The race online

The starting gun of the race online was fired years ago but the finishing line is not yet in sight.

In 2010 as many as 785,000 people in Wales were not online and were therefore missing out on the vast benefits that the internet offers including cheaper goods and services, better communication, applying for jobs and accessing public services.

And while some of us are still not out of the starting blocks, the race online is getting faster. Technological advances are not only making more activities possible on the internet, they are sometimes now only available on line. For instance we have only been able to buy tickets for the London Olympics online. The chances are, if you do not know how to use the internet then you will not be seeing ‘the greatest show on earth’ first hand.

Public bodies are increasingly looking to put their services online to improve them but also to save money. The DWP is proposing that the new Universal Credit will ‘normally’ be made through the internet and expect that most subsequent contact with recipients will also be conducted online. The Big Lottery Fund is planning that the majority of funding applications are made online in future. People that are not able to access these functions through the internet will be provided with additional support.

Although age is the key issue, waiting for people that did not grow up with computers to die off is not the answer. Other groups such as those with low incomes, few qualifications or who are disabled are among the social groups less likely to go online. Not using the internet is making their challenges even greater.

In Wales we are taking steps to narrow the digital divide. The Welsh Government’s digital inclusion programme ‘Communities 2.0’, which the Wales Co-operative Centre is delivering as part of a consortium, is helping more communities and small enterprises to make the most of the internet. Communities 2.0 has already supported thousands of people and hundreds of organisations, in some of our most deprived communities, to get online.

There are inspiring projects taking place across Wales. In Caerphilly, the ‘Come Surf with Me’ project is working with residents in a number of Communities First areas and provides specialist provision through the medium of Welsh. In North Wales, the recently launched ‘Take Ctrl’ initiative, supported by Communities 2.0, will see social housing tenants helped to get online while learning more about money management.

The ‘Digital Heritage in the Community’ project, in West Wales, has seen a 90-year-old woman helped to publish her first book online. Local and personal history has proved a popular way of interesting people in the web

These initiatives are welcome but we should not underestimate the problem or assume that, in time, it will take care of itself. Digital inclusion is one of the most important social justice issues for our times. If we fail to act, we fail some of the most disadvantaged people in our society.

Derek Walker is Chief Executive of Wales Co-op Centre