Digital Britain: The Final Report

Written by Colin Pattinson

On June 15^th, Lord Carter's report "Digital Britain" was published, setting out the challenges in developing a networked infrastructure to give everyone in the UK access to internet and other online resources via a range of digital technologies. The potential is enormous, consumers gaining greater variety and choice of content; producers being able to access a larger market; technologists meeting exciting new challenges in design, delivery and implementation. Since publication, there has been much comment about the likelihood of the actions outlined in the report being implemented in the light of the forthcoming general election. A personal view is that there is much in the report which simply has to be put in place in order for the U.K. to have any prospect of even standing still, and that the general direction and requirements laid out are fundamental to the development of a 21^st century economy, therefore much of the thrust of the report will remain valid, irrespective of the colour of the next government. The report presents a powerful social and economic case for supporting the creative and productive opportunities presented by the digital economy, and to develop the skills required to function in the digital world. The content and context of the report is particularly pertinent, since it offers a near-perfect match with the breadth and depth of work of the Faculty of Information & Technology (Innovation North) at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Central to the report is the need to educate and inform all who come into contact with the infrastructure of Digital Britain (meaning everybody). Some will need the high level technical skills necessary to develop and maintain the complex technologies involved; others, advanced creative skills to produce the content. The expectation is that Universities will play a major part in developing these skills, indeed they are called upon to do so, with support for new and refocused programmes in these "priority areas".  We will also need teaching and learning materials to allow "ordinary" users to gain the maximum benefit from such technology.

The education and research potential goes far beyond the boundaries of technology, calling for greater understanding of the social impacts of an on-line society; for exploration of the interaction between organisational control and individual responsibility; and for exploitation of the potential for sharing and interacting in ways previously impossible.

The report identifies a major skills shortage, suggesting that 130,000 new entrants to the technology sector will be required each year for the next decade, and that 84,000 extra people with digital media skills will be needed by 2017. Currently 20% of employers in the technology sector and ½ of those in digital media are experiencing recruitment difficulties. The report gives some detail about this shortage, and indicates why some current graduate-level programs are not meeting that gap: the overwhelming need is for people who are able to offer a combination of business and creative skills with the in-depth technical abilities needed to drive the sector forward. Many existing HE programmes are perceived not to do that. Perhaps surprisingly, this demand has - until very recently - not led to a growth in interest from students applying for technical courses (particularly in the broad area of computing) at HE level. On the contrary, demand declined during the first five years of the century; we are now seeing an increase in demand in this sector, an increase likely to be encouraged by other government initiatives - including recognition in the Digital Britain report that active support for this growth is essential.

As a faculty, Innovation North is very well placed to address many of these demands; there is a very close match between the priorities in the report and the courses and activities which we undertake, for example:

• Development of the combination of skills and talent in technical areas with business and creative skills is a key feature of much of our curriculum, especially our project activities
• Apprenticeship and internship programs which we have supported for many years through our industrial placement activity.
• Skills in networking technology are a significant part of our BSc Computing and MSc Mobile and Distributed Computer Networks awards.
• Creation and development of content, as practiced in our BSc media awards and our MSc Web Applications Development and MSc Creative Connections awards
• Security and cyber crime prevention, as practiced on our BSc Computer Forensics and our new BSc in Computer Security and Ethical Hacking
• A requirement to manage and monitor the performance and behaviour of the IT infrastructure, a long-standing research and technical strength
• Ongoing requirements for development and training, for which our Northern Technology Institute (nti) is exceptionally well placed.
• The need for recycling and disposal of obsolete IT equipment is identified, an area which INN academic and technical staff are leading within the University - both in practical operation and as a field of teaching and research
• The deployment (and use) of smart meter technology to monitor and control energy use is another area in which INN researchers are active
• The identification of so-called "not-spots" (areas out of reach of conventional wired technology) and the use of wireless systems to address this. INN academics supervised an award-winning student who developed just such a wireless network for their community, and a current JANET (UK) funded project is also exploring delivering wireless support to out of reach locations.
• The commitment to "technology neutral" implementation (although here related primarily to the network infrastructure) fits well with our long standing commitment to Open Source principles
• The importance of enabling digital participation for those with disabilities is an area which INN researchers have been active for a number of years

• The likely development of cloud computing as the envisaged mechanism for much of the delivery of Government services is an area in which INN researchers, with colleagues from the University of Leeds, are actively developing research.

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