Following publication of the Digital Britain White Paper on 16 June, we are today publishing an update note on implementation, with a number of accompanying documents. The documents can be found at
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/6243.aspx. This includes a consultation paper today on proposals for a contained contestable element of the TV Licence Fee to support sustainable, independent and impartial news in the Nations, locally and in the regions. Formal responses on that consultation should be sent to Maria Schlee at the media team’s detail as in the consultation paper or by e-mail to CCEConsultation@culture.gsi.gov.uk. You can also respond online to http://www.bis.gov.uk/digitalbritainconsultation. Submissions should be sent by 22 September 2009 at the latest.
After much copying and pasting, we are delighted to be able to let you know where you can find the official online commentable version of the Digital Britain report:
http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/digitalbritain/report/
Please remember that the final report has, of course, been published – so this isn’t an opportunity to alter the report itself. However, it does give you the chance to provide suggestions to how the report might be implemented.
It uses BIS’s Steph Gray’s Commentariat theme so many thanks to him for developing and sharing it!
We look forward to reading your contributions and thoughts on moving Digital Britain forward.
Team DB
The Digital Britain report has been published!
You can download it from the Digital Britain homepage.
Don’t forget our social media news release, on which you can find brand new video content, images, key facts and quotes on the report.
Our commentable version of the report will be published in the next few days, and we will let you know exactly when on this blog.
And don’t forget your chances to get answers to your questions from the Minister, including voting for questions on an UserVoice forum – details to follow soon!
The conversation has been very active so far today, and you can track what everyone is saying by visiting the Digital Britain dashboard on Pageflakes.
Alternatively, you can just focus on what folk are saying on Twitter.
As always, we welcome your feedback – please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
The final Digital Britain report will be published next week, and Team DB have been hard at work setting everything up to make sure we can make the best use of the digital channels available to allow people to find out about the report and let us know what they think of it.
Commentable version
First of all, as well as the ubiquitous PDF, we will be publishing the report online in a commentable form, using WordPress and the Commentariat theme developed by the Engagement Team at the department formally known as DIUS. This will go up towards the end of next week.
We’re doing this for a number of reasons. The main one is that we wanted the report out there in formats that people will find useful. WordPress is great for that sort of thing, as it produces lots of RSS as well as the HTML pages.
The report will also be commentable, of course, which provides a great route for feedback to Team DB. Obviously, this being the final report, there’s no scope for changes to be made to it on the basis of comments received. But we’d like to think that there is plenty that the community can contribute in terms of how the report’s objectives can be implemented.
The publication of the report is just the start of this process, not the end. We need everyone to stay involved and engaged to help us make Digital Britain a reality.
Social media news release
Our second piece of innovative work will be around a social media news release, which will provide a whole host of extra content that would be simply impossible with a traditional press release.
Our social media news release will incorporate all the stuff a press release would have – headlines, key facts, contacts – but it will also feature brand new video content, images, links to file downloads and bookmarking buttons, with more content being added after the launch.
We’re hoping this will be a much more useful and engaging way of presenting our news which will appeal to bloggers as much as traditional journalists.
Ask the minister
After the initial excitement around the report, we’ll be putting into place a couple more online engagement exercises, to pick up on what people feel are the key issues that they would like to question the minister, Lord Carter, or the Digital Britain project team, about.
To enable this, we are making use of two platforms. Firstly, we will be running a live web chat on www.number10.gov.uk with the help of the Prime Minister’s Digital Communications team. This will take place a couple of weeks after the publication of the report, and you can find out when to start submitting questions on this blog.
Secondly, we’ll be running a Uservoice forum, where anyone will be able to submit public questions, and to vote on which ones they think need an answer. The most popular will then be answered – probably on a video. Once again, stay tuned to this blog to find out the whens and the hows.
Any bright ideas?
Do let us know in the comments what you make of our plans. Our aim is always to be as open and engaging as we can be. But we’re still learning when it comes to this stuff, and feedback and suggestions are always welcome. Especially polite ones!
