Get Started Campaign

I'm delighted to be here. Drapers City Foyer was one of the first ever UK online centres to open. Now, there are more than 6,000 of them over the country.

So what better place to launch "Get Started". "Get Started" is

• a wonderful example of partnership working, not just between Government and industry - but between Government, industry and the voluntary sector
• the biggest ever campaign to get people online.

Ever since I was appointed E-Commerce Minister four years ago, I've seen time and again how the internet can transform people's lives.

Helping people overcome barriers (be they illnesses, disabilities or prejudices) - and win opportunities - (be they jobs, services, better deals or new friends).

Take:

Des Frosythe in Newscastle. who started learning about computers after seeing a notice in his local library.

Des and his wife are both disabled. He used the internet to find out more about his wife's condition. He also uses it to stay in touch with his sons who live overseas by email. As well as speaking to them over the web.

He says the biggest barrier to him was the thought that he was too old to learn new skills. But he gave it a try and he says it's opened up a whole new life for him.

Or Patricia Packham - an unemployed single mother from Leeds. She had no interest in computers until two years ago, when her four-year-old son came home from school and asked a question about computers that she couldn't answer. A familiar enough scenario to all of us.

She went out and enrolled on a number of ICT courses - and has not only discovered that she's good at it, she enjoys it as well.

She's now working towards becoming a medical secretary - updating her office skills so she can compete in today's market.

Take Steve Higgins from Manchester - who's unemployed, but wants to work with computers. He took a computing course at his local UK Online Centre and now does a job search on the internet everyday at the centre.

It's not all work for Steve though. He's tracing his family tree online as well.

Or Kevin Griffin from Norwich - who's unemployed and suffers from cerebral palsy. His cerebral palsy means he has co-ordination and speech difficulties, so he finds emailing easier and quicker than using the phone.

He visits the Vauxhall Centre in Norwich twice a week - to use the internet and to email. He's also taken the CLAIT1 course, word processing courses and introduction to, and advanced, spreadsheets.

It's clear - the benefits of going online are enormous.

That's why over half all adults are now regular users.

But, as so often with these things, it is those with the most to gain who are last to get involved.

Only 10% of the poorest households are online.

Less than 20% of over 65 year olds are online.

Unless we address this, there's a risk that ICT will actually re-inforce rather than tackle social exclusion.

Last year, the Prime Minister and I asked Andrew Pinder to work out how we tackle this problem.

He's done an outstanding job drawing together a huge campaign with the aim of getting more people trying the internet for the first time - either at a UK online centre, through our partners or with the help of friends and family.

He's drawn together a huge number of partners, and a huge number of ways to reach our target audience.

Recognising that there are a myriad of obstacles to getting online - fear, cost, accessibility - and we need a myriad of routes and messages to over-come it.

Like Granada - who have had two of the regular characters in Coronation Street taking advantage of our free internet sessions in recent nights!

I understand that Samia Ghadie, who plays Maria Sutherland in "Corrie", has been to UK Online Centres in Manchester, Southampton, London, Newcastle, Carlisle and Leeds to raise the visibility of the campaign.

BT, Packard Bell and Intel have got together to give free laptops and free broadband access to people like Des, Patricia and Steve, who I mentioned earlier.

And we're running a prize draw, open to anyone who comes to one of the introductory taster sessions during May and June, with the chance of winning

• Holidays from expedia.co.uk
• Xboxs from Microsoft.
• Photsmart digital cameras and printers from Hewlett Packard
• PCs from Packard Bell and Dixons with free broadband connections supplied by BT

That's not even counting the 7 million free hours we're giving away in the internet taster sessions.

There aren't many people who won't know the campaign's taking place.

Arriva are advertising it on the buses, BT - in phone boxes, Dixons - in their stores - and Intel are running roadshows with a 40 foot truck taking the internet directly to people on the ground. The BBC is also sending mobile centres to immobile or isolated communities.

Voluntary sector partners are also playing a crucial role - particularly in getting our message to our target groups.

Age Concern, the Ethnic Minority Foundation and the National Library for the Blind are targeting the elderly, minority ethnic groups and visually impaired respectively.

The Princes Trust is targeting young people, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf - the deaf, and, later this week, I will be speaking at the National Council for One Parent Families, and helping launch their new Internet helpdesk for lone parents.

Citizens Advice have organised starter training for their Bureaux staff and volunteers - up to 25 thousand people.

The campaign is truly innovative provides an excellent model for how we in Government should be working with the private and voluntary sectors. Thanks and congratulations to all the very many of you who have got involved.

The next two months are going to be very exciting. I look forward to hearing not only about the campaign's successes but, more importantly, the positive impact the internet has had on peoples lives.

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