cluetrainee’s blog…

$1.3 bn will be spent on advertising in US social networks in 2009, says eMarketer.  That’s only 8% up on 2008’s $1.2 bn, but 9% down on eMarketer’s previous estimate of $1.4bn

A UK Average Bod sent 3.64 SMS messages every day and 0.0246 MMS messages in September 2008 (2.67 SMS and 0.0207 MMS in September 2007).  Across the 61,363,000 people in the UK (60,975,000 last year) that sums to 6.7bn SMS and 45m MMS in the month (4.9bn SMS and 38m MMS last year).

Are we shunning MMS?  (The numbers say AvBod sent 148x more texts than MMS this year and 129x more texts than MMS last year – so proportionately less MMSing going on)

The traffic numbers come from The Mobile Data Association (MDA) and their Q3 2008 UK Mobile Trends Report while the populaiton figures for 2007 come from the UK’s National Statistics with 2008 population estimated by me using the growth rate of 388,000 to extrapolate 2007’s numbers (same as from 2006 to 2007).

The UK has 25.6m TV Homes.   A “TV Home” is a household which has at least one television in working order (or if a TV is broken down, then one for which arrangements have been made for repair within seven days).  There are 26.3m homes. These figures from the UK Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB).

718,474 Brits phone-voted for “BBC Sports Personality of the Year”, broadcast on BBC1 last night, and the winner, Chris Hoy, received 283,630 votes (39.5% of the total).  Lewis Hamilton in second place polled 163,864 (22.8%).  Adlington:145,924 (20.3%).  The rest all under 5% each – Ainslie:35,472, Calzaghe:34,077, Murray:19,415, Cooke:18,256 (my favourite), Ohurougu:7,677, Wiggins:5,633, Rebecca Romero:4,526. (Times Online provided the individual numbers, I did the totals and percents).

There are 97,878,447 blogs today, says Nielsen’s BlogPulse.

63% of adults are “uncomfortable” and 15% of adults are “comfortable” with the children in their households participating in online communities.

This is more data from the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication but from the annual report, the World Internet Project Report 2009 published by the Center’s World Internet Project.

18% of internet users buy online “at least weekly” in the UK. The figure for the US is only 14%. It seems Australia and the Czech Republic are next with 12%. A surprising ranking.

The figure is 47% for internet users who “buy online monthly” in the UK. Again ahead of hte US (46%) with New Zealand at 40% and Australia at 38%.

The data is from the World Internet Project Report 2009 published by the World Internet Project running at the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

The report is a source for data on the reliability of information, the importance of the internet, its use for shopping, how much people go online, why people go online and reasons for not going online.

There are 25.3m households in the UK and 35% (8.87m) of these do not have internet access.  34.5% of those that do not have internet access, that’s 3.01m, claim they “don’t need” the internet.  In two years, the proportion of non-internet households who say they “don’t need” it has grown from 24% to 34%.  The percentage who say they “don’t want” (as opposed to “don’t need”) the internet has ballooned from 3% to 24%.  It feels like we’re getting down to the hard core, die hard, opinionated households now – maybe this number won’t shift much in the future.

This data from the UK’s Office of National Statistics annual Internet Access 2008 report in August 2008:

• 71% of the adult population (33.9m adults) accessed the internet in the prior three-month period (up 6.6% from 2007)
• 69% of the adult population (23.5m adults) access the Internet every day or almost every day
• 77% of the 16-24 age group use the internet every day or almost every day
• 15% of the adult population who accessed the internet in the prior three-month period did so using GPRS phone devices (the same proportion as in 2007)
• 4% of the adult population who accessed the internet in the prior three-month period did so using 3G mobile (up from 3% in 2007)
• 16.46m (65%) of UK households have internet access (15.23m in 2007)
• 14.18m (56%) of UK households have broadband internet access (up from 51% in 2007)
• 14.16m (86%) of UK households with internet access have broadband access
• 80% of UK Households receive digital TV

Following my failure to find “The Definitive” source of knowledge in Vienna on the economics of digital inclusion, I grasp hold of the Economic Benefits of Digital Inclusion – Building The Evidence report from UK Online – the organisation which runs 6,000 centres across the UK helping people access and use the internet.  Their report is fullsome – with some good numbers.  Having scoured Europe at the conference, I’m pretty sure that this document is as near as we can get to the DEFINITIVE NUMBER SET at this point in time.  So I go through it and pull out everything with a number attached to see if it makes sense.

But there are caveats – there’s a lot of supposition, unclarity, opacity even conjecture and supposition in the report.  And I must admit that I can’t pin down enough of these numbers in a concrete way as I would like.  I don’t even understand some of them.  But it’s a great piece of work and the numbers are BUT THEY ARE POSSIBLY THE BEST WE HAVE NOW.  (You may even enjoy the economic analysis of Domino’s Pizza)

Here are the numbers from that report – all 50 of them (with page numbers in brackets if you want to check them out):

• The benefits of digital inclusion across the EU might be between €35bn – €85bn over five years (p2)
• Computer/internet use commands salary premiums of 3% – 10% (p3)
• An NHS Direct online initiative is predicted to save £68m in 2008 (p3)
• Companies can increase customer base and sales volumes (online spend is on average 20% higher than offline) (p3)
• Total cost-saving across UK Online Centres’ “Five Core Groups” tops £2.6bn (p3)
• The impact on GDP is upwards of 1.54% over three years (p3)
• Online saving for an individual is 13% for groceries, 15% for travel and 21% for services (uswitch.com) (p7)
• Online brings a saving of 13% on the average internet shopping basket (£606, Verdict 2007) (p8)
• Online might save consumers £90.55 per year in monetary terms alone (p8)
• The benefit of shopping online is approximately £283 per year (Demos/Post Office Ltd) (p8)
• Computer users benefit from a 3-10% wage premium compared to those who can’t use computers (Centre for the Economics of Education, 2007) (p10)
• 89% of UK public services are online (Eurostat, 2007) (p13)
• 27% of the UK population access information from public authority websites (Eurostat 2007) (p13)
• Online health information is likely to save the NHS £80.87 million in 2008 (p13)
• The number of consultations for participants decreased by 7% (The Department of Health, NHS and Stanford University, ‘Expert Patient Programme (EPP) Online’ pilot programme) (p14)
• The number of outpatient visits decreased by 10% (The Department of Health, NHS and Stanford University, ‘Expert Patient Programme (EPP) Online’ pilot programme) (p14)
• The number of A&E attendances decreased by 18% (The Department of Health, NHS and Stanford University, ‘Expert Patient Programme (EPP) Online’ pilot programme) (p14)
• £140m could be saved each year by using the NHS online booking system (a missed hospital appointment costs the system £90 per appointment and calculations show 1.7m misses could be saved) (p14)
• DVLA saves £21m between 2007-08 and 2010-11 by introducing online payments when fixed investment in IT infrastructure is taken into account (p16)
• A £14.40 saving can be obtained from transactions conducted online rather than face-to-face (Tameside Borough Council) (p17)
• Online advertising accounted for 18% of total advertising spending in 2007 (p18)
• 4.4m shoppers ordered online in Christmas Day 2007 (p18)
• Marks and Spencer sales decreased 2.2% in Q3 2007 but online sales had increase by 60% by November 2007 (p18)
• E-retailer generated £84m in revenue on Christmas Day 2007 (p19)
• Shoppers spent an average of £19.09 online on Christmas day 2007 (p19)
• Household spending on Computer, Printers and calculators is £40m per week (p19)
• Domino’s Pizza online orders comprise 15% of total sales
• Domino’s Pizza achieved £32.2m in internet trading in 2007
• The average spend of a Domino’s Pizza online customer  is 20% higher than for a telephone order
• The value of additional spending to Domino’s Pizza from internet sales increased total sales by £5.7m
• The Average Annual Online Spend Per Consumer is £606 (p20)
• The Internet Premium is 20% or £121.2 (p20)
• The Number 10 Downing Street website allows petitions to be created for free whereas a manual petition may cost up to £1,600 to run (p24)
• Lewisham Borough Council saved 18.2 tonnes of carbon each year by transferring information on jobs for its building maintenance service provision to reduce the number of journeys made to central depots by lorries (p24)
• Nearly one third of parents and grandparents had been taught or encouraged to surf the internet by a young person aged 13-16 (p25)
• 17,000 older people joined in Silver Surfer events (in 2006) (p25)
• 20% of the 17,000 older people who joined in the 2006 Silver surfer events did not have access to a computer (p25)
• Netmums has 345,000 registered users in the UK (p26)
• Training undertaken at a UK Online Centre can save private sector employers £33 per digitally engaged citizen (p28)
• 39% of the adult population remain digitally excluded (p28)
• 1.14% – 1.54% increase in GDP 2008-2010 due to public spending on e-Government and Digital Literacy Programmes (p32) (Source: the EU’s e-Government Economic Project)
• £90.32m will be saved each year by the DVLA (after investment) as a result 8m = £11.29 £90.32 million saving per annum (p33)
• There is a £10.5m financial benefit for Individuals from using NHS Direct Online (0.38 x 28m users) (p33)
• There is a £283 financial benefit for each individual using e-retail (p33)
• There is a £2.1bn financial benefit to private sector organisations due to 20% extra online spend (p33)
• There is a £300m financial benefit to Government using online services (DVLA £90m, NHS Direct Online £70m, NHS Choose and Book £140m) (p33)
• There is a £200m financial benefit to the wider economy “if we raise ICT skills sufficiently” (p33)
• Thee-retail market was £10.9bn (UK, 2006) (p33)
• 40% of all retail is expected to be conducted online by 2020 (p33)
• Government anticipates public spending on e-Government and digital literacy programmes to yield returns of between 1.1% and 1.5% of GDP increase in 2008-2010 (p35)

How many numbers do we need to tell us the social and economic health of a region? The answer is 198. The top-line concept behind these numbers was announced as part of the UK Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review on 11th October 2007 and the detailed measures came out in February 2008.

The important thing is this: They are THE ONLY MEASURES on which Central Government “performance manages” Local Government.

I like them. They’re mostly unequivocal.  Clear.  And they are decisive: they replace all other existing sets of indicators including Best Value Performance Indicators and Performance Assessment Framework indicators. Local Government started reporting against these from April 2008. The indicators are published by the UK Government’s Department for Communities and Local Government and called “National Indicators for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnerships” (see pdf of definitions or download as spreadsheet)

Our checkout my handy list of “National Indicators”:

1 % of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area
2 % of people who feel that they belong to their neighbourhood
3 Civic participation in the local area
4 % of people who feel they can influence decisions in their locality
5 Overall / general satisfaction with local area
6 Participation in regular volunteering
7 Environment for a thriving third sector
8 Adult participation in sport and active recreation
9 Use of public libraries
10 Visits to museums and galleries
11 Engagement in the arts
12 Refused and deferred Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) license applications leading to immigration enforcement activity
13 Migrants’ English language skills and knowledge
14 Reducing avoidable contact: minimising the proportion of customer contact that is of low or no value to the customer
15 Serious violent crime
16 Serious acquisitive crime
17 Perceptions of anti-social behaviour
18 Adult re-offending rates for those under probation supervision
19 Rate of proven re-offending by young offenders
20 Assault with injury crime rate
21 Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police
22 Perceptions of parents taking responsibility for the behaviour of their children in the area
23 Perceptions that people in the area treat one another with respect and consideration
24 Satisfaction with the way the police and local council dealt with anti-social behaviour
25 Satisfaction of different groups with the way the police and local council dealt with anti-social behaviour
26 Specialist support to victims of a serious sexual offence
27 Understanding of local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police
28 Serious knife crime rate
29 Gun crime rate
30 Re-offending rate of prolific and priority offenders
31 Re-offending rate of registered sex offenders
32 Repeat incidents of domestic violence
33 Arson incidents
34 Domestic violence – murder
35 Building resilience to violent extremism
36 Protection against terrorist attack
37 Awareness of civil protection arrangements in the local area
38 Drug-related (Class A) offending rate
39 Rate of Hospital Admissions per 100,000 for Alcohol Related Harm
40 Number of drug users recorded as being in effective treatment
41 Perceptions of drunk or rowdy behaviour as a problem
42 Perceptions of drug use or drug dealing as a problem
43 Young people within the Youth Justice System receiving a conviction in court who are sentenced to custody
44 Ethnic composition of offenders on Youth Justice System disposals
45 Young offenders’ engagement in suitable education, training and employment
46 Young Offenders’ access to suitable accommodation
47 People killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents
48 Children killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents
49 Number of primary fires and related fatalities and non-fatal casualties (excluding precautionary checks)
50 Emotional health of children
51 Effectiveness of child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) services
52 Take up of school lunches
53 Prevalence of breast-feeding at 6-8 wks from birth
54 Services for disabled children
55 Obesity in primary school age children in Reception
56 Obesity in primary school age children in Year 6
57 Children and young people’s participation in high-quality PE and sport
58 Emotional and behavioural health of looked after children
59 Percentage of initial assessments for children’s social care carried out within 7 working days of referral
60 Percentage of core assessments for children’s social care that were carried out within 35 working days of their commencement.
61 Timeliness of placements of looked after children for adoption following an agency decision that the child should be placed for adoption
62 Stability of placements of looked after children: number of placements
63 Stability of placements of looked after children: length of placement
64 Child Protection Plans lasting 2 years or more
65 Percentage of children becoming the subject of Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time
66 Looked after children cases which were reviewed within required timescales
67 Percentage of child protection cases which were reviewed within required timescales
68 Percentage of referrals to children’s social care going on to initial assessment
69 Children who have experienced bullying
70 Hospital admissions caused by unintentional and deliberate injuries to children and young people
71 Children who have run away from home/care overnight
72 Achievement of at least 78 points across the Early Years Foundation Stage with at least 6 in each of the scales in Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication, Language and Literacy
73 Achievement at level 4 or above in both English and Maths at Key Stage 2
74 Achievement at level 5 or above in both English and Maths at Key Stage 3
75 Achievement of 5 or more A*- C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and Maths
76 Reduction in number of schools where fewer than 65% of pupils achieve level 4 or above in both English and Maths at KS2
77 Reduction in number of schools where fewer than 50% of pupils achieve level 5 or above in both English and Maths at KS3
78 Reduction in number of schools where fewer than 30% of pupils achieve 5 or more A*- C grades at GCSE and equivalent including GCSEs in English and Maths
79 Achievement of a Level 2 qualification by the age of 19
80 Achievement of a Level 3 qualification by the age of 19
81 Inequality gap in the achievement of a Level 3 qualification by the age of 19
82 Inequality gap in the achievement of a Level 2 qualification by the age of 19
83 Achievement at Level 5 or above in Science at Key Stage 3
84 Achievement of 2 or more A*- C grades in Science GCSEs or equivalent
85 Post-16 participation in physical sciences (A Level Physics, Chemistry and Maths)
86 Secondary schools judged as having good or outstanding standards of behaviour
87 Secondary school persistent absence rate
88 Percentage of schools providing access to extended services
89 Reduction of number of schools judged as requiring special measures and improvement in time taken to come out of the category
90 Take up of 14-19 learning diplomas
91 Participation of 17 year-olds in education or training
92 Narrowing the gap between the lowest achieving 20% in the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and the rest
93 Progression by 2 levels in English between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2
94 Progression by 2 levels in Maths between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2
95 Progression by 2 levels in English between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3
96 Progression by 2 levels in Maths between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3
97 Progression by 2 levels in English between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4
98 Progression by 2 levels in Maths between Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4
99 Looked after children reaching level 4 in English at Key Stage 2
100 Looked after children reaching level 4 in mathematics at Key Stage 2
101 Looked after children achieving 5 A*-C GCSEs (or equivalent) at Key Stage 4 (including English and mathematics)
102 Achievement gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and their peers achieving the expected level at Key Stages 2 and 4
103 Special Educational Needs – statements issued within 26 weeks
104 The Special Educational Needs (SEN)/non-SEN gap – achieving Key Stage 2 English and Maths threshold
105 The Special Educational Needs (SEN)/non-SEN gap – achieving 5 A*- C GCSE including English and Maths
106 Young people from low income backgrounds progressing to higher education
107 Key Stage 2 attainment for Black and minority ethnic groups
108 Key Stage 4 attainment for Black and minority ethnic groups
109 Delivery of Sure Start Children’s Centres
199 Children and young people’s satisfaction with parks and play areas
110 Young people’s participation in positive activities
111 First time entrants to the Youth Justice System aged 10 – 17
112 Under 18 conception rate
113 Prevalence of Chlamydia in under 25 year olds
114 Rate of permanent exclusions from school
115 Substance misuse by young people
116 Proportion of children in poverty
117 16 to 18 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET)
118 Take up of formal childcare by low-income working families
119 Self-reported measure of people’s overall health and wellbeing
120 All-age all cause mortality rate
121 Mortality rate from all circulatory diseases at ages under 75
122 Mortality rate from all cancers at ages under 75
123 Stopping smoking
124 People with a long-term condition supported to be independent and in control of their condition
125 Achieving independence for older people through rehabilitation / intermediate care
126 Early Access for Women to Maternity Services
127 Self reported experience of social care users
128 User reported measure of respect and dignity in their treatment
129 End of life care – access to appropriate care enabling people to be able to choose to die at home
130 Social Care clients receiving Self Directed Support per 100,000 population
131 Delayed transfers of care
132 Timeliness of social care assessment (all adults)
133 Timeliness of social care packages following assessment
134 The number of emergency bed days per head of weighted population
135 Carers receiving needs assessment or review and a specific carer’s service, or advice and information
136 People supported to live independently through social services (all adults)
137 Healthy life expectancy at age 65
138 Satisfaction of people over 65 with both home and neighbourhood
139 The extent to which older people receive the support they need to live independently at home
140 Fair treatment by local services
141 Percentage of vulnerable people achieving independent living
142 Percentage of vulnerable people who are supported to maintain independent living
143 Offenders under probation supervision living in settled and suitable accommodation at the end of their order or licence
144 Offenders under probation supervision in employment at the end of their order or licence
145 Adults with learning disabilities in settled accommodation
146 Adults with learning disabilities in employment
147 Care leavers in suitable accommodation
148 Care leavers in education, employment or training
149 Adults in contact with secondary mental health services in settled accommodation
150 Adults in contact with secondary mental health services in employment
151 Overall Employment rate (working-age)
152 Working age people on out of work benefits
153 Working age people claiming out of work benefits in the worst performing neighbourhoods
154 Net additional homes provided
155 Number of affordable homes delivered (gross)
156 Number of households living in temporary accommodation
157 Processing of planning applications
158 % non-decent council homes
159 Supply of ready to develop housing sites
160 Local authority tenants’ satisfaction with landlord services
161 Number of Level 1 qualifications in literacy (including ESOL) achieved
162 Number of Entry Level qualifications in numeracy achieved
163 Proportion of population aged 19-64 for males and 19-59 for females qualified to at least Level 2 or higher
164 Proportion of population aged 19-64 for males and 19-59 for females qualified to at least Level 3 or higher
165 Proportion of population aged 19-64 for males and 19-59 for females qualified to at least Level 4 or higher
166 Median earnings of employees in the area
167 Congestion – average journey time per mile during the morning peak
168 Principal roads where maintenance should be considered
169 Non-principal classified roads where maintenance should be considered
170 Previously developed land that has been vacant or derelict for more than 5 years
171 New business registration rate
172 Percentage of small businesses in an area showing employment growth
173 Flows on to incapacity benefits from employment
174 Skills gaps in the current workforce reported by employers
175 Access to services and facilities by public transport, walking and cycling
176 Working age people with access to employment by public transport (and other specified modes)
177 Local bus and light rail passenger journeys originating in the authority area
178 Bus services running on time
179 Value for money – total net value of ongoing cash-releasing value for money gains that have impacted since the start of the 2008-09 financial year
180 The number of changes of circumstances which affect customers’ HB/CTB entitlement within the year.
181 Time taken to process Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit new claims and change events
182 Satisfaction of business with local authority regulatory services
183 Impact of local authority trading standards services on the fair trading environment
184 Food establishments in the area which are broadly compliant with food hygiene law
185 CO2 reduction from local authority operations
186 Per capita reduction in CO2 emissions in the LA area
187 Tackling fuel poverty – % of people receiving income based benefits living in homes with a low energy efficiency rating
188 Planning to Adapt to Climate Change
189 Flood and coastal erosion risk management
190 Achievement in meeting standards for the control system for animal health
191 Residual household waste per household
192 Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling and composting
193 Percentage of municipal waste landfilled
194 Air quality – % reduction in NOx and primary PM10 emissions through local authority’s estate and operations
195 Improved street and environmental cleanliness (levels of litter, detritus, graffiti and fly-posting)
196 Improved street and environmental cleanliness – fly tipping
197 Improved Local Biodiversity – proportion of Local Sites where positive conservation management has been or is being implemented
198 Children travelling to school – mode of transport usually used

The UK has 9.3m disadvanted adults. The UK Government’s Digital Inclusion Team exists to implement the report “Inclusion Through Innovation” – and has got a funky new video to highlight the stats:

• There are 647,643 people classified as the “most disadvantaged“, split across four main groups they are: Care Leavers (5,300), Offenders (55,408), Mentally Ill (464,780) and those with Learning Disabilities (122,155)
• 75% of disadvantaged people do not use the internet – that’s 7m adults
• 35% of disadvantaged people do not use mobile phones
• We spend £57.9bn each year tackling problems associated with 1.3m most disadvantaged people
• We are spending an average of £44,538 per “most disadvantaged” person per year tackling these problems (UK)

Other stats from the Digital Inclusion Team’s video, starting with the “haves”:

• £130bn of business was conducted over the internet (UK, 2006)
• 7 out of 10 businesses communicate with customers directly through their website (UK)
• 17m adults manage their finances with online banking (UK)
• Over 50% of online 16-24 year-olds use social networking websites (Britain)
• 20.4 m homes have a digital TV services (UK)
• 1 billion text messages are sent every week (by “Britons”)

…and the “have nots”:

• 11% of adults do not use a mobile phone
• 20% of adults do not have a digital TV
• 33% of households do not have a PC (UK)
• 800,000 school children cannot go online at home
• 10% of 16-24 year-olds do not use the internet
• 27% of adults have never used the internet

The site highlights a few “Problem Solvers” – these are organisations who have demonstrably done something about it:

• A Nokia mobile solution has saved the London Borough of Barnet’s Childrens Service £350m
• Telecare has saved Northamptonshire Council £1.5m in 21 months
• Sheffield SafetyNET and Slivers of Time were also both cited and worthy of note

Who is the UK’s leading online retailer?  It handles £4.2m per day and 273,500 purchases per week.  (£3.36m per day is the revenue generated by Tesco online, with 250,000 purchases per week).

The answer is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority in a July 2007 press release DVLA Beats Biggest Online Retailers   The figures are theirs from 2007 and this story inspired by a UK Online Centres report.

(Actually, Tesco figures conflict: Preliminary Results 2006/2007 from 17th April 2007 claim 250,000 per week but the later Interim Results 2006/2007 presentation on 3rd October say 220,000.  up to February 2007)