Tag Archives: policy

The value of SxSWi

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In her post yesterday, Elizabeth described her trip to SxSWi as part of an official (funded) Birmingham delegation to the annual technology festival. She describes something of the process of getting to Austin and her experience as part of the community that made up that trade delegation. That’s a theme at the heart of a recent article I co-authored with Jennifer Jones, a visiting lecturer here at Birmingham School of Media and a researcher in UWS’s Creative Futures centre.

The article, The imaginary SxSWi, seeks to interrogate the way in which sponsoring trips to SxSWi can be justified; often attendance is positioned as proxy attendance for others but, with so much content from the festival being available online, what knowledge can be transferred only through proxy attendance?

The article is very much intended as, in the words of the hosting journal’s editors, “a ‘think’ piece, designed to spur discussion amongst scholars and audiences”. If you have any thoughts on this please do head over to FlowTV and leave a comment.

Read the article here

 

What next for Digital Inclusion?

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Under the Labour government digital inclusion became something of a hot topic, and was moving towards the mainstream of policy. Digital inclusion – increasing access to and literacy of IT, broadband and digital media platforms – cut broadly across several areas of policy and brought together ministers from several departments including Communities & Local Government, Business, Innovation & Skills, and Department for Education. In their final year in office the agenda was brought into the mainstream through the appointment of Martha Lane Fox as a “digital inclusion champion” tasked with, amongst other things, raising awareness of digital inclusion amongst the general public.

A change of government brings changes in policy direction, so what now for digital inclusion under the Lib-Con coalition government? Will digital inclusion projects survive their cut backs? To answer that question, it’s helpful to consider some of the positions that inform digital inclusion policy arguments, and map these, broadly, onto right and centre right positions.

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The Digest for September 16th

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Our digest of links for September 16th:

  • D’log :: blogging since 2000 » Guide To Sources Of Small Business Finance In The West Midlands –
  • But who appointed the creative policy makers? – IC member Paul Long is seeking to find out something about those who determine creative policy in the UK and their relationship with creative workers who are at the receiving end of policy interventions, decisions and strategies.