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A true Christmas story
Could you solve social problems and create a
beter, more fun society without money? And
achieve that without endless procedures and
bureaucracy?
This seems like a dream request from a state se-
cretary for Social Afairs to Santa Claus. However,
this dream has come to reality, and by coin-
cidence even in the region where Santa Claus
originates.
Last week I spoke with participants in the Digi-
del campaign in Sweden: A non-proft initiative
with the goal to provide 500,000 people with
internet access by the end of this year. These
new internet users are not the average users, but
elderly people, homeless people, immigrants or
people with litle money: People who can use a
helping hand.
Digidel started out with 200,000 users in 2011
and adds 100,000 users every year. Already, they
have almost reached their quantitative target.
Without complex processes, easy to up-scale and
developed from within the target group. The core
of their approach is: One person helps another
and benefts from that himself. Maybe simplicity
is the real key to success. If it seems to be easy,
it is a good approach.
At Digidel, everybody can join. Educational in-
stitutes, libraries, companies, municipalities and
individuals. The only prerequisite is they con-
tribute to the goal and help other people along,
coordinate activities or contribute economi-
cally. That way, young immigrants who have a
feeling for ICT help elderly people to take them
into the online world (it-guide). Youths create
work experience, learn the language and get to
know more about Swedish people. The elderly
gain more insight in the immigrants cultures
while geting personal help in discovering the
internet. Another great example is an accompa-
niment trajectory in which homeless people get
in touch with their families and relatives again
via the internet.
And that way they can make a new start.
When I translate this to the idea that there are
people in the Netherlands who receive a social
welfare payment while taking care of a sick or el-
derly relative, I see a world of new opportunities.
Most of the time these are young people with
the opportunity to help many others through ICT
and by doing that can also bring themselves to a
next level. By not closing everything of by rules,
a lot of creativity can be created, through which
new opportunities can bloom.
These examples are no Christmas stories but
concrete applications of the participation so-
ciety to which the government has commited
itself. By the way, participation society is a
detached word which means bringing people
together, helping each other out and creating a
closer and nicer society together. It is not that
hard, if we dont make it unnecessarily compli-
cated. No mater how much participation we aim
for, the government frst has to decide to allow
a non-interventional society, so good initiatives
like the one from Digidel can actually prosper.
Neelie Kroes 21/12/2013 Brussel
Neelie Kroes, European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda
Adel Mojtahedi, Neelie Kroes, Gunilla Lundberg and
Josef Hikmet in Brussels, 17 December 2013. It-guide
won the Peoples Choice and a trip to the EU-comission
in the Digidel challenge, Utmaningen.