Race Online 2012

If you haven't already heard about Race Online 2012 then I suggest you check out their website. It is the idea of Martha Lane Fox, the government's digital champion (whatever the hell that means). The idea behind the scheme is to get everyone of a working age online as there are currently about ten million people missing out.

I'm not entirely sure whether this is just their to ensure everyone has the opportunity and access to the skills required to get online or whether she wants to force even those who would rather not have the internet to at least try it. In some ways, I agree with her that everyone should at least try it once as their is a huge benefit to those who are online as has been mentioned in her statements. On the other hand, I can understand that there are some people for whom the internet would bring no benefit and may even conversely degrade their quality of life rather than improving it.

Personally, I can no longer imagine life without the internet. I have been dreading a week to see my grandparents later on this summer when I will be offline for that whole time. I will be relying on my very outdated WAP enabled mobile to keep me up to date with Twitter and Facebook and I will hopefully by then have some way of sending blogs through it too. I cringe at the thought of having to type my blogs on a numeric keypad, I will be there forever! They take me long enough on a qwerty keyboard.

Anyway, back to the point. I have decided that it is a great idea and so have signed myself up as an 'advocate' and volunteer. In the next few days I plan to enquire about volunteering opportunities at my local library and see if I can make a difference to someone's life by showing them the wonders of the internet.