Although the problems of access are by no means solved, it is compelling content which will drive the take up of broadband. Judging by the national take-up stats for broadband of only around 17%, the content just ain't there yet.

The easiest way to convince people of the benefits of broadband is to show it at work. Even with the somewhat inspid flavour of broadband currently on offer in this country, many applications will work, but aside from games, music and the odd videoclip to watch, few sectors other than entertainment seem well served. For those making a decision about broadband for the bottom line, e-procurement, better communications, increase in productivity etc, a wide range of entertainment services to distract the staff do not come top of the list. Why is this happening and what can we do about it?

Content providers are hanging back until the investment case is clear

I think that content providers are, in the main, biding their time rather than risking precious investment capital in a fast-changing world. This is hindering the UK broadband advance. At some point, we will reach critical mass, the scales will tip, and it won't just be the 'early adopters' clamouring, and expecting, everything they could possibly desire to be delivered down their own personal fat pipe. Catch 22 really at the moment. No content, no take up, and only a very slow edging towards the pivot point.

But users are giving us clues about market direction

A recent article suggested that the biggest change in user habits once a broadband connection is installed is in the use of online banking. It seems that being able to avoid an overdraft, transfer money, pay bills etc at 3am on a Sunday morning is infinitely preferable to standing in long queues in your lunch hour, or talking to an anonymous customer service representative who doesn't quite know where England is.

To me, this is all about taking control of your life, and is also reflected in the popularity of services such as Sky Box Office, the new ‘personal video recorder’ services such as Sky Active and Ti-Vo which allow you to watch the programmes you want when you want. In a world which far too often seems beyond our control, this realisation that we can take control through broadband should be of interest to content providers looking to provide relevant and 'must have' services.

Let's have a look at what’s possible now . . .

I set off to find content that would give me, personally, some control of my life – not an easy task!

The search for educational resources on the ‘net

Firstly, I am a parent. I worry about the paucity of resources available to my kids' school – middle of nowhere, 63 pupils. Education is high on the agenda for many of us, and is vitally important for the future health of UK Plc. Not only for kids, but for those wishing to further or change careers, and to fill the skills gap.

I searched for Year 6 resources hoping to download some and share them with the school – no broadband connection there and not the best IT kit.

CurriculumOnline left me cold. Lots of software to download but very little that would justify a fat pipe into a school eg online, interactive, multimedia content which would allow a class of 9 to interact with other students elsewhere. I happen to know of a UNESCO project called 'Atlas of Diversity' and I guess I was looking for something similar to that, but no luck through Google. Many of the resources I found for primary schools would fall into the 'edutainment' category – learn whilst you play – which is fine but wouldn't convert me to broadband on their own, and many would bore the pants off my two in about 10mins.

For the mature student, Open University is the obvious starting place, but you don't need broadband to use First Class, although they do offer video conferencing.

I checked out a variety of universities and colleges serving largely rural populations, but couldn't find much that didn't require attendance, which would be top priority for me living some 100+ miles from higher education facilities.

There also seems to be a poverty of courses for broadband and wireless – which of course would be of interest here and presumably it is a growing sector where skills will be required......... Courses were also expensive, particularly considering rural incomes – here in Cumbria, the average wage is 63% of the national average. There seemed to be very little realisation that rural areas are full of enthusiastic students and the odd webcast, streaming seminars etc would surely be fairly quick to attract new students?

Online training seems better covered, although I was surprised here also by the lack of advertised use of video conferencing, online videos, VoIP etc to cut costs for supplier and consumer alike. Training companies could be quicker to realise that they can attract more business if companies are not forced to send employees to London for 6 weeks.

The future of government online?

By this point, I was not feeling too content with content, and was ready to complain to someone.

I started looking at local authority and Government websites.
Having discovered on a recent visit to the House of Commons (I was invited!) that there is no broadband there, and knowing the failure by many local authorities to grasp what broadband is all about, I didn't hold out much hope. Many local authority websites don't meet the legal requirements of the Disability Act, nor offer comprehensive information about services etc over narrowband. I didn't find a single one which offers online real-time help to cut switchboard costs, to answer FAQ's or deal with individual enquiries. However, there are a lot of public sector sites and I have better things to do than check every one, surely there's some sort of quality control for online public sector info??? My overall impression was that despite the noise about e-government, we in the UK just haven't got it. I think it will require radical education of public sector/civil service to change the outdated approach we seem to be taking.

Online access to health services?

By now, I was feeling ill. Online consultation, maybe? Medical advice for stress over a webcam? Or a 100+ mile round trip to the hospital to see a specialist? The latter still seems to be the norm. NHSDirect was the obvious place to look. A nice bedside manner to make me feel better, p'raps a good-looking doctor avatar to soothe my fevered brow? Nope, a phone number. Not even Skype or similar to reduce my temperature. Telemedicine just hasn't caught on yet, and even though I know of remote villages in Africa who have a broadband connection to get straight through to the Tropical Diseases place in London, I can't even get a few soothing words over my connection.

The search for business content

So, I thought, maybe money is the medicine I need. If I could just make some through my business and retire from this obsession for the UK Broadband Britain Challenge, maybe I'll feel better, more content.

SME business resources - let's start with two of the region's Business Links. Typed 'broadband' into the search box and couldn't find anything useful – no, ta, I don't want a grant for ADSL, I've got a 2Mbps connection here. Tried the 'IT and e-commerce' sections. Cumbria offers more than Yorkshire, but even so it seems you need to have a personal advice session, and hope you get a decent, imaginative, well up to date advisor. You can sort of imagine the conversation:

“Hi, I'd like to know what broadband content will help my business”

“What are you looking for?”

“Errr...what is there?”

And therein lies the rub for small businesses. Without some basic info about how broadband can benefit your business, a huge amount of research, a lot of advice (some good, some bad) to consider, and then making some very major decisions to completely change the way you have traditionally run your business, or not, it's a minefield. Most SMEs don't have the time to run their business, and sift through the hype and conflicting messages...............They either just get a connection and settle for the faster email, faster surfing stuff, or don't bother. Something like 40% of SMEs haven't bothered getting onto the Internet yet – even that msg has been slow getting through. And many in rural areas are unconvinced by BT's announcements that broadband lite will reach them in the next couple of years, and have had their fingers burnt buying 'the latest' in technology to find it superceded tomorrow, and are waiting for it all to settle down.

Maybe a little break . . .

That's what I decided to do, settle down for some R&R. I dowloaded a short film called Lemming Aid from New Zealand, and watched a bunch of campaigners trying to prevent some lemmings throwing themselves off a cliff. Highly relevant, and the only time I've been content with content through this entire journey!

And then I left the well-resourced websites and started looking round community content - read Daniel and Helen's articles! Also, check out del.icio.us, flickr and furl for great web services revolving gently round the edge of the network.

More next month - your recommendations welcome.