The Minister explores the digital challenge competition articulating the criteria for selecting the winner as well as how she sees the competition impacting digital and thus socio-economic inclusion in the long run
Q1 Could you tell us a little about what you are seeking to achieve through the Digital Challenge?
We set out (in around December 2005) with a number of objectives for the Digital Challenge. As the second action point of the Digital Strategy (which is currently under review) the Challenge needed to represent a real life manifestation of what a fully inclusive, digitally enabled community would look like.
There was a desire to join the dots of existing initiatives from across the sectors, to galvanise new and existing partnerships and to turn their collective focus to those individuals facing disadvantage in communities.
Since then, we have seen the announcement of Sunderland City Council as the Digital Challenge winner - who throughout the process exemplified best practice in community engagement and development. They start the implementation of their vision in the coming months and they'll be sharing their experiences as they go.
In addition to this, we've seen all 10 bidding partnerships evolve from competitors into collaborators and, in recognition that what they represent as a whole is greater than the sum of their parts, they have created the DC10 - an association aimed at taking forward their collective visions to eradicate digital exclusion and achieve economies of scale through joint working. We awarded the DC10 £2m in recognition of their commitment, focus and enthusiasm they have expressed through the Challenge.
How the DC10 move forward will be decided by the DC10 at a meeting later this month. But to return to the original question, if we look at the objectives of the Challenge - to stimulate innovation both in application of technology and in galvanising activity and partnerships to tackle social and digital exclusion - we have to claim success!
Q2 What qualities where you looking for in a digital challenge bid and what do you feel was significant about the eventual winner?
The key criteria for selecting the winner were:
- Social Exclusion & Innovation - demonstrate innovative application of ICT to tackle issues relating to social exclusion
- Transformation – present a vision which allowed a solid opportunity to accelerate/implement the transformational government strategy (placing the users at the centre of service design/delivery; creating efficiencies through streamlined services etc)
All bids were also judged on:
- Community Development/Engagement – demonstrating that their vision had been a collaborative, co-design process with those who would be affected by its implementation
- Skills & Capacity – their ability to implement and disseminate their vision
- Partnerships – the bidding partnership ‘make up’ in terms of multi-sector engagement and collaboration
- Technical – the technical feasibility and risks of implementing the vision
- Environmental Impact – evaluating whether the partnership was using this to create more environmentally sustainable patterns of living and working and could demonstrate the environmental footprint of implementing their vision
- UK Exemplar- which judged whether the bidding partnership had the capacity, drive and vision to become an exemplar for all UK local authorities
The Sunderland bid was chosen as the winner as they met all the criteria outlined above and in addition, consistently demonstrated an impressive level of community engagement throughout the entire bidding process. This puts them at the forefront in resolving important issues for local strategic partnerships and the communities they serve
Q3 Do you agree that digital inclusion is the major challenge in bringing the benefits of Transformational Government to our wider society and what would you like to see local authorities do to overcome this?
It is one of the challenges. I'd like to see local authorities:
- Engage with people: find out what their needs are and what problems they face. Just like Sunderland did with its winning Digital Challenge bid.
- Build partnerships: with other LAs (learn from others' best practice); UK online centres for local IT access and service delivery; the third sector (to access excluded people and learn more about their needs and what works); the private sector (to investigate all relevant ICT options that could aid transformational service delivery)
- Innovate and evaluate: support and encourage new approaches to service delivery for excluded people. Take some risks. Mainstream what works.
Q4. In the long-term, what impact would you like to see from efforts to foster greater digital inclusion?
Using the work of the DC10, our aim is to continue to collaborate and support all sectors of the community and industry in the UK to drive this critical agenda forward. Using the excellent work that has already started, we see technology as an enabling and empowering device that will continue to enhance and improve the lives of all our citizens, especially those who have traditionally suffered social exclusion in the past.