Digital Citizenship Basic Education

Marco Fioretti (marco@digifreedom.net) May 11th, 2011, ESAF Brasilia
http://mfioretti.com CONSEGI 2011
http://stop.zona-m.net Some rights reserved
Digital Citizenship Education,
a need of society
Why Digital Citizenship basic education is a urgent need of all
contemporary societies, regardless of their industrializations,
and some proposals to achieve it
Marco Fioretti
http://mfioretti.com

2
Member of
OpenDocument Fellowship (www.opendocumentfellowship.com)
Digistan.org (www.digistan.org)
www.eleutheros.org – a Catholic approach to Information Technology
Writer for Linux Journal, Linux Format and other magazines
Author of the Family Guide to Digital Freedom (2007)
Co-author of the O'Reilly Open Government book (2010)
Author of the Digital Citizens Basics Course http://mfioretti.com/node/129
Home page and writings:
http://mfioretti.com
http://stop.zona-m.net
Author introduction: Marco Fioretti

3
We can safely say that the world DOES have some little problems
And we may also say that:
1) Everybody is entitled to:
see those problems solved, in order to live a better life
participate to their solution
2) We need EVERYBODY to participate
Because the problems are BIG and sometimes urgent too
This is not politics, it's common sense.
Background: what is the state of the world today?

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What is digital inclusion?
Why is it important?
Why does society need it?
Yes? OK, let's talk about software then:
what IS software?
Do you want to know...

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Software is not a stand-alone industry or set of tools, but
something that:
makes every other “physical” economic activity work,
from agriculture to space travel
run every service used by humankind, from mere
bureaucracy to healthcare, education, tourism, lotteries...
has an exclusive mandate to package and access in
digital format every kind of information we need to live
Why are SW and digital technologies so important?

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“the ‘digital’in today’s life is no longer a range of
individual things, anything from digital clocks to
cellphones to computers to..., but a culture, something
which calls upon habits or inculcates habits”.
Fr Julian Fox, SDB, Digital Virtues, http://stores.lulu.com/Bosconet
Digital is a culture, therefore...

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Access to physical infrastructures necessary to use digital
services & information (“easy”)
Access to practical knowledge necessary to use those services &
information (less easy)
Willingness and interest to actually do it (even less easy)
Desire that such services and information are guaranteed and
properly regulated! VERY HARD
What is Digital Inclusion?

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Today, your civil rights and the quality of your
life heavily depend on how computers are used
AROUND you
Technology (especially digital) is legislation
This is true also for people who do NOT own a
computer
Digital inclusion is important because...

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Example 1 (bad):
India’s digitization of land records gives everybody a
way to see who owns what... upper classes and
corporations have been using the digital land records
data to gain ownership of land from the unknowing
poor.
www.webmonkey.com/2010/09/open-datas-access-problem-and-how-to-solve-it/
Computers affecting people without computers

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Example 2 (good):
In 2001 only 1% of land claims by Bolivia’s indigenous peoples
had been settled
Community leaders were taught to use computers and understand the
databases created to assist land claims.
Since then half of the claims have been settled
www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/LandBolivia.aspx
Computers affecting people without computers

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By and large, no
We have not metabolized this yet for two reasons:
software is invisible, even if it is everywhere
Time!
the written word is thousands of years old. Software, as a
mass technology for communication and information
management, only a few decades.
Are we as a society aware of all this?

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What have we concluded so far?
Software is everywhere = today, (misuse of) software is
a part of many problems, and software is also a part of
their solutions!
Doing digital inclusion as previously defined can be
much cheaper and faster than trying to solve problems
in traditional ways.
Remember we said the world has problems?

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All citizens can and should demand to participate in
decisions general criteria regulating usage of software,
without being specialists.
Just as it happens on topics like privatization of water
How many citizens think that their opinion on that topic
isn't worth listening because they aren't hydraulic
engineers?
The biggest problem is apathy and ignorance

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It is a great way to have everybody do their part
to solve those world problems we mentioned
earlier
Corollary 1: We can't afford people to ignore what real
digital inclusion is and to not want it for themselves
Corollary 2: this is an urgent task, both because some
problems are urgent and because software moves very fast
This is why digital inclusion is necessary

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Everything we said leads to another reason why real digital
inclusion is important:
to (help to) solve problems, people need Education. Soon
but the only way produce and deliver enough education, in
time, is massive usage of computers
(yes, of course this is a huge simplification, education is not a material
product like cars or screwdrivers)
What's missing? The “E” word, of course!

16
Everything we said leads to another reason why real digital
inclusion is important:
to (help to) solve problems, people need Education. Soon
but the only way produce and deliver enough education, in
time, is massive usage of computers
(yes, of course this is a huge simplification, education is not a material
product like cars or screwdrivers)
What's missing? The “E” word, of course!

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Believing that physical infrastructure is
enough
Believing the “digital natives” myth
Starting from Free as in Freedom Software
Some errors to avoid when “selling” D.I.

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Q.: Is digital inclusion made of/
based on Free Software and Open
Data?
A.: No, it's based on people!
Want to promote FOSS? Don't mention it!

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Masses of common people who:
understand the need to know about certain things, to protect
their rights
understand how much software is relevant
WANT to be digitally included
Put them in that state, and they'll discover and want things like
FOSS, Open Data etc... by themselves. It's almost unavoidable
Digital inclusion is based on...

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Open Data can help a lot to:
increase transparency in government and real, democracy
save public money
create jobs, evenfor people who never had the capabilities or
opportunities to get a degree in software engineering
but this only happens if there is digital inclusion, that is
people who want to have and practice it!
Link between Open Data and D.I.

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Start from what really interests and touches
common people, without mentioning computers
at all and arrive from there to show that they want
digital inclusion
One problem: getting support to interest and reach also
people outside Universities, because this is basic education
necessary to everybody!
My proposal: Digital Citizens Basics courses

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Foundations of the digital and real world
Me and my digital me
Education and culture
Environment
Digital Citizens Basics seven topics (1)

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Work and money
Politics
Students' corner
More info? Come to the workshop or read
http://mfioretti.com/node/129
Digital Citizens Basics seven topics (2)

What do you think? I want to hear from you!!!
Questions?
Contact info:
● marco@digifreedom.net
● http://mfioretti.com
● http://stop.zona-m.net
See you tomorrow at the Digital Inclusion workshop!
Final thoughts

Digital Citizenship Basic Education

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