Chapter 4
Theme Digital transformation
Digital transformation (DT) is both a technological transformation, as well as a transformation in society and the organization as one. It is a transformation that deals with changing core processes, and about people and the way they work and learn. Also see the article on Digital transformation of organizations on upstream.nl (see reference 9).
Digital is now becoming dominant in our culture. Artificial intelligence continues to be more present as an automated filter of information. People have become more aware of the value of their data due to scandals, data leaks, and data theft. Democracy is under pressure and participation in the democratic process is declining. Meanwhile, many more democratic processes are being digitalized. Information on government regulations can only be accessed online.
Therefore, it has become increasingly important to safeguard digital and technological autonomy: That means the skill to understand the potential of digitalization and the knowledge and the resilience to deal with managing the risks. This is crucial now. It allows citizens to participate in the democratic debate and the political decisions on new digital technology. The role of social media must also not be overlooked here.
Our goal on digital transformation
We want everyone to be able to participate, and if they wish, also contribute to the digital society. In our view the digital society is a society where the government continues to organize its services more digitally, but it is also where socialization takes place increasingly on a digital platform. By ‘everyone’ we refer to all people who live in the municipalities in our working district. ‘Participate’ to us means that we enable people to learn both technical as well as behavioral digital skills so that they can feel safe working in a digital environment. When it comes to ‘contribute’, we talk about continuing to encourage people who are more digitally experienced so that they can not only join in, but also help provide support to the digital society. It is important to also keep this group interested so that they will want to join our organization.
In specific terms:
- Raise greater awareness for digital safety and media literacy.
- Take advantage of the digital developments that will help prepare us for the future.
To achieve this, we will:
- Continue to update our knowledge on digital developments and implement them in our services where possible or necessary.
- Work together with partners who can assist us in the field of digital transformation.
What are we going to do:
- We will set up the ABC Huis as a hybrid service. We will determine how we can optimally provide for each activity: digital, physical or hybrid. We want our visitors, participants, members, and course students to experience a smooth transition between physical and digital. This is based on the wide range of needs for each individual target group. We set up our digital presence so that we can organize it in an efficient and customer friendly way.
- We will continue our current activities to boost digital skills, e.g. digital government consultation hours and media literacy at schools.
- And we will utilize digital skills to improve our activities. For example, use gamification to increase media literacy for children and the educational and media trial area for digital resources like 3D printers and robots.
Who do we want our activities to target:
- Our main target group is youngsters aged 0-21 years. This is because they grow up in the digital world. We want to strengthen their ‘control skills’ by providing knowledge on the dangers and risks that lurk in the digital domain. But we also want to discover the creative possibilities that digital development has to offer together with this target group.
- Our attention is also given to people who are not digitally competent. There is a strong need for increased knowledge within this target group so that they are able (and can continue) to work independently in the digital world.