The Institute for Public Policy Research launched an online consultation today in which people can post thoughts on the future of Britain’s digital policy. The consultation will take place on the project’s weblog at www.digitalmanifesto.org.

The consultation is aimed at people who are not traditionally interested in information technology. IPPR hopes to implement ideas posted in the weblog into its ‘Manifesto for a Digital Britain’ – a new digital policy programme for the UK that will be released in July.

“We want to hear suggestions and opinions from people who are not already involved in the field,” said William Davies, Senior Research Fellow in Digital Society at the IPPR. “We’re interested in hearing from people who talk about digital policy at the pub.”

For three weeks the site will pose different questions that people are invited to respond to. They fall under the categories ‘Innovating’, ‘Reassuring’, and ‘Empowering’. Current questions include: “Does British competitiveness depend on additional infrastructural improvements, or should skills, content, and media literacy become the dominant policy issues?” and “What single measure could support better relationships between public and private sectors, in the delivery of large eGovernment projects?”

Davies hopes to take a specific recommendation or some illuminating quotes from the weblog to include in the manifesto. He is careful not to be exceedingly optimistic about the project’s potential, however. “We mustn’t expect an online consultation such as this to be a fabulous success, just because it’s using new media,” he said. “Techies can be over-ambitious in their expectations.”