Priorities for the UK Governments Digital Inclusion Task Force
humanITy Paper
Date: 16/06/2009
Article
Background
As I have just been appointed to the UK Government's Digital Inclusion Task Force, the following is a summary of the major topics with which I will be engaged, with three, marked with asterisks, being given the most attention.
1. Cui Bono?
Does the Government want people to go online to save it money or for their own good? If the former, it needs to simplify its systems, if the latter, it needs to explain how the 'final third' can benefit.
1.1 Simplification *
The Government has been subjected to numerous IT failures because of the misguided attempt to automate Byzantine analogue processes. Until the Government radically simplifies, it will:
- Pay twice for services (analogue and digital)
- Suffer IT failure
- Limit accessibility
There is a strong symbiosis between simplification and accessibility and simplification and cost-cutting. The savings are such that potential 'losers' from broader classifications could have their benefits rounded up or their liabilities rounded down. In other words, there would still be massive net savings after adjustments.
1.2 Marketing.
It isn't obvious to me what the 'final third' would get out of going online until such time as it offers something which television and call centres don't offer.
It is still, in almost all cases, much quicker to complete a transaction with a call centre than online; and although the latter is cheaper, the time factor frequently over-rides cost. There is also a high rate of task incompletion online.
2. Platform Neutrality *
As the PC keyboard is non intuitive, and as much of the near monopoly OS and applications of Microsoft are pretty poor, we need to abandon PC, client-side bias in favour of:
- Platform Neutrality: most of the people we want to e-include can send and receive text messages
- Server Side Applications: broadband makes a nonsense of the Microsoft near monopoly client side model; server side systems can provide a central point for
- upgrading
- security
- accessibility
- child protection
- virus elimination
- spam filtering
- Training Free Systems: training/skills acquisition is a cost transfer from producers to consumers; procurement should be used to specify simpler systems that require less training; and systems that provide more accessibility. Proper user requirements specifications are a necessary precondition for effective procurement.
3. Regulation
Content regulation is still in media silos; it needs to be merged and take on board the strengths of each medium:
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines
- Broadcasting legislation
- DVD industry good practice.
4. Control Switch
The ISPs (or their successors) will ultimately have to take responsbility for:
- Accessibility
- Security
- Child proection (See: 2. Platform Neutrality: Broadband). pl
5. End-to-end
As the use of a system involves the processes of production, transmission, reception and processing, the current exemption of user interfaces from legislation on accessibility and usability does not make any sense. As this is governed by an EU Directive, change will be difficult.
6. Copyright Barriers.
Coyright is an anachronistic mess; and DRM is building on some of its worst excesses.
7. Creativity *
The emphasis in the eInclusion debate has been so strongly on the ability of people to access and process top/down information from Government and business, that there has been little attention paid to the accessibility and usability of digital creative tools.