Get more out of life online
The Race Online 2012 campaign, led by Martha Lane Fox, is working to support the 8.7 million people in the UK who have never used the internet, 1 in 5 of the adult population. There is an overwhelming economic and social case for doing so.
For government and local authorities, there is an opportunity to offer higher quality services at lower cost with potential annual savings of £156 for every new person online who shifts two existing contacts a month to digital public services.
For individuals; 90% of new jobs require basic IT skills; many jobs are now only advertised online; and the average household saves £560 a year from shopping and paying bills online.
For businesses, there is an opportunity to grow markets and reduce costs as the Google Getting British Business Online programme so clearly demonstrates.
Go ON Liverpool
Race Online 2012 is working with Liverpool Vision and a growing number of local partners to support the estimated 100,000 people in the City who have never used the internet.
Liverpool is the jewel in the crown of the Race Online 2012 campaign. Together we are aiming to reduce the digital divide in the City by 25 per cent by the end of June 2012.
We are going to do this by encouraging 5,000 people who are online everyday to volunteer as digital champions and help and inspire 25,000 people across the City to take their first steps online and start to build their IT skills.
When the clocks go back on October 29-30th we all gain an extra hour. The BBC will use all their channels and celebrities to promote an inspiring call to action.
The Give an Hour campaign will ask everyone to use this extra hour to help a member of their family, a friend, a neighbour, a colleague or a customer take their first steps online.
Liverpool will feature strongly in the Give an Hour campaign. BBC Merseyside will use their local channels to raise awareness. We are currently looking for Liverpool spokespeople with wide appeal to be the face or faces of Go ON Liverpool and encourage the people of Liverpool to get involved and help close the digital divide in the City once and for all.
Supporting digital champions
Race Online 2012 have developed a web presence www.go-on/champions.co.uk where aspiring digital champions can sign up; access resources and tips to help people go online for the first time and find out about cheap connectivity and hardware offers. We know that cost is a barrier for 4 million of the 8.7 million who have never used the internet in the UK.
Please join them to ensure Go On Liverpool achieves real change
What you could do
Join up as a digital champion and encourage others you know to sign-up too
- Spread awareness of the Give an Hour campaign and how to join in through your channels and networks. The BBC will be building support for the Give an Hour weekend during the week of October 24th and you could help to build awareness too.
- Take action to give someone their first time online during the weekend of 29/30 October. We are hoping to hold a number of high profile events across the City that weekend with the support of the BBC. Please let us know if you would like to host an event that weekend.
- Host an event during Go ON Give an Hour week between 31 October and 4 November to capitalise on the buzz created by the weekend campaign.
- Host an event during Enterprise Week between 14 - 19 November. We are working with the Chamber of Commerce, union learn and local schools to encourage people and local businesses to be more enterprising and improve their economic capability by improving their digital skills
Sustaining Go ON Liverpool
The Give an Hour campaign will launch Go ON Liverpool. We aim to recruit 5,000 Liverpool digital champions during the weekend of 29/30 October and inspire this network to stay active between November 2011 and March 2012 to support 25,000 people to get online. To reach this target we need all the local networks in Liverpool - businesses, council and community - to work together.
A Liverpool digital champion celebration event will take place at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, hosted by Liverpool in March 2012 to showcase Liverpool Digital City
Contact details for more information
Liverpool City Council contact Joanna Nolan joanna.nolan@liverpool.gov.uk
Race Online contact Natasha Innocent
natasha@raceonline2012
For more information visit www.go-on.co.uk/champions
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The Capital, 39 Old Hall Street, Liverpool
L3 9PP
Telephone: +44(0)151 600 2900
Email:
info@liverpoolvision.co.uk