We need to talk about tech baybee, the you and me
Lets talk about all the good things and the bad things that maybe
The Scottish Government, the Welsh Senedd and the internet age – unlikely triplets – were all born in 1999. Look at them now, all grown up.
The digital age has brough good and bad alike.
The good is music everywhere, communication, wider choice, better service, cheaper goods, access to art and film making, and windows on the world.
And the bad? industrialised child pornography, disinformation, persistent surveillance by private companies and the state alike, hybrid warfare, asymmetric markets and a winner-takes-all economy.
But good and bad are intertwined. The more the state knows about you, the better the service and the more intrusive the surveillance.
Making the trade-offs, balancing your good vs my bad, her opportunity vs their catastrophe is pure politics.
That’s why Digital Policy and Transform Wales have joined together to call for National Conversations – at the coming and future elections.
We don’t pretend there is a right answer but we need to talk – and are organising hustings and post-election events around digital society, the private sector and the economy and the state and public sector.
Here are 4 ways you can help.
1 sign the pledge
Join people like Stephen Coleman, Andy Williams and Karen Meechan, Brian Corcoran from the private sector, Richard Pope, Simon Roberts and Jerry Fishenden from the public sector, journalists like Anna Burnside and politicians like John McTernan and Susan Aitken and many more.
You don’t have to be from Scotland or Wales to sign - Derek Alton’s in Canada! These are global issues.
It only takes a second and you can withhold your name if you have to.
Sign here and help us send a signal to the political class.
2 give us £30
That’s the cost of the bookshelf we need to deliver to the newly elected MSPs and MSs.
You pass a law and you get a computer system –
one of the big things that needs to change is the recognition that the legislatures even more than the governments must raise their game.
Your £30 gets one newly elected member a copy of this bookshelf
You can donate here.
3 come to our hustings and events
You can sign-up to be notified of when and where they are.
Sign-up for notifications.
4 share this appeal
Digital policy needs to be human centred - and it starts with you, here, now.