Tech for Today - and for Tomorrow
Everyone across Britain needs to share in the opportunities that new technologies create.
Tech for Today, a new report from Careful Trouble, outlines why a new government must prioritise practical delivery that delivers real benefits today, for all of us.
The digital revolution has delivered extraordinary benefits, changing the lives of millions of people in Britain and billions around the globe. But the power and potential of these new technologies is not yet equally distributed. Innovation can and should deliver a better quality of life for everyone, everywhere.
In this paper, we recommend five steps that will anchor innovation in every day life for people across Britain.
■ Supporting community innovation to drive social renewal, build
community wealth, and address place-based
inequalities.
■ Infrastructure for and investment in community ownership so that more community organisations can drive technology adoption, particularly in places and domains that do not typically benefit from innovation
investment.
■ A community-first approach to skills that will enable more people to become innovators, increase Britain's technical skills and maturity, and strengthen our social fabric.
■ Putting community data at the heart of innovation so that Britain can make data-driven decisions and build AI systems that benefit, not hold back,
communities.
■ Affordable connectivity that connects everyone, everywhere.
Innovation is not just something that takes place in labs and start-up incubators. The work of community organisations and social enterprises to create change from the neighbourhood scale up builds vital foundations for innovation, equity and technology adoption. For instance, co-working hub and makerspace Liverpool DoES brings people together to build skills and relationships, access cutting-edge tools and turn their ideas into reality; community land trust We Can Make is tackling the housing crisis; and Carbon Coop, Library of Things and Civic Square are rolling out necessary and practical services and skills to support more sustainable living. The changes we need for tomorrow are already happening today, all over Britain, and they need investment and support so that more people can take part in the opportunities that innovation and new technologies create.
If everyone, everywhere is to benefit from the opportunities technology can bring, Britain must engage with the power of community innovation and invest in the people and potential we already have. Moonshots are nice, but better skills, opportunities and stronger social infrastructure are essential.
This paper draws on insight from our work building community tech as a capability across Britain with Power to Change, and the affordable broadband pilot we are running with Impact on Urban Health. It began life in Summer 2023 as a provocation for Labour Together.