We’ve published our preliminary event report on Connect Four: Digital Inclusion, an online event we held in November 2020 to create tangible change towards digital inclusion.
Last month we held our second Connect Four event, Connect Four: Digital Inclusion in partnership with SCVO, Good Things Foundation and the Carnegie UK Trust. We invited key voices in digital from across the academic, public, third and business sectors to take part in discussions to facilitate tangible change towards digital inclusion for all.
The event was developed after our digital support grew in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to our development of Computer Delivery, our emergency COVID-response project which has delivered over 900 devices to the community. Once a device is received, recipients can also join our Learn Digital project, helping them to improve their digital skills to use the device. In addition to this we also operate the Connecting Scotland national helpline, providing support to those who have received a Connecting Scotland device. With demand for all of these projects growing, the need for action in Scotland to combat digital exclusion has become increasingly clear.
On 26 November we gathered on Zoom to hear speakers Ben Macpherson, Minister for Public Finance & Migration and MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith; Gavin McLachlan, Vice-Principal and Chief Information Officer and Librarian at the University of Edinburgh; Claudia Baldacchino, Graphic Designer & Communications Officer at People Know How; and Adam Lang, Head of and Adam Lang from Nesta Scotland. They spoke on digital inclusion and in particular data poverty and set the stage for breakout room discussions yielding insightful conversations between attendees.
We have now reviewed all the breakout room discussions that took place and have collated the findings into this preliminary report. This forms the basis of our response to the Scottish Government’s consultation paper, ‘Renewing Scotland’s full potential in a digital world’. Thanks to attendees' participation in our event, we will add our collective voice to the dialogue to tackle digital exclusion and in particular, data poverty.
In January we will publish our full report, kickstarting 2021 as a brighter, more digitally included year. We will also be holding further Connect Four events – subscribe to the Connect Four network to be the first to know all the details.