to help formulate ideas for the Government’s new Digital Inclusion Task Force, which Martha Chairs.

Twitter was instrumental in arranging the visit – Martha twittered her desire to visit Bristol, and with support from Ellie Stonely, the  DC10’s Twitter Guru, Connecting Bristol responded and made the necessary arrangements.

When in Bristol, Martha will visit the Council House, Watershed and Knowle West Media Centre.

She will meet the Council’s Chief Exec and Leader, Bristol Media, Futurelab, i-Shed, Pure Ability,  Bristol Wireless and DC10 colleagues amongst others.

At Knowle West Media Centre, Martha will meet local people involved in Neighbourhood Carbon Makeover, Knowle West Web and South Bristol Digital Neighbourhoods.

This visit is not a showy press event.  It is an opportunity for conversation and debate.  We are, however, delighted that Martha has agreed for the young people from e-Shed to film a video interview.

Many thanks to Rebecca King from Atnigone for helping to arrange this.

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Tagged as: Bristol, City Council, Connecting Bristol, DC10, digital, digital inclusion, government, ICT

  • You may not have heard of software.coop because we're only small, although we've been running 7 years now. I think you should have heard of Cooperatives-SW, the regional cooperative body, representing hundreds of members with thousands of workers and billions of turnover.

    I'll ask around and see if we could host a regional event, although our offices aren't suitable. Maybe our fellow co-op cubecinema.com could help us - what are the typical numbers and what topics do you think would be interesting for a regional event?
  • Stephen Hilton
    MJ Ray - Pete Ferne from Bristol Wireless attended. Martha particularly liked Peter's 'broadband hair' and, of course, his fab presentation about Bristol Wireless :-)

    The South West Regional Development Agency stopped funding Connecting South West some time ago. We keep it alive best we can. Devon CC hosted the last meeting a few weeks ago on Dartmoor!

    I have not come across your organisation before. As Co-ops, maybe you and Bristol Wireless (and others?) could host a regional event? Happy to discuss this when I get back from leave at the end of the month

    regards
    Stephen
  • That would be cool. City-centring is inevitable if you've only a few hours, but those from outside can travel if we hear about it. I've been in touch with our friends at the Bristol Wireless community co-op, but the first person I spoke to didn't know about the visit.

    I'm working in North Somerset for a social enterprise and it feels like we fall through the gaps here. Should I be looking to Connecting Somerset, Connecting Bristol or Connecting South West?

    Neither Connecting Somerset or Connecting Bristol claim to cover this area as far as I've seen, while ConnectingSW.net's last web update seems to have been in Feb 2008 and their forum is full of World of Warcraft linkspam. I'll drop them an email - do you know if they're alive?
  • Stephen Hilton
    Sorry MJ Ray if you feel rural areas have been over looked. That was not our intention.

    Connecting Bristol is a member and strong supporter of the Connecting South West network, which links Bristol with ICT partnerships in Devon, Somerset, Cornwall etc. The national Dc10plus network, of which Bristol is a founder member, represents the interests of urban and rural areas in Digital Inclusion. Steve Dodson, the DC10plus Director made this point to Martha LF during her visit.

    Whilst there is a limit to how much we could fit into a couple of hours with Martha, I am hopeful that we will have an onging dialogue with Martha and the task force. Perhaps we can invite you along next time?

    Stephen
  • I only just saw this because one of the blog feeds for connectingbristol (RSS 0.92) is broken. Disappointed that we couldn't bring some of the points from the Greater Bristol area to this. Is Digital Inclusion only for the big cities?
  • Stephen Hilton
    Hi Ellie, Martha was great. The Government seem to have appointed the right person at the right time!

    For me, it was good to get many of the Bristol Digital movers and shakers together in the same room. However, it was Knowle West and Mil's "delicious technology" that stole the show... no argument that local champions is where the energy and enthusiasm for Digital Inclusion really is... just need to find a way to nurture, support and share it
  • Thanks Stephen! :)
  • Stephen Hilton
    Welcome to Bristol Rosie - great photos!
  • Sounds exciting! We just moved to Bristol and are loving the opportunities here to network with others via twitter etc. Looking forward to seeing what the future holds!
  • Thanks Stephen for the 'guru' status!!

    Looking forward to hearing more about the visit today am sure that Martha's enthusiasm for the 'people' aspect of Digital Inclusion will be further 'topped up' by all you have been doing in Bristol.

    If anybody wants to follow the DC10plus network on Twitter it is http://www.twitter.com/dc10plusnetwork
    and my own account is
    http://www.twitter.com/e11ie5

    Another useful site for those interested in Digital Inclusion or Digital Engagment is http://digitalengagement.org/ and its interactive ning site http://net.digitalengagement.org/
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