Like a Japanese soldier emerging from the jungle long after the end of the second world war, the Digital Inclusion Panel last week stepped into the light - heroically, still fighting to end the digital divide.
The panel was conceived a year ago to continue one strand of the e-envoy's work as his office metamorphosed into the Office of the Head of e-Government. Little has been heard of it since. Observers assumed the panel fell between the cracks when the e-envoy's responsibilities were divvied out among the Cabinet Office, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
Wrong. Last week, the panel resurfaced to publish a strategy document called "Enabling a Digitally United Kingdom".
It begins by asserting that the war on digital exclusion is far from over. Although almost everyone has the opportunity to get online - 96% of people know somewhere they can use the internet - only half of us bother. Officially, 48% of Britons are not digitally engaged. These are not so much digital refuseniks as digital never-even-thought-about-its. They tend to be old, or poor, or both. Such people, the report says "are simply unaware of how they personally could benefit from becoming digitally engaged".
Time will, of course, erode age as a barrier in itself. My bet is that quite soon, we will notice that the web has been taken over by oldies. Wikipedia isn't being compiled by teenagers. The poor, on the other hand, will have a tougher time - unless something is done.
The panel observes that digital inclusion can't be achieved by the state alone. It recommends more efforts by voluntary groups and industry. IT companies don't have to be altruistic: "Very significant commercial opportunities" exist in services that persuade people to cross the digital divide.
On the day of the report's publication, one of its recommendations came into effect. Half a dozen IT companies joined forces with the charity Citizens Online to set up the Alliance for Digital Inclusion. It will lobby for change and try to coordinate different initiatives aiming at getting more people online.
Government cannot duck out entirely, however. The panel's report urges that the network of 6,000-odd UK Online centres stays in business. These are often run by community groups, which are better equipped than government to communicate with hard-to-reach groups. Central government, however, footed most of the cost, and that money is now running out.
No one seems keen to pick up the bill, which may explain why the whole digital inclusion agenda is a bit of a policy orphan. This is reflected in the strategy document, which is introduced not by a minister or even the Cabinet Office head of e-government, but by Andrew Pinder, the last e-envoy.
He supposedly left public life in August (four years after being hired as a temporary stand-in). While it is nice to see Pinder's picture again, using yesterday's man doesn't send the right signals about tomorrow's agenda. Where is the e-minister?
