November Panel meeting
19 November 2009
At the November meeting the panel reviewed our work on digital participation. We have been developing a digital participation framework to help guide the work that is going on by Ofcom in digital participation and digital inclusion (race online 2012) and ensure it is focussed on those areas in which consumers have the greatest need. We are really pleased to see that others are already referring to the framework as they develop their priorities. The framework is research-based and is supported by a literature review which draws together consumer research on digital inclusion. We agreed to further develop this review with a look at the academic literature on the issues and to do some in-depth research with consumers to understand more about their journeys toward digital inclusion. We hope to complete this work by the end of the financial year.
We also began the process of building our workplan for next year. We took a regular six monthly review of work on consumer policy and enforcement. We asked for these six monthly overview reports so we can keep our eyes on the entirety of the programme and identify the specifics that we want to know more about. On this occasion we asked to have some more information about work that it is proposed on rollover contracts. Alongside this report we also had a six monthly update from payphone plus. We also had two papers from Ofcom on European issues; one covering the digital agenda and a second the general consumer protection agenda. Finally we took a paper on some potential future issues relating to public expectations of the internet and had a technology demonstration which helped to bring us up to speed on some imminent market developments.
We gave some advice to Ofcom on all of these issues, but we also considered our own draft workplan on the back of our discussions. The result was a much longer list of possible issues for next year than we have resource to address. Now we begin the task of prioritising our own work according to the criteria we have established which are: What is the scale of the issue? and Can the Panel make a difference? The workplan will be out for wider consultation in February 2010.
Finally, we agreed a process for appraising the performance of the Panel as a whole, and for each of the members. We want to ensure that we keep ourselves on our toes by reflecting on what we have done, but at the same time we are anxious not to introduce a heavy weight of bureaucracy which will detract from our ability to deliver advice. The result is a process which is much more arduous at the time at which members might come up for re-appointment and includes third party feedback, with a lighter touch approach in other years. Having said this we would encourage anyone who wants to feedback on the Panel's performance to do so whenever they have something to say, in whatever way seems most appropriate; it can only help us to improve what we do and the way we do it.