Martha Lane-Fox introduces the Digital Unite Academy

Digital Unite Academy offers a Digital Champion ITQ (accredited by city & guilds) for people who are interested in helping other people to learn the computer. Martha Lane-Fox introduces the Digital Unite Academy in this little video. I agree with her that most people are not aware of the benefits of what you can do online and that it is people power what would bring more people online. Am just surprised to find that she's worried whether she's going to pass the ITQ course - not sure how encouraging this is.

Race Online 2012

They had their manifesto published in July 2011 which I only just read. Generally I agree that there would be a benefit for people to 'being connected', but I don't necessarily agree with the benefits they list: education, employment and improved government efficiency which effectively means reducing telephone or face-to-face contact - the latter basically a cost cutting exercise.

The report further lists the benefits for older people as: "Getting older people online is a cost effective way of improving their standard of living." - they give examples of how a household can save money by using online services and how older people can connect socially by going online.
However, they don't seem to mention anywhere in the report the troubles one can have with a computer (hardware and software) as well as the problems one can have with password management, or the security of using e.g. banking services in a public space like a library.

Read the report here