John Adewole PMP

19/10/2026

When did you last book a doctor's appointment, pay a bill or apply for a job without the internet?

For millions of people, these everyday tasks are an impossible barrier.

Digital exclusion reaches far beyond older people or those who are completely offline. Only half of adults (50%) feel confident doing most of what they need to online, and four in ten (40%) worry about being left behind as more services move online, up from 34% last year.

That's why we're urging the Chancellor to use the upcoming Budget to cut the cost of connectivity for people who struggle most, and to launch a multi-year fund for digital and AI skills support in communities.

Why?

Because whatever gets bolted on is the first to be cut off when the budget is tight, and the people who need it most are the ones left behind.

01/10/2026

While Jerry Lawson was building the Channel F in California, another Black engineer was changing gaming on the opposite coast.

Ed Smith was born in 1954 and grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, after his parents moved north from Mississippi. He was fascinated by electronics from an early age and studied computer science before learning microprocessor design at Fairchild, the same company where Lawson was working on the first cartridge console.

At APF Electronics in New York, Smith helped design the MP1000, an early cartridge-based console, including its hardware, joysticks and ports. He and the APF team then turned it into something more ambitious: the Imagination Machine, which combined the games console with a personal computer. The idea was to make a family's first experience of computing affordable and approachable.

He is recognised as the second known Black engineer in the history of video games, after Lawson.

What we love most about his story is what he did beyond the lab. While at APF, he gave game consoles to young people living in housing projects, hoping to plant a dream and give them early exposure to technology.

That's digital inclusion before the term existed: seeing games as a doorway into technology, and making sure young people who might otherwise be left out could walk through it.

Who gave you your first experience of technology, and what difference did it make?

01/10/2026

Every time you slot in a game, you're using an idea championed by a Black engineer most people have never heard of.

In 1976, Jerry Lawson led the team at Fairchild Semiconductor that created the Fairchild Channel F, the first home video game console to use interchangeable cartridges. Before that, home consoles came with their games built in. Lawson's work helped turn games into something you could collect, swap and share, and it laid the foundation for the industry we know today.

He did this as one of very few Black engineers in Silicon Valley at the time. Yet for decades his contribution was largely missing from the story the industry told about itself.

This Black History Month, we think his story matters for more than the history books.

Who builds technology shapes who it's built for. When the people designing games, apps and digital services don't reflect the communities using them, those communities are more likely to be overlooked, misunderstood or left out entirely. Digital inclusion is not only about getting people online. It's also about who gets to create, lead and be recognised in the digital world.

At IFB Gaming, we see every day how much talent exists in communities that rarely see themselves reflected in tech. Jerry Lawson's story is a reminder that recognition matters, and that the next generation of innovators needs to be able to picture themselves in those roles.

Who is a Black pioneer in gaming or technology whose story you think more people should know?

25/09/2026

We are pleased to welcome AbilityNet as a new Stage Index™ partner.

Established in 1998, AbilityNet is a UK charity working towards a digital world accessible to all. Its work spans free technology support for older and disabled people, alongside specialist digital accessibility services that help organisations make their digital products and services more accessible and inclusive.

At IFB Gaming, our work sits at the intersection of digital inclusion, participation, research and community infrastructure.

We develop practical tools and frameworks that help us understand not simply whether someone is connected, but what happens afterwards: whether they can participate, develop confidence, access opportunity and navigate an increasingly digital society.

The Stage Index™ is part of that work.

It provides a structured way of understanding digital inclusion across multiple dimensions, helping identify where barriers exist and where appropriate support may be available.

Having AbilityNet within the Stage Index ecosystem is particularly valuable because accessibility is fundamental to meaningful digital inclusion.

A person can have a device, connectivity and digital skills, yet still encounter exclusion because the digital services they need have not been designed to be accessible.

That is precisely why digital inclusion needs to be understood as more than access.

Access is the starting point. Participation is the objective.

We are therefore delighted to have AbilityNet alongside us as a Stage Index partner as we continue developing a stronger, more connected ecosystem for digital inclusion.

Welcome to the Stage Index, AbilityNet.

We look forward to seeing where this partnership takes us.

18/08/2026

The headline is 500,000 households by 2030.

The real story is smaller than that, and more important.

It's a local library in Southwark. A community worker who knows someone's name. A SIM card handed over by a person, not shipped by a warehouse.

That's what actually moves through the National Digital Inclusion Network when a renewal like Virgin Media O2 with Good Things Foundation happens, not a number, a face.

One of my own principles is simple: no extraction without return. A national target only earns trust if the value it promises actually reaches the person who needs it, through someone local enough to hand it to them.

Good to see this renewed. Even better that it still runs through local faces, not just national numbers.

Here's my take: https://johnadewole.com/what-a-national-renewal-tells-us-about-local-trust/

What a National Renewal Tells Us About Local Trust By John Adewole Virgin Media O2 renewed its partnership with Good Things Foundation this week. Five years of the National Databank. Over 550,000 people connected. A new target of 500,000 low-income households by 2030. I want to resist the easy react...

16/08/2026

"Let's ensure everyone can participate in our digital society."

I didn't write those words. But I've spent years working toward exactly that sentence, one community, one toolkit, one person at a time.

At the House of Lords last week for Digital Nation's Internet Quality launch. Grateful to be in rooms where this conversation is happening at the level it needs to.

The gap doesn't close on its own. And it's about to get harder, not easier, as AI reshapes what "online" even means.

16/08/2026

This is what doing AI literacy the right way looks like.

On the 24th of June, I joined a room full of people for an AI policy confidence session in London, and the photo says more than any report could.

Look at it.

Different ages, different backgrounds, different communities, all in one room, working through what AI actually means for the people we serve.

That is the point that gets lost in the noise.

AI is rewriting how we work, earn, play, and live, yet millions remain digitally excluded.

If the response to that is built by a narrow group in a closed room, we will simply automate the divide we already have.

Sessions like this are the alternative. Real people. Real questions. Honest conversation about confidence, not just code.

Because digital inclusion in the AI age is not about handing people a tool and walking away.

It is about building the understanding, the confidence, and the trust that let people actually benefit.

Grateful to the Good Things Foundation, the National Digital Inclusion Network, InterDigital, Inc., and everyone who showed up, shared, and challenged. This is the work.

Digital inclusion should reach everyone. Always.

16/08/2026

Registration is open: AI Policy Confidence launches Tuesday, 15 September.

Most charities are being asked about their AI policy before they've had time to write one. This session fixes that, one focused workshop, a clear framework for writing or reviewing your organisation's AI use policy, and none of the generic template language that doesn't actually fit how a charity operates.

What you'll walk away with:
→ How to write an AI use policy your team will actually follow
→ What questions to ask before adopting any AI tool
→ The real risk areas for charities using AI (data, safeguarding, funder expectations)

Individual and team tickets available, or get in touch for a private session built around your organisation.

📅 Tue 15 Sept, 11:00 AM • Online
🎟️ Link in comments soon

22/06/2026

This Wednesday, I'm speaking at the National Digital Inclusion Network's first in-person London meeting, and I couldn't be more pleased to be part of it.

My talk has one simple message: you can write your own AI policy.
So many brilliant community organisations are quietly worried that AI policy is something you need lawyers and tech departments for. It isn't. A policy is just your values, written down, the things you already believe about treating people well, made clear enough that everyone uses AI the same careful way.

If a small community organisation like ours could do it, your hub can too.

I'll be sharing how we did it at IFB Gaming, the one principle that matters most, and how to start with a single page this week.

Looking forward to a room full of people who care about getting
this right for the communities they serve.

20/04/2026

I believe in passing down opportunities, not holding onto them.

The challenges we’re trying to solve in digital inclusion are too deep, too structural, and too long-term for any one individual or organisation to own.

In truth, some of these issues won’t be fully solved in three lifetimes. S it raises a simple question:

Why hoard knowledge, access, or progress?

Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked across communities, charities, organisations, and institutions delivering programmes, gathering data, and understanding what actually works (and what doesn’t).

Instead of keeping that insight siloed, I’ve taken a different approach.

I’ve consolidated that learning into a practical, accessible digital inclusion toolkit designed to support others doing the work on the ground.

Not as a product to gatekeep, but as a complementary resource that helps fill existing systemic gaps.

Because real progress doesn’t come from isolated effort.
It comes from shared tools, shared learning, and shared responsibility.

If we’re serious about digital inclusion, then the work has to outlive us, and scale beyond us.

Explore the toolkit: https://ifbgaming.com/ifb-digital-inclusion-toolkits/