21st Century Challenges

Digital divide in the UK?

Martha Lane Fox: fixing the holes in Britain’s net

As the Digital Inclusion Task Force's 'champion', web entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox is charged with taking the disconnected online. But is it the right solution?

Finland makes broadband access a legal right

The Finnish government has become the first in the world to make broadband internet access a legal right. According to local reports, the Ministry of Transport and Communications in Helsinki has pushed through a law that will force telecommunications providers to offer high speed internet connections to all of the country's 5.3 million citizens.

Government opens data to public

An ambitious new website that will open up government data to the public will launch in beta, or pilot, form in December. Data.gov.uk has been developed by Sir Tim Berners Lee, founder of the web, and Professor Nigel Shadbolt at the University of Southampton.

The internet and the ‘e-solated’

A decade ago most of us had never used the internet – now we can't imagine life without it. Actually, some of us can: there are 10 million people in the UK still without a connection. Are they, Tim Adams asks, losing out economically and culturally? Below, we ask four web refuseniks to go online to see how their lives would change

Digital Divide in the UK?

December 2009

Martha Lane Fox, government's Digital Inclusion Champion, author and broadcaster Professor Tanya Byron and BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones discuss the digital divide in Britain and the risks and benefits of a digital society.

Watch the talks

Audience questions 1-5

creative future for Africa, govn. contracts and the Arab Spring

Introduction by Rory Cellan-Jones

Introduction to the issue of digital technology in Africa by our chair

ForgetMeNot Africa - Jeremy George

Software that allows even the most basic mobile phones to email, message and interact.