Report to the People
The Move to Glasgow & Technology
This week MSPs deferred to our spiritual leaders, decamped from the Royal Mile and moved the Parliament to what was (as we were repeatedly reminded) "the second city of the empire."
Moves on this scale rarely go completely smoothly. But, at the time of writing, there seem to have been no major disasters.
One of the main reasons for this, I believe, is the way the Parliament takes advantage of the technology we now have at our disposal. Alongside gadgets which has been around for years, such as laptop computers, voicemail, mobile phones, pagers and electronic organisers, the Parliamentary authorities are making full use of some of the more recent advances.
For example, as a result of a unique partnership between the Parliament and City of Glasgow Council, the historic first meeting in Glasgow was broadcast live on the Internet.
People from all over the world were able to watch and hear the full day’s proceedings from the comfort of their own PC. Further, anyone who could not view proceedings live could call up a ‘video on demand’ service later, allowing them to watch proceedings at a time of their convenience.
This is, you may say, all very interesting, but does it have to do with me? The simple is answer is: a lot. These advances have a tremendous potential to help tackle social exclusion.
As the Parliament begins to consider how we can deliver lifelong learning and better work place training, access to technology will play a crucial part. At the moment, shift and contract workers are often excluded from further education. Access to learning materials and other resources online will mean that it will be as easy to submit an essay at 5am as it is at 5pm.
At Question Time on Thursday afternoon I raised the issue with Social Inclusion Minister, Jackie Baillie. In particular, I asked that she consider an idea I had heard that morning while visiting a joint IT and social inclusion project between Inverclyde schools and IBM. Could we, they suggested, allocate every recipient of Job Seekers’ Allowance a PIN number to allow them free access to the Internet and email through Internet Cafes, libraries and community centres?
The Minister’s response underlined the Executive’s plans, through new community schools, to promote IT access for the whole community. She also confirmed that, by 2002, colleges, schools, public libraries and community centres will all be connected up to the National Grid for Learning.
As the Minister recognised: a true information revolution must be inclusive – not just for those who can afford it.
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