Catapulting Britain into a Connected Digital Economy : Issues of the Scale and Scope of a New Centre

This report summarizes discussion at a seminar, entitled ‘The Converged World of the Internet in a Connected Digital Economy: A Workshop to Focus Collaboration Across Business, Industry and Academia'. The workshop was designed to explore strategies for building the collaboration essential to support a Connected Digital Economy Catapult (CDEC), an initiative of the UK's Technology Strategy Board (TSB). The organizers saw the success of the proposed catapult to depend in part on business, industry, and university centers of excellence defining a clear conception of the converged world of the Internet, and related media, information and communication technologies, particularly with how it connects with the creative sectors of the digital economy. A key impetus of this workshop was the need to join thinking across different sectors of business, industry and academia. Participants shared a sense of the potential synergies linked to the convergence of the Internet and related media with the creative industries. Existing initiatives that could complement this effort included the evolving set of technology and innovation centers and programs and special interest groups organized by the TSB that are designed to promote the economic development of the UK, such as a special interest group on ‘Internet of Things'. Integrating these various initiatives was seen as another challenge for the proposed catapult. Another challenge is to keep a focus in this development stage of strategic partnerships on the range of complementary platforms and capacities that will be required for the Catapult to reach its full potential. This workshop was organized and hosted by the University of Oxford as one of a set of workshops in an ESRC Research Seminar Series on ‘Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights'(RES-451-26-0849)