Public Needs should drive Digital Innovation, says ippr

Transforming society through technology is in danger of happening too quickly and leaving the public behind, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) which has just published a manifesto for a digital Britain. It concludes that government has prepared the UK well for the 21st century but remains seduced by vague notions of a "knowledge economy" and is too often driven by innovation for its own sake.

The report argues for directing technological advance to meet social and economic benefits and ensuring that legal and constitutional priorities - including privacy and democratic participation – are not undermined. It concludes that people are more likely to embrace technology if they have more choice about how and when it is used to store information and access services.

"Modernising with Purpose: A Manifesto for Digital Britain" recommends:
* Privacy Impact Assessments: all government departments should perform a Privacy Impact Assessment when developing new legislation to help service providers decide when to share data. This could be modelled on the generic Privacy Impact Assessment being developed by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA).
* Targeted ICT training: the Government should investigate how Sure Start can be used to improve the IT skills and media literacy of parents. Initiatives like giving access to medical records online risk failure if parents do not have the right skills to access them.
* New e-government targets: these would be based more explicitly around user satisfaction and include calculations of time savings and service quality.

William Davies, ippr Senior Research Fellow and report author said: 'Government has done well on issues like rolling out broadband and getting computers into schools. However, there is a danger that in the name of modernisation, policy is informed by a blind faith in technology and an imagined digital future rather than a clear sense of purpose. People need to believe that technology is something we can harness rather than something that just happens to them. Innovation has to be lead by the needs of the public, rather than vice versa. This is as much a challenge for industry as it is for Government.'

Associated Link: Modernising with Purpose: a manifesto for a Digital Britain (link to pdf)

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