Measure IT and make a difference
The United Nations recently declared that internet access is a human right, but across the world millions of people do not have access to the benefits afforded to a digitally inclusive society.
Universal access to the internet is now a fundamental infrastructure requirement of any civil and democratic society that espouses equal opportunity, equality and a fair go.
Digital inclusion does not simply mean ‘connecting everyone to the internet,’ it is about improving the quality of life and life opportunities of socially excluded people.
Digital inclusion is about affordable access to information technology, economic development of disadvantaged communities, increasing user IT skills, the creation of relevant web-based content and the inspiration of local communities to lifelong learning.
There is an intrinsic link, between the need to increase digital inclusion with the need to raise the capacity for digital proficiency in the community service sector.
Digital proficiency improves the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery and has a flow-on effect that creates a more digitally inclusive society.
Measure IT Asia Pac is a program designed by Infoxchange Australia and supported by Microsoft to assist not-for-profit organisations in the Asia Pacific Region to become more digitally proficient through providing the infomation and resources to get the most out of their IT setup.
Through the Measure IT Asia Pac partnership a train the trainer program has been delivered in Indonesia, India and Timor Leste with a further program to be run in New Zealand.
This program will enable a not for profit organisation in each of these countries to deliver the Measure IT to other not for profits, thereby building the ICT capacity and delivering the fundamentals of any civil and democratic country in the 21st century.
"Our team conducted IT audits with three community service organisations in India, Indonesia and New Zealand, " says Luke Newing, IT Advisor at Infoxchange.
Measure IT is designed to leverage IT to develop the capacity of the not for profit and civil society sectors.
Understanding the power of digital proficiency, however, leads to an understanding of its strategic impact and the profound changes that digital proficiency has on the very nature of organisations and how they function.
"The accumulation and sharing of knowledge for creativity, innovation and production, and the use of networking as the central principle of cooperation are not only a consequence of digital proficiency, but are essential for further societal growth," says Infoxchange Executive Director, Andrew Mahar.
Digital proficiency raises productivity, increases capacity, motivates employees and promotes dynamic development. And these benefits apply equally to organisational development of any kind including in community service organisations.
*Measure IT is now part of Improve IT, our suite of free resources