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The Big Society & Technology

The phrase and political football that is “The Big Society” is all around us at the moment. The coalition government and in particular our Prime Minister David Cameron has set his stall on this vision for the future. Hopefully from the recent press coverage, the phrase has been fully described to you and it is clear what it means. If you are unsure of its meaning, here is a direct quote from the coalition agreement of their meaning of the phrase “Big Society”

The aim is "to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will 'take power away from politicians and give it to people'.".

Without a doubt, technology has the ability to aid in the empowering of local people and the localism agenda is something where technology can play a part in.

How is that possible, you might ask?

Here are 3 examples of how technology in a local framework can empower individuals and communities.

1. Buy IT services from local IT suppliers. This will often provide you as an individual, charity or business a far greater quality of service compared to national mega suppliers and will support your local community business, maintaining the sustainability of these for the future.
2. Use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg etc to spread the word about your community issues. This has the potential to gain local and national support and ultimately help to get your issue in the spotlight.
3. Use central ‘hubs” such as village halls, pubs etc and install technology in them such as projectors, wireless internet, computer suites to generate income for your community and empower individuals to become more technology aware via training.

Suffolk Online is a technology expert that offers a wide variety of services to local communities. This includes internet connections, email, website hosting, website design, application development and IT support and PC repair services.

If you would like to discuss ways that Suffolk Online could help you empower your local community via the Big Society please call Matthew Morling on 01473 345321 or email him at matthew.morling@suffolkacre.org.uk