All Digital’s Post

Five European cities have gathered in Barcelona for our Democracy Lab! 💡 Hosted by Eurocities and the City of Barcelona, this unique platform enables local government officials and democracy practitioners to collaborate, innovate, and tackle real-world challenges through democratic interventions. Here's a snapshot of the challenges our cities are bringing to the table today: 🇧🇬 Sofia: Implementation of civic tech as a strategic democratic measure in the city 🇵🇹 Cascais: AI in improvement of Cascais' Participatory Budget 🇳🇱 Rotterdam: Technology to increase citizens’ involvement in neighbourhood council elections 🇹🇷 Istanbul: Setting up a digital participation platform in a highly diverse, multicultural megacity 🇱🇹 Vilnius: The proficiency of senior citizens in navigating digital services and democratic participation Between September 17-19, small teams led by experienced facilitators will work on actionable solutions to these challenges, with the support of experts from the Nets4Dem network, local stakeholders, and Barcelona’s own team. The results? Fresh perspectives, collaborative solutions, and democratic innovations ready to be implemented back home ✔️ Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3AYiY5t European Capital Of Democracy #ECoD#ECoD

🔎 Why to join EU Digital Rights and Principles webinar? ✅ Discover how digital rights and principles can power successful EU initiatives ✅ Connect with like-minded experts, civil society, and industry leaders ✅ Address key gaps to strengthen the EU's digital ecosystem

🗓️ Join the Nets4Dem project & Eurocities in #Barcelona for their democracy lab Their aim? To enhance democratic processes in a rapidly evolving digital landscape🌐 Learn more below and give them a follow while you're at it⤵️

Are you looking for more information about digital inclusion? Our What Works? Co-Lab initiative launches with four new papers exploring digital inclusion. The second in our series is our expert overview of access, in particular relating to devices and data. In August 2024, we brought together around 100 experts and practitioners from a range of sectors for a series of roundtable discussions to help to form ideas to drive action on digital inclusion. These papers summarise the data and insights provided to participants ahead of the roundtables so that they had an understanding of key insights and practice from the UK and elsewhere. Read our expert overview about Access at: https://lnkd.in/e-zzsARR

🇪🇸Looking forward to a truly global gathering of #GovTech luminaries in #Madrid for the GovTech 4 Impact Congress : Breakthrough Technologies for Future Governments. 21-23 May https://g4i-congress.com/ 👏🏻Well done to friends Idoia Ortiz de Artiñano Goñi and Sofia Silva Carballido and the Kenes Group team for bringing together a whole host of practitioners, policy makers and influencers. As ever, I like to look up and out and build bridges. It’s being held at La Nave Madrid - (equivalent of Scotland’s CodeBase). 🌎Representing The Scottish Government , looking forward to our panel session with fellow GovTech Global Alliance members and friends Kamila Gasinska and Guilherme D. F. Dominguez on Tuesday on the ‘Global Movement of GovTech ‘ 🏥We’re also running a *GovTech Clinic*- so bring your GovTech problem to our ‘clinicians’ including Catherine Nikolovski on Wednesday 15:00. 🚀At look out for Joseph Tenzin Oliver panel on Thursday morning on *Fostering Grassroots Technology: GovTech Startups* Lots of other forward thinking speakers on topics such as #AI in government, #Investment, #Scaling #innovation in government. Oh and on one of my favourite topics of AI , for those not familiar with ‘The Coming Wave’ by Mustafa Suleyman https://amzn.eu/d/avCcaaI It’s definitely worth a read/listen, in fact for anyone senior in government it should be required reading.

We're excited to announce the launch of EU Tech Loop, your new go-to source for insights and analysis on the European Union’s digital policies. Powered by Consumer Choice Center Europe, we are an independent media outlet launched in 2024, dedicated to exploring the intersection of tech, policy, and consumer rights, and how innovation helps us all. 🚀 ❓ What We Do: At EU Tech Loop, we delve into the intricacies of EU digital policies to provide you with comprehensive insights that matter. Our aim is to inform and enrich the public debate by offering balanced analyses that highlight the impact of these policies on innovation and consumer choice. 🎯 Our Vision: we believe in sharing the best policy practices from across the continent and fostering a community where opinion leaders and policymakers can contribute to shaping a forward-thinking digital landscape in the EU. 🌐 Join the Conversation: We invite you to join us on this journey as we break down complex policy issues and discuss how they affect every one of us - as consumers, professionals, and citizens. Follow our page, share your thoughts, contribute to the dialogue via editor@eutechloop.com and stay tuned for in-depth articles and expert opinions. #EUTechLoop #techreg #Innovation #tech #EU

📝 #Survey: Implementation of EU #Digital #Rights and Principles 🔎This survey is about the Declaration on #DigitalRights and Principles, officially known as the European Declaration on #Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade. The Declaration was signed by the Presidents of the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the European Union on 15 December 2022. It is a foundational instrument in safeguarding the shared European values in the digital era. As per the Declaration, humans need to be at the heart of the #digital transformation, embracing #solidarity and #inclusion. Europeans should have free and fair online choice, open participation in the digital public space, as well as safe, secure and empowered digital environments. While realising a sustainable digital future. https://lnkd.in/eg2svJXC

🎉 Day 5 of Our Festive Client Spotlight! 🎉 Today, we're thrilled to present Matrix Internet, a company that has continually showcased exceptional innovation and commitment. 🌟 Matrix Internet is a full-service digital agency based in Dublin, Ireland, with in-house specialists in planning/research, graphic design, development, online marketing, social media, and technical support. Matrix Internet has been playing a central role in some of the EU's most important digital projects. With a target of 20 million ICT professionals by 2030, the recent Draghi report underlined the need for Europe to catch up with other regions in the area of digital innovation. EU Code Week is one such example of a project that is making a difference. EU Code Week is an important European Commission project that will empower millions of young Europeans across the continent to develop skills for the digital careers of the future. In 2024, the project will also focus on addressing the gender imbalance in the ICT space. Matrix, with fellow Irish partners Microsoft Ireland Dream Space, National College of Ireland, Terawe Corporation and Schuman Associates, were happy to receive support from Ireland's Minister for Digital -Dara Calleary, who has continued to champion the contribution that Ireland is making in Europe. Follow Matrix Internet's journey here: https://lnkd.in/e5JKQrx5 #matrixinternet #connectwithirishinnovation

Today, we celebrate the International Day for Universal Access to Information, a crucial reminder of the importance of bridging the digital divide. Despite technological advances, many vulnerable groups, still face significant barriers in accessing digital tools and information. We are participating in a project together with Mobile World Capital Barcelona to tackle the digital divide faced by 5 vulnerable groups in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat to gain in-depth knowledge of different realities in relation to the digital divide. https://lnkd.in/dyn6GcNN As part of this initiative, we've created a guide "Using qualitative methods to study digital divides in specific groups" that provides a comprehensive framework to study the digital barriers faced by 5 vulnerable groups: 1 Young people with a basic level of training 2 Families with children of compulsory secondary school age 3 Women who have suffered gender-based violence 4 Immigrant women who work in the care sector 5 People older than 74 This guide uses qualitative research methods to dig deeper into the lived experiences of these groups, helping policymakers and other relevant stakeholders to understand their specific needs and co-create solutions. https://lnkd.in/daDcpd3J Access to information is a fundamental right, and by bridging digital divides, we ensure everyone can participate in today's increasingly digital world. Let’s work together to make this a reality for all!   #UniversalAccess #CitizenEngagement #DigitalDivide

Today, one week before the European Parliament elections in 27 EU countries, I was happy to welcome to Finland the first digital minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang and the founder of RadicalxChange Foundation Glenn Weyl. Great debates on #digital #democracy: “How to harness #technology for inclusion, participation and democracy?” in an event co-hosted with Sitra and Demos Helsinki, thank you active audience for sharing your passion and knowledge! Democracies globally are under attack by disinformation, social polarisation, and top-down control of authoritarian regimes. During the geopolitical and technological changes, we need to work to strengthen and secure democracy also in Europe. Fortunately, the EU has been active for example supporting media freedom, fighting external hyperthreats and cybersecurity and setting legal frame and invested resources also to fight disinformation. The new Digital Service Act requires big platforms to take steps (and report on them) to prevent risky content on their sites from disinformation or election manipulation. Eg last month European Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether Meta has breached the DSA regarding visibility of political content and the non-availability of an effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool ahead of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament and also to protect European elections from Russian interface. We also debated how to change TikTok - idea of WeTok sounds better and interoperability was seen as very positive opportunity. Still - talks today show we believe in tech - that digital solutions are needed to develope inclusive democrazy and respect plurality. To show trustworthiness eg by open source or high quality disinformation prevention. Mitigating the risks of digitalisation to democracy is not enough, we need also ways to benefit technology to strengthen democracy and inclusive participation. Glen and Audrey have recently published a book on the future of democracy and collaborative technology >> plurality.net - The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democrazy. Have a look at it, free on net! Despite the advancement of digitalization in Finland, leader on many sectors of DECI (EU scoreboard for digitalisation) we have much to learn from concrete innovations, social and technical, Taiwan has already introduced. We all can enhance tech better - for good! Also, all Europeans - remember to #vote, traditional way of democrazy is still vital! #helsinki Sitra Demos Helsinki #innovations #data #AIforgood #digital #innovaatiot #teknologia