Martha Lane Fox used her spot at the Richard Dimbleby Lecture 2015 to call for a new public institution to help us understand “the complex moral and ethical issues that the internet presents”.
The co-founder of Lastminute.com and cross-bench member of the House of Lords has even started a petition at Change.org calling on the PM to set up Dot Everyone.
Lane Fox says the organisation will feel new, “it won’t and shouldn’t feel familiar. No grey suits, no dusty buildings”. It should focus on educating the population about the internet and put women at the heart of the technology sector, she explained.
“Britain invented the BBC, the NHS – let’s not have a poverty of ambition – we can and should be inventing the definitive public institution for our digital age.”
During the lecture, she said that at 25, having just done “the most important pitch of my life” in a bid to get Lastminute’s first investment, the first and only question from the first and only investor who had agreed to meet was:
“What happens if you get pregnant?”
She says that given the digital sector is around 14% women, that actually means it’s doing worse than parliament, on 24%. There are also 10m adults and 70% of small businesses who aren’t online, she added:
“No wonder these businesses are missing out on growth. Our estimates show that helping every small business understand digital would contribute £18bn to the economy.”
The lectures, established in memory of broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, have run nearly every year since 1972. They have featured entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and James Dyson, along with a long list of lords and politicians, clergy and academics.