Partner Article

The truth about the digital deficit

We all know about The Deficit.

On-message Ministers are never slow to remind us that resolving The Deficit is the top
priority. Truth is, of course, there are many deficits.

Excess government borrowing and the gap between tax revenues and public sector
expenditures are the visible part of the economic iceberg. But, searching for a safe passage
in these treacherous waters, captains of industry find their way blocked by many hazards.

The construction sector is appalled at the housing deficit. Air-transport lobbyists are short
of runway capacity. Educationalists need better-educated (and better-funded) students.
Railways could use more and faster carriages. Retailers need more shoppers. Energy
utilities need smarter meter reading. Small businesses need more investment. Manufacturers
need higher-skills. Rural areas need more inward investment and doctors and patients need
to be better connected.

Sometimes it seems that the only surplus we have is ‘hassle’ – the annoying stuff that gets in
the way of doing business. But underlying all these deficits is a deeper darker deficit - ‘Digital
Deficit’ – an affliction prevalent in most parts of the country and known as DD.

You can look at DD in two ways – top down or bottom up. There’s MacroDD – that’s the
decade-long underinvestment in digital infrastructure – and MicroDD - a rather more personal
assessment of your own digital expertise.

MacroDD is usually deniable by government, regulators and incumbent suppliers – they see
their job as maintaining confidence in the economy. But, as any recovering banker knows,
the therapy only starts with an open acknowledgement past sins. This confessional process
is now becoming less voluntary largely on account of the non-deniability of an increasingly
global digital economy that has impacts for every sector and almost every citizen – driven by
the simple fact that folks can now uncover things faster than they can be covered up.

So it is not surprising to find that enterprising folk in the UK are suddenly aware that just
across the North Sea in Scandinavia the Digital Deficits are nowhere near so apparent or
business-life threatening on account of a decade of municipal investment that allows local
taxes to be reduced, inward investment in remote places to boom and public sector services
to be more effective.

As regards your own Digital Deficit – MicroDD – the government has recognized that, being
behind the curve, we all need to up our expertise. Is it really surprising that our nation’s
greatest innovations are created in a few exceptionally well-connected places? While
MacroDD deniers say ‘no demand’ and thus avoid future-proofing their broadband access
networks, we can be sure that there will be little proof of a future in digital investment. Valued
like gold dust, today’s most confident and competent CTO’s were allowed to ‘play’ with a BBC
MicroB in their teens.

All this wouldn’t really matter were we not living in a would-be digital economy where the
elimination of daily hassle is the prime target of digital innovators who see the need for
everything and everyone to be better connected. The quality of digital infrastructure networks
is measured by how best they are used. We are, apparently, quite good at last-generation
online shopping but there should be no denying that having a Digital Deficit we are still a
developing economy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Brunnen .