License to Drive in the Digital Economy

In the digital economy, teaching people to drive should be given as much significance as the road building.

The announcement by Telstra that they will be charging for over the counter and mail bill payments is food for thought about what the digital economy will mean for those citizens left behind in the rush to roll out the NBN and the technology that follows across Australia. 

An ACMA online participation report published earlier this year highlights Roy Morgan data estimating that 27% of those surveyed aged 14 and over were not currently participating online. These statistics give some indication that about a quarter of those surveyed would struggle to become active participants in the digital economy. Whilst the scope of the research was limited, I believe that if the same analysis was applied to the entire Australian population then the percentage figure would probably be higher. 

Those usual suspects of age, income, occupation and place of residence are highlighted in the report as underlying causes of low Internet uptake; but so far there are gaps in the strategies it suggests to prevent those people falling through the cracks in our rush to become an internationally-competitive, digitally-integrated economy. 

The recent DBCDE Digital Economy Future Directions paper does set out initiatives for education and regional issues and also initiatives for seniors and people with disabilities, but the individual issues affecting all citizens are not fully recognised. There are plenty of people in the community who have never had to use computers as part of their employment or education. 

A friend who recently wanted to renew her passport was told by the Post Office to download an application form from the internet. The problem was that she didn’t have a computer, didn’t know how to access the internet, let alone the correct site from which to download the form. Based on current demographics she doesn’t fit into a marginalised group in society; she has just never needed to use the Internet before in her everyday work or home life. Technology will mean a fundamental change for her and for many other Australian citizens and the Government should be actively preparing strategies to assist all.

I recently attended the Public Sphere Event: Government 2.0: Policy & Practice in Canberra and some of the initiatives raised by the participants in highlighting the importance of public engagement and open government were exciting and positive. If this is the way that the Government is going to go, it should be addressing the importance of educating everyone in society of the importance of becoming digitally literate. 

In the United Kingdom the recent Digital Britain report highlighted the importance of developing ‘digital life skills’ and suggested several strategies. Digital literacy will become a necessary life skill in Australia as well. While the NBN rollout to the entire Australian population is a necessity, the same level of emphasis needs to be given, at the same time, to the ability of the whole community to actively utilise whatever technology eventually sits at the end of the connection. 

If nearly a quarter of the Australian population are left lacking the necessary life skills to participate in the new digital economy; then it  will create greater marginalisation instead of facilitating positive participation and growth.

Joanne Ryan is Managing Director of Infodec Pty Ltd, a communications and strategic research company. Her previous role was as a senior researcher on the Communications Policy Matrix with the Network Insight Institute, and prior to that she was a researcher and regulatory affairs adviser with News Limited. Joanne holds a BA (Communications) and a Masters of International Studies from the University of Sydney.