Lane Fox asks public to help others online

Lastminute.com founder and the government’s digital champion Martha Lane Fox is leading a drive to encourage internet users to give up an hour of their time to help others get online.

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The Give an Hour campaign is the biggest of its kind for Race Online 2012, the initiative started to get everyone in the UK on the internet.

The campaign is timed around 30 October, when the clocks go back and everyone in the UK has an extra hour, in which they are being encouraged, with the help of several partner brands, to use their skills to help those who have not yet used the internet.

Brands including Three, John Lewis, BT, Lloyds TSB, Wetherspoon’s, Sky, Microsoft and the Post Office will be backing the campaign by offering free internet in their retail outlets and encouraging their staff to get involved with the campaign.

Martha Lane Fox says: “Our extraordinary mix of cross-sector partners have worked tirelessly to kick start a national conversation around the Go ON Give an Hour campaign and encourage everyone in the UK to inspire real online behavioural change when the clocks go back at the end of the month.”

Race Online 2012 claims it has helped 1.3 million people get online since 2009 but there are still 8.7 million people in the UK that have yet to use the internet.

Give An Hour partners

Age UK
Big Lottery Fund
BT
Camelot
Capita
Citizens Online
Everything Everywhere
Jobcentre Plus
John Lewis
Libraries
Lloyds Banking Group
Mecca Bingo
Microsoft
NHS Choices
Open University
Pensions, Disability and Carers Service
Post Office
Scouts
Sky
Three
TalkTalk
UK online centres
Unionlearn
Wetherspoon

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