There’s so much to think about in this talk by Martha Lane Fox (or watch here). She’s calling for a new ‘institution’ (Dot Everyone) to shepherd Britain into becoming the pioneers of the Digital World. To counteract the problems and imbalances we’re facing.
It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here’s some snippets that stuck out to me.
Education:
It’s that simple, whoever you are. Whether you run a large organisation. Or a country:
“It’s not ok not to understand the Internet anymore.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re 80 or eight, if you’re online once a year or once a minute. Understanding where the internet came from and what it can do will help you make more sense of the world.
The lack of diversity in tech industries:
Do you think Apple would have released its much anticipated ‘Health’ kit without the ability to track periods if there’d been a woman high-up in the organisation? I don’t.
(I never even thought of that… And that’s symptomatic of the problem we’re facing new with no diversity in software engineering.)
What better way could there be to give the UK a huge leap in technology, than to inject those voices that are currently underrepresented?
Ethical and moral issues:
Do children need different rights online?
What are the implications of wearable technology? Of an Internet embedded in devices in your home?
How do we make sure that ‘smart cities’ are projects for the public good not just private profit?
How should we prepare for the so called ‘second machine age’ and the increased use of robots?
If you agree that these are problems worth solving, please sign the petition.
We created some of the greatest institutions of the 20th century – the BBC, the Open University and the NHS. We must be able to do the same for the 21st century.
It’s not beyond our collective ability to nail this.
Just think about, I know I get excited. I don’t want to get carried away, but it could be our generation’s moon-landing, our Great Exhibition, our Festival of Britain.
