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EU proposes Internet lessons

by Scott Bicheno on 20 August 2009, 13:49

Tags: European Commission

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EUreka!

Among the time-honoured techniques used by large bureaucracies to justify their existence are: claiming pre-existing trends as their own initiatives and making statements of intent with few, if any, concrete commitments.

The European Commission today announced what it called a "new information society challenge," the challenge being to become "literate in new media".

Among the insights provided by information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding were: "Interacting with the media now means a lot more than writing to a newspaper," and "We must make sure everyone is media literate so nobody is left out".

To pre-empt this looming new-media literacy crisis, Reding and the EC barely paused for breath before adopting "...policy guidelines calling on EU countries and industry to promote media literacy across Europe..." If that doesn't do the trick, nothing will.

Funnily enough, the UK is being hailed as a pioneer of this kind of Web 2.0 mentoring. The EC points to the KidSMART website, created by Childnet international to advise children and their guardians on how to stay safe online, as an example of the sort of thing it has in mind.

The EC was probably also impressed by the montage of new state agencies, further vague aspirations and, of course, increased revenue opportunities for the bureaucracy proposed in our own Digital Britain report, published earlier this year.

So don't delay: get a PC, get online and get web savvy before it's too late. Oh, hold on, you already have.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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Wonder what browser they'll propose we use the internet on?

:stupid:
EU populations welcome EU bureaucrats to the 20th century, and inquire when they propose to wake up and join the rest of in the 21st?

These days, for most of the polulation, this is about as useful as offering a fish swimming lessons.
Saracen
EU populations welcome EU bureaucrats to the 20th century, and inquire when they propose to wake up and join the rest of in the 21st?

These days, for most of the polulation, this is about as useful as offering a fish swimming lessons.

Phishing scams say hi.

I learnt computer literacy as I went, much like real literacy, however it was school that nailed down the basics for that.

I work for an IT company and we have employees that probably shouldn't be allowed Word let alone the internet their IT literacy is that bad. Is it possible realistically to do many jobs now without some IT literacy? what about 10 years from now?

We all know someone that just doesn't do computers, right now that already limits their options. That's fine whilst the old ways are still available. What about when they aren't?

The EU gets a lot of stick and quite rightly, but I think there is a nugget of sense in there.
Yeah, probably, Gunbuster. They're just such a lovely target for ridicule. I really admire whoever came up with that “straight banana” story …. that was a beaut. So daft it might have been true. :D
Saracen
Yeah, probably, Gunbuster. They're just such a lovely target for ridicule. I really admire whoever came up with that “straight banana” story …. that was a beaut. So daft it might have been true. :D

It's like the infinity number of monkeys on typewriters coming up with Shakespeare, it some times happens.

One of my main problems with all politians is they are rarely qualified in the fields that they are somehow nominated in. If I ran the books for Hexus you would expect me to at least be qualified in accountancy, Gordon Brown as CoE not so much. Aside from looking like an accountant and being Scottish, well we all know how tight they are! (has anyone from Whitehall been to Scotland in the last 100 years?).

Frankly I'd like literacy and qualification for their positions in our polititians as well. Right now none of them could run a circus in a tent, *cough*, sorry dome.