Tuesday 19 April 2011

I believe

I believe:

  • everyone has a right to an education appropriate to their level of intelligence - some people want to learn and some people don't, some people will learn and some people wont, some people need to learn and can't. The latter is a damning indictment of our approach to learning. The former is a waste of money. We must be better at delivering adaptive education which caters for all - but collectively as groups, not collectively as one size fits all
  • everyone should be given the opportunity to think about the big things as well as the small things in their schools, organisation or companies. Good ideas are not salary or grade related. The ability to implement them is. If you don't have a suggestion box which you actually read and feedback on, then you're possibly missing out on revenue in all those cases. Right now, revenue is good, in all those cases.
  • everyone should have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of life, if they are not being taught at home. These include, but are not limited to: budgeting, credit management, home maintenance, finding people to fix things, diet management, cooking, relationships
  • young people need to be taught how the web can be an opportunity as well as a threat. But also be made to understand that whether they like it or not, the older generation will judge them on their email address. And their Facebook profile. And their Twitter account. Asking them not to simply wont work.
  • the revolution will not be Twitterised. It will be digitalised. There is a big big difference.
  • the people who will change the world are not the obvious ones. Not the ones in power, not the ones at the top, not the ones who you would think would find it easy to do so but who on further examination are tied down by so many whips, party lines, spin doctors, expectations and restraints that any hope of being straight, honourable or expressing a free opinion are long gone. 
  • that everyone has a right to digital as Tim Berners-Lee says. That it is a human right. That it is important enough, on a social, economic, financial, productivity, well being and self learning scale for it to be considered so. That digital exclusion are two words we should not be hearing in the 21st century, that the cost is no longer justifiable as an excuse and that this.must.change - and Martha Lane Fox is only half the story and the other half is simply not being told.
  • that transparency is something to live by. That it is different to over sharing. That it can reassure and rebuild the trust destroyed by the MP's expenses scandal but also by years of paying Council Tax and never really understanding or knowing where it goes. I believe we must be much smarter in our communication of the internal workings of every public institution, not just government, and we must allow people with different views, ideas, frustrations and experiences to bring to their bear those things so that we may have a rainbow range of services instead of our current monochromatic offerings. We could sparkle. Instead, we simply glint occasionally.
  • I can write words in the right order in order to express myself freely, with passion and feeling, with truth and belief, with love and hope. 
These are the things which I believe. These are the things I must not forget. 

2 comments:

  1. One more thing I would add, as you focus on your speciality in this post (digitalisation and local government).

    What I would like to contribute is another thought. The culture that has grown up since the war that the world owes people a living and big brother will pick up the tab. This is not so, and Kennedy had it right. "ask not what the country can do for you, but ask what you can do for the country' or something like that. Its time for everyone to pull their socks up and do their own thing. From the lowly to the high. There is no longer (if there ever was) any such thing as a free lunch. Working together We Can Do This. The digital age is an enabler, and once we all have access to the internet (a third of the country doesn't) we can all collaborate and make a truly great DigitalBritain to be proud of. Collaboration is key. You got it right. As usual. great post.
    chris

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  2. A(nother!) truly inspirational piece of writing. Thank-you.

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