Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Building Britain's Future: Digital Britain

Building Britain's Future: Digital Britain Information Polity 14 (2009) 233–234 DOI 10.3233/IP-2009-0178 IOS Press Book Review Building Britain’s Future: Digital Britain. Final Report’ (June 2009), Department for Business Innovation and Skills and Department for Culture, Media and Sport, London. There is an expectation that a report numbering some 239 pages will feature high quality content and substantial critical discussion. Increasingly, though, Government reports have become little more than wordy, lightweight documents characterised by a feel of heady optimism that is presumably meant to sound visionary and inspiring, but that actually has the feel of a ‘glossy PR brochure’. This Report does not disappoint in any of these respects. For Government, Digital Britain is Utopian Britain – All Shall Participate and Dissent Shall be Punished. There is the mantra, there is the soundbite that sums up the overarching message of the Report. Mustapha Mond 1 is alive and well in UK Government. Also lending a feeling of superficiality to the Report is the readiness of the Government to engage with hideous jargon such as ‘not spots’, ‘not a lot spots’, and ‘unconferences’. The trendy feel that this jargon conveys may appeal to the IT converts, but could alienate and disenfranchise wider communities for whom http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Information Polity IOS Press

Building Britain's Future: Digital Britain

Information Polity , Volume 14 (3) – Jan 1, 2009
Download PDF
2 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/iospress/building-britain-s-future-digital-britain-l7P3ISrSvO
Publisher
IOS Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by IOS Press, Inc
ISSN
1570-1255
eISSN
1875-8754
DOI
10.3233/IP-2009-0178
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Information Polity 14 (2009) 233–234 DOI 10.3233/IP-2009-0178 IOS Press Book Review Building Britain’s Future: Digital Britain. Final Report’ (June 2009), Department for Business Innovation and Skills and Department for Culture, Media and Sport, London. There is an expectation that a report numbering some 239 pages will feature high quality content and substantial critical discussion. Increasingly, though, Government reports have become little more than wordy, lightweight documents characterised by a feel of heady optimism that is presumably meant to sound visionary and inspiring, but that actually has the feel of a ‘glossy PR brochure’. This Report does not disappoint in any of these respects. For Government, Digital Britain is Utopian Britain – All Shall Participate and Dissent Shall be Punished. There is the mantra, there is the soundbite that sums up the overarching message of the Report. Mustapha Mond 1 is alive and well in UK Government. Also lending a feeling of superficiality to the Report is the readiness of the Government to engage with hideous jargon such as ‘not spots’, ‘not a lot spots’, and ‘unconferences’. The trendy feel that this jargon conveys may appeal to the IT converts, but could alienate and disenfranchise wider communities for whom

Journal

Information Polity – IOS Press

Published: Jan 1, 2009

There are no references for this article.