NextGen 10 (1): overview
25 November 2010
I spent the first two days of this week in Birmingham attending the NextGen 10 conference organised by the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA).
This was the third such annual event, following conferences in Manchester (2008) and Leeds (2009), and I have participated in all of them. Most of the people there were techie types and local government officials, so I was the only person there with a specifically consumer perspective.
The mood was very up-beat with a strong feeling that, in the last 12 months, real progress has been made with the roll-out of next generation broadband in the UK as a result of major investments from BT and Virgin Media, announcements of four rural trials by BDUK, and development of a whole variety of local community intiatives.
The conference saw the launch by INCA of a 24-page booklet entitled "Beyond Broadband" written by Pauline Rigby. In the course of the event, I chaired a breakout workshop on digital inclusion.
Over the next few days, I'll be blogging with more detail on NextGen 10.