As soon as we have a PDF or electronic copy of the report we will be putting it up on the Digital Britain Unconference website (http://digitalbritainunconference.wordpress.com) together with a poll to gauge everyone’s thoughts. The aim will be to get an overall sense of what people think (the poll) and a more detailed reponse within the comments section of the blog post.
Those outside London please do think about meeting up on Tuesday evening also and writing your combined responses/blog posts into the comments.

Cornwall Social Media Café meet tonight (Tuesday) for a timely discussion of Digital Britain report.
Details, booking
The Future of Broadband for Cornwall

If there isn’t an event near you: meet with friends and colleagues, discuss, blog, and link.

You know you’re going to hear from Birmingham on Wednesday. If you can attend, call in and take part in the discussion. Stephen Carter will. You should as well.
Final Report Unconference Registration

Any other Unconferences? Please let me know and I’ll post them here.

Prior to the event put your questions to
Tom Loosemore 4IP,Marc Reeves Birmingham Post, John Hemming MP, Helen Milner UK Online Centres, Councillor Paul Tilsley and Glyn Evans, Stephen Dodson DC10
http://www.yoosk.com/digitalbirmingham/

Lord Carter is due to speak at 11 a.m. and his keynote talk will be followed at around 12.15, by Iain Gray, Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Strategy Board, who will outline how the detail of the report will be delivered.

Roundtable debate and workshops that explore the report’s key themes will continue throughout the afternoon and listeners will have the opportunity to participate in the live debate by posting their comments on the station’s blog.”

Excellent overview of who wants what and what the report is likely to contain
Guardian

Digital Britain: BBC and C4 yet to agree venture
‘still issues of substance as well as detail to iron out’
Financial Times

Crowd -sourcing online engagement plans for DB final report
Neil Williams’ Mission Creep blog covers the plans for publishing in ways which are “as interactive, accessible and re-usable as possible. However, it has to be remembered that this is the final report, so feedback can’t alter its content”
Mission Creep blog

Birmingham events on Wednesday
Lord Carter to make regional launch of Digital Britain in Birmingham
Birmingham Post
Digital landscape shapers’ unconference at 09 Festival
Birmingham Post

Final Report Unconference Registration

Open Rights Group comment
“… clear implication that the agreement of Universal was made contingent on imposing sanctions on Internet users without court action. Virgin will disconnect accounts temporarily when they are found to have been used to ‘persistently infringe’ copyright, but without judicial oversight.

This raises several questions. Firstly, it shows the perils of mixing up the role of ISP and content provider. As content provider, they have motivations around protection of their products and services, whereas as ISP, their business depends on providing connectivity.

Secondly, Virgin could be breaking their terms and conditions of service with their customers … “
Open Rights Group

But the people also added that at least £30m more could be made available to independent producers to create other kinds of programmes either for television or the internet, such as current affairs documentaries, as long as they fulfilled the criteria of public-service broadcasting.”

The report indicates the BBC will mount a robust defence of the licence fee.
Financial Times

June 5th to 8th
Channel 4 to put back catalogue online
BT: 93% population can get 2Mbps coverage from upgrade
High cost of copyright: 6 million days
Carphone Warehouse chief: idea ISPs can stop illegal downloading “naïve”
‘No need for network neutrality’
BBC may be forced to share licence fee with ITV
Pact lobbies for retained IP in publicly funded content
Bandwidth Wars Are Back As BBC Protests BT iPlayer Throttling
Ben Bradshaw to replace Andy Burnham as culture secretary
UK Film Industry Calls for Broadband Speed Restrictions on Illegal Users
Web pirates placed in ’slow lane’
Phone firms to meet Carter in bid to salvage broadband deal
Media execs lobby Carter

‘The publication of the report is just the start of this process, not the end. We need everyone to stay involved and engaged to help us make Digital Britain a reality.’
Digital Britain Forum

Unconference people get ready.

“British mobile broadband users are not getting anywhere near the speeds that ISPs are advertising, according to a new survey.

Broadband monitoring company Epitiro said that UK mobile broadband users only received on average 24 per cent of advertised download speeds, and that the average download speed achieved was just under 1Mpbs.
The survey also claimed that web browsing was 34 per cent slower than speeds achieved with equivalent ASDL broadband services.”

Study based on monitoring 1,300 UK mobile broadband users and operators O2, 3, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media and Vodafone.
IT Pro