Doteverything - Martha Lane Fox

Saturday was one of those days that come along and can inspire you. If you missed Martha Lane Fox at the Cheltenham Literary Festival this was an extension of her fantastic Richard Dimbleby lecture on the power of the internet and what it has done and can do to transform society. The content of that speech as well as her discussion at the festival was really interesting and thought provoking. She has launched a petition here that we should all be signing and supporting. Click on this link for the petition. You can get more of a flavour of doteveryone and a transcript of her Dimbleby lecture here

In her Cheltenham address she advanced her plans for the Dot Everyone project, which aims to advance the understanding of the digital age."I do feel I am on an evangelical mission about the next phase of the internet," she said. It takes my breath away to think that it wasn't that long ago there was no Google in the UK and it was just tiny in the US. There was no Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn and all these companies have gone 'boom' in the last ten years.

"One of the things I have been amazed by, appalled by and energised by is the very long way we have to go in embedding the potential for life transformation by the internet more widely and universally in the UK."

Here is the link to the Dimbleby broadcast on iPlayer. You can also get a flavour of what she is promoting by reading this article she wrote in The Guardian and also her blog.

Sure the millions of kittens, pranks and heart-warming tales are an interesting read on the Internet but MLF focuses on the power of the Internet to change lives and how we can harness the power of technology in society. No bad thing!