tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/digital-18087/articlesDigital – The Conversation2023-03-02T14:24:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2009362023-03-02T14:24:41Z2023-03-02T14:24:41ZNigeria’s election was nearly derailed by technology - but biometric devices weren’t the problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513025/original/file-20230301-2886-56r83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An election official uses the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to take a picture of a voter during Nigeria's presidential election.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Meinhardt/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Technology nearly <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/anxiety-parties-kick-as-inec-delays-result-upload-collation/">derailed</a> the conclusion of the 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria. The Independent National Electoral Commission could not fulfil <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/100-days-to-go-no-going-back-on-bvas-irev-for-2023-inec/">its promise</a> to transmit election results from the polling units on its result viewing portal (IReV). This led to calls by some political parties for <a href="https://www.icirnigeria.org/obasanjo-asks-inec-to-cancel-results-in-areas-were-bvas-servers-failed/">cancellation</a> and <a href="https://www.channelstv.com/2023/02/28/breaking-pdp-labour-party-adc-demand-fresh-election-want-inec-chairman-to-step-aside/">fresh elections</a>. The Conversation Africa asked political scientist Abiodun Fatai how Nigeria can improve its election digitisation.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Nigeria has been digitising the voting process for 12 years. How has this worked?</h2>
<p>Nigeria started using digital technology in the electoral process in 2011 when the Independent National Electoral Commission introduced the automated fingerprint identification system to stop voters registering more than once.</p>
<p>The permanent voter’s card and smart card reader were introduced in the 2015 general elections. At the polling station, a voter’s identity is verified by matching his or her biometrics to the voter’s card. The voter is then allowed to vote and the votes are counted manually.</p>
<p>In 2022, it introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, which is an electronic device designed to read permanent voter cards and authenticate voters – using the voters’ fingerprints – to prove that they are eligible to vote at a particular polling unit. This was used in the Ekiti and Osun states’ governorship elections <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/537907-ekitidecides2022-apc-wins-ekiti-governorship-election.html">in June 2022</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFAdzKc3Vcg">July 2022</a>. The technology worked to its design in both states and was the basis for an election tribunal <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/01/osun-tribunal-sacks-adeleke/">sacking</a> the Osun State winner in January 2023. </p>
<p>The commission also <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/100-days-to-go-no-going-back-on-bvas-irev-for-2023-inec/">introduced the result viewing portal</a>, IReV, to guarantee transparent accreditation and uploading of polling unit results. It said this would enable citizens to view results in real-time on election day. But the results could not be uploaded onto the portal because of <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/inec-says-technical-hitches-responsible-for-delay-in-uploading-results/">technical glitches</a>. This caused <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/585029-nigeriadecides2023-pdp-labour-party-others-walk-out-of-presidential-collation-centre-accuse-inec-of-fraud.html">some party agents to walk out</a> of the collation centre in Abuja.</p>
<h2>Did digital technologies help reduce fraud and promote the credibility of the elections?</h2>
<p>It did to a large extent. It has been a long journey since 2011 and we are making improvements. The biometric technology actually worked. It has eliminated multiple voter registrations. If your biometrics are not captured, you can no longer vote. These are improvements. Look at the figures from the states – we did not see the huge figures of voters that were out of proportion to the number of registered voters, as happened in previous elections. The 2007 presidential election was so bad that even the winner, Umaru Musa Yar'Ádua, <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/200705300320.html">acknowledged this</a> and set up a panel to reform elections. But the report of the committee, chaired by a former chief justice, Mohammed Uwais, <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/12/electoral-reform-political-interest-killed-my-report-uwais/">did not see the light of day</a> after Yar'Adua died. </p>
<p>The logistics could still be improved but some of the glitches we saw in the 2023 elections cannot be attributed to technology. They were operational issues. Some of the <a href="https://punchng.com/nigeriaelections2023-polls-record-bvas-malfunctioning-late-arrival-of-materials/">biometric machines malfunctioned</a> or electoral officials didn’t know how to use them. </p>
<p>More importantly, the goal of technology was to enhance the quality and integrity of the elections and reduce electoral fraud. This was achieved.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-technology-can-improve-nigerias-elections-lessons-from-2019-175551">Digital technology can improve Nigeria's elections: lessons from 2019</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>. </p>
<h2>What are the limitations to digitisation?</h2>
<p>Technology is operated by humans and so whatever is put in place can always be defeated by unscrupulous people. Technology does not operate in a vacuum. It is apparent that Nigeria doesn’t have enough capacity to deploy technology fully. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/555958-nigerias-internet-speed-still-amongst-worlds-slowest.html#:%7E:text=Nigeria's%20average%20fixed%20broadband%20internet,that%20are%20relatively%20smaller%2C%20economically.">Nigeria has weak broadband internet</a>, and connectivity is patchy. Some parts of Nigeria <a href="https://guardian.ng/technology/why-3g-technology-remains-dominant-in-nigeria/">are still running on 3G networks</a> when some countries are already on 5G. Some parts of Nigeria are not even <a href="https://allafrica.com/stories/202210260066.html">connected to the internet</a>. </p>
<p>So, conducting elections in Nigeria by deploying technology is a complex exercise. This was a reason for the commission not being able to transmit results in real time. </p>
<p>Digital elections are not cheap either as technology infrastructure costs a lot. Then there was the issue of <a href="https://www.africanliberty.org/2023/02/27/inec-the-flop-in-nigerias-2023-presidential-election/">inadequate preparation</a>, evident in the <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/voters-decry-late-arrival-of-election-materials/">late arrival of materials</a> in some voting stations and inadequate training of ad hoc staff in operating the biometric machines. All these must have limiting effects on the elections. </p>
<h2>What should Nigeria do to improve digitisation of its elections?</h2>
<p>The electoral commission must follow the electoral law strictly, especially on the transmission of results in real time. This will enhance the credibility of our elections. The results must also be machine readable, with a clear image, and must be generated from the polling units. </p>
<p>The commission staff must be well trained in operating the machines for elections. Some of them don’t have the capacity and skills needed to function in a digital environment. This must change. </p>
<p>Nigeria must also upgrade its broadband networks to improve connectivity. Without these two, the country can’t enjoy the benefits of digital elections. There must be forensic screening of staff hired for election duties so that they are not easily compromised. Their integrity and character must be ascertained. </p>
<p>The country also needs more technical experts to work with the electoral commission than has been the case thus far. It is apparent that the commission lacks enough competent hands to deal with emerging technical issues during the election. </p>
<p>Lastly, Nigerian politicians must allow full digitisation of elections. They must embrace and support it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abiodun Fatai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System or BVAS and the result-viewing portal IReV improved the running of the elections.Abiodun Fatai, Senior Lecturer, Lagos State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2001252023-02-22T10:35:24Z2023-02-22T10:35:24ZNigerian elections are crowded with candidates: use this new tool to decide who to vote for in your area<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511630/original/file-20230222-18-c8nmnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of voters showing their cards. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residents-queue-to-cast-their-vote-during-the-edo-state-news-photo/1228601489?phrase=nigeria%20voting&adppopup=true"> Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://inecnigeria.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Final-List-of-Candidates-for-National-Elections-1.pdf">Eighteen political parties</a> are contesting for Nigeria’s presidential elections scheduled for 25 February. Yes, 18 parties. But that’s not the highest number of parties in Nigeria’s election history. The record was in February 2019, when <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/313139-for-the-record-nigerias-73-presidential-candidates-full-list.html?tztc=1">73 political parties</a> presented presidential candidates. </p>
<p>In the 2023 elections, the Nigerian media have devoted most of their attention to four parties and their candidates. This leaves an information gap about the others. And the presidency is just one position being filled. There are hundreds of other political posts that will be determined. </p>
<p>To fill the gaps, a new election tool has been launched which will help voters decide who to cast their ballot for – and where.</p>
<h2>The tracker</h2>
<p>The tool, called <a href="https://mycandidate-nigeria.opencitieslab.org/">My Candidate Nigeria</a>, is an initiative that falls under the <a href="https://datahub.io/docs/about">Africa Data Hub</a>. Its aim is to inform voters and strengthen democracy. </p>
<p>The tool helps voters in Nigeria identify candidates for the elections based on their location address. </p>
<p>You can try it and discover who the candidates are and where to vote. </p>
<iframe src="https://mycandidate-nigeria.opencitieslab.org/" allow="geolocation" style="border: none;width: 100%; height:100vw" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<h2>Focus on a few</h2>
<p>The tool is important because the media has tended to focus on just a few candidates and their parties:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61732548">Bola Tinubu</a> of the All Progressives Congress</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61865502">Peter Obi</a> of the Labour Party</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47046599">Atiku Abubakar</a> of the Peoples Democratic Party</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-64503296">Rabiu Kwankwaso</a> of the New Nigeria People’s Party. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Some of the other candidates vying for presidency include former student leader <a href="https://saharareporters.com/2023/01/21/aac-flag-bearer-sowore-condemns-lopsided-sitting-arrangement-nigerian-presidential">Omoyele Sowore</a>, contesting under the banner of the African Action Congress, and <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/sdp-elects-adewole-adebayo-as-presidential-candidate/">Adewole Adebayo</a> of the Social Democratic Party. <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/01/i-will-deal-decisively-with-secessionists-kola-abiola-vows/">Kola Abiola</a> is contesting on the ticket of the People’s Redemption Party. We also have <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2022/06/09/abachas-ex-cso-al-mustapha-emerges-action-alliance-presidential-candidate/">Hamza Al-Mustapha</a> flying the flag of Action Alliance, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frwqZpuOFug">Dumebi Kachikwu</a> of the African Democratic Congress. <a href="https://businessday.ng/politics/article/an-amazon-in-the-midst-of-17-men-the-story-of-apms-presidential-candidate-chichi-ojei/">Chichi Ojei</a> of the Allied Peoples Movement is the only female presidential candidate. </p>
<h2>Hundreds of choices</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-poll-93-million-voters-the-challenge-of-pulling-off-nigerias-presidential-elections-199761">There are 1,101 candidates for the Senate and 3,122 candidates</a> vying for federal constituencies in the House of Representatives. The elections will be conducted across 176,606 polling stations. </p>
<p>In terms of gender, <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/2023-inec-publishes-final-list-of-candidates/">3,875 candidates are male</a>, made up of 35 for presidential and vice-president, 1,008 for Senate and 2,832 for House of Representatives.</p>
<p>Meanwhile 381 women are contesting: one for president, 92 for Senate and 288 for House of Representatives. There are also 11 people with disabilities in the race.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-poll-93-million-voters-the-challenge-of-pulling-off-nigerias-presidential-elections-199761">A total of 1,265,227 officials</a> have been trained and will be deployed for the elections. They include presiding, collation and returning officers, as well as 530,538 polling unit security officials. The electoral commission will deploy over one million personnel and large quantities of election materials to 774 local government areas, 8,809 electoral wards and 176,846 polling units across the country.</p>
<p>The increased participation of young Nigerians is noticeable. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-12/71-million-young-nigerians-have-registered-to-vote-in-next-month-s-election">Seventy-one million young Nigerians</a> registered to vote in the elections, out of the total of 93.5 million registered voters. Young here means those who are under 50 years. Nearly 40% of those who registered are under 35 <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/575140-2023-polls-youth-population-tops-age-distribution-chart-as-inec-presents-list-of-93-4-registered-voters.html">while over 33 million</a> and 35.75% are between the ages of 35 and 49. It follows that those between 18 and 49 years could determine these elections if enough of them turn out to vote. </p>
<p>And that is why this tracker might help as young Nigerians are more technologically driven. They should be able to navigate their way through the electoral maze using it. It’s intended to help voters make better and more informed choices. </p>
<p><em>MyCandidate Nigeria is an initiative of Open Cities Lab in collaboration with Orodata Science, Accountability Lab Nigeria and OdipoDev. Orodata Science, based in Lagos, is leading the project. Their mission is to establish a data-literate world. Open Cities Lab is a non-profit organisation that creates tools to improve trust and accountability in the civic space. And Odipodev is a market research and data journalism lab based in Kenya.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hakeem Onapajo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A digital tool to help citizens know the candidates better has been developed for Nigeria’s 2023 elections.Hakeem Onapajo, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Nile University of NigeriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1912992022-12-11T13:41:48Z2022-12-11T13:41:48ZNFTs in the art world: A revolution or ripoff?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486288/original/file-20220923-10674-ahh3cj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C2%2C986%2C556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many NFT creators come from a practice of 3D modelling, graphic design, animation or video game design. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital objects that represent something else, such as a work of art, a video or even a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/14/twitter-nft-jack-dorsey-sina-estavi">tweet</a>. They certify the existence and the ownership of this item through a data recording on a blockchain (a <a href="https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/business-and-accounting-resources/other-general-business-topics/information-management-and-technology/publications/introduction-to-blockchain-technology">distributed ledger technology</a>).</p>
<p>Since the emergence of NFTs in 2016, many artists have experimented with this new digital device to market their creations. NFTs are most often bought and resold via auction sites, where payments are made in cryptocurrency (such as <a href="https://ethereum.org/en/eth/">ether currency</a>). It is this notion of a certificate registered on a blockchain that distinguishes an NFT from a standard digital work.</p>
<p>The public and media discourse about NFTs is polarized: in the eyes of their strongest enthusiasts, NFTs represent the future of art, while their detractors consider them a vast ripoff and waste of energy.</p>
<p>How can this NFT phenomenon be characterized? To what extent does it challenge the established codes of contemporary art?</p>
<p>As a researcher specialized in media studies and sociology of culture, I am providing a brief overview of the situation.</p>
<h2>Crypto-evangelists and crypto-skeptics</h2>
<p>On one hand, there is the camp that can be described as crypto-evangelists: they adhere to a discourse that present NFTs as a radical revolution that will change everything.</p>
<p>This is precisely the discourse surrounding the sensational 2021 sale of a work by the artist Beeple (a collage of vignettes created by digital software) at the prestigious auction house Christie’s for nearly US$70 million. According to the <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beeple-how-i-changed-the-art-world-for-ever-tggbx99vm">two main buyers</a>, the purchase was “emblematic of a revolution in progress,” and marked “the beginning of a movement carried out by a whole generation.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1361670588608176128"}"></div></p>
<p>On the other side, there are the crypto-skeptics. This is the position of Hito Steyerl, a widely recognized media artist. She believes that NFTs are the “equivalent of toxic masculinity,” and owe their development to “the worst and most monopolistic actors” who are “extracting labour from precarious workers” and “<a href="https://www.holo.mg/stream/hito-stereyl-nfts-like-toxic-masculinity/">take up way too much attention and use up all the oxygen in the room</a>.”</p>
<p>This polarization means that the real potential of NFTs, as well as their flaws, which are also very real, tend to be overshadowed by caricatured positions of principle. However, within this ecosystem of NFTs, there exists a set of rich and plural artistic practices.</p>
<h2>Emerging creative scenes</h2>
<p>The NFT format definitely represents a new type of object being traded. It is based on a new type of contract (known as “smart”), which is itself the result of the innovation of blockchain technology. In this way, the NFT format has given rise to the emergence of a new creative scene. Or, rather, scenes, in the plural, which are characterized by a great effervescence — but also by certain contradictions.</p>
<p>The “native” scenes of the NFT format, that is to say, those born with the invention of this format, are characterized by a strong media visibility, a volume of far-reaching financial investment, and, for some of its actors, a will to reshuffle the cards of the art world by criticizing its established order.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1541993095218307073"}"></div></p>
<p>A large portion of NFT creators come from a practice of 3D modelling, graphic design, animation or video game design — in other words, from the creative industries sector. In recent decades, this sector has generated a very large pool of skills, whose <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07053436.2004.10707657">creative surplus</a> finds a mode of expression in the NFT format, but also a source of additional income to cope with the often precarious conditions of creative work.</p>
<p>Many figures of the native NFT scenes are, to use the expression of the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Outsiders/Howard-S-Becker/9781982106225">sociologist Howard S. Becker</a>, outsiders (neophytes) in comparison to the established art world. That is, they socialize in circles other than those of the institutional art world, and they transgress its rules in many respects.</p>
<h2>A more egalitarian art world?</h2>
<p>The discourse of the main purchasers of Beeple’s sensational work is very enlightening in this sense. MetaKovan and Twobadour (two investors of the crypto world, both of Indian origin) reveal in an interview:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have been conditioned, from a very young age, to think that art was not for us. <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beeple-how-i-changed-the-art-world-for-ever-tggbx99vm">…We have always been against the idea of exclusivity. The metaverse is all inclusive. … A metaverse in which everyone will have the same rights, powers, will be legitimate. … It is particularly egalitarian.</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, there are major contradictions between the discourse of egalitarianism they are advocating here, and its implementation in the projects of these two investors. For example, during the technological art event <a href="https://www.dreamverse.life/ticketing.html">Dreamverse</a> that they organized in New York in 2021, the price of admission to the evening varied between US$175 and $2,500 — an unaffordable cost for many amateurs. This hierarchy of prices leads, rather, to the reproduction of a logic of exclusivity that favours the most fortunate.</p>
<h2>Museums are cautious</h2>
<p>The gap between the market value of NFTs and their value in museums is unprecedented. The former is reaching unprecedented heights, while the latter is still at rock bottom. Indeed, the collection of NFT by museums remains, to this day, a very marginal practice. Only a handful of NFTs are integrated into museum collections. Some of them are acquired following an exhibition in a museum, where they are presented on digital screens hung on the wall.</p>
<p>Cultural legitimacy is affected by the disintermediation (elimination of intermediaries) and reintermediation (introduction of new intermediaries) that characterize the world of NFTs. In its disruptive impulse, the proclaimed revolution of NFTs cuts itself off from a chain of well-established, legitimate intermediaries — the gallery owners, curators, art critics, conventional collectors and public subsidies.</p>
<p>It has replaced them with new intermediaries, primarily “whales” — investors who have made a fortune in cryptocurrency — or popular culture celebrities. These new intermediaries overinvest in financial capital in the production of NFTs with the aim of gaining a position of prestige as a collector, or to enrich themselves by increasing the value of works. But they often lack the social and cultural capital to find a way to access museums and their exhibition spaces and their collections.</p>
<h2>In search of legitimacy</h2>
<p>However, these works are publicly accessible, as all NFTs are freely searchable on their buyers’ e-wallets. Some collectors buy works only to speculate. Others gain visibility by displaying their NFTs in a metaverse (a virtual world) such as <a href="https://decentraland.org/">Decentraland</a> or <a href="https://www.tryspace.com/">Space</a>.</p>
<p>And for others, still, the quest for legitimacy goes further: in the spring of 2022, a group of artists, curators, collectors and NFT platforms organized a <a href="https://decentralartpavilion.io/">Decentral Art Pavilion</a>, in parallel to the Venice Biennale. Remaining outside the official program, the exhibition aimed to position NFTs in the orbit of this key contemporary art event.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1527990090319790080"}"></div></p>
<p>But the presence of NFTs remained marginal in this edition of the biennial. Only the <a href="https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022/cameroon-republic">Cameroon pavilion</a> exhibited NFTs under the leadership of a curator with a <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/outrage-kenyan-pavilion-venice-biennale-281137">shady reputation</a>, and the result was disappointing.</p>
<p>The recognition of the NFTs by the consecrated art world will perhaps come about by other avenues, like the more experimental practices presented at the <a href="https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/">documenta art exhibition in Kassel, Germany</a> this year, or through artistic movements from developing countries, like the <a href="https://balot.org/">Balot project</a>, which used an NFT to criticize the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/feb/19/congolese-statue-loan-legal-battle-nfts-colonial-rule-us-museum">appropriation of a work originating from the Republic of the Congo by an American museum</a>.</p>
<p>So recognition could come through the margins. But in these cases, the marginal players could more easily access the established art world because they share its codes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191299/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathalie Casemajor ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Creators of NFT art are organizing themselves into new art scenes, but they are still searching for cultural legitimacy while museums remain skittish.Nathalie Casemajor, Professeure, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1924222022-11-01T13:35:59Z2022-11-01T13:35:59ZDigital solutions are boosting agriculture in Kenya, but it’s time to scale up. Here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492327/original/file-20221028-58418-7gokc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Billy Mutai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital agricultural services have proliferated <a href="https://www.cta.int/en/digitalisation/issue/the-digitalisation-of-african-agriculture-report-2018-2019-sid0d88610e2-d24e-4d6a-8257-455b43cf5ed6">across Africa</a> over the last decade. Most are services that work on mobile phones, although more advanced technologies are in use too – like satellite images, sensors, blockchains and big data analytics. </p>
<p>The services offer access to information, markets and financial products. </p>
<p>Kenya is at the forefront of this development in Africa. The country is home to numerous service providers that seek to solve problems in food and agriculture using digital technologies. In 2020, the GSM Association <a href="https://www.gsma.com/r/digital-agriculture-maps/">counted 95 such services in Kenya</a>. This is around twice the number found for instance in Nigeria, the country with <a href="https://www.gsma.com/r/digital-agriculture-maps/">the second highest digital agricultural services</a> prevalence in Africa. Providers range from small start-ups to large companies that mainly offer advice, finance and market linkage. </p>
<p>But scaling up these solutions remains a challenge. <a href="https://www.cta.int/en/digitalisation/issue/the-digitalisation-of-african-agriculture-report-2018-2019-sid0d88610e2-d24e-4d6a-8257-455b43cf5ed6">A study</a> on digital agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa showed that only a few service providers managed to register more than one million users. In Kenya, it’s estimated that only 20% to 30% of farmers use a digital agricultural solution. This is better than other countries in the region – but still low.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375522000016">our research</a>, we examined how to support the scaling of digital agricultural services in Kenya. We found that uptake could be increased by building <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954421000065">digital bridges</a> in the form of digital platforms that bundle such services for easy access and use. But <a href="https://www.zef.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ZEF_Working_Paper_214.pdf">human bridges</a> are also needed that link service users and providers.</p>
<p>The insights from the research can help service and platform providers design and scale solutions that suit different users. They can also inform policies and investments needed to create the conditions for scaling these services.</p>
<h2>What we did</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954421000065">conducted a survey</a> of 758 likely users of hypothetical digital platforms that would aggregate digital agricultural services in Kenya. All the potential users had access to the internet or basic data connectivity. Respondents were contacted via relevant Facebook groups and invited to complete the survey online. </p>
<p>A second in-person <a href="https://www.zef.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ZEF_Working_Paper_214.pdf">survey</a> shed light on how agricultural intermediaries in Kenyan value chains use digital technologies in their work. These included 296 input dealers, output dealers and extension agents. Our research offers the first comprehensive study of the digital capabilities of agricultural intermediaries. More commonly, studies focus on agricultural producers.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Our research showed that likely users would see value in aggregator platforms if they made digital agricultural services easier to find and assured their quality. They would also like platforms to be open to a wide range of value chain actors with diverse levels of digital skills. Our findings also highlighted that human interaction still matters. It should complement digitally enabled contacts and transactions. </p>
<p>Aggregator platforms can help scale up digital agricultural solutions in a number of ways: </p>
<p><strong>Accessibility and usability:</strong> The platforms could make digital agricultural services easier to locate and use. This would help users navigate the often confusing array of services on offer. For instance, platforms could provide a one-stop shop for a diverse range of services that are easily searchable and only require a single registration and payment system. They would need to be usable with different types of digital technologies and skills. </p>
<p><strong>Value enhancement and trust building:</strong> Aggregator platforms would be valuable if they could guarantee the quality and reliability of digital agricultural services. This would build trust in the services. They could do so, for instance, by setting, monitoring and enforcing quality standards for participating service providers or introducing user rating systems. </p>
<p>Human intermediaries could also play an important role in building trust. </p>
<p><strong>Inclusivity:</strong> Users would like aggregator platforms to include a wide range of value chains and actors. Through their networks, intermediaries could get more actors to use aggregator platforms. </p>
<p>Of course, aggregator platforms don’t offer all the answers to scaling digital agricultural solutions. They would need a supportive policy environment. But there are gaps. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Insufficient digital skills. This needs to be addressed by integrating related training at all levels of education.</p></li>
<li><p>Poor technology infrastructure. This would require expanding access to high-speed mobile networks, affordable smartphones and reliable electricity, particularly in rural areas. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-25718-1_9">Various factors</a> have contributed to Kenya’s leadership role in digital agriculture in Africa. Mobile network infrastructure expanded early on, supported by government policies which attracted the necessary investments and fostered competition. </p>
<p>Digital business development was largely driven by dedicated individuals, innovation hubs and so-called angel investors. Together they created a conducive innovation environment for local start-ups developing digital solutions for a technology-savvy customer base of relatively well-educated users.</p>
<p>The widespread adoption of M-Pesa also played an important role. It facilitated the provision of digital agricultural services that require financial transactions. </p>
<p>The country needs to build on these successes. The digital transformation of Kenya’s agriculture will become a reality if it can link viable digital solutions providers with potential beneficiaries. That requires digital bridges connecting diverse services and users. But it will also require human bridges to narrow the technological and skill gaps, to build trust in service provision and to reach those who are not yet connected. </p>
<p>Aggregator platforms that integrate agricultural intermediaries into their design are one avenue for building such bridges. This will happen if they understand the different demands and capacities of their users. The design and marketing of digital agricultural services will have to match users’ needs and abilities. Similarly, public and private investments in skills, infrastructure and the business environment are crucial for such platforms to fulfil their potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heike Baumüller receives funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kieti has received funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). </span></em></p>The digital transformation of Kenya’s agriculture will become a reality if it can link viable digital solution providers with potential beneficiaries.Heike Baumüller, Senior Researcher, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of BonnJohn Kieti, PhD Researcher, University of NairobiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1830572022-08-31T17:13:47Z2022-08-31T17:13:47ZFive ways the metaverse could be revolutionary for people with disabilities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480372/original/file-20220822-76732-8sxjet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C15%2C5020%2C2858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-woman-disability-wheelchair-smiling-moving-2187747959">Frame Stock Footage</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The invention of the world wide web in <a href="https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web/short-history-web">1989</a> eventually brought about life-changing tools for everyone who can access it. Some of these tools, such as online banking, shopping and communication, have vastly improved <a href="https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/internet/how-the-web-is-improving-the-lives-of-disabled-computer-users-684644">the accessibility of daily life</a> for people with disabilities, as well as older people.</p>
<p>The concept of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0966692302000121">virtual mobility</a> has long been used to describe how the internet can provide an accessible alternative to activities that usually require physical mobility. Virtual mobility was in full swing during the pandemic, as work, entertainment and socialising efficiently moved online. The metaverse – the next phase of the internet powered by virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) – has the potential to <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2022/04/01/a-pandemic-pandemonium-has-paved-the-way-for-metaverse-success">take things even further</a>.</p>
<p>Working with Meta, the Royal National Institute of Blind People and other inclusive design-focused partners, our team of researchers will be investigating the potential of the metaverse to introduce life-changing benefits for disabled and older people, as well as developing solutions to improve its accessibility and inclusivity in our new project <a href="https://www.brunel.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/Brunel-and-Meta-launch-1m-investigation-into-equitable-VR">Towards an Equitable Social VR</a>. Here are five areas where the metaverse could take virtual mobility to the next level.</p>
<h2>1. Social life</h2>
<p>The benefits of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/features/social_network_savvie.shtml">conventional social media</a> for disabled people have been long established. Designed well, social spaces in the metaverse will advance these benefits through <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-08234-9_204-1">social virtual reality</a>, which mimics in-person interaction, and permit people to interact freely without the obstacles that exist in the physical world.</p>
<p>Importantly, users in metaverse platforms like Meta’s <a href="https://www.oculus.com/horizon-worlds/?locale=en_GB">Horizon Worlds</a> will be able to represent themselves using virtual avatars. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-011-0254-8">Research</a> suggests that virtual avatars are a means through which some disabled people reflect aspects of their disability as a central part of their identity. </p>
<p>Others may self-represent through avatars that are totally imagined. The metaverse gives users freedom and creativity in terms of how they want to be seen and eliminates preconceptions that disabled and older people might face when interacting with others in person.</p>
<h2>2. Education</h2>
<p>The metaverse can potentially improve the range and quality of education delivery pathways available to disabled users, as well as late-life learning. Immersive technologies mean that higher education could be delivered in an engaging way, without requiring physical attendance.</p>
<p>This mode of delivery would eliminate some of the factors that exclude many people from accessing quality education, such as needing to move away from home or travel to a physical campus. There are also numerous opportunities to use the metaverse for remote <a href="https://account.altvr.com/events/1659673963090936497">coaching, personal development</a> and skills <a href="https://arpost.co/2019/06/21/social-vr-gamification-bring-training-to-the-next-level/">training</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Work</h2>
<p>The pandemic has shown how quickly we can adjust to new ways of working. A considerable number of people expect to work in the metaverse one way or another. A recent survey by Microsoft found that only 16% of the 31,102 survey participants, across generations, did not see themselves carrying out at least some of their job duties as “<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/will-the-metaverse-lead-to-metawork/">metawork</a>” in the near future.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of professionals in an office wearing VR headsets and interacting in the metaverse, focus is on a young woman in a wheelchair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480374/original/file-20220822-70888-nrpjj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most people expect the metaverse will play some role in their work in the near future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diverse-business-people-wearing-virtual-reality-2175580049">DisobeyArt / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The metaverse can provide access to the types of work that one’s disability or age might otherwise make it difficult for them to access in the physical world. There is a growing community of designers getting ready to create the <a href="https://www.metaverseinteriordesign.com/">virtual interiors</a> that will exist only within the metaverse. Other areas with interesting <a href="https://www.analyticsinsight.net/your-ultimate-guide-to-get-a-job-in-the-metaverse-in-the-future/">metaverse-based job prospects</a> are digital fashion, real estate and, of course, building the Metaverse itself.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-metaverse-doesnt-look-as-disruptive-as-it-should-it-looks-ordinary-heres-why-175866">The metaverse doesn't look as disruptive as it should, it looks ordinary – here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Entertainment and leisure</h2>
<p>The pandemic brought music to the digital world in new ways, with artists from <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/23/21233637/travis-scott-fortnite-concert-astronomical-live-report">Travis Scott</a> to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/9/22616664/ariana-grande-fortnite-rift-tour-worldbuilding-storytelling">Ariana Grande</a> performing in virtual spaces. </p>
<p>Gigs in the metaverse are just one entertainment option – <a href="https://www.bigscreenvr.com/">virtual cinemas</a>, <a href="https://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/petrichor-tickets">theatre performances</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/past/virtual-veronese">museum and gallery exhibitions</a> are all taking place already. <a href="https://tourismteacher.com/virtual-tourism/">Tourism</a> is another arena where the Metaverse can provide opportunities to travel through digital environments. Tourists could also explore remote physical locations from the comfort of home through a virtual reality headset, making travel more accessible and affordable.</p>
<h2>5. Healthcare and wellbeing</h2>
<p>The metaverse can also become a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2588914122000016">powerful platform</a> in the medical world, useful in different fields of medicine. As an example, extended reality (XR) simulation can be used for various types of medical education and training, such as <a href="https://news.nus.edu.sg/enhancing-medical-responder-training-with-extended-reality/">emergency response</a> and <a href="https://maudsleylearning.com/virtual-reality/">mental health</a>. VR and AR can also enhance <a href="https://www.medical-professionals.com/en/virtual-augmented-reality-medical-imaging/">medical imaging in radiology</a> and support diagnostics, treatment planning and medical research. </p>
<p>Another area of medicine where the metaverse has potential is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/02/23/the-amazing-possibilities-of-healthcare-in-the-metaverse/?sh=51cd134d9e5c">telemedicine</a>. VR can be used to facilitate remote consultation, especially where the medical personnel are not geographically available, like in many rural regions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A VR headset sits on a desk in front of a doctor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480373/original/file-20220822-54947-ke2eed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The possibilities for the metaverse extend to the healthcare sector.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hospital-doctor-metaverse-concept-focus-on-2148046571">PintoArt / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is worth noting that the metaverse is not meant to replace the life and experiences in the physical world, but offer new options. However, for its potential to come to fruition, the metaverse must be built to be accessible, inclusive and equitable across the spectrum of ability and age.</p>
<p>This applies not just to the functional aspects (how easy it is to use the technology), but also to the social elements (how one can self-represent their disability and age). Other challenges with privacy, security, safety, communication and ethical behaviour are also likely to emerge.</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanja Garaj receives funding from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Dudley receives funding from EPSRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Per Ola Kristensson receives funding from EPSRC. </span></em></p>The metaverse could open up more access to travel, entertainment and work for all.Vanja Garaj, Director of Research and Reader in Design, Brunel University LondonJohn Dudley, Research associate, University of CambridgePer Ola Kristensson, Professor of Interactive Systems Engineering, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1876762022-08-26T14:44:48Z2022-08-26T14:44:48ZClimate change: why tech companies must address emissions caused by streaming and scrolling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481165/original/file-20220825-17-vs3zba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C59%2C4372%2C3252&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technology companies need to tackle data-related emissions, not just electronic waste.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/renewable-energy-wireless-battery-charging-icon-2070875639">tete_escape / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technology companies have been having a difficult year. The increased cost of living is turning people away from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61139483">streaming</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/they-thought-crypto-banks-were-safe-and-then-came-the-crash-11658568780">cryptocurrencies</a> are faltering, Amazon has raised its prime <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/26/amazon-prime-membership-prices-increased-in-europe-as-inflation-bites.html">membership costs</a>, as has <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/28/twitter-is-increasing-the-price-of-twitter-blue-from-2-99-to-4-99-per-month/">Twitter</a> for its premium subscription model Twitter Blue. The latter’s ongoing legal wranglings with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/30/elon-musk-files-countersuit-against-twitter-over-44bn-deal">Elon Musk</a> have also called the platform’s valuation and future product offering into question.</p>
<p>Not long ago, these companies were untouchable, but the most recent tech bubble seems to have burst. So, this is a good time to reflect on what these companies have offered to the world. They have certainly enabled fast access to film and TV, global conversations and perhaps even a challenge to status quo economics via digital currencies. But what about their environmental impact? </p>
<p>As we enter a new era for the tech sector, combined with rising demand for businesses to be more climate aware, these companies will need to consider how technology affects the environment. Research <a href="https://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:7737">estimates</a> that e-waste – discarded electrical items, from chargers to photocopiers – could double between 2014 and 2030. And new regulations have begun tackling this physical waste, including <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220603IPR32196/deal-on-common-charger-reducing-hassle-for-consumers-and-curbing-e-waste">chargers</a> and <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/electronics-right-to-repair-law-passed">device repairs</a>. But, to reduce the world’s digital carbon footprint, these efforts need to go beyond the physical to include the impact of data use on the environment as well.</p>
<p>You’ve probably heard that cryptocurrencies are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/29/bitcoin-reduce-energy-consumption-climate-groups">bad for the environment</a> due to the huge volumes of energy used to “mine” or produce digital currencies. One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0152-7?from=body">study</a> found it can consume more energy than mining an equivalent amount (by market value) of actual minerals like copper, gold or platinum. Other estimates show the buying and trading of bitcoin generates <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/cryptocurrency-environmental-impact">18 million tonnes</a> of carbon dioxide each year. </p>
<p>But even people who haven’t bought into digital currencies might be surprised at the carbon footprint they are leaving via their online activities. The energy used to stream all of Breaking Bad on Netflix is estimated to emit the equivalent pollution to <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/carbon-footprint-netflix-binge/">driving 27 miles</a>. Even the average social media user’s daily scroll of 2 hours 24 minutes was found to create similar emissions to driving <a href="https://greenspector.com/en/social-media-2021/">more than 330 miles</a> in a petrol car.</p>
<p>Where we are in the world also affects how electricity is generated to power our TV, computer or smartphone, changing our individual emissions. And the digital companies we engage with have very different ways of powering their infrastructures. Facebook now claims to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/16/facebook-says-it-has-reached-net-zero-emissions">carbon neutral</a>, while Tiktok and Reddit produce the <a href="https://greenspector.com/en/social-media-2021/">highest carbon footprints</a> of the ten most popular social media apps.</p>
<p>Even where tech companies have reduced their carbon footprints by using renewable energy, the large volumes of electricity they consume to power things like data centres <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/24/microsoft-amazon-scrap-irish-data-centres-over-power-grid-constraints-17235104/">places strain</a> on these resources. As the world struggles to limit global warming to a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/1/3/21045263/climate-change-1-5-degrees-celsius-target-ipcc">target of 1.5°C</a> above pre-industrial levels, it’s clear that something needs to change.</p>
<h2>People power</h2>
<p>Small personal changes to our online habits can add up to a surprisingly significant impact. After all, every digital interaction we have directly affects emissions. If every British adult just sent one less “thank you” email, the nation could save <a href="https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-newsroom/press-releases/2019/november/think-before-you-thank-if-every-brit-sent-one-less-thank-you-email-a-day-we-would-save-16433-tonnes-of-carbon-a-year-the-same-as-81152-flights-to-madrid.html">16,433 tonnes of carbon a year</a>. Of course, if the choice is between travelling, especially by plane, or sending an email or making a video call, then the digital approach is far less damaging.</p>
<p>Really tackling the power consumption and polluting habits of big tech will take more than getting people to send less emails, however. First, regulation must encourage digital technology powered by renewable energy sources as standard. Digital technologies account for as much <a href="https://theshiftproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Lean-ICT-Report_The-Shift-Project_2019.pdf">carbon emissions as the aviation industry</a>, and this is increasing. A move to renewable energy would make digital technology less damaging by taking <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03821-8">fossil fuel burning</a> out of the supply chain.</p>
<p>Second, to ensure that enough renewables are available to power the rest of society as well as digital technologies, we must <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095965261631318X">discourage or reduce</a> emission-intensive activities that generate huge wealth at the expense of users. For example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/16/ad-blocking-advertising-half-of-data-used-articles">online advertising</a>. The energy needed to power the average online ad campaign emits <a href="https://www.adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/green-is-good-how-we-can-reduce-digital-advertisings-hefty-carbon-footprint/#:%7E:text=But%20what%20about%20digital%20advertising,consumer%20produces%20in%20a%20year.">5.4 tons of carbon dioxide</a> – a third of what an average US consumer produces in a year – as well as encouraging more consumption of goods. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Electrical pylons, sunset" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481166/original/file-20220825-20-vk7ckc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technology companies need to continue to replace fossil fuels with renewables to power energy-intensive assets like data centres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/yETqkLnhsUI">@matthewhenry / Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, and most importantly, a redistribution of wealth and <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ngs-2022-0008/html">degrowth policies</a> targeting tech companies could reduce unnecessary consumption. Just 63% of the global population have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/30/more-than-a-third-of-worlds-population-has-never-used-the-internet-says-un">access to the internet</a>, with most digital emissions generated in more <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3491101.3505649?casa_token=TUgnJGraW14AAAAA:Tbqod7nf138ruMN0sfZnSHdE9cHrpwbR2m4_CGvt3mkVIlT8_YpqRche9AcsP4Ky6kfKuV3HKuMb">economically developed countries</a>. </p>
<p>The wealth generated by the technology industry is even more uneven. A relatively <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/741762/the-richest-people-in-the-us-tech-industry/">small number of individuals</a> have made a lot of money in the tech industry, which often burns fossil fuels to power the data centres that keep our devices, social media and streaming platforms online. There is also evidence showing that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/21/worlds-richest-1-cause-double-co2-emissions-of-poorest-50-says-oxfam">the wealthly</a> contribute more to climate change. Super yachts, private jets and vast homes are the reward for successful digital tech owners.</p>
<p>Shifting our focus from gross domestic product growth to economic measures that focus on quality of life and wellbeing not only reduces carbon, but will lift <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283415624_The_Path_to_Degrowth_in_Overdeveloped_Countries">living standards for all</a>. Of course, this should stretch beyond digital infrastructures and toward all sectors of society.</p>
<p>Some will complain that these three solutions will increase costs, stifle innovation or mean some tech companies fail. But if innovation comes in the form of digital tech companies burning through <a href="https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-online-video/">300 million tonnes of carbon a year</a>, then we can do without it.</p>
<p>If we don’t consider such changes, we stand to see less cat videos online, and more videos of wildfires, flooding and devastating weather events as climate change accelerates.</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Doug Specht does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Online life produces a surprising amount of emissions that need to be tackled alongside physical e-waste.Doug Specht, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1876302022-07-27T11:45:15Z2022-07-27T11:45:15ZFour ways your TV subscriptions could change because of the cost of living crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476120/original/file-20220726-17-yg44de.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=324%2C534%2C4317%2C4002&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Streaming platforms are facing a tougher economic outlook</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bangkok-thailand-february-07-2019-women-1306307449">sitthiphong / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>UK households are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62057950">cancelling</a> streaming service subscriptions, citing the need to cut comforts to afford increasingly expensive necessities such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61814996">food</a> and <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/why-petrol-diesel-prices-rising-cost-reduce-fuel-b1005059.html">fuel</a>.</p>
<p>Netflix, which has spent the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jan/26/netflix-uk-launch#:%7E:text=The%20chief%20executive%2C%20Reed%20Hastings,the%20broadly%20comparable%20Canadian%20market.">last decade</a> cementing itself as one the the UK’s top streaming services, is often seen as a <a href="https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/movies/netflix-q2-results-covid-19-210426380.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN5pnHeDp-bB-9idafWYVT12WDrVkpFUOG6Vgy0tGOwUzvvwshZgxR7KEvx4W_d_BRECzwIVZSN3MJdBniuFZb9x3ikzn0PAS9PLxNwArwHEx_pZjVRahtEIQFZnIfXlJDtkqOATegq204DgueShkHKefCadg4m9_2vcFOqNkLNi">bellwether</a> for the entertainment industry. And so its forecast for falling subscriptions numbers earlier this year already had <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2022/04/18/netflix-stock-to-fall-due-to-disappointing-subscriber-growth/?sh=6b55e1013306">the market spooked</a>. Netflix went on to announce a second-quarter loss of nearly <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/19/1112335543/netflix-second-quarter?t=1658741369930">1 million subscribers</a> worldwide in July, beating predictions of a 2 million subscriber decline but still the biggest fall in the company’s history. </p>
<p>It’s important to put such figures into context, however. The conditions created by COVID were quite exceptional and worked very much in streaming platforms’ favour – many of us were locked in our houses with not much else to do in our spare time but watch movies.</p>
<p>But the end of the COVID lockdown period has been closely followed by a rapid rise in the cost of living, creating a double whammy that streaming platforms fear could bring <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/23/britons-cut-spending-on-streaming-services-amid-cost-of-living-squeeze">further falls</a> in subscribers as users try to cut costs. Platforms are scrambling to limit the damage, with Amazon Prime the latest to announce a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62297014">price hike</a> to combat inflation. Aside from raising fees, other strategies will be used to address the current economic environment. Here are four ways your streaming subscription service could change as a result:</p>
<h2>1. It will be cheaper, but less private</h2>
<p>Netflix has announced it will launch a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier in early 2023, similar to that offered by music streaming service Spotify. These kinds of models <a href="https://variety.com/2017/voices/columns/spotify-streaming-fees-1202506347/">are not necessarily profitable</a>, but can be used as a marketing tool to get users hooked on the service with the aim of converting them into paying customers in the future. In creating a cheaper (but not free) tier, providers can use commercials to subsidise part of their income and hopefully retain some customers that might have otherwise stopped their subscription.</p>
<p>This kind of model could have a few privacy implications, however. Providers like Netflix currently mostly use our <a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/100624">personal consumption data</a> to work out what to commission and create, as well as to suggest new content to us once it’s made. However, the use of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/02/24/the-truth-in-user-privacy-and-targeted-ads/?sh=2ecec945355e">targeted advertising</a> – showing ads based on usage – may entail sharing our data with third parties.</p>
<h2>2. It will be smarter, but stricter</h2>
<p>Similarly, we can expect continued use of <a href="https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-ways-netflix-is-using-artificial-intelligence-in-2022/#:%7E:text=Netflix%20uses%20artificial%20intelligence%20and,Artificial%20Intelligence%20effectively%20in%202022.">artificial intelligence</a> and <a href="https://research.netflix.com/research-area/machine-learning">machine learning</a> by providers as they refine their understanding of our preferences for their own purposes. This information may also be used to help services fight account sharing. Providers can use <a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/100624#:%7E:text=IP%20address%20information%20%2D%20information%20associated,device%20streaming%20activity%20under%20Settings">IP addresses</a> – the unique code that identifies a device – to track when individual users connect from different locations outside the same household. </p>
<p>Misuse of streaming services is estimated to be in the <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2017/04/20/almost-five-million-britons-use-illegal-tv-streami">millions of users</a> in Britain, while a Citi analyst has estimated that US streaming services lose around <a href="https://www.nexttv.com/news/netflix-losing-dollar6-billion-a-year-on-password-sharing-analyst-says">US$25 billion</a> (£21 billion) in revenue annually to password sharing.</p>
<p>Netflix, which accounts for about a quarter of that figure, has recently started <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/paying-to-share-netflix-outside-your-household">trialling an option</a> in certain regions to pay extra for use outside of the main household. Otherwise, providers have generally shied away from acting on such breaches because of the <a href="https://time.com/6159943/netflix-password-sharing/">potential for backlash by subscribers</a>, focusing instead on more significant <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/legalentertainment/2021/07/08/amazon-netflix-and-major-hollywood-studios-file-massive-suit-against-rogue-copyright-infringer-jason-tusa/?sh=26e17d5d3cf8">pirating activity</a>. Get ready for this attitude <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-04-14/password-sharing-netflix-apple-amazon-piracy">to change</a> in line with the financial outlook, particularly for those that post usernames and passwords on <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/netflix-pirate-who-thousands-people-22330689">pirating websites</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Smartphone with Disney Plus logo, surrounded by popcorn" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476121/original/file-20220726-17-1z0d9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Streaming platforms such as Disney Plus are expanding their offerings to maintain or even boost subscriber numbers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grand-prairie-txusa-aug-2019-disney-1492752041">AFM Visuals / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. It will be bigger, but bundled</h2>
<p>With <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2022/03/how-many-subscribers-netflix-disney-plus-peacock-amazon-prime-video-1234705515/">more than 200 million subscribers in 2021</a>, Amazon Prime is one of the most successful on-demand streaming services at the moment. But it’s <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/02/amazon-prime-one-bizarre-good-business-ideas-ever/">the other services</a> bundled with the streaming subscription, such as free Amazon package delivery, that often attract users first. </p>
<p>This kind of strategy is based on the idea of an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630118305107?casa_token=A6cJcEC8M5kAAAAA:6WzJ5lSqsf9GwnBmf0SK7xEO2-r2UjiAi89HpjDQzQe3ZWX4ODum8zIqkutt3Dr37_5BIEU+?casa_token=A6cJcEC8M5kAAAAA:6WzJ5lSqsf9GwnBmf0SK7xEO2-r2UjiAi89HpjDQzQe3ZWX4ODum8zIqkutt3Dr37_5BIEU">integrated business model</a> where you can’t necessarily cancel an individual service – the on-demand streaming service can’t be unbundled from the shipping service, for example. And as we reach a <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/video-streaming-wars-redrawing-battle-lines.html">saturation point</a> of <a href="https://medium.com/streempay/subscription-saturation-time-for-a-new-tool-to-monetize-content-ea3c6644b6ad">multiple subscriptions</a>, users <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/apr/18/streaming-subscriptions-in-decline-as-uk-households-cut-budgets">are making cuts</a> due to the rising cost of living.</p>
<p><a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/fr/Documents/consumer-business/Publications/deloitte-subscription-report-2022.pdf">Research</a> shows that more people want one-stop shop subscriptions – for example, one payment that covers movies, sports and perhaps other items such as cloud storage. And for companies, having subscribers use more than one service provides <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630118305107?casa_token=A6cJcEC8M5kAAAAA:6WzJ5lSqsf9GwnBmf0SK7xEO2-r2UjiAi89HpjDQzQe3ZWX4ODum8zIqkutt3Dr37_5BIEU+?casa_token=A6cJcEC8M5kAAAAA:6WzJ5lSqsf9GwnBmf0SK7xEO2-r2UjiAi89HpjDQzQe3ZWX4ODum8zIqkutt3Dr37_5BIEU">more detailed insights</a> into their preferences.</p>
<p>Spotify <a href="https://theconversation.com/netflix-is-losing-shows-to-rivals-will-the-music-streaming-market-also-splinter-123828">is a good example</a> of a specialist provider that has been able to find success without this strategy because it offers access to pretty much all music available in digital form. But in the video streaming market, where there is no single platform with all shows and movies, companies may need to acquire more services to create an incentive for users to subscribe. Disney Plus has already launched this kind of strategy in the US by bundling some of its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/disney-plus-bundle?r=US&IR=T">other content</a> into one subscription. We should expect other streaming services to start following suit. </p>
<h2>4. It’ll be better quality, but more focused on its own content</h2>
<p>When video-on-demand platforms first started, providers focused on gathering the broadest content catalogue. Now platforms are investing more in creating content. They want a few iconic series – think Stranger Things, The Crown or Game of Thrones. We saw this strategy come into play this year when the latest season of <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2022/07/20/stranger-things-saves-netflix-losing-more-subscribers-after-1000000-loss-17034439/">Stranger Things spared Netflix</a> from a more severe drop in subscribers. </p>
<p>Lower quality, easy-consumption content will still be available, but can be bought from outside companies. Platforms will instead be able to use our data to identify series in which to make significant investments in acting, special effects, writing and costumes. This strategy has already proven successful for <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/the-crown-sets-single-week-record-in-nielsen-streaming-rankings-4106891/">record-setting</a> shows like The Crown, which had a budget of around $13 million per episode. HBO’s budget for House of the Dragon is reportedly <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-budget-episode-cost-1235238285/">$20 million per episode</a>, while <a href="https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/the-most-expensive-tv-shows-of-all-time-stranger-things-and-lord-of-the-rings-enter-pantheon-152120290.html">each installment</a> of the fourth season of Stranger Things cost Netflix around $30 million. </p>
<p>Streaming platforms are betting that this increased investment in programming and data analysis will be enough to help them to hang on to subscribers even as household bills continue to rise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paolo Aversa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The way streaming platforms operate is changing to tackle falling subscriptions due to the rising cost of livingPaolo Aversa, Reader in Strategy, Bayes Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1777122022-03-17T16:55:16Z2022-03-17T16:55:16ZThe cultural sector needs support in order to benefit from a digital remake<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451946/original/file-20220314-103117-5s5abp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C4216%2C2819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pandemic shifted many concerts, events and performances online.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 crisis has dealt a massive blow to the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2021001/article/00033-eng.htm">cultural and creative sectors in Canada</a> and around the world. The impact was <a href="https://en.unesco.org/news/disruption-and-resilience-unesco-reports-reveal-new-data-impact-covid-19-culture">broad and deep</a>. </p>
<p>In 2020, museums were closed for an average of more than 155 days, and in 2021, many of them had to shut their doors again, resulting in a 70 per cent drop in attendance.</p>
<p>The film industry, which relies heavily on box office revenue, has <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2021/04/here-are-all-the-movies-and-tv-shows-affected-by-coronavirus.html">seen most theatrical releases cancelled or delayed</a>. The crisis <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelkramerbussel/2020/05/27/how-publishers-decided-to-move-publication-dates-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/?sh=3283078949dc">shook the book publishing industry</a>, putting smaller publishers at risk and delaying the launch of several new books and literary works. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/road-to-recovery/2021/01/12/pandemic-entertainment-changes/">Music festivals, concerts and plays were forced online</a>, delayed or cancelled and many artists had to find other work.</p>
<p>When these sectors hurt, Canada hurts. </p>
<p>Creative industries have long been one of the leading drivers of innovation and economic growth in this country, making up <a href="https://canadianart.ca/%20news/culture-industries-have-58-9-billion-impact-in-canada/">almost three per cent of the GDP</a>. By promoting social inclusion and social capital, the cultural sector is a key contributor to well-being as well. Our culture drives our identity as community and as country.</p>
<h2>Just above survival level</h2>
<p>The pandemic has exposed the structural fragility of the businesses and people foundational to supporting the cultural and creative sectors. </p>
<p>For the most part, <a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/app/cis/summary-sommaire/51">these are</a> small businesses, non-profit organizations like art centres, fairs, festivals, museums or theaters and independent artists and creative professionals like writers, painters or musicians — many who are operating just above survival level. </p>
<p>The pandemic has removed their main sources of revenue but has not diminished their costs of creation. If they go under, they may never recover. This would create a long-lasting dent in the production of cultural content in Canada.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9PqgTh9RvVw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video by The Wall Street Journal about how k-pop is reinventing virtual concerts.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even though the federal and provincial governments have implemented <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2022/02/government-of-canada-launches-program-to-provide-additional-support-for-cultural-workers-in-the-live-performing-arts-sector.html">support policies</a> for organizations and professionals affected by the pandemic, the measures have not adapted to the new reality. </p>
<p>Supports also appear to be poorly targeted and fail to account for the medium- and long-term <a href="https://www.cambridgeblog.org/2019/07/how-digitization-impacts-the-creative-economy/">impact of digital transformation</a> on how we produce and consume cultural products and experiences.</p>
<p>For many arts institutions and creative professionals, continued survival and relevance will hinge on how well they can transition from in-person to digital. Doing so will build their resilience to face future shocks and offer an economical pathway to reach larger audiences. </p>
<h2>Supply and demand</h2>
<p>In the near future, emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality have the potential to <a href="https://research4committees.blog/2020/09/07/the-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-the-cultural-and-creative-sectors/">fuel new types of cultural experiences</a> that can be marketed not only to large audiences but also to new audiences who were not consuming the cultural content before. </p>
<p>In economic terms, digitalization has affected both the demand and supply for cultural content. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated technology and the adoption of digital devices to experience things remote because of the pandemic, consumers have <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/digitization-culture-pandemic-1.6015861">developed a taste</a> for new ways to “tour” museums, “attend” theatre and participate in book readings. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whos-zoomin-who-how-the-coronavirus-crisis-is-finally-putting-the-social-into-social-media-136109">Who's Zoomin' who? How the coronavirus crisis is finally putting the 'social' into social media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For culture producers, this has forced them to re-imagine not only <a href="https://www.artsmanagement.net/Articles/The-Pandemic-as-a-Factor-of-Transformation-in-Arts-and-Culture-The-Ascendance-of-Digital-Culture,4174">what and how they create</a> but also their business methods, distribution channels, advertising and funding. </p>
<h2>Digitalization of cultural experiences</h2>
<p>The digitalization of cultural experiences takes many shapes and forms: musicians streaming concerts when live concerts aren’t possible, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/digitization-culture-pandemic-1.6015861">museums providing online tours</a> or online book releases with authors reading from their homes. </p>
<p>The pandemic forced cultural producers to think about how they might transition the delivery of their cultural content from in-person to digital in ways that wouldn’t diminish the experience of cultural consumers.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wgpOsxHkeTw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Met takes you on a virtual tour of Making The Met, 1870–2020.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Digitalization has affected competition as well, in cross-cutting ways. It has <a href="https://pooja-bhatnagar.medium.com/the-long-tail-strategy-65973fee9301">lowered the cost of starting a new culture-based enterprises</a>, which should spur competition. But it has also led to greater concentration among those who are able to adapt to the digital world, adding to the decade-long trend of <a href="https://www.globalissues.org/article/159/media-conglomerates-mergers-concentration-of-ownership">increased market concentration in cinemas, radio, television and the press</a>. </p>
<p>Greater market concentration usually leads to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/archive/au/entry/its-time-to-put-markets-ahead-of-monopolies_a_21647051">higher prices and poorer quality</a>, with serious long-term consequences for access and diversity of content — that is the most worrisome. </p>
<p>Access to culture and the guarantee of respect to one’s culture are not only <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/CulturalRights/Pages/Covid19.aspx">rights explicitly recognized</a> by the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> and promoted by the United Nations and UNESCO, but they are quintessential to our identity as a community and country.</p>
<h2>Policy interventions</h2>
<p>Given the importance of access to culture, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/culture-shock-covid-19-and-the-cultural-and-creative-sectors-08da9e0e/">public policy interventions</a> must aim to support the digitalization of cultural experiences as one way to help face the uncertainty of the future. </p>
<p>Even in stable times, <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-moments-like-these-we-need-a-cultural-policy-141974">governments have struggled to adapt their policies</a> to the <a href="https://blogs.salleurl.edu/en/9-keys-adaptation-business-models-cultural-companies-midst-covid-19">nontraditional business models that mark the cultural sector</a>. That needs to change.</p>
<p>The form of measures and aid provided can vary but two objectives must be prioritized. </p>
<p>One, the aid must help to guarantee the survival of companies and organizations, employees and artists who make access to culture possible. Cultural producers — particularly those that are small and independent — will need help to build their digital skills. </p>
<p>And two, looking to the future, the aid must be competition-neutral — business and organizations must not be favoured over others — to ensure lively innovation by new entrants. If necessary, anti-competition law should be applied to avoid abusive practices that reduce access to culture. </p>
<p>With the fulfilment of both conditions, we can emerge from this crisis a culturally stronger and more forward-looking and resilient country than before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177712/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ricard Gil receives funding from SSHRC. Ricard Gil is a member of the American Economic Association, Canadian Economic Association and the Society of Institutional and Organizational Economics. Ricard Gil is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Cultural Economics.</span></em></p>We can emerge from the pandemic a culturally stronger and more forward-looking and resilient country than before if we support the culture sector and digitalization.Ricard Gil, Associate Professor, Smith School of Business, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755512022-02-13T07:12:37Z2022-02-13T07:12:37ZDigital technology can improve Nigeria’s elections: lessons from 2019<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445357/original/file-20220209-27-rq74nv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Card readers were used to confirm permanent voter cards during the 2019 Presidential elections in Nigeria.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/staff-of-the-independent-national-electoral-commission-news-photo/1125554605?adppopup=true">Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital technologies to improve the reliability of election results have become more widely used around the world in the past two decades. In African countries, nearly all <a href="https://eisa.org/pdf/JAE15.2Alebiosu.pdf">recent general elections</a> have used various kinds of digital technology. </p>
<p>These include biometric voter registration, smart card readers, voters’ cards, optical mark recognition, direct electronic recording, and electronic result transmission. The principal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2018.1470165">reason</a> for using them is to contain electoral fraud. It also promotes the credibility of elections.</p>
<p>Nigeria started using digital technology in the electoral process <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/10/what-other-african-elections-tell-us-about-nigerias-bet-on-biometrics/">in 2011</a>. The Independent National Electoral Commission introduced the automated fingerprint identification system to stop voters registering more than once. </p>
<p>The permanent voter’s card and smart card reader were introduced in <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/JAE15.2Alebiosu.pdf">the 2015 general elections</a>. At the polling station, a voter’s identity is verified by matching his or her biometrics to the voter’s card. The voter is then allowed to vote and the votes are counted manually after the voting ends. </p>
<p>The reliability of these devices generated some controversy among Nigerians, but using them in the 2015 and 2019 general elections improved the legitimacy of the electoral process. Electoral outcomes were better accepted, with fewer objections to the results.</p>
<p>There hasn’t been any systematic study, though, of how smart card readers contributed to improving Nigeria’s election credibility and legitimacy. This is what I decided to explore using the case of the 2019 general elections. My study relied mostly on documentary sources and agency reports to provide qualitative results. </p>
<h2>My research</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358533.2020.1788755">My research</a> found that digital innovations enhanced elections in Nigeria because they reduced the instances of electoral fraud and irregularities. But there are still some drawbacks affecting their efficiency. </p>
<p>I conclude that the problems are not operational issues relating to machines not working. Rather, they reflect problems in the management of elections. </p>
<p>Nigeria had elections in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. The outcomes all generated concerns over their <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339599665_THE_QUEST_FOR_CREDIBLE_ELECTIONS_IN_NIGERIA_A_CRITICAL_EVALUATION_OF_THE_2015_GENERAL_ELECTIONS">credibility</a>. They were marred by <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/317067-analysis-delayed-voting-malpractices-other-lapses-observed-in-february-23-elections.html">malpractices</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/04/25/nigeria-presidential-election-marred-fraud-violence">violence</a>. Though the 2011 election was more fair than before, disputes over the outcome triggered <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2011/08/nigerias-2011-elections-best-run-most-violent">post election violence</a>. </p>
<h2>Old concerns persist</h2>
<p>While digitisation holds great prospects, some political actors remain unconvinced. In July 2021 the Senate <a href="https://www.arise.tv/nigeria-all-apc-senators-vote-against-electronic-transmission-of-results-the-full-list/">rejected</a> the provision in the Electoral Act for the introduction of electronic voting and electronic transmission of results. </p>
<p>These innovations would be a step beyond the voter’s card and smart card reader. Both are <a href="https://www.icirnigeria.org/how-electronic-transmission-of-results-will-affect-elections-in-nigeria/">aimed</a> at reducing errors in the calculation of votes and collating results faster.</p>
<p>The Senate said electronic voting was likely to compromise the credibility of elections, as did the malfunction of some card readers during the <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/after-initial-card-reader-failure-nigerians-persevere-vote-in-peaceful-elections/">2015</a> and <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/315393-nigeriadecides2019-card-readers-remain-a-challenge.html">2019 elections</a>. </p>
<p>The rejection hinged on the National Communication Commission’s <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/474174-only-50-of-polling-units-have-3g-network-to-transmit-election-results-ncc.html">comment</a> that only half of the polling units could transmit election results.</p>
<p>The federal government also <a href="https://punchng.com/2023-electronic-transmission-of-results-doubtful-301-lgs-lack-internet-facilities/">claimed</a> that digital transmission of election results could not be considered in the 2023 general elections because 473 out of the 774 local governments had no internet access.</p>
<p>The Senate later <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/electronic-transmission-of-poll-results-senate-in-u-turn-imposes-direct-primaries-on-parties/">rescinded</a> its decision after a public outcry.</p>
<h2>Push for digitisation</h2>
<p>But the electoral commission persisted in its <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/12/inec-insists-on-using-technology-for-elections/">call</a> for digitisation. And <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/184987-groups-urge-inec-to-use-digital-collation-of-election-results.html">civil society organisations</a> have shown support because of the prospect of reducing electoral fraud and improving transparency. They have also <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/486773-inec-insists-its-ready-for-electronic-transmission-of-election-results.html">pushed</a> for electronic voting and transmission of election results. </p>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="https://situationroomng.org/">Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room</a>, an umbrella for over 70 civil society organisations, supported the use of digital technology. </p>
<h2>Successes and limitations</h2>
<p>I discovered through my research that the application of digital technology to some extent has enhanced the quality of elections in Nigeria. It’s an improvement compared to previous elections characterised by fraud and manipulation. </p>
<p>However, there are some drawbacks owing to technology failure and structural and systemic problems. One of the systemic issues is that the electoral commission lacks autonomy in terms of funding. Others are lack of transparency and accountability and insufficient security during elections. These have cast doubt on the elections’ integrity and raised concerns about the reliability of digital technology. </p>
<p>This is not surprising. Evidence from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2018.1470165">studies</a> has shown that the outcomes of digital technology in elections are mixed. </p>
<p>For instance, during the 2019 elections in Nigeria, there were cases of smart card readers <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/315393-nigeriadecides2019-card-readers-remain-a-challenge.html">malfunctioning</a> in some <a href="https://situationroomng.org/2019-elections-smart-card-reader-challenges/">voting centers</a>. This delayed voters’ accreditation in many polling units. </p>
<p>Further, there was no uniform contingency plan nationally. The electoral officials allowed manual voting in some polling units. In other cases, they permitted the use of “incident forms”, a form filled by election officials on behalf of a voter before being allowed to vote. This happened when smart card readers could not authenticate the voter’s card. A lot of time was wasted in the process, resulting in an extension of the voting period. Many of these hitches occurred, particularly during March 2015 presidential and national assembly elections. </p>
<p>Despite these challenges, I found that the application of digital technology since 2015 has modestly improved the overall quality of elections in Nigeria. It has reduced the incidence of double registration, electoral fraud and violence and <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/487818-editorial-electronic-voting-and-transmission-of-results-the-imperative-to-safeguard-democracy.html?">restored</a> some degree of confidence in the electoral process. </p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Systemic and institutional issues persist. I found that the autonomy of the electoral commission, inadequate technology infrastructure and security are concerns in Nigeria. So are trust and confidence in digital technology among politicians and voters. </p>
<p>These should be tackled by government undertaking more reforms of the electoral body and improvement in technological infrastructure. Further, the National Assembly should review the Electoral Act, particularly its security aspect. I think if security is enhanced during elections, digitisation will proceed better. </p>
<p>Similarly, concerted efforts should be paid to the risk of digital technology’s failure. And election staff should get adequate training on how to use the technology.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175551/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abiodun Fatai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Digitisation has enhanced the conduct of elections in Nigeria but there are still some drawbacks affecting its efficiency.Abiodun Fatai, Senior Lecturer, Lagos State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1710602021-11-09T14:53:56Z2021-11-09T14:53:56ZHow digital technology helped support Ghana’s COVID response<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429935/original/file-20211103-19-o3p20s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Real-time surveillance has been key to the global pandemic response.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Real-time surveillance of reported COVID infections has been key to the global pandemic response. Many tools, devices and apps have been used to support surveillance. China, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52681464">South Korea</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=my.gov.onegovappstore.mysejahtera&hl=en&gl=US">Malaysia</a> developed some early in the pandemic and many others were created by other countries later on.</p>
<p>Some of these platforms will also have a role to play in a post-pandemic world. Enhancements in digital technology, mobile phone networks, and the potential in telehealth systems could help reshape what healthcare looks like in resource-poor settings. </p>
<p>National and sub-national level dashboards are already commonplace. In the UK, for example, the <a href="https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/">government portal</a> covers the latest daily statistics around cases, hospitalisations and deaths. Countries such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52681464">South Korea</a> used mobile phone technology to develop apps that support their testing programmes.</p>
<p>Beyond the pandemic, the use of mobile phones to support healthcare has been an emerging trend in sub-Saharan Africa. Examples include the CDC Foundation funding Kenya’s <a href="https://www.cdcfoundation.org/content/mobile-health-how-phones-are-reshaping-healthcare-africa">Mobile Post Exposure Prophylaxis (mPEP) initiative</a>. This uses mobile phone communications to track progress and adherence to treatment by healthcare workers who have potentially been exposed to HIV. And in <a href="https://ideas4development.org/en/apps-health-mobile-africa/">Benin</a>, apps are being assessed to book an appointment to see a doctor. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Accessible_mobile_technology_for_public_health_data_a_case_study_of_four_districts_in_Ghana_during_COVID-19/15172722">recent paper</a>, we looked at how a Ghanaian software company, <a href="http://cognatesystems.com/">Cognate Systems</a>, adapted one of its data platforms to help report and track COVID symptoms across the country. </p>
<p>We examined the project and analysed the platform, its features, and how it was used. Our main findings were that self-reporting COVID-like symptoms via a mobile platform is feasible, and that this could detect outbreaks more rapidly than routine surveillance. </p>
<p>Based on our findings we made some recommendations about how technology could be used in public health emergencies in a developing country like Ghana.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>The data platform, called <a href="https://opine.world">Opine</a>, was built to gather information about diseases from diverse sources and provide insights in real-time. Our project aimed to find out whether users would interact with the system and report symptoms that might be COVID-19, and whether healthcare workers would value the information sent through. </p>
<p>The feasibility study took place in four districts; the peri-urban sites of Ashaiman and Kpone-Katamanso, Greater Accra, and the rural areas of Nkwanta South and Nkwanta North, Oti region. </p>
<p><strong>Added:</strong> The system is easy to use. A user just has to dial a shortcode number (called an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstructured_Supplementary_Service_Data">Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, or USSD</a>) on their mobile phone to start interacting with Opine and a series of questions would appear.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430991/original/file-20211109-25-nmdyde.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The aim was to ensure that everyone in the country could participate in disease surveillance. And so the technology was adapted to ensure it could be used in places where internet connectivity is unreliable or lacking. </p>
<p>It had to work on all mobile phones, not just a smartphone, and without internet access. The shortcode number could be dialled free of charge, and did not require any credit on the phone to make the call. Because the platform wasn’t fixed to a particular user account it was suited for communities where mobile phones are shared among residents. </p>
<p>We saw that over 1,200 users dialled the number over the four month testing period. The feedback from users and healthcare workers was that the platform had the potential to offer timely insights into the spread of the virus within communities. </p>
<p>It has the potential for integration into routine surveillance infrastructures, but communities would have to be reminded to use it. </p>
<p>The project highlighted a possible route for regular and early reporting of COVID-19 symptoms to help identify new cases. For example, several reported potential cases in one area could indicate a ‘hot spot’ of an outbreak. </p>
<h2>Technology in health crises</h2>
<p>Managing public health emergencies with digital and mobile devices has developed in leaps and bounds in the last decade. An example is the use of portable sequencing devices to investigate the genomics of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-020-0354-7">Ebola virus</a> from infected patients. This has helped track the sequence and direction of an outbreak. </p>
<p>Real-time data platforms such as Opine have the potential to improve surveillance and support early reporting of other public health emergencies. For example, they could support questions relating to a meningitis outbreak, earthquake, flood or urgent need for food or clean water. </p>
<p>A post-pandemic healthcare service in Ghana and beyond could usefully incorporate more elements of mobile health programmes. It could collect more electronic data and engage more with community health centres and local pharmacies. </p>
<p>The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service have significant experience using mobile apps and mobile devices to improve realtime data collection for immunisation and logistics management. COVID-19 contact tracing and vaccine administration were done with the aid of mobile applications and mobile devices. As internet coverage and network quality improves, telemedicine (remote consultations using video or telephone calls) will increasingly become an option. </p>
<p>There are also potential funding avenues to explore. New uses of technology and devices in sub-Saharan Africa could be driven by donations from the global north. But caution is needed. About <a href="https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Accessible_mobile_technology_for_public_health_data_a_case_study_of_four_districts_in_Ghana_during_COVID-19/15172722">40%-70% of donations aren’t useful</a> because the technology does not function properly or is inappropriate in the local setting, or staff are not trained on its use. </p>
<p>Use of any new technology has to be guided by local context and acceptability. Country-led initiatives are more likely to succeed and to be sustainable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Head has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kwabena Nuamah is a co-founder of Cognate Systems, the owner of the Opine platform.
The case study cited in this article was funded by the University of Southampton Strategic Development Fund</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laud Boateng receives funding from the UK Department for International Development.</span></em></p>A post-pandemic healthcare service in Ghana and beyond may usefully incorporate elements of mobile health programmes.Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of SouthamptonKwabena Nuamah, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The University of EdinburghLaud Boateng, Post Doctoral Researcher, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646542021-07-22T14:55:58Z2021-07-22T14:55:58ZGhana upgraded its census to make it more inclusive: but old tensions still surfaced<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411917/original/file-20210719-23-1if086.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ghana's population has expanded its data categories </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Delali Adogla-Bessa</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ghana has just carried out its latest population and housing census. This is an exercise organised every ten years.</p>
<p>For the first time a digital data capture and transfer system was used.</p>
<p>The use of the digital innovations offered important advantages. For example, it facilitated real-time data quality monitoring and reduced data processing time. </p>
<p>In addition, integrating GPS-based information on respondents’ location added new spatial data layers. The new system allows for spatial analysis of the population’s access to basic necessities such as water. This is helping the census meet its commitment to analysing the living conditions of the population. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/biometric-identification-technologies-and-the-ghanaian-data-revolution/D57C74137A1D0C3342C772C450779ADB">a research paper</a> published last year I examined the digital transformation of the Ghanaian population data system. So far, the focus on these developments has largely centred on costs and implementation. </p>
<p>But there are social and political aspects too which have been largely ignored. For example, the aim of this year’s digital census was to give “<a href="https://statsghana.gov.gh/2021phc/abt_2021_phc.html">everyone in the country a voice</a>”. Changes were introduced to meet this goal. Examples include the fact that new census categories cover disability status. This suggests a new form of inclusiveness. And, with the use of ICT, new focal areas included access to basic infrastructure.</p>
<p>At the same time, the recent population census offers a window into the contested terrain of population statistics. These rely on sorting individual variation into categories. Categories are technical means for making the population countable. But they are much more than that too. They produce dividing lines along which people identify themselves – personally and collectively. They thereby play a central role in delineating the population and representing it as a nation.</p>
<p>Ghana is a relatively young democracy. And nation-building remains unfinished. It’s therefore no surprise that census categories have been subject to contestation. The recent population and housing census is no different. This is clear from the fact that it has stirred up intense emotions about citizenship and belonging. </p>
<h2>Strengthening the statistical system</h2>
<p>Historically, Ghana’s population data system has relied heavily on census taking. Some countries, such as the Netherlands or Denmark, rely on their civil registration systems to produce population statistics. But historically in Ghana there hasn’t been sufficient investment in these capabilities. Population estimates thus required periodic surveys and projections.</p>
<p>The foundations for establishing a comprehensive national statistical system in Ghana can be traced back to the <a href="https://constitutionnet.org/sites/default/files/constitution_of_the_third_republic_of_ghana.pdf">1979 constitution</a> and the <a href="https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/About_us.html">1985 statistical service law</a>. These established the Ghana Statistical Service as an independent statistical body. In 2019, a review of the <a href="https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/storage/img/STATISTICAL%20SERVICE%20ACT,%202019%20(ACT%201003).pdf">Statistical Service Act (Act 1003)</a> gave the service additional powers. </p>
<p>The 2020/2021 population and housing census has benefited from this institutional strengthening in several ways. For example, the country’s address system has been used to monitor data quality by checking against the existing housing register.</p>
<h2>The evolution</h2>
<p>Throughout Ghana’s post-independence history, census taking did more than simply meet the data needs of various political and development programmes. It has also contributed to the construction of the population in which individuals recognised themselves. In this way, it played a crucial role in moulding how Ghana sees itself. </p>
<p>For example, census historian <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/hail-the-census-night-trust-and-political-imagination-in-the-1960-population-census-of-ghana/DC7F160E640A2517C3004D1D93BB9815">Gerardo Serra writes</a>, Ghana’s first post-independence census of 1960 was mobilised as a departure from colonialism and to represent the first steps into the modern era. </p>
<p>In the colonial era censuses focused less on the living conditions of the population than on establishing control over the colony. </p>
<p>After independence, Ghana’s censuses reflected growing concerns of population growth, with a focus on fertility and citizenship. Census categories were incrementally added that were supposed to be sensitive to the nation’s economic structure. For example, following the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4187650?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">1983 structural adjustment programmes</a>, the 1984 census was tailored to meet the data needs of international organisations, including the World Bank. </p>
<p>At the same time, the emerging decentralisation of governance called for increased localisation of data analysis and reporting.</p>
<p>When Ghana returned to democratic rule in 1992, census taking emphasised national development. Issues that became the focus included planning for water, transport, health and educational infrastructures.</p>
<h2>Disagreements</h2>
<p>Changes in the Ghanaian census’ focus and method have historically been accompanied by disagreements about the categories being used. New categories, such as boundaries of local authorities, community names, or professional distinctions were added and brought to the fore.</p>
<p>This census is no different. Public discussions and <a href="https://dailyguidenetwork.com/fulani-community-protests-census-exclusion/">local boycotts</a> of the enumeration in 2021 centred on concerns about misrepresentation. </p>
<p>For instance, in Ghana’s Upper East region, concerns were raised about alleged discrimination in the <a href="https://www.myjoyonline.com/chief-and-people-of-kandiga-boycott-census/">listing of localities</a>. In the Volta region, the focal area of contestation was the alleged failure to <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/1083656/your-2021-population-census-instrument-is-ethnocen.html">list subgroups</a> of the Ewe ethnicity.</p>
<p>The census also triggered public commentary about who counted as Ghanaian. Some <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/1087911/fulani-community-must-be-recognized-in-population.html">alleged</a> that certain groups listed in the survey represented foreigners. Examples include dismissing residents of the borderlands as Togolese, while Fulani and Hausa populations were repeatedly labelled as immigrants. </p>
<p>And while the government framed the census as a means of enhancing development in the country, some residents said they <a href="https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/ho-census-officers-school-reluctant-residents.html">wouldn’t participate</a> because development had eluded their communities.</p>
<p>These debates politicised the census, reframing it as a moment of cementing the national identity, while also re-articulating the official narrative of data’s developmental potential. </p>
<p>Important innovations have accompanied the 2020/2021 population and housing census along with the promise of better data for development. However, these contestations around identity and belonging are concerns technology cannot fix.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alena Thiel receives funding from the German Research Foundation's Individual Grant Scheme. </span></em></p>Ghana’s latest population census offers a window into the contested terrain of population statistics.Alena Thiel, postdoctoral researcher, PI "How Democracies Know: Identification Technologies and Quantitative Analyses of Development in Ghana", Martin Luther University Halle-WittenbergLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1626732021-06-29T15:33:51Z2021-06-29T15:33:51ZKenyan universities face big challenges going digital. But it can be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407410/original/file-20210621-22-d0p7ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenya's universities face huge challenges going digital</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> i_am_zews/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an academic working at a university in Kenya, I’ve witnessed at first hand the massive disruptions to learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is not unique to Kenya. Universities in neighbouring <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/covid-19-uganda-lockdown-3442590">Uganda</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/gov_user_upload/Publications/Cabinet_Resolutions/Cabinet_Communique_-01-04-2020_.pdf">Rwanda</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-dealt-a-blow-to-ethiopias-private-higher-education-institutions-153398">Ethiopia</a> are similarly affected. </p>
<p>Kenya <a href="https://www.cue.or.ke/images/phocadownload/Accredited_Universities_Kenya_June2021.pdf">has over</a> 70 universities, 38 of them public and 35 private. Over 500,000 students were enrolled in the last academic year. Public universities took the lion’s share <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1135785/university-enrollment-in-kenya/">with over 400,000</a> of these students. </p>
<p>While public universities are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0738059316300736">challenged</a> by overcrowding, inadequate numbers of lecturers and degraded facilities, private ones have lower student to staff ratios and have better facilities and equipment.</p>
<p>But all universities have been affected by the pandemic. An entire year of learning was <a href="https://www.education.go.ke/index.php/downloads/category/22-circulars">lost</a> due to government closure and universities were forced to quickly transition to e-learning, for which they weren’t prepared.</p>
<p>E-learning has its own challenges too. Courses that require student practicals – such as the natural, health and physical sciences – have been heavily disrupted. They rely on the physical demonstration of concepts, for example through laboratory training, fieldwork and academic trips to industries.</p>
<p>Exams also went online. For institutions that attempted this, the outcome <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/the-standard-insider/article/2001372730/online-teaching-turns-into-nightmare-for-universities">was telling</a>. Many students <a href="https://uasunational.or.ke/2020/09/01/why-mku-online-exam-failure-should-serve-as-a-lesson-to-other-institutions/">didn’t</a> register, couldn’t access the portal and failed to upload their scripts. They complained of poor network connectivity, high cost of data and a lack of stable power supply and <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2020070108564996">infrastructure</a> to conduct the exams virtually. </p>
<p>Invigilation was also challenging. My university required students to switch on their webcams and speakers to prevent cheating. Due to these challenges, some universities were forced to offer special exams and even revert to <a href="https://web.newvisionapp.com/articledetails/83328">physical examinations</a>. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going away any time soon. It’s expected that restrictions to learning will continue and that students will have to work from home.</p>
<p>Though Kenya’s universities face huge challenges going digital, they must quickly adapt and become innovative so that they achieve their targets with minimal disruptions. </p>
<h2>What’s needed</h2>
<p>There is an urgent need for a fresh approach to the current teaching and learning models. Universities can reduce digital disruptions through delivery of interactive content and accessible courses through learning management systems. </p>
<p>The government should provide tax incentives to allow universities and students to access subsidised data bundles and provide more funds for infrastructure development. This includes good electricity connections.</p>
<p>Universities need to provide effective and efficient <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00766-018-0299-9">digital platforms</a> that support virtual learning. In addition, online modules <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kirti-Menon/publication/343501284_In_search_of_the_%27new_normal%27_Reflections_on_teaching_and_learning_during_Covid-19_in_a_South_African_university/links/5f2d2f7d299bf13404ab9ec1/In-search-of-the-new-normal-Reflections-on-teaching-and-learning-during-Covid-19-in-a-South-African-university.pdf">should be</a> easy enough for students to follow, provide learning guides, offer assignments and give feedback to users.</p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://www.learntechlib.org/p/130284/">the use of</a> basic technology, software and applications – such as WhatsApp, e-mail, Zoom, FaceTime and Blackboard – that allow asynchronous participation and teleconference facilities must be used to improve the e-learning experience. </p>
<h2>The challenges</h2>
<p>But Kenyan universities face an uphill battle. </p>
<p>In Kenya, internet connectivity is still low. <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-kenya?rq=kenya">Only 40%</a> of the population uses the internet. A recent survey in 12 universities found just 19,000 out of 500,000 students enrolled for <a href="http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/2491/2016_Nyerere_ODL-Kenya.pdf?sequence=1">open and distance learning</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1250436.pdf">Only a handful</a> of universities have well developed IT infrastructure and the personnel to manage such systems.</p>
<p>The country also suffers from frequent <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.ELC.OUTG?locations=KE">power outages</a>.
This is aggravated by lack of standby generators or alternative sources of power. With no power, no work can be done. During the online exams in my institution, a prolonged power blackout led to the postponement of an entire examination session. </p>
<p>For online learning to be successful, massive investments are needed in digital platforms, cloud-based systems and automation. The existing IT infrastructure needs an <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/opinion-analysis/columnists/why-e-learning-has-a-promising-future-in-kenya-2290200">upgrade in capacity</a>. The investments in digital infrastructure should go hand in hand with the retraining of staff. </p>
<p>A huge hurdle in achieving all of this is the funding gaps. </p>
<p>Public universities are grappling with a decline in funding. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the higher education budget was <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/varsities-face-deeper-cash-sh4bn-budget-cut-3291236">reduced</a> by US$37 million. </p>
<p>Government <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/news/state-deepens-austerity-with-sh100bn-budget-cuts-2276662">austerity measures</a>, staff <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/education/article/2001396298/mass-layoffs-in-varsities-loom">layoffs</a>, a freeze on <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-09-30-government-freezes-public-service-hiring-for-three-years/">employment</a> and increased student enrolment will further strain the universities’ finances. Private universities are equally struggling with lower student numbers.</p>
<p>Universities have to adapt and explore alternative ways of raising funds and cutting costs. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>The good news is that, though it’ll initially be an investment to get the online ecosystem up to scratch, the adoption of online teaching can reduce costs and increase financial resources. For instance, more students can enrol for programmes, thus increasing <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-south-african-vice-chancellors-paint-a-post-covid-picture-for-universities-143490">income for universities</a>.</p>
<p>In developing programmes, it’s also important to remember that a one-size-fits-all approach in e-learning will not work. Students come from diverse economic backgrounds and different remote geographic locations. Online platforms should be customised to meet these constraints. For instance, South Africa has many educational sites that <a href="https://www.dhet.gov.za/SiteAssets/05%20June%202020%20zero-rate%20publication.pdf">allow access to all students</a>. An encouraging step in Kenya is the provision of discounted data bundles to <a href="https://www.kenet.or.ke/content/kenet-launches-discounted-bundles-promote-e-learning">support e-learning</a>. </p>
<p>A blended approach – involving a mix of physical and online learning – could be a good solution. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University in Kenya, where I work, has implemented a <a href="http://oasis.col.org/bitstream/handle/11599/3780/2021_Abeka_Dwada_Blended_Course_Experience_JOOUST_Report.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">blended learning approach</a> – where traditional classroom training is complemented by online learning. This involved the customisation of the university digital platform with <a href="https://moodle.org/">Moodle</a>, an online learning management system. Lecturers and students were then trained on how to use it. I found that it was very beneficial to the faculty and students are performing well. </p>
<p>For online examinations and assessments, software – like <a href="https://web.respondus.com/he/lockdownbrowser/">Respondus LockDown Browser</a> – should be used to secure the exam environment. This identifies candidates, detects voices, stops printing, copying, visiting another URL and accessing other applications, and prevents the user from exiting a quiz until it is submitted for grading.</p>
<p>Public-private partnerships should be used so that students can access affordable data and good devices. For instance, the South African government <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/technology/431856/730000-laptops-to-be-given-to-south-african-students-for-online-learning/">has issued a tender</a> for the mass supply of laptops for students. Universities should also leverage their connections to provide students with subsidised software, laptops and data as seen at the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-04-01-uct-to-loan-some-students-laptops-during-covid-19-lockdown/">University of Cape Town</a>. </p>
<p>Crucially, higher learning institutions must develop their digital infrastructure. This must go hand in hand with securing stable power sources and backup systems to provide an uninterrupted e-learning environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shehu Shagari Awandu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going away any time soon. Kenya’s universities must adapt.Shehu Shagari Awandu, Head/Chair, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1597882021-05-02T08:42:39Z2021-05-02T08:42:39ZRestricting digital media is a gamble for African leaders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398229/original/file-20210502-23-99qjxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 pushed much of the world into the digital realm for everything from schooling and work to religious worship and dating. At the same time, many governments were turning data connections off. Full or partial shutdowns of the internet and social media are increasingly common parts of the <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2018/rise-digital-authoritarianism">“digital authoritarian”</a> toolkit. </p>
<p>Many leaders seem threatened by the way digital media make it possible to share information and organise. <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/keepiton/">Research</a> shows that 2020 saw 156 full or partial shutdowns of the internet or social media like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. South Asia accounts for almost three quarters of these shutdowns, with India leading the way. </p>
<p>Africa was the next most affected region, with 20 shutdowns affecting 12 countries. Disruptions lasted from as short as a day or less, in Burundi, Egypt, and Togo, to nearly 90 days in parts of Ethiopia’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/09/ethiopia-communications-shutdown-takes-heavy-toll">Oromia Region</a>. A recent blockage of social media in <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1582696/chad-has-blocked-whatsapp-facebook-twitter-for-a-year/">Chad</a> lasted for more than a year. </p>
<p>And 2021 has already seen shutdowns in <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/niger-election-internet-blackout/">Niger</a>, <a href="https://iafrikan.com/2021/03/08/senegal-social-media-and-internet-shutdown/">Senegal</a> and <a href="https://netblocks.org/reports/social-media-and-messaging-platforms-restricted-in-uganda-ahead-of-general-election-XB7aaO87">Uganda</a>.</p>
<p>Governments have given varying justifications for these moves. These include: combating hate speech and fake news in <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/8/4/chad-slows-down-internet-to-curb-hate-speech-on-social-media">Chad</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/africas-online-hate-speech-laws-sound-alarm-over-press-freedom/a-52488748">Ethiopia</a>, suppressing violence in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/13/end-mass-protests-sudan-has-cut-off-internet-access-nationwide-heres-why/">Sudan</a>, and preventing exam cheating in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/world/africa/algeria-exams-cheating-internet.html">Algeria</a> and <a href="https://smex.org/noexamshutdown-4-mena-countries-shut-down-the-internet-so-far-to-fight-cheating/">Sudan</a>. Disruptions in <a href="https://netblocks.org/reports/social-media-restricted-in-mali-amid-protests-against-president-QyKpdX8D">Mali</a> in 2020 coincided with anti-government protests, while shutdowns were timed around elections in <a href="https://cpj.org/2020/05/burundi-blocks-social-media-access-during-presiden/">Burundi</a>, <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/une-promesse-non-tenue-de-keepiton-la-guinee-coupe-lacces-a-internet-et-bloque-les-medias-sociaux-le-jour-du-referendum/">Guinea</a>, <a href="https://www.accessnow.org/tanzania-votes-government-forces-telcos-escalate-censorship/">Tanzania</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1220118227126312960?s=20">Togo</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shutting-down-the-internet-doesnt-work-but-governments-keep-doing-it-111642">Shutting down the internet doesn't work -- but governments keep doing it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In some cases, official reasoning has shifted over time. When Uganda shut down digital media surrounding its January 2021 elections, foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa initially <a href="https://pctechmag.com/2021/01/facebook-and-twitter-shut-down-to-ensure-equity/">said</a> the move was retaliation for Facebook’s and Twitter’s actions against government accounts. Investigations had alleged the government was behind <a href="https://medium.com/dfrlab/social-media-disinformation-campaign-targets-ugandan-presidential-election-b259dbbb1aa8">“coordinated inauthentic behaviour”</a> using fake accounts to spread disinformation and intimidate the opposition. After the election, however, Kutesa <a href="https://www.independent.co.ug/internet-shutdown-prevented-violence-minister-kutesa/">said</a> the move was “a necessary step to stop the vitriolic language and incitement to violence.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uganda-election-museveni-social-media-ban-caps-violent-campaign-153338">Uganda election: Museveni social media ban caps violent campaign</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Views on digital media limits</h2>
<p>Online commentary usually harshly criticises these shutdowns. But these posts aren’t necessarily representative of general public opinion in affected countries. </p>
<p>To get a sense of broader opinion on these issues, we <a href="https://media.africaportal.org/documents/ad410-promise_and_peril-africas_changing_media_landscape-afrobarometer_dispatch-1dec20.pdf">analysed</a> data from Afrobarometer. This is an independent African research network that conducted nationally representative surveys in 18 countries in 2019/20. About 27,000 Africans participated in these surveys. </p>
<p>A larger share of respondents supported access to digital media. When given a choice between two statements, 48% agreed that “unrestricted access to the internet and social media helps people to be more informed and active citizens, and should be protected”. Only 36% agreed that “information shared on the internet and social media is dividing (our country), so access should be regulated by the government”. </p>
<p>Majorities in 10 countries supported unrestricted access. Support was highest in Cabo Verde (64%), Gabon (63%), Côte d’Ivoire (63%) and Nigeria (61%). Majorities supported regulation in only three countries: Mali (53%), Ethiopia (53%) and Tunisia (59%). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-internet-shutdowns-have-affected-the-lives-of-millions-of-ethiopians-134054">How internet shutdowns have affected the lives of millions of Ethiopians</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Guarding freedoms</h2>
<p>Unsurprisingly, regular users of digital media were more supportive of freedoms. Of the 37% of respondents who reported using some form of digital media for their news at least a few times a week, 62% favoured unrestricted access. Only 35% favoured regulations. </p>
<p>Over half (54%) of respondents reported never using digital media for news in the last month. Those non-users were more divided, with 37% favouring regulations and 39% favouring unrestricted access. A quarter (24%) of non-users did not share an opinion or could not choose between the positions.</p>
<p>Factors like age, residence and education also made a difference. The groups more likely to use digital media were also more supportive of unrestricted access. The youngest respondents (18-25) were almost twice as likely to oppose restrictions than the oldest respondents (over 60) were (56% vs 30%). Urban residents favoured unrestricted access more than rural residents (56% vs 43%). And those with post-secondary education were much more favourable towards unrestricted access than those without formal education (60% vs 34%). Men were only slightly more supportive of unrestricted digital media than women (50% vs. 47%).</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, support for unrestricted digital media does not fall neatly along political lines. Even among those who said they trusted their president “somewhat” or “a lot”, 45% still supported unrestricted digital media, versus 39% who favoured restrictions. Those who said they only trusted their national leader “a little” or “not at all” were even more supportive of open digital media: 53% supported unrestricted access and 34% supported regulations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/africans-are-concerned-about-ills-of-social-media-but-oppose-government-restrictions-137653">Africans are concerned about ills of social media but oppose government restrictions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Cost of shutdowns</h2>
<p>Restricting digital media is a gamble for African leaders. On the one hand, many governments are embracing digital media shutdowns, particularly around elections and protests, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/internet-shutdowns-in-africa-threaten-democracy-and-development-142868?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1595781241">limit threats</a>. They argue such moves are necessary to halt “the dissemination of messages inciting hate and division”, as a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/8/4/chad-slows-down-internet-to-curb-hate-speech-on-social-media">Chadian government spokesperson</a> put it. In some cases, like Ethiopia and Mali, populations seem generally supportive of governments’ restrictions. </p>
<p>But commerce, education and social communication are increasingly online. <a href="https://techpoint.africa/2021/02/26/sub-saharan-africa-internet-shutdown-loses/">One analysis</a> found that digital media restrictions cost African economies some $237 million in 2020. And using Afrobarometer data from 16 countries, we find that the share of Africans who regularly get news from digital media almost doubled, from 22% to 38%, between 2014 and 2019.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/internet-shutdowns-in-africa-threaten-democracy-and-development-142868">Internet shutdowns in Africa threaten democracy and development</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If African populations are sceptical now of limits on digital media, that opposition might grow as more enter the digital space for commerce, work, education, entertainment and social communications. Shutdowns will generate not only higher economic costs, but likely greater public outrage as well.</p>
<p><em>Joseph Koné, a research associate and finance officer at Centre de Recherche et de Formation sur le Développement Intégré (CREFDI), the Afrobarometer National Partner in Ivory Coast, was co-author of the research on which this article is based.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Digital media shutdowns in Africa will lead to higher economic costs and greater public outrage.Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz, Associate Professor of Political Science, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1483602020-10-19T13:21:30Z2020-10-19T13:21:30ZDisney’s pivot to streaming is a sign of severe COVID economic crisis still to come<p>Disney has announced a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/business/media/disney-streaming-reorganization.html?auth=login-google">significant restructuring</a> of its media and entertainment business, boldly placing most of its growth ambitions and investments into its recently launched streaming service, Disney+. The 97-year-old media conglomerate is now more like Netflix than ever before.</p>
<p>What this means is that Disney will be reducing its focus from (and potentially the investments routed to) theme parks, cruises, cinema releases and cable TV. As CEO <a href="https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/the-walt-disney-company-announces-strategic-reorganization-of-its-media-and-entertainment-businesses-2/">Bob Chapek said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Given the incredible success of Disney+ and our plans to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business, we are strategically positioning our company to more effectively support our growth strategy and increase shareholder value.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This change has not come easily as the company’s fortunes have gone through a rollercoaster ride in 2020. Amongst its portfolio of businesses, Disney+ is the only clear winner, with the service gaining over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095372/disney-plus-number-of-subscribers-us/#:%7E:text=In%20a%20call%20discussing%20its,the%20end%20of%20Q2%202020.">60.5 million</a> members in just ten months since launch. The COVID-19 pandemic, on the other hand, crushed Disney’s cruise, theme park, cable TV, live sports, cinema and retail businesses, resulting in losses over <a href="https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/THE-WALT-DISNEY-COMPANY-4842/news/Walt-Disney-Disney-Posts-First-Loss-Since-2001-31058733/">US$4.7 (£3.6) billion</a> in the financial quarter ended June 27. </p>
<p>Disney’s strategic pivot also comes about as activist investor <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/39c3657e-3c88-4ece-adb4-0fff9fc994b6">Daniel Loeb</a> called on the company to reinvest its planned dividend payments back into its streaming service. He did so because it’s likely to produce a higher return for shareholders than just returning cash to them. The stock market appreciated this change in strategy and resource allocation, causing the Disney stock to jump up <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/dis">by 6%</a> upon the announcement.</p>
<h2>A quick change</h2>
<p>From a corporate strategy perspective, the move is remarkable on two fronts. Firstly, the sheer velocity of this pivot for a company the size and age of Disney is, for lack of a better word, unprecedented. </p>
<p>Let’s not forget that it was just last year that Disney held a near <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/29/disney-accounted-for-nearly-40percent-of-the-2019-us-box-office-data-shows.html#:%7E:text=Disney%2Dproduced%20films%20account%20for,represents%2038%25%20of%20the%20market.">40% revenue share</a> of the US box office, thanks to Marvel films becoming a cultural phenomenon in the past decade. The company’s theme park and cruise line business was equally successful, with a year on year growth rate at a <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/11/07/disney-ends-fiscal-2019-with-solid-performance.html#:%7E:text=The%20Burbank%2C%20Calif.,to%20%2426.2%20billion%20this%20year.">respectable 6%</a> and revenues of US$26.2 (£19.8) billion in the same period. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v8YkE_CUnuM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>These are significant enterprises by any measure, with Disney enjoying deep competitive advantages in each of the sectors it participates in. In fact, before this announcement, most <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2020/04/22/could-disneys-stock-rise-by-35-post-coronavirus-crisis/#6e479d12ce49">stock market analysts</a> had made peace with the fact that Disney was likely to hunker down and wait for the pandemic to pass instead of changing gears. After all, why should the company leave money on the table if the pandemic was going to be over soon? </p>
<p>The fact that in just seven months of the pandemic breaking out, Disney decided to reinvent itself primarily around streaming speaks volumes about its expectations regarding the pandemic length. Clearly the group decided that waiting it out was no longer an option.</p>
<h2>Spillover effects</h2>
<p>The second reason why this pivot is remarkable is that it is likely to be far-reaching and not limited to just the streaming industry. Disney’s transformation does not bode well for its less diversified competitors, such as Universal Studios, themes park group Six Flags and cruise group Royal Caribbean. </p>
<p>A better funded Disney+ that is willing to stream highly anticipated theatrical releases on day one will also sharply impact the ability of <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-blockbusters-how-covid-19-has-worsened-the-fraught-relationship-between-cinemas-and-distributors-147622">cinema chains to bounce back</a> whenever the pandemic subsides. Disney has already chosen to release not only the live action Mulan but its newest Pixar animation, Soul, through the streaming site. </p>
<p>Traditional cable and linear TV companies will likely feel more pressure from a faster-growing Disney+. This is because more streaming subscriptions can drive an increased number of cancelled cable TV packages as well as disinterested advertisers, who will continue to reduce their advertising spend on linear TV thanks to lower viewership and engagement. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gs--6c7Hn_A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>For pure-play cruise and travel companies such as Royal Caribbean, Disney’s move hints at a longer and deeper downturn for the sector. And unlike Disney, most of these players are simply too specialised and invested in their industries to be able to make bold and timely pivots of their own. It would not be surprising to see at least some of them going on aggressive acquisition and divesture sprees to buy their way out of the current situation.</p>
<p>Taking a step back, Disney’s urgency to change itself is a wake-up call for business leaders everywhere who are waiting for the effects of COVID-19 to go away and, in the process, bring their businesses back to their former glory. Even for seemingly unrelated industries, such as construction or even energy, the writing on the wall is clear: boldly transform yourself into digital-first businesses or go obsolete. This includes investing in robotics and AI for core operations and shifting business models that allow for more affordability and access for customers during a global recession. </p>
<p>Chef Gusteau in the Disney movie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgsQ8mVkN8w">Ratatouille</a> once said: “if you focus on what you left behind, you will never be able to see what lies ahead”. This seminal line seems more relevant now than ever before.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hamza Mudassir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 97-year-old media conglomerate has changed its business strategy and is focusing most of its energy on its streaming platform, Disney+.Hamza Mudassir, Lecturer in Strategy, Cambridge Judge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1454852020-10-07T14:39:42Z2020-10-07T14:39:42ZEstonia is a ‘digital republic’ – what that means and why it may be everyone’s future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361852/original/file-20201006-16-1vohkiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5357%2C3413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/online-international-business-concept-computer-key-1735316405">Basakk/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People around the globe have been watching the build up to the US election with disbelief. Particularly confusing to many is the furore over postal ballots, which the US president, Donald Trump is insisting will lead to large-scale voter fraud – despite a complete <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53353404">lack of evidence</a> to back this. And yet this issue has become a central feature of the debate. </p>
<p>Citizens of Estonia, a small nation in Baltic region, will perhaps be particularly perplexed: since 2005, Estonians have been able vote online, from anywhere in the world. Estonians log on with their digital ID card and <a href="https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-governance/i-voting/">vote as many times</a> as they want during the pre-voting period, with each vote cancelling the last. This unique technological solution has safeguarded Estonian voters against fraud, use of force and other manipulations of remote voting that many American voters are apprehensive about in the 2020 US election.</p>
<p>Voting online is just the start. Estonia offers the most comprehensive governmental online services in the world. In the US, it takes an average taxpayer with no business income <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/best-part-estonian-tax-code-not-5-minute-tax-filing/">eight hours</a> to file a tax return. In Estonia, it takes just five minutes. In the UK, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn">billions of pounds</a> have been spent on IT, yet the NHS <a href="https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/interoperability-also-posing-big-challenges-uk">still struggles</a> to make patient data accessible across different health boards. In Estonia, despite having multiple private health service providers, doctors can collate and visualise patient records whenever and wherever necessary, with consent from patients – <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/estonia-coronavirus">a real boon</a> in the country’s fight against coronavirus.</p>
<p>Branding itself the first “digital republic” in the world, Estonia has digitised 99% of its public services. And, in an era when trust in public services are <a href="https://www.edelman.com/research/2017-edelman-trust-barometer">declining</a> across the globe, Estonia persistently achieves one of the highest ratings of <a href="https://www.baltictimes.com/estonians__trust_in_parliament__government_much_higher_than_eu_average/">trust in government</a> in the EU. The Estonian government claims that this digitisation of public services saves more than 1,400 years of working time and 2% of its GDP <a href="https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/legal/tech/assets/estonia-the-digital-republic-secured-by-blockchain.pdf">annually</a>.</p>
<h2>The tiger leap</h2>
<p>The foundation of this digital republic dates back to 1997, a time when only <a href="https://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm">1.7%</a> of world population had internet access, a start-up called Google had just registered its domain name and British prime minister John Major was celebrating the launch of 10 Downing Street’s official website. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the government of the newly formed state of Estonia envisaged the creation of a digital society, where all citizens would be technologically literate and governance would be paperless, decentralised, transparent, efficient and equitable. The young post-Soviet government decided to ditch all communist-era legacy technologies and inefficient public service structure. </p>
<p>In a radical move, the government – which had an average age of 35 – also decided not to embrace western technologies. Neighbouring Finland offered an analogue telephone exchange as a gift and the Estonian government declined, envisaging communicating over the internet rather than analogue telephone. </p>
<p>The government of Estonia launched a project called <em>Tiigrihüpe</em> (Tiger Leap) in 1997, investing heavily in development and the expansion of internet networks and computer literacy. Within a year of its inception almost all (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/15/estonia-ussr-shadow-internet-titan">97%</a>) of Estonian schools had internet access and by 2000, Estonia was the first country to pass <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/06/united-nations-declares-internet-access-a-basic-human-right/239911/">legislation</a> declaring access to the internet a basic human right. Free wi-fi hotspots started being built in 2001, and now cover almost all populated areas of the country.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FGLbt6uGvC8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The government also understood that, in order to create a knowledge based society, information needs to be shared efficiently while maintaining privacy. This was a radical understanding, even in the context of today, when for most countries, data sharing among different organisations’ databases is still limited. It is predicted that by 2022, <a href="https://www.pwc.in/assets/pdfs/consulting/cyber-security/data-privacy/dark-data-discovery-and-its-importance-in-data-protection.pdf">93%</a> of the world’s total data collected or stored will be such “dark” or siloed data. </p>
<p>Two decades ago, in 2001, Estonia created an anti-silo data management system called <a href="https://x-road.global/xroad-history">X-Road</a> through which public and private organisations can share data securely while maintaining data privacy through cryptography. Initially developed by Estonia, the project is now a <a href="https://x-road.global/xroad-history">joint collaboration</a> between Estonia and Finland.</p>
<p>A large number of Estonian government and financial institutions using X-Road came under cyber-attack from Russian IP addresses in <a href="https://e-estonia.com/estonia-to-open-the-worlds-first-data-embassy-in-luxembourg/">2007</a>. This attack made clear how vulnerable centralised data management systems are, and so Estonia required a distributed technology that is resistant to cyber-attack. Addressing this need, in 2012 Estonia became the first country to use <a href="https://e-estonia.com/solutions/security-and-safety/ksi-blockchain/">blockchain technology</a> for governance.</p>
<h2>Blockchain governance</h2>
<p>Distributed ledger technology, commonly known as blockchain, is the underpinning technology of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The technology has moved on significantly since its inception in 2009 and is now used for a variety of applications, from supply chains to fighting <a href="https://www.provenance.org/news/movement/traceability-versus-transparency-whats-the-difference-and-which-one-should-my-brand-be-focused-on">injustice</a>.</p>
<p>Blockchain is an open-source distributed ledger or database system in which an updated copy of the records is available to all stakeholders at all times. Due to this distributed nature, it is almost impossible for a single person or company to hack everybody’s ledger, ensuring security against cyberattacks.</p>
<p>Deploying blockchain technology not only ensures protection against any future attacks, but also poses many other benefits to Estonians. For example, in most countries citizens have to fill in many different forms with the same personal information (name, address) when they need to access public services from different government agencies. In Estonia, citizens only need to input their personal information once: the blockchain system enables the relevant data to be immediately accessible to the required department.</p>
<p>This might scare people worried about data privacy. But citizens, not the government, own their personal data in Estonia. Citizens have a digital ID card and approve which part of their information can be reused by which public service. Estonians know that even government officials can’t access their personal data beyond what is approved by them for the required public service. Any unauthorised attempt to access personal data will be identified as invalid: indeed, it is a criminal offence in Estonia for officials to gain unauthorised access to personal data. This transfer of ownership and control of personal data to individuals is facilitated by blockchain technology.</p>
<p>This should be an inspiration for the rest of the world. It is true that most countries do not have similar circumstances to post-Soviet Estonia when the Tiger Leap was introduced. But the same futuristic mindset is required to address the challenge of declining trust.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Minor amendments were made to this article on October 12 to make some of the context behind X-Road clearer.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Estonia has digitised 99% of its public services.Imtiaz Khan, Reader (Associate Professor) in Data Science, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityAli Shahaab, PhD Candidate, Distributed Ledgers / Blockchain Technology, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1396752020-08-09T08:14:21Z2020-08-09T08:14:21ZKenya is struggling to deliver justice online: what needs to be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351313/original/file-20200805-16-1abeuo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A volume of the Law of Kenya sits on a judge's desk during trial. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya <a href="https://www.judiciary.go.ke/press-statement-administrative-and-contingency-management-plan-to-mitigate-covid-19-in-kenyas-justice-sector/">ordered the closure</a> of courtrooms to the public in April in keeping with government measures to limit gatherings and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Chief Justice David Maraga highlighted the risk posed by heavy human traffic. He also <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Chief-Justice-Press-Statement-Administrative-and-contingency-management-plan-to-mitigate-COVID-19-in-Kenya%E2%80%99s-Justice-Sector.pdf">pleaded the case</a> that most judicial officers are older, and therefore fall into a more vulnerable category.</p>
<p>With judicial services scaled down, priority was given to applications that the courts deemed to be urgent. The immediate result was that those who couldn’t demonstrate urgency could not access the court system. Access to justice was also impeded by rolling curfews imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. </p>
<p>Nor was the limited <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Regulatory-operations-at-Milimani-Law-Courts.pdf">rollout</a> of information technology good enough. This led to the Law Society of Kenya immediately petitioning before court. It argued that courts offer a dispute resolution service to the public without discrimination. They must therefore operate uninterrupted so as to check against excesses by the executive and reinforce the principle that there is no temporary suspension of the rule of law and principle of legality. </p>
<p>To this end, the law society argued, legal services should be declared an essential service. </p>
<p>The court <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/caselaw/cases/view/193192/">ruled</a> in the society’s favour. The ruling meant that lawyers would have unrestricted movement to access clients and court services. They would also be able to traverse the country and access areas under lockdown.</p>
<p>As a result of the ruling <a href="https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2020/04/courts-to-scale-up-hearings-as-ncaj-orders-expeditious-arraignment-of-suspects">there was an increase</a> in the number of court sessions and tribunal hearings. Registry services also resumed. The justice council, led by the chief justice, also ordered the presentation of suspects in court within 24 hours of arrest as required by law. </p>
<p>But the question remains as to whether all Kenyans are now able to access justice as they did before the COVID-19 outbreak. Especially if we take into consideration that Kenya’s internet coverage is unevenly distributed. For Kenyans to access the judiciary, they need to be in a region where there is electricity and internet coverage. In the rural or upcountry areas, there is an <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/internet-access-how-rural-kenya-is-keeping-pace/a-47071209#:%7E:text=Kenyans%20are%20going%20online%20in,Internet%20penetration%20is%20at%2090%25.&text=Internet%20access%20and%20affordability%20remain,African%20Research%20in%20Community%20Health">issue</a> with the internet. Proper technology infrastructure should be installed to increase internet coverage. This infrastructure is paramount to improve access for Kenyans to the judiciary.</p>
<h2>Adoption of a digital judiciary</h2>
<p>The judiciary functions to safeguard the rule of law, equality and justice with minimal delay. It’s required to provide mechanisms for all the litigant classes to access its services. </p>
<p>The Kenyan judiciary has sought to address this partly by operating <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-05-07-kasarani-stadium-turned-into-court-90-charged-over-covid-19-offences/">temporary open-air courts</a> in strategic places where social distancing can be observed. </p>
<p>In July, the chief justice <a href="https://www.judiciary.go.ke/download/speech-by-cj-david-maraga-at-launch-of-judiciary-e-filing-system">launched</a> an e-filing system which enables litigants to file and track their cases. The judiciary also conducts virtual court sessions with prisoners through video link sessions for matters such as bail and plea taking.</p>
<p>Most proceedings are taking place on online platforms. Typically, court clerks send Skype, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams links for a court session to the parties involved. The litigants turn up at an appointed time and the application hearing takes place. In areas outside Nairobi metropolis, some courts are allocating litigants time slots to attend matters within the court premises. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic, higher courts, including the Supreme Court, had already put in place guidelines allowing for digital proceedings. The guidelines allow for the filing of applications and submissions via email and the judgement is posted to the participants.</p>
<p>But there are challenges. Most people do not have access to or <a href="https://www.judiciary.go.ke/e-filing-takes-shape-in-nairobi-courts/">familiarity with the technology</a> in use by the courts. Typically, one requires access to a computer, a good internet connection and electricity. Depending on location, these requirements <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001361388/report-says-one-in-five-kenyans-has-internet-access">disadvantage</a> a large number of people, especially in rural regions. </p>
<p>Self litigants are likely to face challenges with the new e-filing platform because the system is geared for represented litigants. The system requires one to register a case using a law firm or lawyer. The legal documents earlier prepared are uploaded and court filing fees paid. The litigant then awaits the activation of the court file to be granted court audience. This means that if litigants cannot find a lawyer or understand the legal terminologies, they won’t be able to access the judiciary.</p>
<p>All these could add to a huge judicial backlog. Currently, the earliest court dates for new hearings are available from 2021. Businesses that have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will not be able to receive relief soon and might lose hope in the judicial system. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>For the judiciary to become fully digital it needs an everyday court management system of judges. This would be supported by an electronic filing and court management system for judicial officers and litigants. Such a system must be user friendly to self-represented consumers.</p>
<p>Underpinning all these is an electronic filing system that safeguards against cyber attacks. This is the case in the <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/you-and-the-judiciary/going-to-court/high-court/the-rolls-building/e-filing/">UK</a> and the <a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/topics/e-filing">US</a>, where disputes can be settled online. They already have e-filing and case management systems that are efficient and well utilised with accountability and authenticity processes. </p>
<p>Kenya needs not just the necessary laws and regulations but the information and communication technology infrastructure. For example, there should be cyber security software and hardware free from software tagging. It also needs institutional capacity to monitor its use by litigants, the judiciary and the public prosecution office.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139675/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mercy Muendo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A great deal still needs to be done to ensure that Kenyans have proper access to the justice system.Mercy Muendo, Lecturer, Information Technology and the Law, Daystar UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1394982020-06-14T08:14:06Z2020-06-14T08:14:06ZWhy it’s time for adults to accept that Nigerian teenagers have a digital life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340972/original/file-20200610-34696-aadzuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian teenagers need knowledgeable digital mentors and coaches.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/schoolchildren-in-lagos-island-on-march-10-2016-in-lagos-news-photo/646158384?adppopup=true">Frederic Soltan/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>All over the world, the reach of digital technology is <a href="https://thenextweb.com/podium/2020/01/30/digital-trends-2020-every-single-stat-you-need-to-know-about-the-internet/">growing</a> at an extraordinary rate, even in developing countries. Young people are growing up in an environment ruled by digital devices, the internet and social media. </p>
<p>Research <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/62130/1/Livingstone_Global_Research_Agenda_Childrens_Right_Digital_Age.pdf">evidence</a> indicates that using the internet and other technologies such as video games and computers has become a daily routine for many children and adolescents from high-income to low-income countries. The United Nations Children’s Fund <a href="https://www.unicef.org/publications/index_101992.html">reports</a> that children are accessing the internet at increasingly younger ages, and that smartphones are young people’s gadget of choice. Phones guarantee easy online access and are more private.</p>
<p>In the global South, there is a <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/83753/">deficiency in research</a> focusing on the impact of technology on young people’s everyday life. The research gap needs to be filled to inform policies, education and programmes. Technology can either support young people’s education and socialisation or pose some risks to their well-being.</p>
<p>Nigeria is one of the African countries in which the internet and digital media penetration has been increasing in leaps. The country accounts for close to 30% of internet penetration in Africa. According to a global digital <a href="https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019">report</a>, there were 85 million internet users in Nigeria as at January 2020. Although an <a href="https://www.ncc.gov.ng/docman-main/industry-statistics/policies-reports/883-national-digital-economy-policy-and-strategy/file">estimated</a> 60% of the population is made up of young people, there is little known about how they use digital technology every day.</p>
<p>My three-year <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/31316">study</a> of rural and urban teenagers in Nigeria aimed to investigate how they access, understand, work and play with the digital technologies that are available to them. The study also paid attention to the contextual factors and digital gatekeepers in the children’s lives, including parents, guardians and teachers. </p>
<p>The fieldwork was conducted from 2017 with schoolchildren aged 13 to 18 in mostly public schools in the South East and North Central parts of the country. A total of 175 schoolchildren took part in focus group interviews and 430 participated in a survey.</p>
<p>I took a child-centred approach, relying on the children’s voices and views alone. <a href="https://www.ssrc.org/publications/view/makers-breakers-children-youth-in-postcolonial-africa/">In Africa</a>, young people make up the majority of the population, yet their views are rarely heard and taken seriously by adults. The consequence is that they continue to be viewed as vulnerable and disruptive. They grow up in social systems that do not value what they have to contribute to their own well-being.</p>
<h2>Children’s access to digital technology</h2>
<p>My study found that a growing number of Nigerian teens have access to digital technologies, particularly mobile phones and the mobile internet. Two-thirds (63.7%) of mostly 14 to 18 year olds in peri-urban and urban centres owned mobile phones of their own. Others had access to a shared smartphone or a simple feature phone through their siblings and friends. About 57% of the respondents had their phones bought for them by parents and guardians; others by relatives such as older siblings. Still, 23% bought phones with personal savings. Almost 60% had internet-enabled phones. </p>
<p>A significant number of the respondents (30.9%) reported relying on their personal money for airtime and internet data bundles. Two-thirds (66%) used mobile phones for between one and five hours a day whenever they could.</p>
<p>The young people’s expertise with the use of mobile phones and the internet is somewhere in between the “dabblers” and the “proficients” – borrowing from a <a href="https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/A_Private_Public_Voices_of_Youth_Kenya_study.pdf">study by UNICEF</a> of young people in Kenya. </p>
<p>The use of and access to other digital devices such as computers, laptops and tablets was very low. The teens rely instead on mobile phones for connecting with their friends and peers, meeting new people, doing school assignments, and finding information. Technology also helps them to relieve boredom and stress. </p>
<h2>Impediments to effective digital participation</h2>
<p>Despite the presence and potential impact of technology in their lives, the children’s digital practices are hampered by a lack of proper support from their homes and in school. The adults in their lives control their use of technology very strictly, and both the teens and these adults lack the skills and literacy needed to navigate potential risks. From my analysis, this increases the risk of access to pornography, meeting strangers online and offline, and identity crisis, as reported by the children.</p>
<p>The children reported having to deal with authoritarian parents and teachers who say that technology is bad for them.</p>
<p>I found some teenagers develop “technophobia” as a result of constant negativity around technology. They lack knowledgeable digital mentors and coaches. They are not taught what they need to know to be safe and how to take advantage of digital opportunities necessary for their development. </p>
<p>They also complained about the high cost of devices, data and airtime, limited power supply, and lack of government intervention to provide digital infrastructure and opportunity.</p>
<h2>What needs to change and why</h2>
<p>Effective teaching of digital skills and issues surrounding the digital life must be prioritised. Government, families and schools must come to terms with the fact that digital technologies have come to stay. People who need to educate the children must be taught and trained as well.</p>
<p>There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/nigeria-can-equip-every-child-with-basic-digital-skills-if-it-takes-three-simple-steps-133086">evidence</a> that schools in Nigeria lack the curriculum necessary to expose children to digital skills, information literacy and opportunity. Until such measures are in place, other concerns such as protecting children’s online rights, safety, privacy and well-being will remain un-addressed.</p>
<p>To navigate the complications of digital life, adults and young people must collaborate because young people’s opinions matter and many are proving to be “experts” in their own digital lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria must give more attention to teaching of digital skills and issues surrounding digital life as digital technologies have come to stay.Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275012020-01-01T21:03:22Z2020-01-01T21:03:22ZA month at sea with no technology taught me how to steal my life back from my phone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307034/original/file-20191216-124022-gd83ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C26%2C5835%2C3858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The time we invest in our digital lives is time we don’t get back. But, it's not impossible to knock your digital-dependance - and the holidays are the best time to start.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/industrial-port-containers-logistic-concept-313491500?src=775347ef-5dc6-447c-a084-27f7026c33eb-1-39&studio=1">SHUTTERSTOCK</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A survey this year revealed that Australians, on average, spend <a href="https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2019/02/digital-report-australia">10.2 hours</a> a day with interactive digital technologies. And this figure goes up every year.</p>
<p>This is time we don’t get back. And our analogue lives, which include everything not digital, shrink in direct proportion.</p>
<p>I recently decided to spend four weeks at sea without access to my phone or the internet, and here’s what I learnt about myself, and the digital rat race I was caught in.</p>
<h2>Cold turkey</h2>
<p>Until a year or so ago, I was a 10.2 hours a day person. Over the years, dependence on technology and stress had destroyed any semblance of balance in my life – between work and home, or pleasure and obligation.</p>
<p>I wanted to quit, or cut down, at least. Tech “detox” apps such as the time-limiting <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/17/17870126/ios-12-screen-time-app-limits-downtime-features-how-to-use">Screen Time</a> were useless. Even with these, I was still “on”, and just a click away from unblocking Instagram. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-of-us-are-opting-for-digital-detox-holidays-99740">More of us are opting for 'digital detox' holidays</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So I thought: what about going cold turkey? No screen time at all, 24/7. Was that possible, and what would it feel like? </p>
<p>My commute to work passed the Footscray docks, where container-ships come and go. Passing one day, I wondered if it was possible to go on one of those ships and travel from Melbourne to … somewhere? </p>
<p>Turns out it was. You can book a cabin online and just go. And in what was probably an impulse, I went. </p>
<p>For about four weeks I had no devices, as I sailed solo from <a href="http://www.cma-cgm.com/products-services/line-services/Flyer/AAXANL">West Melbourne to Singapore</a>. </p>
<p>I wanted to experiment, to see what it felt like to take a digital detox, and whether I could change my habits when I returned home. </p>
<h2>What I learnt</h2>
<p>Cold turkey withdrawal is difficult. Even in prison, <a href="https://aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi560">many inmates have access of some kind of device</a>.</p>
<p>The time on that ship taught me there is a whole other side to life, the non-digital side, that gets pushed aside by the ubiquitous screen. </p>
<p>Real life contains people, conversations, flesh and textures that are not glass or plastic. </p>
<p>It also contains whole worlds that exist inside your head, and these can be summoned when we have the time, and devote a bit of effort to it. </p>
<p>These are worlds of memory and imagination. Worlds of reflection and thought. Worlds you see differently to the pallid glare of a screen.</p>
<p>I took four books with me and read them in a way I hadn’t before: slower, deeper and with more contemplation. The words were finite (and therefore precious). </p>
<p>I’d never spent time like this in my whole life, and was inspired to write about it in <a href="https://grattanstreetpress.com/new-releases/">detail</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/waiting-rediscovering-boredom-in-the-age-of-the-smartphone-83207">Waiting: rediscovering boredom in the age of the smartphone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of course, we all have our own commitments and can’t always do something like this. </p>
<p>But away from the screen, I learned a lot about our digital world and about myself, and have tried to adapt these lessons to “normal” life. </p>
<p>Since I’ve been back, it feels like some sense of balance has been restored. Part of this came from seeing the smartphone as a slightly alien thing (which it is). </p>
<p>And instead of being something that always prompts me, I flipped the power dynamic around, to make it something I choose to use - and choose when to use. Meaning sometimes it’s OK to leave it at home, or switch it off.</p>
<p>If you can persist with these little changes, you might find even when you have your phone in your pocket, you can go hours without thinking about it. Hours spent doing precious, finite, analogue things. </p>
<h2>How to get started</h2>
<p>You could begin by deleting most of your apps. </p>
<p>You’ll be surprised by how many you won’t miss. Then, slowly flip the power dynamic between you and your device around. Put it in a drawer once a week - for a morning, then for a day - increasing this over time. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-you-zombie-check-your-phone-how-new-tools-can-help-you-control-technology-over-use-103042">Do you 'zombie check' your phone? How new tools can help you control technology over-use</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If this sounds a bit like commercial digital detox self-care, then so be it. But this is minus the self-care gurus and websites. Forget those. </p>
<p>No one (and no app) is really going to help you take back your agency. You need to do it yourself, or organise it with friends. Perhaps try seeing who can go the furthest. </p>
<p>After a few weeks, you might reflect on how it feels: what’s the texture of the analogue world you got back? Because, more likely than not, you will get it back.</p>
<p>For some, it might be a quieter and more subjective pre-digital world they half remember. </p>
<p>For others, it might be something quite new, which maybe feels a bit like freedom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hassan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the head of a media and communications program, my life’s digital-analogue balance was off. Four weeks at sea with no devices refocussed my views – even on things that had been there all along.Robert Hassan, Professor, School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1273662019-12-08T07:15:26Z2019-12-08T07:15:26ZKenya’s tax on digital trade and services: what’s known and not known<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305134/original/file-20191204-70101-8jehr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital traders will not escape taxation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Create Jobs 51/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya will start levying new tax on digital markets <a href="https://www.rsm.global/kenya/insights/tax-insights/kenya-finance-act-2019">under a new law</a> signed by the president early in November. The Finance Act seeks to broaden the Income Tax Act net to include income accruing through a digital market place. The law <a href="http://www.kpda.or.ke/documents/Policies/Finance%20Bill%202019.pdf">defines</a> the digital marketplace as</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a platform that enables direct interactions between buyers and sellers of goods and services through electronic means</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition, a similar change has been made to the <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/AmendmentActs/2019/FinanceAct_No23of2019.PDF">VAT Act</a> making digital market services subject to value-added tax.</p>
<p>It’s not clear yet who will be affected – or how the tax will be imposed. The treasury still has to issue new guidelines on how the tax will be implemented. But it appears that potential targets include online taxi-hailing platforms. If experiences elsewhere are anything to go by, Kenya’s move to tax online commerce could put it on a collision path with Western governments and multinationals. One of the market leaders – Uber – has already <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/companies/Uber-seeks-clarity-on-taxing-online-firms/4003102-5256592-kdrbuyz/index.html">warned</a> the government that such a move could result in trade wars and retaliatory tax actions by the US.</p>
<h2>Taking on giants</h2>
<p>Like France and India before it, Kenya is trying to get its cut of every digital transaction within its territory. The argument is that it is only fair to <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/companies/Uber--Bolt-owners-and-drivers-face-KRA-tax-bills/4003102-5233472-154si91z/index.html">tap into the revenue</a> accrued from the digital economy taking place within their territory. Companies registered elsewhere and operating in their territory earn income from the same but do not pay taxes, the argument goes.</p>
<p>But this is easier said than done. In 2016 India <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/google-facebook-twitter-may-be-affected-framework-to-tax-big-tech-companies-being-finalised/articleshow/70458378.cms?utm_source=twitter_app&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=socialsharebuttons">imposed digital taxes</a> on technology companies involved in digital advertising. In 2018 the country introduced a provision requiring companies to pay tax on domestic income accrued from a digital platform. The provision requires non-resident big tech companies to pay direct taxes on domestically earned income.</p>
<p>In retaliation, the US conducted an inquiry and capped the number of <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visa-and-immigration/trump-administration-to-propose-major-changes-in-h-1b-visas/articleshow/66269711.cms?from=mdr">Indian foreign workers</a>. The move was detrimental to India.</p>
<p>Earlier this year France imposed a digital tax on big tech multinational companies. It required them <a href="https://home.kpmg/us/en/home/insights/2019/07/tnf-france-digital-services-tax-enacted.html">to pay a 3% tax</a> on total annual revenue generated . This sparked <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/03/nato-trump-europe-trade-war-digital-tax-google/">a trade war with the US</a> which saw this as double taxation of its companies and their partners. But two months later, the two countries agreed on a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/26/us-and-france-reach-a-compromise-on-frances-tax-on-tech-giants/">compromise</a>. France said it <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/11/20690253/france-digital-services-tax-google-facebook-tech-companies">would tax big tech companies</a> but scrap the tax as soon as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development comes up with a way to properly tax tech companies. And it agreed to refund any over-payments that might occur in the meantime.</p>
<h2>OECD’s proposed model</h2>
<p>The OECD is an <a href="http://www.oecd.org/">intergovernmental economic organisation</a>, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Countries use its model convention on taxation as a template for allocating taxation rights between them. </p>
<p>The model allocates the primary right to tax to the country from which capital originates (the home, or resident country) rather than the country in which the investment is made (the host, or source country). </p>
<p>Challenges arise when two or more countries claim rights to tax a party – what’s known as double taxation. The OECD has tried to get states to agree on a harmonised form of tax and processes in the case of cross border transactions. Its convention addresses double taxation – but not conclusively. And when e-commerce took root, new challenges arose, including jurisdiction issues, conflict of laws among nations and double taxation. </p>
<p>On top of this, easy loopholes developed that helped in tax evasion especially by companies dealing with intangible goods and services.</p>
<p>The OECD agreement proposed the concept of significant economic presence. This states that a non-resident is liable to tax in the country of sales even if the taxpayer has no fixed place of business within the geographic boundary of the country of sales. </p>
<p>In the case of the European Union tax kicks in if:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The non-resident exceeds €7 million in annual revenues from digital services in a European Union member state, and </p></li>
<li><p>it has more than 100,000 users who access its digital services in a member state in a tax year, or </p></li>
<li><p>it enters into more than 3,000 business contracts for digital services in a member state in a tax year. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The other proposal is described as an “interim” 3% digital services tax on gross revenues derived from activities in which users are deemed to play a major role in value creation.</p>
<h2>Jurisdiction challenges</h2>
<p>The United States exercises personal and territorial jurisdiction which can be termed as the <a href="https://www.usa.gov/taxes">legal power and authority</a> by a state to impose a tax. </p>
<p>The US relies on the OECD model law requirements to exercise jurisdiction on a tax subject that has physical offices within a region. If the company is not incorporated – or has no physical office – the government gains territorial jurisdiction by establishing substantial minimum contracts with the state. Minimum contacts include systematic and continuous action within the state. Such action results in a large volume of interstate business, in the course of which subject received benefits and protection of the <a href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-int-l-shoe-co-v-washington">laws of the state</a>.</p>
<p>India’s rules on jurisdiction are similar. It claims to acquire authority over a subject through territorial and personal jurisdiction. It introduced a digital tax known as a<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/google-and-other-digital-service-providers-generate-over-rs-560-cr-in-equalisation-levy/articleshow/63933584.cms?from=mdr">n equalisation levy in 2016</a>. This imposed a levy on any business to business transactions, including the digital advertising transactions famously known as the Google tax.</p>
<p>It has also introduced another digital tax similar to the OECD proposed model. And it has released guidelines on what constitutes a significant economic presence similar to the OECD’s proposals. It used this law to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/itat-gives-partial-reprieve-to-uber-in-tax-demand-case/articleshow/66155341.cms?from=mdr">sue</a> Uber for failure to comply with the taxation law.</p>
<p>Kenya might trigger a trade war with the US if it goes ahead and imposes a digital tax. But it would be complying with the international guidelines proposed by the OECD. </p>
<p>In my view it should come up with guidelines that bring about clarity on exactly who and what is been targeted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mercy Muendo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Digital transactions generate massive amounts of revenue and the Kenyan government wants to ensure that online traders pay their fair share of taxes.Mercy Muendo, Lecturer, Information Technology and the Law, Daystar UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1227242019-09-10T07:30:59Z2019-09-10T07:30:59ZIndonesia needs a digital affairs ministry. Here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290915/original/file-20190904-175682-9kun1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Internet issues in Indonesia need to be tackled.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sascha Steinbach/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo plans to <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/08/14/new-cabinet-fresh-effort-to-jack-up-economy.html">overhaul</a> his cabinet ahead of his second term. This includes setting up a new ministry to oversee the digital and creative economy.</p>
<p>Indonesia is not alone in planning to establish a dedicated digital ministry. African countries, like Benin, Mali, Togo and Ivory Coast, <a href="http://cfds.fisipol.ugm.ac.id/publications/3-2230">are doing the same</a>. </p>
<p>Indonesia will be following in the footsteps of <a href="http://cfds.fisipol.ugm.ac.id/publications/3-2230">industrially advanced countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Greece, Russia and Poland</a> that already have digital affairs ministries. </p>
<p>Indonesia needs a ministry for digital affairs for several reasons. We argue that the following are the main ones.</p>
<h2>Internet user numbers are increasing …</h2>
<p>Indonesia has <a href="https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019">the world’s fifth-highest number of internet users</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019">Indonesian</a> internet users increased from 132.7 million to 150 million last year. During the same period, the number of social media users grew from 130 million to 150 million while the number accessing social media via mobile increased from 120 million to 130 million.</p>
<p>Management consulting firm McKinsey <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/%7E/media/McKinsey/Locations/Asia/Indonesia/Our%20Insights/Unlocking%20Indonesias%20digital%20opportunity/Unlocking_Indonesias_digital_opportunity.ashx">predicted</a> that if Indonesia embraces digitalisation its economy can grow by US$150 billion – 10% of its Gross Domestic Product – by 2025. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/co-working-space-mendorong-inovasi-dan-kesenjangan-digital-90826">Co-working space mendorong inovasi—dan kesenjangan digital</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>… and so are problems</h2>
<p>Cybercrimes, from the proliferation of malware and online fraud to pornography, are rampant and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/trensosial-43368591">little effort</a> has been made to address them.</p>
<p>Indonesia also suffers from a digital talent gap: not enough people have the digital work skills to meet the demand from the labour market. </p>
<p>Indonesia’s Communication and Information Technology Ministry said the country <a href="https://www.antaranews.com/berita/853272/kominfo-indonesia-butuh-650-ribu-digital-talent-tiap-tahun">would require</a> 650,000 digitally skilled talents each year. Thus, between 2015 and 2030, there will be a shortfall of 9 million digital talents.</p>
<p>The country is also struggling with a lack of technological development. </p>
<p>Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) business education school <a href="https://www.imd.org/wcc/world-competitiveness-center-rankings/world-competitiveness-ranking-2019/">ranked</a> Indonesia 59th out of 63 countries in the development of technology in its 2018 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking.</p>
<p>Another issue is the need to govern cyberspace. After the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/christchurch-shooting">deadly mosque shootings</a> in Christchurch, in which the killing of 51 people was streamed live online as well as shared thousands of times, the international community is trying to regulate cyberspace. </p>
<p>The first attempt was through the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/13/christchurch-call-details-emerge-of-arderns-plan-to-tackle-online-extremism">Christchurch Call</a>. This initiative calls on signatory nations to adopt and enforce laws that ban the spread of violent content and set guidelines on how traditional media can disseminate such information. </p>
<p>As Indonesia recently signed the pledge, the country is expected to have capable representatives in the respective field to preserve its national interest. </p>
<p>A digital affairs ministry can assist the Indonesian government in addressing the issues above.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/era-baru-diplomasi-digital-dan-mengapa-indonesia-harus-menyambutnya-90128">Era baru diplomasi digital dan mengapa Indonesia harus menyambutnya?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Indonesia lacks comprehensive internet governance</h2>
<p>Indonesia does not have an integrated digital strategy on internet governance.
The UN’s Working Group on Internet Governance defines <a href="https://www.wgig.org/docs/WGIGREPORT.pdf">internet governance</a> as the development and application of principles, norms, regulation and policymaking processes by the government and private sectors to govern the digital sector. </p>
<p>Indonesia has 34 ministries, but very few of them are addressing digital issues. </p>
<p>The few initiatives that exist, such as the Ministry of Industry’s <a href="https://kemenperin.go.id/artikel/18967/Making-Indonesia-4.0:-Strategi-RI-Masuki-Revolusi-Industri-Ke-4">Making Indonesia 4.0</a> and Communication and Information Technology Ministry’s <a href="https://digitalent.kominfo.go.id/">Digital Talent Scholarship</a>, have no coherence. This reflects the country’s unclear policy and management on digital issues. </p>
<p>Ministries have yet to consider digital transformation issues, such as the lack of digital talent in their sectors, as requiring special attention. </p>
<p>This has resulted in several ministerial-level issues, e.g. <a href="https://theconversation.com/kasus-data-dukcapil-pelajaran-terkait-privasi-dan-data-pribadi-di-indonesia-121264">personal data protection</a>, that have been left unattended, or, when they are attended, are done poorly. </p>
<p>Indeed, the Communication and Information Technology Ministry has tried to address these issues by establishing the Directorate General of Information Applications.</p>
<p>However, the directorate general has only focused on <a href="https://aptika.kominfo.go.id/profil/tugas-dan-fungsi/">regulating</a> the dissemination of information, data privacy and issues related to the use of e-commerce platforms. Its focus is on regulation issues and the building of communication infrastructure.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, other institutions focus on supervising digital economy sectors. These include the Financial Services Authority. This body handles fraud in financial technology (fintech) business by issuing its <a href="https://www.ojk.go.id/id/regulasi/Documents/Pages/Inovasi-Keuangan-Digital-di-Sektor-Jasa-Keuangan/pojk%2013-2018.pdf">own regulation</a> on digital financing innovation. </p>
<p>A future digital affairs ministry should cater to issues beyond the above. </p>
<p>It may address sidelined issues, such as the availability of digitally skilled workers, national capability and cybersecurity frameworks, and digital governance. </p>
<p>It can also present itself as an enabler for other ministries to develop and implement their policies on digital issues by playing a consultancy role. </p>
<p>If Indonesia can tap into the growing potential of digitalisation and tackle mounting issues, it may reap the perks of digital transformation – increased goods production and ease of communication, among others – without having to worry about the risks, including those around an unskilled workforce and personal data security.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jokowi-menang-dalam-hitungan-cepat-ini-tantangan-ekonomi-untuk-lima-tahun-ke-depan-115638">Jokowi menang dalam hitungan cepat, ini tantangan ekonomi untuk lima tahun ke depan</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anisa Pratita Kirana Mantovani terafiliasi dengan Center for Digital Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janitra Haryanto terafiliasi dengan Center for Digital Society (CfDS) UGM. </span></em></p>Indonesia needs a digital affairs ministry if it wants to tap growing potential and tackle mounting issues.Anisa Pratita Kirana Mantovani, Researcher & Research Manager at Research Division Center for Digital Society, Universitas Gadjah Mada Janitra Haryanto, Project Officer, Research Division, Center for Digital Society, Universitas Gadjah Mada Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1111322019-03-27T16:39:20Z2019-03-27T16:39:20ZNew focus on the foundations of the UK’s economy might help poorest regions post-Brexit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265640/original/file-20190325-36252-z813hv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oldham, Greater Manchester, is one of the UK's most deprived places.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-oldham-skyline-1297347865">Neil Mitchell/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among all the uncertainty Brexit is causing, concerns have arisen over the potential fuel it is adding to the <a href="https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/media/mmuacuk/content/documents/business-school/future-economies/WHAT_IND-STRAT___BERRY_NOV18.pdf">pertinent problem of inequality</a>. There is <a href="https://blog.bham.ac.uk/cityredi/the-implications-of-brexit-for-the-uks-regions/">mounting evidence</a> that post-Brexit, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2018/sep/05/qa-how-unequal-is-britain-and-are-the-poor-getting-poorer">economic and social disparities</a> between the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330949777_Interregional_inequalities_and_UK_sub-national_governance_responses_to_Brexit">stronger and weaker UK regions</a> will widen.</p>
<p>Looking at a number of potential scenarios, estimates suggest that the poorest regions could be between <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00343404.2017.1287350?journalCode=cres20">20% to 60% more exposed to the economic risks than London</a>. Wales and the north-east are among the <a href="https://www.ippr.org/files/2019-02/1551278444_regional-policy-post-brexitfeb19.pdf">regions most likely to be affected</a> because they rely so heavily on exporting food and goods to Europe. </p>
<p>But while leaving the EU may be inevitable, the people and sectors in these regions needn’t be left behind. Moves are now being made to work out how to support these local economies nationally. While attracting new business to different regions is important, policy makers and established businesses are also looking at how supporting the basics of the country’s economy – formed from things like utility networks, food and health services – could protect these areas from economic problems after Brexit.</p>
<p>Known as the foundational economy, these “basics” are all the goods and services that provide the <a href="https://foundationaleconomy.com/cresc/">social and material infrastructure for society</a>. That includes the provision of primary resources (for example, health services, care and education) as well as the infrastructure that allows society to function (utility networks, pipes, telecommunications, broadband), and everyday, largely essential, consumption activities (food, tourism, hospitality, retail). Together these three components currently employ 63.8% (17.6%, 26.2% and 20% respectively) <a href="https://www2.mmu.ac.uk/media/mmuacuk/content/documents/business-school/future-economies/WHAT_IND-STRAT___BERRY_NOV18.pdf">of all UK employees</a>. They account for up to <a href="http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/cresc/workingpapers/wp131.pdf">30% of weekly household expenditure</a>. While a large part of the economy, these sectors often get ignored in favour of high value activities such as financial services, advanced manufacturing and life sciences.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258476/original/file-20190212-174890-6u2no0.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The foundational economy encompasses a range of different areas, as shown above.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Traditionally, public policy has most overlooked the foundational economy. In part this was because of its <a href="https://www.bevanfoundation.org/commentary/wales_foundational_economy/">low wage, low skilled and perceived low value composition</a>. Yet it is largely local and rarely bought or sold outside of the UK - meaning the sectors are <a href="http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/cresc/workingpapers/wp131.pdf">resilient to economic shocks</a> like Brexit. When measuring the economic impacts of the UK leaving the EU, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00343404.2017.1287350?journalCode=cres20">predictions are being made based on dependency on EU trade</a>. Since foundational sectors are less impacted by imports and exports it is hoped that they might provide some relief during the transition. </p>
<h2>Emerging policy</h2>
<p>Policy makers in Wales have already begun to adopt some foundational economy principles. The 2018 <a href="https://gov.wales/topics/businessandeconomy/economic-action-plan/?lang=en">Prosperity for All Economic Action Plan</a> incorporated four “foundation sectors”. These are tourism, retail, food and care. Building on this, in February 2019 the Welsh government released <a href="https://gov.wales/newsroom/businessandeconomy/2019/190215-1.5m-to-grow-the-foundations-of-wales-economy/?lang=en">£1.5 million</a> to fund experimental projects that challenge conventional ways of prompting productivity and growth in these sectors. Motivations for these changes include the need to deliver better jobs closer to home and spark regional economic development.</p>
<p>There are signs that the foundational economy is finding its way into the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/374425087/Rachel-Reeves-The-Everyday-Economy">UK’s political discussions</a> too. At a regional level, it is beginning to gain traction in the trailblazing <a href="https://www.lepnetwork.net/lep-activities/local-industrial-strategies/">local industrial strategies</a>. These place-based policies build upon the UK government’s move toward local approaches to industrial development and economic growth. The first draft of the <a href="https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/1134/nov_2018_consultation_document.pdf">Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s</a> strategy, for example, places the foundations of economy as one of its central objectives. </p>
<p>But while policy is certainly needed to encourage more focus on the foundational economy, it is not the only thing that will help it grow. Our own research, for example, shows that technology is vital to encourage development of these sectors. Technological innovations – including artificial intelligence, biotech, big data, cloud technology, internet of things, robotics and space technology – are already changing the way businesses operate. And while these developments are most celebrated in the high value parts of the economy, <a href="http://www.jeremymiles.cymru/en/keynote-speech-on-the-foundational-economy/">they can help the seemingly more everyday parts</a> too. </p>
<p>Though there will certainly be challenges, our early indications show that investing in technology that is supported by ultra fast fibre and mobile broadband technologies will make for <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1386522/New-Foundational-Economy_v9-LR-DH-NR.pdf">positive long-term incremental changes</a> across the foundational sectors. These include increased innovation, business efficiency and value for customers. </p>
<p>While a new focus on the foundational economy won’t solve all of the UK’s regional inequality problems after Brexit, encouraging growth in these sectors can help. But that is only so long as more policy is put in place to support this. The country will need to incorporate these often taken for granted products and services into national policy and practice. Only then can their value be truly realised, particularly in an uncertain political, economic and technological landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dylan Henderson received funding from the Superfast Broadband Business Exploitation Programme, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Reynolds received funding from the Superfast Broadband Business Exploitation Programme, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government.
More information on the programme is available at <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/superfast-broadband-project">https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/superfast-broadband-project</a>.</span></em></p>The foundational economy has largely been overlooked in public policy but it could provide shelter from the Brexit storm for the UK’s deprived regions.Dylan Henderson, Senior Research Fellow, Welsh Economy Research Unit, Cardiff UniversityLaura Reynolds, Policy and Data Analyst, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1125672019-03-05T19:57:30Z2019-03-05T19:57:30ZHigh-tech agriculture: farmers risk being ‘locked in’ to unsustainable practices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262172/original/file-20190305-48429-1v69cx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C43%2C1189%2C700&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two driverless tractors spray vines in a Texas vineyard. Each one is controlled from a single command station (2012).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Autonomous_compact_tractors_in_a_Texas_vineyard,_Nov_2012.jpg">ASIrobots/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since World War II, Europe’s agricultural sector has been very receptive to new technology, and the result has been staggering productivity gains – for four generations, farmers have produced more than their parents did. At the same time, however, agricultural prices have fallen around the world and price subsidies have been cut. This has led to a cruel paradox: while farmers have never produced so much, many can no longer make a living from farming.</p>
<h2>Digital technology is a big tent</h2>
<p>Digital approaches in farming are called “precision agriculture”, which aims to measure the needs of crops or livestock as precisely as possible to be able to apply “the right amount at the right time”. This has proven to be a valuable approach, particularly for crops, and has been driven by the development of embedded computing, GPS guidance and machine control interfaces.</p>
<p>The precision-agriculture approach can also help reduce inefficiencies and waste. For example, precision pesticide application methods can significantly reduce spray falling outside areas to be treated and thus the amount of pesticide entering the environment. In this way, sprayers can maintain treatment effectiveness while reducing application rates 20% to 40%.</p>
<p>However, precision agriculture does not call into question pesticide use. It works by refining current practices and does not encourage the exploration of alternatives. This is what scientists call “technological lock-in”, with precision approaches reinforcing pesticide use rather than eliminating it. This in no way prepares us for farming that is less reliant on pesticides – farmers become locked in.</p>
<p>Like digital approaches developed in other industrial sectors, those for farming tend to impose standardisation and optimisation under well-controlled conditions. The risk, therefore, is that digital technology could increase productivity but also cut employment in the sector, boost farm size, and deepen technological dependence, with <a href="http://new-compass.net/articles/why-competition-agriculture-unsustainable">relatively little positive impact on sustainability</a>.</p>
<h2>A different type of digital agriculture</h2>
<p>On the other hand, digital technology could also be used to empower those working together to improve farming practices, change regulations and influence markets, all built upon the real needs of individual farmers and society. By facilitating such cooperation at the national and multinational scale, digital technology would make it possible for farmers and the wider public to “have a say” in national farming issues. In bringing supply and demand closer together, collaborative digital farming would provide a framework for championing the interests of both producers and consumers, equitably.</p>
<p>In a context of increasing competition, this would protect rural employment, while assuring that agriculture is more widely valued, with farmers being seen as professionals. Existing cooperative approaches, such a local “box schemes”, contribute to this, but <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/farming/life-on-farms-is-shared-across-the-world-with-digital-technology-890341.html">digital technology would accelerate and extend this process</a>.</p>
<p>The potential of new digital technologies in agriculture is astonishing. Linking farmers digitally would allow them to organise and share equipment, facilitate the sharing or exchanging of fields and support alternative supply and production channels, as well as promoting solidarity. In short, collaborative digital technologies could promote aspects of social and environmental sustainability that the current form of the market neither recognises nor finances.</p>
<h2>What technology should be used for</h2>
<p>The current system will not change if we do not change the criteria we use for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-battle-for-the-future-of-farming-what-you-need-to-know-106805">evaluating its performance and the way it is managed</a>. We need to be clear as a society about what farming should do. To date, agriculture has been given goals that were not necessarily its own. Some have no direct market value, such as for the maintenance of common resources, including air and water. Others appear to have little immediate societal value, such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-carbon-farming-can-help-solve-climate-change-86087">storage of carbon to mitigate climate change</a>, or do not reward farmers for their efforts. As an example, the value of lavender fields for tourism and for the industry of honey-making exceeds the direct income from selling the lavender for cosmetic use, and yet the lavender farmer will often receive no extra income for supporting these other industries.</p>
<p>It can be argued that the competitiveness of European agriculture will not be achieved by a race for productivity, but rather by doing those things we do well and value that bit better. We need to recognise that agriculture has become much more than a means to produce food, fibre and fuel. It is, just as importantly, a context in which questions of animal welfare and the management of the countryside landscape and resources need to be addressed.</p>
<h2>The million-dollar question</h2>
<p>The processes that take place in the agricultural environment are highly dynamic, changing over seasons and between landscapes, determined by the quality of an animal’s or plant’s interaction with its environment, and this itself evolves over time.</p>
<p>To monitor or change how agricultural systems function, digital technology should be used to evaluate material and energy flows. Just as an industrial system or supply chain must maintain and regulate its proper functioning, agriculture must be able to quantify what constitutes appropriate functioning. At present, we are unable to carry out the measurements needed to support, maintain or even improve the functioning of the agro-ecosystem. The future development of new sensors will revolutionise animal and plant health management.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262215/original/file-20190305-48432-b6l76r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Australia, many farmers rely on large populations of feral European honeybees to polinate crops. These services, long undervalued, are now under threat. Here, Dr. Denis Anderson of CSIRO Entomology examines a cherry farm near Young, New South Wales (2007).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_6807_Dr_Denis_Anderson_of_CSIRO_Entomology_examining_in_a_hive_at_a_cherry_farm_near_Young_New_South_Wales.jpg">Nick Pitsas/CSIRO/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is possible to reduce this vision of digital technology to a simplistic level; that one sensor is used to measure a single variable, such as the weight of an animal. Our vision is that digital technology has the power to be transformative. Multiple sensors measuring multiple variables simultaneously could revolutionise the use of pesticides, for example, by quantifying the state of each field and the risk to human health that pesticides present. This might be by analysing sensor data with artificial intelligence to evaluate soil activity of both the pesticide and pesticide-detoxifying bacteria; estimating whether naturally present biological control agents have the capacity to protect the system from pests; and predicting when crop resistance to fungal pathogens is “switched on”. In effect, this would evaluate whether the system is resilient, being able to both to absorb shock and to rebound to a healthy state.</p>
<h2>High performance, not just high production</h2>
<p>The principle of pesticide-free agriculture must be at the heart of this future, digitally supported agricultural system. Simply characterising the performance of agriculture as one of a production system supported by pesticides will not deliver sustainability. Measures of system performance based on a single economic criterion do not reflect all the other dimensions of sustainability. Instead, digital technology must deliver a transition to a holistic appreciation of agriculture. It will allow us to appreciate aspects of the system that we know are critical but, due to poor measurement or recognition, we only notice once they are gone. Pollination by wild insects is an example of something farmers have, to date, received for free and so have undervalued. It is only now that we are discovering that these insects are in decline there are no longer enough to meet our needs.</p>
<p>Rather than locking in farmers to unsustainable, pesticide-based management, the agricultural digital revolution must show that there are other viable approaches and alternative measures of system performance. At a time when the European Union’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/cap-glance_en">common agricultural policy</a> and other global trade and agricultural agreements are being renegotiated, we must ensure that environmental sustainability and social justice – for both producers and consumers – are central to how performance is measured, and that they can’t just be sacrificed for a few more percentage points of productivity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Digital innovations have the potential to empower farmers and revolutionise agriculture, but many could also lock them in to unsustainable methods.Xavier Reboud, Chercheur en agroécologie, InraeDavid Bohan, Quantitative ecologist, InraeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/947372018-09-11T20:12:37Z2018-09-11T20:12:37ZDigital government isn’t working in the developing world. Here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220423/original/file-20180525-51115-10ceqsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital government is primarily a social and political phenomenon driven by human behaviour</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/globe-media-260290925?src=z_x1Ubl4p_etVg81xVcSbg-1-21">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The digital transformation of society has brought many immediate benefits: it’s created new jobs and services, boosted efficiency and promoted innovation. But when it comes to improving the way we govern, the story is not that simple.</p>
<p>It seems reasonable to imagine introducing digital information and communication technologies into public sector organisations – known as “digital government” or “e-government” – would <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X16302295">have a beneficial impact</a> on the way public services are delivered. For instance, by enabling people to claim rebates for medical bills via a government website. </p>
<p>When implemented well, <a href="http://www.infodev.org/articles/egovernment-handbook-developing-countries">e-government can</a> reduce the cost of delivering government and public services, and ensure better contact with citizens – especially in remote or less densely populated areas. It can also contribute to greater transparency and accountability in public decisions, stimulate the emergence of local e-cultures, and strengthen democracy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-e-estonia-the-tiny-nation-thats-leading-europe-in-digital-innovation-74446">Welcome to E-Estonia, the tiny nation that's leading Europe in digital innovation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But implementing e-government is difficult and uptake among citizens can be slow. While <a href="https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/Portals/egovkb/Documents/un/2018-Survey/E-Government%20Survey%202018_FINAL%20for%20web.pdf">Denmark</a> – the number one ranked country in online service delivery in 2018 – <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=tin00012&plugin=1">sees 89% of its citizens using e-services</a>, many other countries <a href="https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2018">are struggling</a>. In Egypt, for example, uptake of e-services is just <a href="http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/Portals/egovkb/Documents/un/2014-Survey/E-%20Gov%20Complete%20Survey-2014.pdf">2%</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233521/original/file-20180824-149487-1e0y9ww.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">E-Government Development Index (EGDI) of global regions in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2018">United Nations E-Government Survey 2018</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I argue the implementation of digital government is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X16302295">intractable problem</a> for developing countries. But there are small steps we can take right now to make the issues more manageable. </p>
<h2>Few digital government projects succeed</h2>
<p>The nature of government is complex and deeply rooted in the interactions among social, political, economic, organisational and global systems. At the same time, technology is itself a source of complexity – its impacts, benefits and limitations are not yet widely understood by stakeholders.</p>
<p>Given this complexity, it’s not uncommon for many digital government projects to fail, and not just in the developing world. In fact, 30% of projects are <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016">total failures</a>. Another 50-60% are partial failures, due to budget overruns and missed timing targets. Fewer than 20% are considered a success. </p>
<p>In 2016, government spending on technology worldwide was around US$430 billion, with a forecast of US$476 billion by 2020. Failure rates for these kinds of projects are therefore a <a href="https://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3360317">major concern</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s gone wrong in developing countries?</h2>
<p>A major factor contributing to the failure of most digital government efforts in developing countries has been the “project management” approach. For too long, government and donors saw the introduction of digital services as a stand-alone “technical engineering” problem, separate from government policy and internal government processes.</p>
<p>But while digital government has important technical aspects, it’s primarily a social and political phenomenon driven by human behaviour – and it’s specific to the local political and the country context. </p>
<p>Change therefore depends mainly upon “culture change” – a long and difficult process that requires public servants to engage with new technologies. They must also change the way they regard their jobs, their mission, their activities and their interaction with citizens.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/narendra-modi-indias-social-media-star-struggles-to-get-government-online-73656">Narendra Modi, India's social media star, struggles to get government online</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In developing countries, demand for e-services is lacking, both inside and outside the government. External demand from citizens is often silenced by popular cynicism about the public sector, and by inadequate channels for communicating demand. As a result, <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016">public sector</a> leaders feel too little pressure from citizens for change. </p>
<p>For example, Vietnam’s attempt in 2004 to <a href="https://www.openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26330">introduce an Education Management Information System</a> (EMIS) to track school attendance, among other things, was cancelled due to lack of buy-in from political leaders and senior officials.</p>
<p>Designing and managing a digital government program also requires a high level of administrative capacity. But developing countries most in need of digital government are also the ones with the least capacity to manage the process thus creating a risk of “administrative overload”. </p>
<h2>How can we start to solve this problem?</h2>
<p>Approaches to digital government in developing countries should emphasise the following elements.</p>
<h3>Local leadership and ownership</h3>
<p>In developing countries, most donor driven e-government projects attempt to transplant what was successful elsewhere, without adapting to the local culture, and without adequate support from those who might benefit from the service. </p>
<p>Of the roughly 530 information technology projects funded by the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016">World Bank</a> from 1995 to 2015, 27% were evaluated as moderately unsatisfactory or worse.</p>
<p>The swiftest solution for change is to ensure projects have buy-in from locals – both governments and citizens alike.</p>
<h3>Public sector reform</h3>
<p>Government policy, reflected in legislation, regulations and social programs, must be reformulated to adapt to new digital tools. </p>
<p>The success of digital government in Nordic countries results from extensive <a href="http://avdic.se/onewebmedia/ejeg-volume14-issue1-article441.pdf">public sector reforms</a>. In the United States, investments in information technology by police departments, which <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2016">lowered crime rates</a>, were powered by significant organisational changes.</p>
<p>In developing countries, little progress has been made in the last two decades in reforming the public sector.</p>
<h3>Accept that change will be slow</h3>
<p>Perhaps the most easily overlooked lesson about digital government is that it takes a long time to achieve the fundamental digitisation of a public sector. Many developing countries are attempting to achieve in the space of a few decades what took centuries in what is now the developed world. The Canadian International Development Agency <a href="http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan017800.pdf">found</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Great Britain, for example, it was only in 1854 that a series of reforms
was launched aimed at constructing a merit-based public service shaped by rule of law. It took a further 30 years to eliminate patronage as the modus operandi of public sector staffing.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-by-default-efficient-egovernment-or-costly-flop-26182">'Digital by default' – efficient eGovernment or costly flop?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Effective strategies for addressing the problem of e-government in developing countries should combine technical infrastructure with social, organisational and policy change. </p>
<p>The best way forward is to acknowledge the complexities inherent in digital government and to break them into more manageable components. At the same time, we must engage citizens and leaders alike to define social and economic values. </p>
<p>Local leaders in developing countries, and their donor partners, require a long-term perspective. Fundamental digital government reform demands sustained effort, commitment and leadership over many generations. Taking the long view is therefore an essential part of a global socio-economic plan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94737/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rania Fakhoury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Donor-driven e-government projects in developing countries often attempt to transplant what was successful elsewhere. But success requires buy-in from locals – both governments and citizens alike.Rania Fakhoury, Chercheur associé à LaRIFA, Université libanaiseLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/992022018-07-04T21:19:19Z2018-07-04T21:19:19ZHow fab labs help meet digital challenges in Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225604/original/file-20180701-117377-1qh8ygs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C1500%2C979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jerry-can computer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fab labs serve at the same time as production, creation and prototyping workshops, hands-on training spaces and facilitators of social ties. They contribute to reducing the traditional head-on opposition between “knowing” and “doing”.</p>
<p>The wave of fab labs came about in the United States in 1998, under the impetus of <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_gershenfeld_on_fab_labs">Neil Gerhenfeld</a>, professor at MIT. They are workshops designed to be open, shared and collaborative. Their objective is to provide a physical space comprising digital tools (laser cutters, 3D printers, etc.) for everyone to use, which allows an individual to create and invent. They therefore make it possible to design, prototype, build and test a wide variety of objects.</p>
<p>These spaces take on a particular meaning in Africa, where they are becoming relays for the development of educational Commons.</p>
<h2>The specificity of African fab labs: educational commons</h2>
<p>While Sub-Saharan countries have made huge strides in the development of their education systems, the fact that they initially lagged behind and have strong population growth mean that the region still has 50 million primary or secondary school-aged children not enrolled in school. In addition to these difficulties of access, there are the major challenges concerning the equity and quality of teaching given to students.</p>
<p>Sub-Saharan African fab labs offer a huge diversity, but they set educational objectives more clearly and more systematically than their counterparts in developed countries.</p>
<p>For example, many offer workshops, not only for children and teenagers, but also for students, to make up for the lack of equipment in universities, or for women, to facilitate their social and professional integration. Beyond the training aspect for the youngest in the rudiments of electronics or digital manufacturing, the educational project thereby aims to address local societal issues.</p>
<p>Sésamé Koffi Agodjinou, founder of <a href="https://www.woelabo.com/">WoeLab</a> in Togo, is an anthropologist who was trained as an architect. He sees fab labs as a way of working with citizens to rethink cities, which are usually designed only by urban planners. In line with the principles of vernacular architecture, and its vision of a city that is more of a village, the fab lab offers a space and moments to create social cohesion, and symbolically a new place of initiation for young people.</p>
<p>Guiako Obin, creator of <a href="http://www.baby-lab.org/">Babylab</a> in Côte d’Ivoire, chose an underprivileged neighbourhood of Abidjan, which suffers from poverty and insecurity, to install a fab lab and make it a driver for social transformation via education. In this way he also fights against idleness and delinquency among youth.</p>
<p>Finally, the <a href="http://www.blolab.org/">Blolab</a> in Bénin, created by Médard Agbayazon, has the objective of promoting digital literacy among young people and local professionals (artisans, farmers), as well as helping them build inexpensive, accessible and rapidly developed solutions. Here, the ingenuity of the fab lab community, inspired and supported by global informational resources, provides solutions tailored to local needs. For example, the lab has allowed the development of an application to report cases of gendered violence.</p>
<h2>Frugal and tinkered innovation central to the system</h2>
<p>With more than <a href="https://www.fablab.io/labs">40 spaces</a> created in the recent years, the vitality of this movement in Africa is confirmed. They all provide new spaces for innovation thanks, in difficult conditions, to the resourcefulness, creativity and strong will of its promoters.</p>
<p>In the workshop, the production itself also needs to cope with the challenges of the lack of available financial and material resources. Fab lab communities, which therefore have a frugal approach to innovation, make every effort to meet local needs with simple and customised solutions. They also use and contribute to online resources, whether for manuals, building instructions, communities of practice or even crowdfunding websites.</p>
<p>This is exemplified by the <a href="http://youandjerrycan.org/">Jerry Do-It-Together</a> initiative, which organises workshops to build Linux computers using recycled electronic components housed in a 20-liter jerrycan. Users, designers and hackers get together around Jerry computers to learn how digital technology is made and gear it to their needs.</p>
<p>The growing movement of African fab labs is also driven by a will to share knowledge and open up innovation: in Africa as elsewhere, they thereby call into question the usual production, education and intellectual property methods and, more generally, make us question the role of the citizen in economic and societal projects.</p>
<h2>In what way do these spaces constitute the Commons?</h2>
<p>Fab labs are entrepreneurial, associative, public or academic. They illustrate how the theory of the Commons can inspire production activities. Since the Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Elinor Ostrom in 2009 for her research, there has been an unprecedented enthusiasm for the Commons. It refers to the collective management of a resource by a community, which defines ad-hoc rules and sets up a governance structure allowing the distribution of rights and obligations and the resolution of conflicts.</p>
<p>The objective set by the community is central to what is done in common. In the case of a Commons structured around a natural resource, it often – but not always – involves preserving the quantity or quality of the resource. This definition inherited from traditional Commons (agriculture, herding, fishing) extends to a whole new generation of Commons, what we call the “informational” Commons, whose objective is rather to share, disseminate and enrich the good, along the principle of “additionality”.</p>
<p>Fab labs are drivers of these dynamics. Those physical spaces aim to develop digital knowledge, disseminate it, share it (within communities), and conserve it (on web libraries and platforms). It pools machines as well as experiences. It contributes to the accumulation of knowledge and the redistribution of this knowledge via training programs. Knowledge is consequently both a component of the fab lab, but also an objective.</p>
<p>They are spaces which are both part of a territory, but also of the many online communities (free and open-source software, <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a>, social networks). This duality of physical and digital communities leads to a two-pronged movement: a reterritorialisation, via a local use, of digital Commons developed on a global scale and, otherwise, a deterritorialisation of knowledge generated in fab labs for uses on a global scale.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This text is based on the working paper <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vvawhIISpiU8-_SiUCoAoADzn5maG_12/view">“From Informational Commons to Educational Commons: Fab labs in French-speaking Africa”</a>, co-authored by Stéphanie Leyronas, Isabelle Liotard and Gwenael Prié.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The Viva Tech Fair took place in May 2018 in Paris, showcasing innovation in Africa. The continent’s fablabs, driven by digital tools and collaborative dynamics, are shaking up traditional foundations.Stéphanie Leyronas, Chargée de recherche sur les communs, Agence française de développement (AFD)Gwenael Prié, Responsable d'Equipe Projet, Agence française de développement (AFD)Isabelle Liotard, Maître de Conférences, HDR , domaine d'expertise : économie de l'innovation, économie des réseaux, Université Sorbonne Paris NordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/985942018-06-26T10:53:22Z2018-06-26T10:53:22ZHow tech companies are successfully disrupting terrorist social media activity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224039/original/file-20180620-137746-r2k27c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Platforms for radicalisation?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/social-media-cube-rubiks-cube-2690966/">pixabay/7stonesgfx</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In June 2017, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft announced the formation of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism <a href="https://gifct.org/">(GIFCT)</a>. The aim of this industry-led initiative is to disrupt the terrorist exploitation of its services. Recently, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44408463?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cvenzmgygl5t/counter-terrorism&link_location=live-reporting-correspondent">GIFCT members hailed</a> the achievements of its first year of operations. But, while this progress must be acknowledged, significant challenges remain.</p>
<p>Every single minute there are on average <a href="https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/">510,000 comments and 136,000 photos</a> shared on Facebook, <a href="http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/">350,000 tweets</a> posted on Twitter and <a href="https://merchdope.com/youtube-statistics/">300 hours of video</a> uploaded to YouTube. </p>
<p>Given this, the biggest companies <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-extremism-uk-governments-islamic-state-blocking-tool-is-neat-but-incomplete-92226">extensively rely on artificial intelligence (AI)</a>. Facebook’s uses of AI <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/06/how-we-counter-terrorism/">include</a> image matching. This prevents users from uploading a photo or video that matches another photo or video that has previously been identified as terrorist. Similarly, <a href="https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/12/expanding-our-work-against-abuse-of-our.html">YouTube reported</a> that 98% of the videos that it removes for violent extremism are also flagged by machine learning algorithms. </p>
<h2>Progress so far</h2>
<p>One difficulty the social media companies face is that, if a terrorist group is blocked from one platform, it might simply move to a different one. In response to this, GIFCT members have <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/12/partnering-to-help-curb-spread-of-online-terrorist-content/">created</a> a shared industry database of “hashes”. A hash is a unique digital fingerprint that can be used to track digital activity. When pro-terrorist content is removed by one GIFCT member, its hash is shared with the other participating companies to enable them to block the content on their own platforms.</p>
<p>At its recent meeting, the GIFCT announced that to date 88,000 hashes have been added to the database. So the consortium is on track to meet its target of 100,000 hashes by the end of 2018. Especially so, now that another nine companies have <a href="https://blog.google/topics/google-europe/update-global-internet-forum-counter-terrorism/">joined the consortium</a>, including Instagram, Justpaste.it and LinkedIn.</p>
<p>These efforts have undoubtedly disrupted terrorists’ use of social media platforms. For example, in the 23 months since August 1, 2015, <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2017/New-Data-Insights-Twitters-Latest-Transparency-Report.html">Twitter has suspended</a> almost a million accounts for promoting terrorism. In the second half of 2017, <a href="https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/12/expanding-our-work-against-abuse-of-our.html">YouTube removed</a> 150,000 videos for violent extremism. Nearly half of these were removed within two hours of upload.</p>
<h2>Future challenges</h2>
<p>Yet much further work remains. In response to the <a href="https://cchs.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs2371/f/downloads/Berger_Occasional%20Paper.pdf">disruption of their use of Twitter</a>, supporters of the so-called Islamic State (IS) have tried to circumvent content blocking technology by what is known as outlinking, using links to other platforms. Interestingly, the sites that are <a href="http://www.voxpol.eu/download/vox-pol_publication/DCUJ5528-Disrupting-DAESH-1706-WEB-v2.pdf">most commonly outlinked to</a> include justpaste.it, sendvid.com and archive.org. This appears to be a deliberate strategy to exploit smaller companies’ lack of resources and expertise.</p>
<p>IS supporters have also moved their community-building activities to other platforms, in particular <a href="https://theconversation.com/since-boston-bombing-terrorists-are-using-new-social-media-to-inspire-potential-attackers-94944">Telegram</a>. Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging service that provides optional end-to-end encrypted messaging. This encryption stops messages being read by third parties. And it has been <a href="http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/556">used extensively</a> to share content produced by official IS channels.</p>
<p>This forms part of a wider movement towards more covert methods. Other encrypted messaging services, including WhatsApp, have been used by jihadists for communication and attack-planning. Websites have also been relocated to <a href="https://fossbytes.com/difference-deep-web-darknet-dark-web/">the Darknet</a>. The Darknet is a hidden part of the internet that is anonymous in nature and only accessed using specialist encryption software. A <a href="http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Terror-in-the-Dark.pdf">2018 report</a> warned that Darknet platforms have the potential to function as a jihadist “virtual safe-haven.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/since-boston-bombing-terrorists-are-using-new-social-media-to-inspire-potential-attackers-94944">Since Boston bombing, terrorists are using new social media to inspire potential attackers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In addition, <a href="http://www.voxpol.eu/download/vox-pol_publication/DCUJ5528-Disrupting-DAESH-1706-WEB-v2.pdf">recent research</a> has found that supporters of jihadist groups other than IS experience significantly less disruption on Twitter. Supporters of these other groups were able to post six times as many tweets, follow four times as many accounts and gain 13 times as many followers as pro-IS accounts. </p>
<p>It is also important to respond to other forms of violent extremism. Extreme right-wing groups also have a significant presence on platforms such as <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0894439314555329">YouTube</a> and <a href="http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/641/html">Facebook</a>. While steps have been taken to disrupt their presence online, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/14/facebook-bans-britain-first-and-its-leaders">Facebook’s decision</a> to ban Britain First from its platform, <a href="https://www.deepdotweb.com/2017/08/31/shut-google-godaddy-major-neo-nazi-site-moves-darknet/">it appears</a> that these groups are also beginning to migrate to the Darknet.</p>
<h2>Overreach</h2>
<p>Just as there is an issue of reaching terrorist social media, there are also challenges relating to potential overreach. Machine learning algorithms cannot be expected to identify terrorist content with 100% accuracy. Some content will be wrongly identified as terrorist and blocked or removed. But the challenges here go further than just applying the threshold correctly. They also concern where the threshold should be drawn in the first place. </p>
<p>The difficulties in defining terrorism are well known. Summed up by the slogan “One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”, one of the most controversial definitional issues is that of just cause. Should a definition of terrorism exclude those such as pro-democracy activists in a country ruled by an oppressive and tyrannical regime? According to many countries, including the UK, the answer is no. As one Court of Appeal judge <a href="http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2007/243.html">put it</a>: “Terrorism is terrorism, whatever the motives of the perpetrators.”</p>
<p>If social media companies take a similar approach, this could have some significant ramifications. Indeed, there are already worrying examples. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/world/middleeast/syria-youtube-videos-isis.html">In 2017</a>, thousands of videos documenting atrocities in Syria were removed from YouTube by new technology aimed at extremist propaganda. These videos provided important evidence of human rights violations. Some existed only on YouTube, since not all Syrian activists and media can afford an offline archive. Yet the alternative - to seek to distinguish between just and unjust causes - is fraught with difficulties of its own. </p>
<p>At a time when social media companies face <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/theresa-may-davos-address/">increasing pressure</a> to do more to tackle terrorist exploitation of their platforms, the progress made during the GIFCT’s first year is welcome. But it is only the first step.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uks-plan-to-deny-terrorists-safe-spaces-online-would-make-us-all-less-safe-in-the-long-run-79323">The UK's plan to deny terrorists 'safe spaces' online would make us all less safe in the long run</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2016/17 Stuart Macdonald received funding from the Fulbright Commission to research violent extremism online.
Swansea University is a member of the research network funded by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.</span></em></p>Companies, such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft are working together to take down terrorist propaganda.Stuart Macdonald, Professor of Law, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.