21st Century Challenges

USA, Climate Change, COP15, CO2 Emissions, Natural disaster, deforestation, food, Sir Gordon Conway, population, geoengineering, Flooding, energy, plastiki, London, virtual water, drought, capitalism, conservation, Housing Expansion, globalisation

• 08 October, 2009

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The online world is at a tipping point. There are now clear advantages to being online and the internet is no longer considered a luxury. Today the web is increasingly considered an essential tool for modern life.

Education and learning, e-government and engagement with local services, communication and social networking. Many of us realise the benefits of the online world, but why are 17m people in the UK still not online?

- Does the internet’s rapid evolution and increasing role in daily life threaten to leave some sections of society behind?

- How can we ensure that the internet is accessable to everyone in the UK?

- How can we inspire people to get online?

 

SPEAKER: Martha Lane Fox: Martha co-founded lastminute.com in 1998 with business partner Brent Hoberman, floated the business in 2000 and remained on the company’s board until its sale in 2005. It is currently still Europe’s largest travel and leisure website. Martha is founder of Lucky Voice which currently has five bars and a growing online application.

Martha is also Founder and Chair of Antigone.org.uk, her own grant-giving foundation, which supports charities involved with criminal justice, health and education. Martha is a Non-Executive Director at Marks & Spencer plc, Channel 4 Television and Mydeco, She is also a Trustee of Reprieve. In 2009 Martha was appointed the government’s first Champion for Digital Inclusion.

Martha Lane Fox website          Martha Lane Fox on

 

SPEAKER: Professor Tanya Byron, Clinical Psychologist, broadcaster and author.

In 2007 Tanya was asked by the Prime Minister to conduct an independent review looking at the risks to children from exposure to potentially harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games. The Byron Review is about preserving their right to take the risks that form an inherent part of children's development, by enabling them to surf the internet and play video games in a safe and informed way.

In 2008 Tanya was made the first ever Chancellor of Edge Hill University, which started out as a non-denomination teacher training college for women in 1885.

Tanya designed and ran an NHS beacon awarded NHS and Care Staff training programme in the assessment and management of aggressive and violent behaviours.

Tanya now works one day a week as a Consultant in child and adolescent mental health in a general practice. In addition Tanya writes a weekly column for the Times newspaper and for several women’s magazines.

Predominantly Tanya works at the BBC presenting TV & Radio programmes on child behaviour, science and current affairs (Little Angels; Teen Angels; House of Tiny Tearaways; Panorama; How to Improve Your Memory - with Professor Robert Winston). Tanya is currently filming four one hour documentaries for BBC2 looking at: Sex; Death; Vanity and Spirituality.

Tanya has also published three books on child behaviour, the latest published by Penguin and is currently editing an encyclopedia of child development and the early years with Dorling Kindersley.

Professor Tany Byron website      Byron Review - Children and Technology (Dept of Children, Schools and Families)

CHAIR: Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC's Technology Correspondent

Rory started out at as a researcher on BBC Look North in Leeds in 1981, spending most of the early part of his career as a television reporter covering business and industry.

In the mid-'90s, he discovered the internet. which he describes as 'a life-changing experience'.

As a business correspondent, it was the source of a whole new kind of story, as new companies were born, flourished and crashed within months. Rory covered it all for the BBC - and was even called the 'Internet Correspondent' for a few months in 2000 before deciding that the internet was over after the dot com bubble burst.

Rory returned to his previous role, but at home and at work, kept banging on about the profound changes the internet was bringing to our economy and the rest of our lives.

At the beginning of 2007 Rory was made BBC's Technology Correspondent. He now reports on the ever changing developments in the fast paced world of technology. Rory recently returned from Africa, where he was reporting on the birth of internet broadband in Africa.

dot.Rory technology blog from the BBC          Broadband in Africa         Rory Cellan-Jones on