Digital technologies are changing every aspect of life. But

1. Digital futures: the context

2. ‘ The Internet is more like a city than anything else. In cities there are slums, there are palaces of wisdom, libraries, museums, art galleries, theatres, places of entertainment and shops. And there are places where you would not want to go down dark alleys, let alone have your children do so, but slowly we let our children learn to use the cities and they do.’ Stephen Fry

3. Global, social, ubiquitous and cheap According to Clay Shirky, these are the characteristics of successful new media technologies…

4. In the first eight months, developers produced 25,000 applications for the iPhone Ten months later, the current total is at least 100,000 iPhone apps. In the last nine years, 20,000 Windows Mobile applications have been developed.

5. Your phone can be a spirit level… an ocarina… a recipe book…

6. Or you can just govern a nation… Photo: Statsministerens kontor/Flickr

8. Digital Britain: the government’s vision

9. ‘ Investing in areas such as broadband access for every home and business and the move from analogue to digital technology will bring benefits across the board, driving growth, enabling businesses to thrive, and providing new opportunities and choices for households right across the country. It is an essential part of building Britain’s future.’ Gordon Brown , June 2009

10. Three obstacles to digital inclusion: availability, affordability, capability The response: a national plan for digital participation - and a champion for digital inclusion

11. Improving the digital communications infrastructure • Better mobile coverage • Universal broadband access by 2012 • Digital radio by 2015

13. Public service content • New partnership between BBC Worldwide and C4 • Pilots of ‘independently funded news consortia’ Photo: Fred Smiff/Flickr

14. Research, education and skills • £120m Digital Economy Programme - research & training • Three new ‘research hubs’ with £12m each • Technology Strategy Board to put £30m into innovation • Estelle Morris Review of ICT user skills - recommends a ‘basic digital life skills entitlement scheme’

15. Digital security and safety • Addressing vulnerability to technological failure or attack • Emphasis on improving government procurement and management

18. Local spending reports go digital

20. Even the government is getting in on the act….

24. What about the ‘notspots’?

28. The Digital Region project • £90m project to lay fibre optic cable across South Yorkshire capable of 25MB+ speeds ( UK average download speed is 4MB) • It makes South Yorkshire the first UK region to have superfast broadband • will serve 1.3m people in Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham - 546,000 homes and 40,000 businesses • Wholly owned by Yorkshire Forward and local authorities - funded by ERDF • First homes online in May 2010, starting in Doncaster