Peter Orne Broadband Wireless Communities Blog

On Digital Inclusion, Could Bush Learn from Blair?

The W2i Digital Cities Convention in London (Sept. 25–26, 2006) offers a rare opportunity for local-government field practitioners and industry representatives from the U.K., the U.S., and Europe to compare notes and explore the range of sustainable broadband-wireless deployment models for digital inclusion and better-managed cities and communities.

In the preface to “Connecting the UK,” an April 2005 report from Prime Minister Tony Blair's Digital Strategy Unit, Blair issues a “Digital Challenge” to communities around the U.K.—“an exciting opportunity for local-authority partnerships to develop and showcase really innovative ways of modernising public services and engaging the hard-to-reach with the digital world.”

Trumpeted by the highest figure in the land, the Digital Challenge warmly encourages communities to strategize on digital inclusion and the improvement of services to citizens.

By contrast, in the United States, cities and communities are mostly left to themselves in their search for inspiration to affordably meet their broadband connectivity and digital-inclusion objectives.

A positive result of this is that the United States has emerged as a large testing ground for sustainable deployment of broadband-wireless applications and services. The debate over these, even in advanced countries like the U.K., seems less evolved.

At the same, the United States remains roundly criticized for its global slide in the broadband penetration rankings.

Could a systematic effort from the Bush Administration encourage local communities to seize the promise of broadband wireless with more self-assurance?

A U.S. initiative similar to the U.K.’s seems unlikely. The U.K. effort is modeled on the highly successful European City of Culture of competition and offers prize money. In the U.S., an offer of prize money from the White House to encourage digital inclusion seems outright alien.

Still, it’s worth taking a look at how the U.K. scheme works. Local communities were invited to set forth their vision of a connected, more inclusive digital community. Eighteen regional winners were chosen from 79 entries, and on July 12 at a ceremony in London—complete with infectious house music, purple flashing lights, and a broadcast-journalist host—10 finalists were given £120,000 to carry their visions forward. Next January, one of these finalists will win a grand prize of £7 million and international prestige as a showcase digital city.

Clearly for the U.K., this is all about momentum-building, drawing its creative energy from Europe. “The first Digital Challenge competition is intended to kickstart and stimulate the process,” said Department for Communities & Local Government Minister Angela Smith at the ceremony. “As such, all of the 18 regional winners here today reflect some of the best digital visions that we’ve seen so far.”

An attractive Web site summarizes the fascinating array of city and county proposals with links to each bid (http://www.digitalchallenge.gov.uk/ ).

For these and dozens of other communities around the U.K., the W2i Digital Cities Convention in London (Sept. 25–26) is a further opportunity to build on the Digital Challenge momentum through best-practice sharing and discussion with participants from across the Atlantic and the Channel.

For example, in the U.K., government won’t likely be able to fund broadband digital inclusion projects indefinitely, and local authorities will want to learn the best ways to partner with service providers, especially if and when government purse strings tighten. Local authorities need to develop a business plan, and service providers need to engage cities.

In the United States, certainly thousands of local communities would likely welcome a Digital Challenge similar to Prime Minister Blair’s. It’s less about the prize money, after all, and more about permission to dream big. By examining many of the RFPs coming over the transom in 2006, there’s a strong sense now that communities can do so and, in a way, have come in out of the cold.

But a question remains: Why were they out there to begin with?

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