Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Within this shifting context for digital government and social development,
the Danish Government provides one prospective window on what it defines as the
“digital path toward future welfare”—an integrative and holistic strategy explic-
itly linking digital and mobile government to wider social and economic devel-
opmental efforts and objectives (cataloguing such measures from 2011 to 2015*).
Denmark's unique degree of digital inclusion stems, in part, from an aggressive
rollout of digitized administration and mandatory online interactions with citi-
zens (mandatory in electronic form by 2015) and companies (mandatory since the
beginning of 2013). The compete suppression of paper-based transacting creates
transitional challenges akin to Great Britain's Assisted Digital approach that the
Danish Government has sought to recognize and address:
This major step towards eGovernment will require considerable changes
to the way public authorities work, and a certain degree of acclimatiza-
tion from citizens. However, the transition will take place gradually, as
user-friendly eGovernment solutions are introduced in more and more
areas. Help will be available for citizens who find it hard to use the new
solutions. (Halonen, 2012)
Even in the relative digital ubiquity of Denmark, such help requires recognizing
and addressing a number of barriers that stand in the way of achieving full digital
inclusion (Jaeger, 2012). A better understanding of the skill deficiencies and vary-
ing motives of those presently displaced from online processes can thus enable an
appropriate mix of incentives, both positive and negative, with the critical twofold
finding from Denmark being that digital inclusion necessitates political attention
and specific policy actions linking together traditional e-government strategies
with education and social and developmental assistance and, accordingly, that the
digital divide is unlikely to eradicate itself naturally through technological and
mobile evolution (Jaeger, 2012).
The advent of mobility and Gov 2.0—and the specific efforts being developed
by jurisdictions such as Singapore, Great Britain, and Denmark—would suggest
that digital inclusion is increasingly recognized as a challenge meriting recognition
and action. A closely related point is that the maintenance of a multichannel service
apparatus may not only be increasingly costly but also detrimental to social cohe-
sion and wider socioeconomic developmental capacities going forward. Finally, one
can postulate that any proposed reforms to the existing apparatus of social develop-
ment and assistance can be understood and examined within an integrative prism
of traditional government supports and programs and the digital and participatory
contours of Gov 2.0 and mobility. These broad lessons provide the basis for exam-
ining the evolution of mobility and digital inclusion in Canada's largest province.
*
For details of the Danish strategy, please see http://www.digst.dk/Servicemenu/English
/News/~/media/Files/Digitaliseringsstrategi/Engelsk_strategi_tilgaengelig.ash.
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