By Maximilian Clarke
The UK’s Digital Champion, Martha Lane Fox, is urging regular surfers to lend an hour of their time to help those who have never used the internet to get online.
More than half of the UK’s population now use, and benefit from, the internet on a daily basis. And as more and more services become dependent on the web, the 8.7 million across the UK who have never surfed are at risk of becoming increasingly isolated from society.
Many Britons unfamiliar with the internet fall into economically or socially disadvantaged groups and are unable to take advantage of savings from online retail or from public services including cheaper television licensing through direct debits. It this aspect of ‘digital exclusion’ that Lane-Fox, with the backing of David Cameron and the Coalition Government, aims to eliminate as part of her Race Online 2012 campaign.
In her latest blog posting on her website, Lane Fox encouraged readers to help get more people online, as a part of wrote: On 30 October the clocks go back and everyone in the UK will gain an extra hour. But what does this mean? An extra hour in bed? Or the chance to change someone’s life? Our latest campaign will run from 24 October - 12 November, and I’ve been told you’ll have to live under a rock to miss it. ‘Go ON Give an Hour ’ is a campaign devoted to inspiring, encouraging and supporting the UK to become a truly networked nation!
High streets and local communities across the country will see the likes of Three, TalkTalk, Mecca Bingo, John Lewis, Job Centre Plus, Post Offices, Libraries, Unionlearn, The Scouts, Age UK and Wetherspoon’s pubs throw open their doors and encourage their staff to Give an Hour and show people how magic the web really is. Local Schools are being encouraged to get involved too!
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