We are the champions

Presi da priorità ben più importanti, forse i “digerati” italiani non hanno prestato molta attenzione a questa questione minima del digital champion italiano. E quindi non si sono domandati se ce ne sia davvero bisogno. Ne parlano di più i cultori della comunicazione, una funzione che in politica è tanto sovrastimata.

Ma che cosa fa un digital champion? Comunica? Promuove? Si riunisce a Bruxelles con i suoi pari e fa dichiarazioni? Fa la politica digitale del suo paese?

Un sospetto sulla necessità di una figura come questa dovrebbe venire guardando ai migliori nell’agenda digitale e nell’egovernment in Europa: in Estonia non hanno un digital champion. Nel Regno Unito non ce l’hanno. Ma il sospetto si annebbia osservando che per la verità non c’è un digital champion neppure in Spagna e Grecia.

Ma insomma, che cosa fanno quelli che oggi sono digital champion in altri paesi? Come rispondono sempre gli informatici: “dipende”.

1. Hanno una funzione amministrativa o governativa, sono politici o ex, e come tali interpretano le priorità del governo:
– Ondrej Felix is the Chief Architect of the Czech Republic e-Government. He says his first priority as Digital Champion is the improvement of the cross-border interoperability of e-government systems.
– Darko Parić is the Assistant Minister at the Ministry of Administration, Directorate for eCroatia.
– Dr. Stelios Himonas is is the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism in Cyprus as well as Digital Champion. His main objective is to increase the internet penetration in the country.
– Gergana Passy is the Digital Champion for Bulgaria. Her priorities are education in e-skills and free access to internet. Gregana thinks that access to the internet must be free for all Europeans. Gergana Passy is the founder & President of PanEuropean Union Bulgaria, politician, former Minister for European Affairs.
– Lars Frelle-Petersen, Head of the Danish Agency for Digitisation and the Digital Champion of Denmark, is enthusiastically pursuing the development of a digitalized postal system both for public institutions and private companies.
– István Erényi is the Digital Champion of Hungary. He works to open up education and close skills gaps. István Erényi is Senior Counsellor at the Ministry of National Development in Hungary.
– Tineke Netelenbos is the Digital Champion of the Netherlands. Her priorities are to improve a safe internet and to improve e-skills in people. She is the Former Minister of Transport and now chairs “Digivaardig & Digiveilig”, an NGO which promotes Digital Inclusion programmes
– Wlodzimierz Marcinski is the Digital Champion of Poland. He works for the development of the digital competences and for the advancement of digitalisation. He is the Minister’s plenipotentiary for the development of digital competences, Ministry of Administration and Digitalization, and former deputy minister at the Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Technology.
– Peter Pellegrini is the Digital Champion of Slovakia. His priorities are to bridge between the public and the expert community to improve the conditions of every citizens’ life. Peter Pellegrini holds the post of a State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic.

2. Sono manager, professori o fondatori di iniziative, e dichiarano le loro priorità:
– Meral Akin-Hecke, founder of DigiTalks and Digital Champion for Austria, set three keywords as the stepping stones of her strategy for the Austrian Digital Agenda in the next three years: education, inclusion and employability.
– Saskia van Uffelen is the CEO of Ericsson Belux as well as Digital Champion of Belgium. She’s got three priorities: e-education, e-commerce, e-skills. Moreover, she aims to get more Belgians online and to change the “geek” image the ICT sector has in her country.
– Linda Liukas is the Digital Champion of Finland. She works to bring women together and excited about coding and building the web. Linda is the Co-founder Railsgirls.com, a non-profit global community movement aimed to get more women excited about building the Internet. Currently she works at Codecademy, the easiest way to learn code.
– Gilles Babinet is the Digital Champion of France. He works to push innovation through education. Gilles Babinet is the Chairman at CaptainDash, Former Chair at Conseil National du Numerique.
– Gesche Joost is the Digital Champion of Germany. Her priorities are to improve and enhance digital skills, diversity in the digital society and an open internet. “My priorities are digital skills, diversity in our digital society and an open internet”, said Gesche Joost, German Digital Champion.
She is a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts specialising in design research. Since 2008, she has been Head of the Design Research Lab focusing her research on human-computer interaction, aspects of gender and diversity in communications technology as well as social design. In 2005, she joined Telekom Innovation Laboratories working on advances in ICT R&D.
– David Puttnam is the Digital Champion of Ireland. His priorities want to put digital first in all aspects of policy, business and education. David Puttnam is the Chairman of Atticus Education, an online education company based in Ireland. Atticus, through a unique arrangement with BT Ireland, delivers interactive seminars on film and a variety of other subjects to educational institutions around the world. David spent thirty years as an independent producer of award-winning films. He retired from film production in 1998 to focus on his work in public policy as it relates to education, the environment, and the ‘creative and communications’ industries.
– Kestutis Juskevicius is the Digital Champion of Lithuania. His priorities are to fight the shortage of digital skills, and to improve the level of ICT skills. Kestutis Juskevicius is the Project Manager for Lithuanian National Library programme. His main priority as the Digital Champion for Lithuania is the shortage of digital skills amongst people, particularly students and young professionals.
– Björn is the Digital Champion on Luxembourg. His priorities are to promote and develop secure ICT services for all. Professor. Björn is Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, Luxembourg
– Godfrey Vella is the Digital Champion of Malta. He works to develop a three-dimension strategy: Digital citizen, Digital business and Digital government. He is a Member of the Board of the Malta Communications Authority (MCA). On 24 March 2014 the Digital Malta Strategy was launched. The Strategy formulation was managed jointly by the MCA and the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) but involved all stakeholders via a number of consultation sessions and workshops.
– Antonio Murta is the Digital Champion of Portugal. He has a proactive approach to the Digital Agenda, and he wants to facilitate growth in his country. “E-Commerce, e-health and Digital Invoices systems my priorities to sustain Portuguese economy”. Antonio Murta is Managing Partner and co-founder of Pathena; he describes himself as “newcomer” in the world of public policy, and he is determined to bring his pragmatic and proactive approach to the Digital Agenda
– Paul André Baran is the Digital Champion of Romania. His priority is to promote digital inclusion and works to increase free public access computers. Paul is the Director of Biblionet programme, which aims to put free public access computers and internet coupled with a trained librarian in 2,200 public libraries across Romania
– Ales Spetic is the Digital Champion of Slovenia. His priorities are to improve the usability of ICT. Ales Spetic is the Cofounder of Zemanta, one of the most successful Slovenian startup stories.
– Jan Gulliksen is the Digital Champion of Sweden. His works to come up with ideas to help his country improve to reach ICT goals. Jan is the dean of the School of Computer Science and Communication, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm.

3. ah sì c’è anche un comunicatore
– Reinis Zitmanis is the Digital Champion of Latvia. He works in the tv business and writes about technology. Reinis is the host of a weekly TV Tech Show and a radio Tech Show in Latvia. He also writes articles for a number of tech magazines.

E allora?

Se si sceglie un digital champion che interpreti le priorità del governo e le applichi, allora non occorre andare lontano, basta scegliere tra coloro che sono già stati scelti per farlo: Paolo Barberis e Stefano Quintarelli sono già al lavoro con ruoli diversi per realizzare questo compito, con il sostegno operativo di Alessandra Poggiani (*). Sarebbe la scelta più adeguata a un paese che deve rafforzare soprattutto il ruolo di chi deve lavorare in un contesto già difficile.

Se si sceglie un professore o manager rappresentativo dei digerati si possono andare a pescare moltissimi eroi della conoscenza e della realizzazione concreta di iniziative digitali. Basta sapere che in Italia per ognuno che si sceglie, in quei mondi, se ne scontentano mille.

Se proprio si sceglie un comunicatore, come la Lettonia, caso unico in Europa, ci si deve aspettare che parli: e se non vuole perdere la faccia di fronte al suo pubblico, il comunicatore tenderà a dire quello che pensa. A quel punto chi lavora per interpretare la linea del governo si troverebbe le priorità definite sui giornali o ai convegni dal comunicatore. E se per caso chi lavora non è d’accordo, il suo morale andrà sotto le scarpe. Anche perché in Italia chi lavora a queste cose dà una mano più o meno gratuitamente.

Forse è meglio che a comunicare si dedichi il governo e il suo capo, in modo che non escano sciocchezze. E certamente è bene che in questo campo si comunichi poco, si informi molto e si faccia ancora di più.

Così, tutti coloro che in giro per l’Italia fanno innovazione con tanta fatica e sentendo il vento contrario della conservazione si riconosceranno nell’azione del governo. Perché vedranno al lavoro persone come loro. Che parlano poco, lavorano molto e nonostante tutto ce la fanno. A quel punto diranno: we are the champions.

(*) Un sostegno decisivo. Nessuna visione del governo si trasforma in realtà senza un’interpretazione adeguata. Precisazione dovuta in un paese che si preoccupa molto delle parole e meno dei fatti. Ai quali in fondo è dedicato questo post.