Crack the Crunch with the Crunch Breaker
Carter Report Posts
Lord Carter gives keynote speech on ‘Delivering Digital Britain’. We were there.
February 24th, 2009
The Crunch Breaker and the Leaptomorrow team (www.leaptomorrow.com) attended a breakfast function earlier today where Lord Carter, Minister in Her Majesty’s Government for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting gave a keynote policy speech on the future of Digital Britain.
The eagerly awaited Carter Report revealed little newness and was a telling tale of the position the UK Government is now in. ‘We’re not quite sure what to do’ was mentioned various times by Lord Carter, but in his brief overview of the report, which he has led, he highlighted several key areas the UK Government will focus on in their digital policy, which are briefly as follows:
1. Infrastructure – the Govermement have a commitment to link up to 90% of the UK population to high speed digital broadband, although no time span was given.
2. Content – the decision to turn off analogue for TV would not be followed in other media such as radio.
3. Proficiency – trying to balance the ‘openness and freedom’ of the Internet with finding solutions to illegality and piracy.
4. Digital Government – there is a commitment to delivering easier access and allowing the user to trail the goverment bodies. Plus Universal service.
5. Training – people who hold the future should be trained. Need to retain know how in the UK where we lead in design, graphics and the computer games industry.
All very interesting (!?) but luckily we had two other speakers offering challenging questions too – Neil Burkett, CEO at Virgin Media and Paul Bazelgette, sector guru, and responsible for Big Brother among other things..
- Public Utility vs Boosting the Economy – needs to be the latter. All very well making broadband available to all but we need to see a financial dividend. We need to make digital far more commercial and driving entrepreneurial opportunity. Currently a social dividend exists; and economic dividend does not.
- Old Organisations vs New Organisations – there’s no point in the Government pumping money into yesterday’s industries. We, as taxpayers, should not be protecting old business models that cannot be sustained. Allow these to wither and die.
And the lessons for small and medium sized businesses?
Think laterally. How can you use all aspects of New Media and grow your business? Think beyond your normal boundaries – the government are committed to widening fast speed connections, both land based and wireless. We, as entrepreneurs are those who have to come up with the triggers to drive new growth.
One thing is for sure. Things will be very different after this recession. There will be winners and losers. Let’s make sure we’re in the former.