25th Anniversary of the World Wide Web

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord St John of Bletso (CB)]

My Lords, I join in thanking my noble friend Lady Lane-Fox for introducing this very topical debate and for her excellent overview of the subject. I declare an interest as a member of the advisory board of Silicon Valley Bank and as someone who has been involved for several years in building and managing data centres.

We now live in a hyperconnected world in which a number of technologies work together to provide a new paradigm for work and private life. The nature of the workplace has dramatically changed, with more and more people working from home in the so-called virtual workplace. With cloud computing, and mobile and work collaboration platforms, this has resulted in anytime, anywhere, on-demand access to information which can only grow. The web has also enabled entrepreneurs, young and old, to build global businesses that from their early stages can reach customers and partners in all parts of the globe. It has huge potential for job creation.

Although there is satisfactory broadband connectivity in most major cities in the United Kingdom, we have a long way to go to provide adequate broadband to rural communities. I share the concerns of most of your Lordships who have spoken about the need for more action to be taken to address the digital divide. I entirely agree with my noble friend Lady Lane-Fox that digital skills need to be embedded. We have moved, in a very short time, from an analogue age to a digital age to an on-demand age—and, now, to an interconnected age. Mobile and cloud are converging to create a new platform that can provide unlimited computer resources, unconstrained by traditional memory, processing and battery life.

It is extraordinary that more than 1 billion people are connecting on Facebook alone on a monthly basis. There is no doubt that media convergence has opened up myriad opportunities, but it has also posed a number of challenges that will need to be constantly monitored and addressed by Ofcom. I agree with my noble friend Lady O’Neill that there will be a need for some form of additional regulation. Although we have all heard of the benefits of the mobile internet, cloud computing and the so-called internet of things, we are increasingly subject to growing security risks, often referred to as botnet threats. There is no doubt that cybersecurity breaches threaten both individual and business data, and business continuity.

Time restricts me from addressing another major concern, the dark web or deep web, which has been used for illicit activity. A lot more focus needs to be placed on controlling the content of the deep web.

In conclusion, although challenges remain with security and privacy concerns, we are in a period of profound and exciting change.

Millennium Development Goals

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord St John of Bletso (CB)]

My Lords, I join in thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, for introducing this short yet very topical debate. I agree with the noble Baroness that economic growth is a key enabler to reducing poverty. However, as several noble Lords have already mentioned, the goal of achieving sustainable development requires good governance, transparency and effective accountability. Development requires peace and peace requires sustainable economic development.

Continued rapid urbanisation in many developing countries poses problems of its own. It is estimated that in several African cities the population will treble in the next 35 years. That will have the inevitable result of the proliferation of squatter camps and displaced families. The recent global partnership report highlighted 12 goals to end poverty by 2030 but scant mention was made of what measures were being taken to improve effective communication. Measuring poverty continues to be a barrier to effective policy making. While more than 80% of Africans have access to a mobile telephone, less than 4% have access to reliable and affordable broadband. Africa is well serviced with undersea fibre optic cables but has totally inadequate connectivity to the mainland. My simple call today is for more measures to promote universal affordable broadband, which will by its very nature improve education, healthcare and job creation and ultimately reduce poverty.