In a Guardian article today, there was a call for social media commentator, Clay Shirky to either write or assist in writing the final Digital Britain report. The reason given for this request is that the Steering Committee behind the interim report, released yesterday, is made up of too many journalists, policy wonks and QuaNGO representatives, and too few people who actually know what is going on out there in business and technology land.

It’s actually a fair call. Shirky has probably been in social media longer than most of the people on the Digital Britain Steering Committee and he’s certainly done a lot more to convince businesses and government officials alike of the value of new media. But Shirky himself is an academic, and he’s not as connected to the British technology business scene as he’d need to be to really deliver on a costed, and tactical Digital Britain report.

But the Amplified collective are connected to British business and the social media, technology and creative scene. We are the kind of people who should be participating in this kind of decision making because we collectively have experience across a wide range of sectors and we can cost projects, connect with providers or services and think creatively about how to solve access and participation problems. We make decisions about the values and problems associated with interfaces, protocols and infrastrcture every day. We mediate connectivity and we filter for meaning.

In short, the Amplified community are probably the best qualified group of industry professionals to advise on digital policy in Britain today.

But we weren’t asked to contribute prior to the publishing of the Interim Report at all. And where we have been asked to respond - as all British residents and citizens have been given the option to respond - it is in writing to the Digital Britain team, or by participating in TED-style Digital Britain summit events across the UK in April and May.

If Amplified’s ambition is to make the UK into the most connected (and perhaps connective) place on the planet, then we need to be involved in the decision making process here because we actually know what is going on. We’re not a bunch of disconnected researchers and policy wonks, but creators, entrepreneurs and networkers who can best advise on how to pull off a strategy that will actually result in a genuinely Digital Britain.

I’m suggesting that Amplified set up some topics in the regional events in February and May (and in between) that can actually help solve universal access to broadband services affordably and efficiently, and that focus investment on social media technologies and services that will assist the British economy. Let’s show them how it’s done.