E-Envoy's Mission: Drive Net UsageE-Envoy's Mission: Drive Net Usage

The United Kingdom is dedicated to creating a stronger knowledge economy, and the government's E-envoy, Andrew Pinder, spends most of his waking hours on that goal. Pinder, who reports directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair, drives the British government's strategy for Internet and E-commerce issues. That includes boosting Net usage in the United Kingdom as well as making inroads with broadband, says Pinder, who spoke recently at First Tuesday, a Chicago IT networking event.

Pinder took on the position of E-envoy in the fall of 2000 after a diverse career that included serving as Citibank Investment bank's head of European operations and technology, as well as working with startup WillRegister.com. These days, he's charged with finding ways to get more citizens online--currently, about 40% of the country's adult population uses the Internet regularly. In addition to a TV advertising campaign that encourages Internet use, the government has also created a program for people who don't have the money or opportunity to access the Internet.

People can access the Internet free or at a very low cost at about 1,700 U.K. online centers. There will be a total of 6,000 such centers at the end of the year, says Pinder, and in a wide variety of locations--schools, libraries, pubs, and centers sponsored by IT training companies. In urban areas, on average, there will be one center every 1 1/2 miles; for rural areas, that number will be about every 3 miles to 5 miles. Those Internet users will have access to an increasing amount of government-service information, too. By the end of 2005, the United Kingdom plans to have 100% of its government services online; it's about halfway to that goal now, says Pinder.

One of Pinder's biggest challenges lies with broadband. He knows it's essential for a true knowledge economy, where citizens should be able to work from anywhere. But that's not the case in rural areas that lack broadband access; as a result, those residents have gravitated toward urban areas for knowledge economy jobs instead of being able to work from home.

Pinder was particularly impressed by Chicago's ambitious broadband program, called CivicNet. By working with private-sector partners, CivicNet will first connect all schools, public housing, and all other 1,600 civic buildings with fiber-optic lines. Within the next decade, that network will be extended to all businesses and private homes. The city is already considering submissions from Lucent Technologies, WorldCom, and a host of other technology vendors.

"Chicago is probably about a year ahead of where we are," says Pinder. CivicNet is a great idea, he says--and something the United Kingdom would like to emulate. "Our government has already said, 'We will aggregate public-sector procurement to get some critical mass.' ... We'd like to look at the RFP request for approval that's gone out to industry to see how Chicago is doing it."