This year marks the 10th anniversary of Dorset Council’s Volunteer Digital Champion service. We are running a series of articles and videos to celebrate this milestone. In this article, we meet the volunteers and learners at the very special Sturminster Newton Learning Centre. Tucked away in Sturminster Newton’s community building The Exchange is a room… Read more Getting people excited about digital in Sturminster Newton
Dorset Council has welcomed a new independent report calling for a national strategy on digital inclusion. For the past decade the council has led many local initiatives to help get people online – from rolling out superfast broadband to nearly 80,000 premises, gifting devices to people in need and creating a community of digital champions.… Read more National strategy needed to ensure no-one is left behind in the digital world
In 2019, Dorset Council became a co-signatory of the Local Digital Declaration. As co-signatories, we can now apply for funding that supports digital projects, learn from other councils, and access national learning opportunities. These initiatives play a vital role in realising our ambition of becoming a digital council, in line with Our Digital Vision. Earlier… Read more Local Digital Future Councils pilot
A free training course has recruited enough digital champions to help thousands of Dorset residents access vital digital services. The initiative, run by Dorset Council, has trained and recruited 950 people who work in frontline roles to be embedded digital champions. And, on average, each embedded digital champion is helping at least one person a… Read more Dorset’s army of embedded digital champions helping thousands of people get online
Andy Taylor, one of our Volunteer Digital Champions, has over 35 years of experience in information security. In his latest blog post, he provides practical and easy-to-follow advice on how to stay safe online. In my previous blog, I looked at passwords and how to select and use a strong one to avoid personal information… Read more Staying safe online – why are backups so important?
Autonomous tractors, drones, robotic dogs, and assistive technology… words you’d associate with Dorset? Possibly not… but Dorset Council is keen on cutting-edge technology and making sure everyone hears about it! For the third year running, the Festival of Future has been used to showcase the most exciting tech happening in Dorset. We’ve come a long… Read more Festival of the Future 2022 – lessons learnt
Andy Taylor, one of our Volunteer Digital Champions, has over 35 years of experience in information security. In his latest blog post, he provides practical and easy-to-follow advice on how to stay safe online. In my previous blog, I suggested three steps to take to avoid becoming a victim of a scam or fraud. This… Read more Staying safe online – Passwords
Andy Taylor, one of our Volunteer Digital Champions, has over 35 years of experience in information security. In his first blog post, he provides practical and easy-to-follow advice on how to stay safe online. The internet world is essential for many aspects of everyday life – we all really need to use it, to some… Read more Stay safe online
In February, we reported to Dorset Council Cabinet the progress we have been making with our ambition to create a digital council in a digital place. We explained how we will support our refreshed Council Plan, with emphasis on cabinet commitment 10, which focuses on Digital Innovation and helping Dorset Council to become a more… Read more Progress towards our digital vision
Meet Sarah Cooley, Sarah works at Magna Housing, a Dorset-based Housing Association. Sarah regularly works with Dorset residents who have never been online. Completing our free embedded digital champion (EDC) training has made a big difference to her, and she’d recommend it to anyone considering taking part. “I completed the EDC training a few months… Read more Meet Sarah, an embedded digital champion helping people get online
