NEW YORK, OCTOBER 1 – “Italy is on the front line in regards to digitalization and we want to build equal digital opportunity for every citizen,” the Minister for technological innovation, Paola Pisani, said during a side event of the 74th General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York. “We want to build digital opportunities for all citizens, but that requires a new approach for a concretely inclusive digital world. In Italy the problem is not the broadband infrastructure, which is better to the European average, but its access. The public administration cannot reach these goals alone, collaboration with the private sector is needed”.
The meeting, one of the many side events at the margin of the high-level segment of the General Assembly, was organized by Italy, Finland, Bangladesh, the European Union, Undesa and Undp. “In public administration 67% of services are digitally accessible, but the citizens don’t use them. If tomorrow we had all services digitalized we would have a big problem in our society. And since we are a state and not a private firm, we have to think about all citizens, not merely choose the best target. We want to build digital opportunities for all, ” said Pisano, professor at the University of Turin, where he directs the Centre for multidisciplinary technological innovation and chairs the corporate commission of the Informatics department.
Among the invited international experts was Davide Casaleggio, as a representative of civil society. In his speech, Casaleggio mentioned the online platform Rousseau, inherited by the father Gianroberto and used by the supporters of the Five Star Movement to discuss and make decisions. “Every time we have new technologies, new rights emerge,” he said, making the example of the possibility of voting online, as is the case not only in Italy but also in Estonia. “Rousseau allows for the movement to decide its representatives and policies. And in Italy -he reminded- we had at the beginning of this month a record number of people participating at an online vote. 80 thousand people expressed themselves to endorse the new Italian government coalition.” (SB@OnuItalia)
