The Oxford Internet Institute has just published its fifth biennial Oxford Internet Survey (OxiS) into internet use in Britain. This latest piece of research identifies one major new shift in the way in which users access the internet with the arrival of ‘next generation users’. It also highlights a number of other developments about internet use, which all local public service decision-makers should understand in assessing how people access and use their services.

“Fast broadband is absolutely vital to our economic growth, to delivering public services effectively, and to conducting our everyday lives.”

“But some areas of the UK are missing out, with many rural and hardto-reach communities suffering painfully slow internet connections or no coverage at all. We are not prepared to let some parts of our country get left behind in the digital age.”

Are you clear about how social networking can deliver value and reduce cost for your organisation? If not, you may not be benefiting to the full.

Having a customer service strategy is something that most customer-facing organisations accept as a necessity - but how far does it go in terms of specifically identifying the role of the web, the role of social networking, and taking account of access from smartphones? Currently few councils address these issues either in their strategies or in the practical reality of their websites.

For a number of years, the strong message coming from the Better Connected studies has been that getting the website right is fundamental to achieving major savings for the public sector.

The second of our two briefings on ‘Digital by default’, (July 2011) focused on the need to get the supply side right by optimising the online customer experience. This Briefing focuses on the demand side. Encouraging takeup of the online offering has, in turn, two aspects: ensuring that people have access to public services online and persuading people to use them.

‘Digital by default’ is public policy and a key response to the need for austerity. More and more service users expect it, but it requires two conditions for a successful implementation. First: get the supply side right. In other words, optimise the online customer experience. Second: tackle the demand side – promote and encourage the use of the online offering. This Briefing focuses on the first part of the equation.

One impact of the budgetary crisis is that more and more organisations are realising the importance of self-service. Another impact is that most now see shared services as a solution to reducing costs. However, very few seem to put the two together. With Better connected 2011 reporting only a very modest improvement is there not an opportunity now to share much more in supporting websites?

Many people assess how good their website is on the basis of how it looks, how easy it is to use, the quality of the "customer journey", the number of hits, the number of transactions...... the list is a long one. But fundamentally, there is only one basis for assessment - does it do the job it was intended to do? This raises the question of what a council website is intended to do, and many councils are less than clear on the subject. Those that have a well-defined web strategy tend to be clearer - and usually the website is there to do three things: