(pic: ajmexico, Flickr)

Digital Unite website reader Jeremy Hall was inspired to write in after receiving our January newsletter. He told us that he had recently been offered help using a personal computer booth at a library due to his age. Far from being a newcomer, Jeremy had been using computers since the 1960s. Here, in this guest blog post, he tells us how computers revolutionised his work and changed his life for the better.

I began using computers on January 21,1967. I remember it well as I was petrified but I had just spent two days using a ‘modern’ electric calculator and my boss thought the Computer Time-Sharing terminal might help me. When it took me about a couple of minutes to do the work that I had done manually I thought, ‘maybe computers are not all bad’.

Within six months I had a terminal on my desk and had saved five years. All this by using a typewriter type terminal to access a computer some 100 miles away over ordinary telephone lines (at 110 bits per second) and where I had 15 kilobytes of memory available for my software. Computers had changed my life!

Just some 10 years later, I set up my own business creating and providing computer based simulations for business training – the business-training equivalent of the flight simulation except instead of flying a simulated aircraft you run a virtual business where your decisions do not impact real profits or people.

Having forecast a microcomputer on every desk in 1978, I bought my first one in 1980. A top of the line TRS80 Model 1 with 46 kilobytes of RAM and two 80 kilobyte floppy disks – something that cost me about £2,000. One of my first major projects was to use it to write my second book and this not only saved me a lot of time but allowed me to hone the writing.

Since then I have used all generations of microcomputers and managed to win several awards – innovation award in 2002 (at the age of 60), a software design methodology award in 2005 and the following year the World of Learning ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Training Industry Award’.

Why do I love computers? Not just because they save me huge amounts of time but mainly because they allow me to be creative and be more effective.

Delegates loved the last Digital Unite social housing forum

Digital Unite is pleased to announce that the next social housing forum will be in London on March 26, 2012 hosted at the Microsoft Offices in Victoria, London.For housing providers, the forum is a really great opportunity to meet with suppliers of a wide range of services and products that could help your residents access the internet in affordable ways.

It is also a fantastic opportunity to network, keep up to date with the digital inclusion agenda in housing as well as to inform suppliers of your residents’ particular needs.

Finally, by coming together at the forum there are opportunities to influence suppliers’ special offers, as suppliers understand the massive market opportunity.

For ‘solution providers’ this is the best place for you to interact with your potential market and present your solutions in an energising and interactive format that will also inform the development of new offers tailored for this market.

Our last forum was a fantastic success, you can read all about it on our previous blog post.

For more information and to book your place please contact:

Kathy Valdes on 07866136310 or kathy.valdes@digitalunite.com.

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.

As our guide to finding family history online shows, it’s now possible to trace back to your relatives from hundreds of years ago, without leaving the comfort of your living.

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.

We held our second Social Housing Forum in Birmingham last week, when 38 landlords engaged with suppliers who were keen to demonstrate why their products and services could be used to support digital inclusion for social housing tenants.

These included online community development, broadband and managed solutions for schemes, low cost computers, set-top boxes, independent living platforms and Digital Unite’s own Digital champions ITQ qualification.

The suppliers who attended the forum were:

• BT
• Hildebrand
• Freerunner
• Regenerate IT
• iCare Technologies
• Networked Neighbourhoods
• Montal Professional IT Solutions
• Avonline
• Secure I.T Disposals
• Home Interactive

Digital Unite’s Kathy Valdes was there and this is how she describes the day:

What do paper arrows, a stopwatch and copious amounts of good coffee have in common? They were all used by Digital Unite yesterday at our second social housing forum.

The day was choreographed by an enthusiastic DU team and generously co- hosted by Digital Birmingham in the heart of the city.

The room was a constant buzz of questions and challenges as the ‘solution providers’ were encouraged to give a four minute pitch to an eager table of housing providers, with plenty of opportunity for animated discussions. After this it was time to move round the room (hence the paper arrows) to the next table to hear about more solutions. Everyone had the opportunity to interact with 11 different suppliers who entered into the spirit of the event wholeheartedly.

The purpose of the event was to connect suppliers with housing providers but also to inform suppliers of the specific needs of social housing tenants so that they can develop products and services to fit the demand at an affordable price.

As a recent Guardian article pointed out, there is no ‘one size fits all solution’ so encouraging innovation, diversity and creativity is key to providing solutions to digital exclusion.

Digital Unite also wants to show the providers of kit and connectivity that there is a potential massive market opportunity if the products and prices are right. A call for broadband providers to recognise the need for a ‘social tariff’ for broadband was met with widespread approval throughout the room.

One of the best events I’ve ever attended…

Initial feedback was really positive. John Donovan from Home Interactive said: “Really good networking … I think today has been a big success and I would do it again.”

Abbas Shah from East North East Homes Leeds commented: “Quality of information, range of products, depth of knowledge… one of the best events I have ever attended.”

Louise Buxton from Futures Housing described the event as an “excellent day” and said she would be “going home buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm.”

Watch videos of Mark Burgoyne from Secure IT and Graeme Snell at BT, speaking at the event, on our YouTube channel.

Digital Unite is leading the field in this area and in the next few months we’ll be taking forward the suggestions and feedback that came out of the forum. Watch this space for our latest news on the social housing front!
In the meantime, if you’d like any more information about our work in this area, please contact kathy.valdes@digitalunite.com.

The case for digital housing

The need for the social housing sector to increase digital capability was also on the agenda at the launch of the Race Online 2012 report: Digital by Default: The Case for Digital Housing in conjunction with Housing Technology.

Martha Lane Fox spoke alongside Jake Berry MP and housing providers to make clear the urgent need for the UK’s social housing sector to increase digital capability among its organisations and residents.

The report found that half of all people offline in the UK live in social housing, where society’s most vulnerable groups are concentrated.

Digital skills are vital for residents’ employment, education, health and well-being, so housing providers and government working together to help them online is a no-brainer.

The report estimates £3.1bn in total economic benefits from bringing these groups online: £340m in annual savings for landlords in communications costs alone; £530m in annual consumer savings to tenants; £360m in annual savings to local government.

• You can download a full copy of the report here.

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.

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

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

The camera will be eight megapixels (three more megapixels than the camera on the current version) and promises to be sharper.

The new iPhone will have faster upload and download times (handy for opening or sending images or browsing the web through the in-built Safari browser).

The new iPhone has improved wireless performance, and can switch between mobile phone towers mid-call to get the best call-quality.

One of the talking points of the new handset though, is ‘Siri’ a voice-activated virtual assistant

Phil Schiller, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, set the scene: “What we really want to do is talk to our device.”

Schiller said that Siri allows you to ask question in natural language and give dictation.

The iPhone 4S will run the latest version of Apple’s operating system – iOS5 – which is released as an upgrade to existing Apple device users two days before the 4S hits the shops.

The handset will be available with 16, 32 or 64GB of storage.

To read about the features of the new iOS, see our earlier blog post.

To see all the UK updates, see Apple’s overview.

Apple also announced details of the latest version of their bestselling iPhone – the iPhone 4S. Stay tuned for our overview…