[LINK] OII News: Costing Digital Exclusion: An Online Deliberation

[Roger Clarke]

[I've been thoroughly disappointed with the Oxford Internet 
Institute's first decade:  http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/about/

[It's seemed to me to feature a great deal of 'chattering classes' 
social science, with too little hard technology underlay, and too 
little meaningful, instrumentalist research over the top of that.

[But this looks a bit more worthwhile.


In 2009, the National Audit Office (NAO) commissioned a team from the 
OII and the LSE to design a methodology for costing the impact of 
digital exclusion. We estimated indicators of financial harm as a 
result of digital exclusion to certain key groups: the low-income 
unemployed, the elderly and disabled, and the educationally 
disadvantaged. The economic 'benefits foregone' through the exclusion 
of these groups were then used to calculate the financial benefits - 
to individuals, government and the economy - of government 
intervention to tackle digital exclusion.

The methodology has now been opened up for a period of expert 
deliberation and comment, with the aim of improving the methodology, 
highlighting any concerns or gaps in the design, and raising 
questions for future research. We invite academics, policy makers and 
the public to take part in the deliberation by leaving comments or 
questions, or joining the discussion threads.

The Methodology is open for comment at:
http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/digital-exclusion/

The website provides a background to the project and instructions on 
how to take part. The website will be online until 26 April 2010. 
Until then, we hope that you will view the methodology, comment on it 
- or forward the link to any colleagues who you think might be 
interested in it. We value your feedback...

With best wishes,

Prof. Helen Margetts
Oxford Internet Institute
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/

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Background to the Methodology
----------------------------------------

1. Technological forms of exclusion are a reality for significant 
segments of the population. Different groups experience different 
types of exclusion, and for some people, they reinforce and deepen 
existing disadvantages, such as social and economic exclusion.

The team estimated indicators of financial harm as a result of 
digital exclusion to certain key groups: the low-income unemployed, 
the elderly and disabled, and the educationally disadvantaged.

The economic 'benefits foregone' through the exclusion of these 
groups were used to calculate the financial benefits - to 
individuals, government and the economy - of government intervention 
to tackle digital exclusion.

2. The original project to develop the methodology was jointly led by 
Professor Patrick Dunleavy (LSE) and Professor Helen Margetts. The 
research team included Chris Gilson, Leandro Carrera, Dr Ellen 
Helsper (OII) and Jane Tinkler. The project was jointly administered 
for the research team by Enterprise LSE and Isis Innovation.

3. In developing this methodology, the team drew on their extensive 
experience of working together on earlier National Audit Office (NAO) 
value for money studies, including: Government on the Web (1999), 
Government on the Web II (2002) and Government on the Internet: 
Progress in Delivering Information and Services Online (2007).

See: http://www.governmentontheweb.org/

4. The methodology made use of data from the Oxford Internet 
Institute's biennial Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS), which provide 
the most comprehensive survey of Internet use in Britain. Datasets 
based on multiple independent surveys conducted by the UK Office for 
National Statistics (ONS) and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) 
were used to replicate indices and analyses to validate the central 
findings.

OxIS: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/

More details are available in research carried out by the OII (with 
the ONS and Ofcom) for the Department for Communities and Local 
Government (CLG), published as: Digital Inclusion: An Analysis of 
Social Disadvantage and the Information Society (2008).

CLG Report:
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/microsites/oxis/publications.cfm

[Editor: David Sutcliffe]

Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford
1 St Giles Oxford OX1 3JS
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1865 287210
Fax: +44 (0)1865 287211
Email: enquiries at oii.ox.ac.uk
Web: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University