Digital inclusion is crucial for ensuring individual rights and equal opportunities. It is essential for creating an inclusive, participatory, and efficient government that meets the needs of all citizens while harnessing the benefits of the digital age.
I have recently participated in a workshop organized by the Impulse European project. I'll share my thoughts with you.
As a starting point, let's have a look at the data from Catalonia and
Administració Oberta de Catalunya
to understand the situation:
- 100% of governments provide electronic services.
- 79% of citizens are satisfied with digital services by AOC.
- 90% of citizens have a smart mobile phone with access to the Internet. The 10% comprises elderly individuals over 75 years old.
- 92% of citizens access the Internet weekly, primarily using WhatsApp and social networks.
- 50% of individuals encounter significant difficulties completing forms.
- Social benefits non-take-up is over 50%, meaning most people do not get the benefits they are entitled to.
- 100% of citizens have a digital certificate ID within the official Spanish ID card, but nobody uses it because it is not convenient.
- 50% of Catalans have a Mobile ID (idCAT Mobil), and they use it four times per year on average.
- Time is what citizens value the most: they hate wasting time commuting and queuing in government offices.
- Older's +75: They do not have access to technology, lack digital skills, struggle to understand government procedures, or do not have practical access to government information.
- People with social demands and disabilities: They have a smartphone but do not understand government procedures and struggle to be aware and apply for social benefits.
- Youngers: They have access to technology, possess digital skills, and can access public information. However, they do not understand government procedures: they are used to intuitive and comprehensive private services, and government eServices frustrate them.
- Deliver mobile-first services: Access from smartphones overcomes the digital breach of technology and connectivity. AOC e-Service platform is a first-mobile solution used by most local governments.
- Provide a secure and convenient digital ID: Obtaining a digital ID ensures access to rights. In Catalonia, we deliver a mobile digital ID called idCAT Mobil, which is secure and uses a 2FA method. Any citizen worldwide can quickly obtain it from home using an advanced facial and document recognition system. Besides, it is remarkably convenient to use.
- Offer very easy-to-use services: Nobody is trained to use WhatsApp or Instagram, yet they use them frequently. That is because they provide an outstanding user experience. Government services usability is awful. The top priority should not be training citizens about using the current messy public services but instead making them much more convenient, so little or no training is required. It is a highly cost-effective action.
- Provide 24×7 Online Support: When issues happen, citizens need instant support. A chatbot can answer easy problems, but complicated ones require telephone support or, even better, a video call to walk through the process. Citizens access government services at night and on weekends, so we should plan to extend the support timetable.
- Upgrade skills through training sessions and coaching: Several Catalan town halls (e.g., Barcelona or the ones using the private service OAC 360) have a great program to coach citizens with social needs to manage all the steps for obtaining a digital ID and applying for social benefits.
- Deliver personalized and proactive services: To overcome the non-take-up of social aids, we must redesign them. We should deliver customized and proactive social benefits so citizens simply have to accept them without hassle. Moreover, we should alert citizens using their most convenient digital channel that they use to with friends and family. It is not email or SMS; it is instant messaging, such as WhatsApp.
- Building Trust: We face a significant issue of confidence in institutions. Surprisingly, people trust Google, Apple, or Microsoft more than public authorities: this poses a major problem. One of our digital priorities is to ensure that citizens have control over their data and transactions with a cross-government view. At AOC, we offer the MyGov service to achieve this.
Transport and energy lifelong learner
1 周"Access from smartphones overcomes the digital breach of technology and connectivity." Well, I have some doubts about this. I am far less at ease with my mobile phone than with my computer. Smart phones are far too smart for many of us. Baby-boomer retired white collars, like myself, got used in their late thirties (end of the eighties) to working with computers and then laptops, within a relatively user-friendly environment - windows, word, explorer, excel, power-point. At the office many had technical support. Mobile phones were first used as phones, then to send written messages. Apart from the obvious fact that their screens and keyboards are too small for our eyes and fingers, we lack familiarity with 90% of the capacities of current smartphones. We have difficulty in retrieving and saving files with them and in switching from a tool to the other within them, without losing tool and content. We also have trouble with linking a mobile environment with a computer one. Or in using the printer with them, because we only feel safe with a paper copy. Thus, there is a computer-mobile phone gap, that should be taken into account. Do I really need to fill and send forms while standing in the bus? I prefer to do it from my desk.