We seek support for our digital-based activities, which are often challenging to fund. Our goals are valid, but finding donors for smaller, digital-focused charities is difficult and often does not meet traditional criteria. Additionally, our work is misunderstood as simply a computer club. However, our mission is to provide community-based internet help to address the hidden disability caused by digital exclusion. Looking for donors can be all consuming for a smll digital hub.

We need support because getting help for digital activities is tough. Although we believe in our mission, finding the right mix of digital support, and other resources, for small digital charities is challenging. People often mistake us for a computer club, but our goal is to use the internet to combat exclusion caused by digitalisation.  https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/charities-concerned-about-digital-exclusion-of-beneficiaries-report-finds.html Engaging technical support on a limited budget.

This is an extract from the House of Lords Library. It covers what the Government response should be with recommendations listed. https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/digital-exclusion-in-the-uk-communications-and-digital-committee-report/#heading-2 Digital Exclusion - Disabled Access.

Useful insights for Digital Hubs Network UK, but also as a way of gaining a snap-shot of internet use UK wide.

More O2 stores join National Databank to provide free mobile data to those in need 04/12/2024 First published December 2024 https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/discover/our-news/our-news-2024/o2-databank-christmas-databanks National Data Bank Update - O2 Stores

Hey everyone, I’ve been having a really tough time with Twitter lately, and I wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. The homepage timeline has become a nightmare for those of us using voiceover. Instead of being able to read through the posts like before, now I have to double-tap on each post just to hear the content. It’s super annoying and makes using Twitter way harder. And good luck trying to report this to Twitter – it’s like hitting a brick wall. There’s no easy way to get in touch with someone who can actually help with accessibility issues. Anyone else dealing with this? Any tips or workarounds would be really appreciated. Let’s try to get Twitter to fix this mess! XTwitter is less than disabled friendly

Anybody tried Bluesky yet? What do you think of it?

Many of you who are new to an online world may find this clip from Good Things Foundation useful https://x.com/GoodThingsFdn/status/1862051848271634518

The National Databank and data poverty are highlighted as part of O2’s new Christmas campaign, launching today.  Founded in 2021 by Good Things Foundation and Virgin Media O2, the National Databank provides free O2 mobile data, texts and calls to those in need. The new campaign is led by an emotive film: See YouTube below: https://youtu.be/nt0MYWdFUes

We are all to aware these days that there are many wanting to take us for a ride. Our members, in particular, need to be extra vigilant because people want to take advantage of peoples' trust. To help things along, we found this website checker pretty good: https://www.urlvoid.com/ There is this website information seeker, which gives a very detailed report: https://www.islegitsite.com/check/sknmart.com/ Karen & Mart collaborating on Website Checker support.

Further to our recent upload to 'Documents' we have an update from Good Things Foundation on matters relating to some of the major issues relating to finance and digital inclusion See link to Good Things Foundation article: https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/discover/digital-inclusion-insights/digital-inclusion-insights-2024/money-digital-world Tom practising his online banking skills. .

Artificial intelligence and extended reality can create new ways of learning that are more engaging, personalised and human-centric. By using these technologies, we can solve some of the biggest challenges in education. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/ib-knowledge/technology/how-ai-and-xr-can-transform-education-and-create-new-dimension-learning/#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20and%20extended%20reality,for%20both%20technology%20and%20education. Amanda following AI learning at Park View Project

Article by John Adewole on the potential and transformative experience of technology in digital learning: https://johnadewole.com/how-esports-and-gaming-empower-digital-inclusion-in-todays-world/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFzk69leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZbgnMLsU67UAJIDwmq1LU6AlNB_GgUASZJSUve1NzE3QaoraeBEHlKNyw_aem_V4R3VQwrxcT0UjO2rrI9yQ Using games as a source of digital learning

Trawling through recent historical articles there have been some improvement in bridging the digital divide. But the evidence from the recent past still holds: The internet and digital technology is very much at the heart now of how public, economic and social life functions. It has transformed how we work, communicate, consume, learn, entertain and access information and public services. And while it’s become integral to all aspects of life, the spread of access and use is uneven and many people remain digitally excluded (OIS, 2013; Selwyn 2004). Those who are excluded can be limited or unable to participate fully in society.  The risk is that the divide between those with digital skills, and those who struggle to overcome barriers to access and use, the growing social and economic gap between those who are connected and those who are not, continues to widen (ONS, 2019; The Wales Co-operative Ce ntre with Carnegie UK Trust, 2018). How much and how often you use the internet can offer an insight into who could be considered digitally excluded, providing a way to assess how the internet and digital skills impacts on people’s lives (Good Things Foundation, 2017).

Mart, our volunteer Digital Champion has earned his break on our third day of Online Week. So far we have engaged with 14 young adults with a Learning Disability, focusing on online games to help with digital skills development.

There are many rural areas struggling to get broadband connection. Many of our rural-based digital hubs have many stories of how this is impacting negatively on residents. Even some urban areas have poor levels of performance. It's not just access to digital products and data, alongside accessible features required by many with a disability, but having the infrastructure in place to support these other developments. Pembrokeshire have used financial support from the Government's Project Gigibit. https://newsroom.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/news/communities-taking-the-lead-to-get-better-broadband#:~:text=Going%20forward%2C%20the%20UK%20Government,reach%20community%20to%20stay%20connected.