Encouraging the Digital Economy and Digital Citizenship

Missingham, R. (2009). Encouraging the digital economy and digital citizenship. Australian Library Journal, 58(4), 386-399.

The article Encouraging the Digital Economy and Digital Citizenship was written by Parliamentary Librarian, Roxanne Missingham, and is based on a presentation to the Australian Library and Information Association Public Libraries Summit. This review will outline the main purpose of this article which is to highlight the importance of every Australian having equitable access to relevant, quality digital information and government services using broadband access. Overall the article is a thorough and authoritative insight into the current state of Australia’s digital environment.

Missingham states that the libraries’ definition of an Australian citizen encompasses the “participation in government and the economy via the digital environment” (p. 386) based on outcomes from the Government’s 2.0 Taskforce and the Australia’s Digital Economy: Future Directions Final Report. The author considers the challenges and achievements of libraries in supporting Australians in becoming digital citizens. Establishing Electronic Resources Australia (ERA) is one achievement that Missingham uses to explain how Australian libraries (local, state and national) are providing citizens with content relevant to Australian people’s lives.

The headings of each part of the main body of the article are made up of questions. Their answers cover key issues about ERA that are discussed in the article. These include information about the current state of access to digital resources in Australia, the key resources that can be found online, the reasons why Australians need access to quality information, and information on how libraries have worked together to help Australians secure access to quality online information.

Missingham concludes this article by asserting three criteria needed to create digital citizens, and states how libraries and the Federal Government are responding to the barriers they confront. These criteria are connectivity to the internet, the content available on the internet, and the capacity of citizens to use these resources. Missingham stresses the final criteria by stating that even with ready access to broadband and quality information, Australians can only become digital natives if digital and information literacy skills are addressed. She points out that public libraries are actively delivering such programs but to be more effective, national funding is urgently needed.

Missingham presents an informative article full of relevant material on the background of government and library digital initiatives and the current state of the digital environment in Australia. By using relevant statistical data about technology adoption, Australia can easily be compared to the United Kingdom and Canada. The use of a personal account of someone living in rural Australia, gives the article a more humane side to Missingham’s argument.

The author makes a valid argument in saying that libraries play a vital role in providing education and relevant content to citizens. 46% of the Australian population does not have basic literacy skills for everyday life (Hutley, 2011) and there is no use connecting the population to broadband if people don’t have appropriate content or the skills to use it (UNESCO, 2005). ERA’s principal goal is based on the National Library of Australia’s belief that the general community should have free and equitable access to a wide range of relevant information resources. (National Licensing Forum, 2005). Libraries also provide access to technology that many community members cannot afford and ongoing education to ensure “they won’t get left behind as digital citizens” (Hutley, p. 13). This in turn allows Australian libraries to support communities, education and business (National Library of Australia, 2007).

It is interesting to note that Missingham does not use the widely adopted term ‘digital divide’ when speaking of the gap between people with effective access to digital and information technology and those with limited or no access. This article focuses on information challenges due to geographical location and literacy skills and briefly mentions accessibility for disabled people. UNESCO points out that “nobody should be excluded from knowledge societies” (2005, p.18). The key mistake in Missingham’s article is that she excludes socio-economic, age, gender, language, culture and employment divides, particularly after she makes the impossible claim that Australia needs to work hard to achieve “universal access”(p. 387). As digital technologies often increase inequalities (Borgman, 2000), the government must address these issues promptly. The Federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy acknowledged this week that the Internet gives Australians many opportunities but the government must be aware that “if we leave people behind, the isolation will be even greater” (“The New Order”, 2011).

 Missingham is a reliable source of information and gives a valuable insight into the current digital economy.  This article presents a clear and credible argument for the need to develop information literacy and provide relevant content, and the challenges involved.

References

Borgman, C. (2000). The premise and the promise of a global information infrastructure. In From Gutenborg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Network World (pp. 1-31). Cambridge: MIT Press.

Hutley, S. (2011). Where’s the strategy?. Incite, 32(1), 13-14. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2011/01-02/broadband.strategy.pdf

Missingham, R. (2009). Encouraging the digital economy and digital citizenship. Australian Library Journal, 58(4), 386-399. Retrieved from http://alia.org.au/publishing/alj/

National Licensing Forum. (2005). Making online information for all Australians a reality: A proposal by the National Licensing Reference Group to all Australian Libraries. Retrieved from http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/sitelicense/nlproposal.html

National Library of Australia. (2007). A New Era Dawns for Electronic Resources in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.nla.gov.au/media-releases/a-new-era-dawns-for-electronic-resources-in-australia

The New Order: The Haves and the Digital Have-nots. (2011). The Age. Retrieved August 17, 2011 from http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-new-order-the-haves-and-the-digital-havenots-20110817-1ixpb.html

UNESCO. (2005). Towards Knowledge Societies: UNESCO World Report. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141843e.pdf

This Youtube video explains what the National Broadband Network is and why it is important for Australians.

Message stick replaced by memory stick

The digital divide is alive and well in Australia. Statistically Indigenous Australians are much less likely to use the Internet in their homes than non-Indigenous Australian.The Australian government has said that they plan to provide broadband access, through the National Broadband Network, to every Australian home. However, this is not actually the case. Non-Indigenous Australians will get the chance to connect to the Internet directly from their own home, whereas the government is only planning on extending internet services to remote Indigenous communities through shared community facilities.If Indigenous communities are lucky enough to have Community access centre, they often suffer from lack of operational funds.

The following is a Youtube video about a philanthropic group of people, called the Dot.Com.Mob, who are helping indigenous Australians from far north Queensland to become digital citizens. Originally a group of 5 computer literate indigenous girls were asked to teach a group of local indigenous Australians computer literacy skills. When they arrived on the first day there was no one at the centre. The locals had to be rounded up from their homes. They were shown their local area on Google Maps, they looked at Skype and were taught skills like making business cards.
The locals ended up being so excited by the skills they had learnt and the potential of this technology that the local council gave the Dot.Com.Mob their own council chambers as a place to set up their new computer centre.   The Queensland Government Library Association joined with the group to become the Indigenous Knowledge and Technology Centre.
The centre is now inundated with people everyday. Schools are also being well attended because the children want to learn how to become literate in order to use the computers at the centre. The Dot.Com.Mob is now lobbying the government for financial aid to ensure that the centre continues to provide services. Greg McLean, Hope Vale Mayor said "we must also be funded to provide reading, so our community members can enjoy the same services as every other Australian".