Everything Everywhere: digital optimism and analogue fear

www.digecon.co.uk

I love that name “Everything Everywhere”, it sings optimism. Better connectivity, more investment in digital infrastructure, more reach, more mobility, faster broadband, more opportunities for connecting people and more creativity, more brilliant shiny stuff. I hear a deep voice, proclaiming “everything everywhere is a service for all citizens” while in the background I imagine a Bladerunner-ish, urban Japanese night scene. Its noticeable that BT is also advertising their expanding  superfast fibreoptic services in sort of Toy Story terms, calling it ‘Infinity’.

I went to hear more about faster and better communications at the Everything Everywhere fringe event at what was an upbeat and optimistic #Lab10 conference.  I listened to Ex shadow cabinet minister for digital stuff Stephen Timms MP talk about the main differences between Conservative and Labour digital policies.  He described his digital optimism in social terms with universal access and digital inclusion or what I would call the real value of superfast broadband.

Richard Rumblelow  from Everything Everywhere went on to describe very well the Orange and T-mobile vision for better national connectivity. They had teamed up to pay for the big infrastructure that was essential for superfast broadband and digital inclusion.  However, he was also realistic about only being able to reach out to two thirds of the population at best. As he was speaking, I wondered what grey clouds were on the horizon for the big four providers Virgin, Everything Everywhere, Talk Talk and BT by way of the De Act, Ofcom and BIS?  You may already know that Talk Talk and BT have a Judicial Review of the DE Act well underway and Talk Talk’s Andrew Heaney has made it clear, he thinks ISPs should not be forced by government to share the cost of policing the internet by sharing the cost of Copyright Inspection Reports (CIRs) with rights holders and the  creative industries.

It’s clear that mobile service providers (and ISPs) are worried about the growing costs of policing the internet as those costs are being passed onto them. There is one area of cost iwhich requires more scrutiny and discussion, it is the rising cost of maintaining data security.  This is because as mobile services are expanded (as analogue TV broadcast frequencys are refarmed) government is placing greater demands on ISPs for better data security (not to mention monitoring and reporting). We are beginning to see  some additional costs attached to providing the infrastructure and emerging technology we want. But  we must ask, are they all really necessary or at very least do they have to be as big ?

Last week the big 4 virgin, BT Sky, Everything Everywhere became even more worried about what else they may be asked to do to polish the tarnished digisphere. The recent evidence is that they are right to worry, as we can see from the mess that is the ACS Law revelations.  Journalists are picking up on what are a range of social, technical and legal time bombs which the DE Act and Ofcom has yet to start dealing with. It is  fairly obvious that the Data Protection Act and Digital Economy Act are poor bed fellows but if you throw in the human Rights Act  you then have a very awkward threesome. Technollama describes the problem better than I can.

Increasingly it looks like we just might not get the sort of internet we really want, well not unless we can all be more digitally optimistic. How can we make sure that we get the balance right between better connectivity with improved collaboration and protecting creativity with improved data security.   Andrew Heaney has an interesting take the digital creativity vs copyright infringement issue. He, (like myself) would opt for a model  with more self-regulation. Without putting words in his mouth, I think he would opt for a more constructive and community approach that is rooted in education. We need a broader more trust based approach if we are to improve our cultural understanding of digital literacy.  It doesn’t matter which prism you see it through social optimism or big society, analogue fear and digital optimism are not well balanced in either view at present.  As Trefor Davis has said the DE Act is just a stick without a carrot while Sir Tim Berners-Lee goes further to describe the DE Act as extreme punishment. Are we just meeting digital challenges with analogue concerns?

I like Donald Clark a digital entrepreneur and e-learning consultant who offers new digital solutions to old analogue problems. I recently heard him talk about sharing knowledge at a Learning Pool event in Edinburgh. He exclaimed, early on in his prsentation that “we are not at war”, meaning we (public services) should not act as if we are. In other words, we do not need so much secrecy, at least between local authorities and government departments. I’m sure he would go further. Extreme? Not really, so much information is still not freely available and there is a work culture of hiding stuff from each other. OK we have FOI requests but these are often expensive for the public purse. I think Donald touches on something deep rooted which is the fears of middle class professionals and two analogue generations (ww2 and the cold war) who still believe knowledge, or as we now know, simple information is power.

It’s very different for  digital generations and in some ways opposite, look at an older meaning of the word ‘collaboration’. As one baby boomer said to me, “collaboration is something my father thought you should be shot for”. The distance between secrecy and collaboration (new meaning) can be seen in our cultural responses to emerging technology and data management. I’m left wondering if government legislation which leads to rising additional costs for improving data security and much more data inspection is perhaps a not a good thing. It is something  born of old fears and new misunderstandings. Is it something we can afford (a bit like old nuclear weapons) at a time when most governments in Europe are cost cutting, managing deficits and promoting digital optimism for digital solutions?

Advertisement