Sunderland wins Digital Challenge
Sunderland was today unveiled as the winner of the government’s Digital Challenge competition. The Local Authority will receive £3m to deliver its plans for a digitally enabled community, which will benefit some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded people in the area.
As the Digital Challenge winner, Sunderland will be a national exemplar of how ICT can be used to tackle social exclusion.
The Digital Challenge saw cities, towns and regions outline their visions for a digitally enabled society designed to better meet the needs of local communities and citizens. “All the finalists have led the way in the UK and should be seen as true regional digital inclusion champions”, said Angela Smith, Minister for Local eGovernment.
The Minister announced that the government will provide a £2m digital inclusion fund to support ongoing collaboration on digital inclusion and the ten finalists have agreed to establish a new organisation, called the DC10, to take this forward.
The Gospel of Inclusion, Guardian article, 21 March 2007
