Race Online

What will you do with your extra hour when the clocks go back this weekend? The Give an Hour campaign is urging people to spend that hour helping someone get online as part of a nationwide push to get the UK connected by the end of the Olympic year.

The scheme is part of Race Online 2012, of which The Open University is a partner, and is being led by digital champion and OU honorary graduate Martha Lane Fox.

If someone you know is missing out on the internet – and nine million people across the UK are - then they're missing out on loads of ways to make their life easier and more enjoyable.

What you can do to help…

Pledge your hour by filling out the form below...

And share what you’re doing with others – use the #GoOn and #GiveAnHour tags on Twitter or tag @ukdigitalchampions on Facebook, add the Give an Hour twibbon to your avatar. Or send us a video or audio clip of your pledge or share them in the comments section below this article. You can find out what other members of the OU community are going to do with their hour here.

Here's a lovely story from Christian Payne about the joys of the internet and what he'll be doing to help someone discover it...

Useful links

• Find out how celebrities like Stephen Fry, Bill Oddie and Colin Jackson use the internet to pursue their passions
• Pledge your hour
• See how many pledges have been registered so far
• Martha Lane Fox blogs about giving an hour to her dad
• Add a twibbon to your avatar
• Video and audio pledges from the OU community
  

   

When the clocks go back at the end of October, the Race Online 2012 campaign, supported by the OU, is urging people to give up that extra hour to help someone new to the internet get online.

If you can find the time to give an hour and help someone discover the internet, what would you show them? How can you engage them through their own interests?

Friend of Race Online 2012 and OU honorary graduate Martha Lane-Fox is giving up her hour to help her dad go beyond basic email and show him how the internet can support his interests in gardening and history.

 

If you pledge to give an hour, what would you show an internet novice? Share your comments below and feel free to submit your own video and audio messages too. Please email the Platform team with your video messages.

The Open University is a partner in Race Online 2012 – the nationwide challenge which aims to get everyone online by the end of the Olympic year.

 With a student and alumni community numbering almost two million nationwide, the University has pledged to find and enthuse new ‘digital champions’ willing to help their friends, family and neighbours to get online.

Of the 10 million adults across the UK who’ve never used the internet, almost half are from socially excluded groups, according to Race Online 2012 organisers.

That makes the partnership a great fit with the OU's mission of openness of access and opportunity.

Race Online 2012 leader Martha Lane-Fox said:" Being able to use the internet changes and improves lives - from better access to education, employment, health and communication, plus increased enjoyment and community cohesion - we can see the vital importance of making digital inclusion a priority." 

Succeeding in the challenge would make the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web, she added.

get involved

Among the ways to get involved are:· showing ‘non-liners’ the benefits of being on the web; pointing them to free internet training; donating old equipment; involving friends, family or colleagues. 

Links

• join Platform's Race Online 2012 group
• find out more at the Race Online 2012 website
• follow the Race Online 2012 blog