The Digital Unite Blog

Once upon a time, tracing family ancestry was a huge undertaking that involved physically visiting libraries and archives around the country – in some cases, around the world – and years of detailed research.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of websites that bring together census information and access to archives allowing people with just a basic knowledge of their own background to build a hugely comprehensive picture. The 1911 census of England and Wales alone contains over 16 million documents. Read the rest of this entry »

Digital Unite works closely with social housing providers to help residents get online.

In partnership with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) we recently delivered the 12-month Government-funded Get Digital programme for older residents living in socially owned sheltered housing.

This successful initiative provided learning programmes in 196 sheltered housing schemes and provided access to learning resources, guidance and support for a further 300 schemes.

We also deliver community learning programmes and our award winning Spring Online with Silver Surfers’ Day campaign.

Our second Social Housing Forum

Through this work we have developed positive, long-standing relationships with housing providers, working together to tackle digital inclusion in the social housing arena.

Read the rest of this entry »

We were interested to read a report this week that only a quarter of people aged over 55 years bank online. The research, released by PayYourway.org.uk, showed that whilst 71% of users aged over 55 feel confident about making online transactions, only one in four (25%) had tried managing their money through online banking.

Earlier this year, we were told by our own sample of internet users aged over 55 that for 86% being online has improved their lives with a key reason being that they can do things quicker (71%). Long queues at banks or the hassle and cost of posting cheques can be easily avoided with the click of a button.

However we also know that for many security fears and identify theft as a result of internet transactions is still a major concern and the thought of laying personal account details to bear on a computer screen is probably a step too far right now.

People also still want and need the interaction with service providers and a trip to their bank, for which many have a well-worn relationship, can fulfil that desire. Certainly at Digital Unite we don’t believe the internet should be an exclusive tool that negates the need for human contact but should instead be used to enhance day-to-day living.

That said as the modern age is increasingly demanding and incentivising people to engage with products and services in a cost-effective and time-efficient way being online is becoming an essential requirement for everyone. And here’s where organisations such as ours come in.

Having worked with the over 55s for the last 15 years we know that the process of engagement isn’t one that can be hurried or enforced – a slow, measured and supportive approach is essential to ensure that once older people experience life online they remain interested and willing to explore further. Maybe that’s through supporting self-learning, or through providing tuition, local support or formally trained mentors, one size certainly does not fit all.

Our research sample also told us that being online makes them feel more like part of modern society (81%). More work at both a national and local level must be done to ensure many other thousands of older people not yet using the internet have the chance to feel like that too.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure and privilege to chair the first Digital Inclusion Working Group as part of the DWP’s Age Action Alliance initiative.  

Officially launched at the end of September, the Age Action Alliance is a partnership of organisations drawn from civil society and the public and private sectors who work together to celebrate and improve the lives of older people and their contribution to society.

My role as the lead for digital inclusion involved convening a Group of great people, known to me and to Digital Unite for many years, who I knew were interested and willing to dig deep into what digital inclusion for the older person really means and consider what difference they and the Group as a whole might make in tackling this long-standing issue.

With a good mix of representatives ranging from the ILCUK, Independent Age and Age UK to Which, Microsoft and Three we started with a frank discussion about the purpose and intention of a digital inclusion working group. It was important to everyone that the Group should only continue to exist if there were clear and tangible outputs. It’s ‘doing the do’ that we are really interested in, not endless talking shops.

With a resounding agreement that the Group could make a difference in some way we spent much time exploring and ranking the benefits of digital inclusion of the older person and the benefits of digital inclusion of older people to the rest of society.  Being connected, empowered and entertained were the key reasons for the individual, for society equal opportunities, improving contact and relationships with others and enabling innovation were high on the list.

Working through these issues, we arrived at four clear vision statements for the Group. These statements describe what we feel digital inclusion for older people should lead to – for older people and for society more widely:

1. Belong, communicate, connect
2. One society
3. To enable people to participate as engaged and equal citizens
4. Able, empowered and connected

So that’s all well and good but what now? In my role as Chair, and based on many years’ of experience with forums and initiatives such as these, I am really determined that this Group makes something happen that has an actual outcome. I was really pleased that those around the table were also very determined to work together to deliver tangible change. Having started the meeting with a completely blank piece of paper, we had managed by the end of it to define both common interest and clarify our desires and aspirations into four statements. It gives us a starting place from which to now delve into the detail.

So we will reconvene on Tuesday 13 December with some additional and warmly welcomed new members. At that meeting we will, I hope, choose to focus on achieving one of our vision statements and decide how we turn an aspiration into a reality – what does this look like and mean in practice and on the ground? What will be needed, when, how and by whom, to deliver it? We will also need to decide how we will measure the Group’s success and impact, and also start a collective audit of as many older people and digital technology initiatives/campaigns/projects/services as we can so we are not working in splendid isolation.

I look forward to reporting back.  If this update has sparked interest, and you’d like to join the Group and can make Tuesday 13 December in London, please do get in touch with me emma.solomon@digitalunite.com

Emma Solomon,

Managing Director for Digital Unite

This week as part of the BBC and Race Online 2012 campaign ‘Give an Hour’*, two of our Digital Unite team, one of our tutors, Brian Eisenberg, and our Business Development Manager, Kathy Valdes gave a few of their hours to help residents at a local sheltered housing scheme experience shopping online for the first time.

Here Brian gives us his account of how it all went:

‘On Monday 17 October, a group online shopping session was held at The Poplars, one of the Affinity Sutton housing schemes in Borehamwood, Herts. 

‘Thirteen residents with limited or no computer experience came along with their shopping list in hand to buy some household essentials. Over the course of three hours we helped to dispel a few fears by showing the group how to be safe online, how to understand the use of credit cards on the internet and how to shop at a virtual supermarket.

‘A BBC reporter from Three Counties Radio was there to interview the participants and record their experiences first-hand. More than 40 grocery items were purchased and successfully delivered by a well-known supermarket two days later, again under the watchful eye of the BBC. Even better, there was only one requested item that wasn’t delivered and that was a bottle of wine which was replaced with a much better quality substitute so no-one complained!

‘The team at Affinity Sutton generously donated a digital camera as a free raffle prize to one lucky resident and the winner chose the camera online which was then immediately ordered for delivery direct to his home! Not a bad result for an afternoon.

‘It was great to see the reaction from the residents and to hear comments such as “I’m encouraged to get my typing and mouse skills up-to-scratch”, “I now have less fear to use the internet for shopping” and “I won’t need to risk going out in the snow and ice simply to fill my fridge”.

‘We hope that by spending just a few hours with the residents in this way it will inspire them to keep learning about the world of opportunities that being online offers and better still, encourage Affinity Sutton to continue to support them with these activities.’

*The Give an Hour campaign takes place between 22 October – 12 November when the clocks go back and is aimed at encouraging people ‘to give an hour’ to help other people get online.

For more help and advice on internet shopping, why not visit our Learning Zone for free and straightforward guides about shopping and banking online.

The latest version of the iPhone (confusingly often dubbed the ‘iPhone 5’ in the run up to today’s official announcement but actually called the iPhone 4S) is to be released in the UK on 14 October, 2011. If you’re yet to join the world of smartphones, our Learning Zone guides could help explain some of this jargon.

The new handset looks very similar on the outside to the existing iPhone (the iPhone 4) but has had much tinkering under the bonnet.

Read the rest of this entry »

Right in time for Christmas, online giant Amazon has announced a far cheaper rival to Apple’s iPad and other tablet computers like the Samsung Galaxy.

The Kindle Fire will sell in America for $199 (£127) with a release date of 15 November. Although pre-ordering is only available in the US currently, commentators predict a UK release date to be announced ready for Christmas demand.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you have visited Facebook today, you may have noticed some changes. Even without logging out and logging back in, the new layout and extra features should have appeared on your profile. Early reactions suggest it’s a ‘Marmite’ move, with many detractors as well as fans.

To help you navigate the new, here is our guide to the main changes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you to the hundreds of people who entered to win an Emporia RL1 mobile phone with Vodafone ‘pay as you go’ SIM.

We have picked a winner at random, so without further ado… congratulations to Jackie O’Neill of Middlesex. Well done Jackie, your new mobile phone will be sent out to you next week.

If you’d like to learn more about the Emporia RL1, please see our recent review.

If you’re interested in learning about smartphones, we have a wide range of simple guides.

For a number of years now, Digital Unite has worked closely with many social housing providers to help their residents get online via both our community learning programmes and our award winning Spring Online with Silver Surfers’ Day campaign which has seen participation by housing communities increase year-on-year. Indeed we’re delighted to note that Housing 21 and Home Group are both winning finalists in this year’s Spring Online Best Event awards.

Through this work we have developed positive, long-standing relationships with our housing friends which have supported many a fruitful discussion on how to tackle the ongoing problem of digital inclusion in the social housing arena.

With some new and innovative plans afoot, firstly with the our formal Digital Champions training and by taking a lead on exploring the procurement agenda, we recently called upon some of these friends to discuss these initiatives, and the context in which they are offered. The Digital Unite Social Housing Forum was born.

16 social housing providers took part representing a third of a million resident or tenant properties, with support from Race Online 2012, UK online centres and Microsoft. It was clear that the existing level of digital inclusion activities varies among providers, with around half of the providers having tenants with little or no computer and internet access and slightly more than half having tenant access for 60% of the time. Two-thirds of providers had a good digital inclusion strategy in place, a third didn’t but all agreed that it was a priority for their future.

The issue of training staff and tenants was discussed and the challenges faced, which included trying to sustain volunteers to train as digital champions and then providing continuity once the initial training had been given. Possible solutions to combat this included employing a permanent trainer or staff co-ordinator so as to be less reliant on volunteers or using student volunteers.  

Digitalising all invoices, running self-train volunteering programmes and taking part in wider campaigns such as ‘Adopt a Care Home’ were just some of the positive activities being implemented or considered.

In terms of wider procurement the appetite by the group to pursue this further was significant; to garner interest from technology providers and understand what they could offer and how these offers could be co-ordinated to help digitally enable tenants on a national scale. This wouldn’t be delivered in isolation but as part of a wider creative solutions package to help influence overall cultural change.

Our new Digital Champions ITQ formal training was received with interest and many recognised its far-reaching benefits from an initial low level investment. Some wasted no time in signing up to the pilot.

So, as a Forum we started well and our thanks go out to all those who took part and whose contribution was invaluable. We will be reconvening the group in November at which we, as Digital Unite, hope to report back on some positive steps taken over the coming weeks and to continue to devise and deliver real solutions to tackle the issues of social exclusion in the housing sector. If you would like to find out more or get involved then why not drop us a line at du@digitalunite.com.