online

In this short piece Kim Tasso, a Legal Consultant and a successful Open University MBA Alumnus, shares her reasons for blogging. She has blogged since 2000. She offers eight good reasons to do so:

1. You write about something that interests you. So you blog for the intrinsic pleasure of it.
2. To share ‘profound thoughts’.
3. To share the profound thoughts of a colleague.
4. It’s easy to do. Self-publishing has come of age.
5. Social media lets you get your message out to a huge network.
6. Easily shared content starts a conversation.
7. You connect with new people.
8. It helps with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

In a mind-map I stretch this to 24 reasons to blog. I’ve added more, though the three most important to me are: for the fun of it, to share knowledge and to converse with like-minds.

"The largest cross-sector army to have ever been put together" will help reduce loneliness and isolation, aid people into employment and encourage learning as part of the Race Online 2012 campaign to get the whole of the UK using the internet by the end of the Olympic year.

The Open University is supporting Race Online 2012, officially launched at the National Digital Champions Day in London on Wednesday 11 May, and attended by OU Vice-Chancellor Martin Bean, uniting young and old faces with a shared interest - learning and teaching how to get online.

Prime Minister David Cameron spoke via recorded message to the conference's visitors, exhibitors and supporters to say: "Together we can make the UK the first place in the world to have everyone on the web."

Fronting the campaign is UK Digital Champion and OU honorary graduate Martha Lane-Fox (pictured) who told the conference inspiration, skills and price are the main reasons for not jumping online and that, by creating an army of Digital Champions, the barriers could be broken down. "We need to embed digital skills and gain a deeper understanding of technology and a fearlessness of using technology to put the UK in a really robust position... we're creating a new model for social change."

Computer buddy

She championed the offer of computer and internet packages for under £100 for the country's most disadvantaged and said there would be a big push at the end of this year, encouraging people to give the gift of the internet - and the skills to use it - this Christmas.

With 1,100 partners on board the Race Online campaign so far, Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society, branded it the "largest cross-sector army to have ever been put together".

"There are nine million people in this country who are not using the internet and they're really the people who need to be. We need to help the elderly, some are suffering really quite scary isolation," he added.

TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, who hosted the welcome reception, admitted the iPad had changed her life and praised Chris Sellers, of Sevenoaks Library, for becoming her "computer buddy" and helping to get her online.

Via video link during the reception, Gloria also spoke to a woman aged 102 - and five months! -who'd been learning to use Skype to talk to her children and grandchildren abroad, and her "baby brother" aged 89 in a neighbouring county.

A mother living in Aston, Birmingham, - an area of high unemployment - described a scheme to set her up with a computer and the internet as her hero as she would never have been able to find a job and improve her life without it.

Making connections

And Mavis, a pensioner, became tearful when she told the audience, via video, how getting online had saved her from a life of isolation and loneliness, connecting her to family, friends and nearby neighbours she'd never had conversations with before.

The day included interactive workshops, information stands hosted by some of the camapaign's partners, a game of bingo and guests were treated to a performance by X Factor finalist Stacey Solomon at the end of the day.

The Platform team was out and about at the Digital Champions Day, catching up with people and organisations supporting the campaign - watch the videos...

Platform asked five Digital Champions what their top tips are for getting the nation online...

Nancy Johnson, of Age UK, talks about refurbishing old computers and passing on IT skills...

Platform's student blogger Carrie Walton talks about how she first got online, her plans to become a Digital Champion herself and how valuable the internet is when you're an OU student...