Three projects run by the Malta Communications Authority in connection with the Digital Malta strategy are helping citizens become more digitally enabled. MCA chairman Dr Edward Woods tells Stephanie Fsadni about the work involved.

Malta’s future lies in the ability of all its citizens to become digitally engaged and part of a dynamic digital workforce and society, maintains Dr Edward Woods, the chairman of the Malta Communications Authority. That is why one of the most critical goals of a recently launched national digital strategy is to encourage and help more people get online.

This is the concept behind Digital Citizen, one of the three strategic themes making up Digital Malta. The latter strategy was developed jointly by the MCA and the Malta Information Technology Agency to advance information and communication technology throughout society and economy. The other two themes are Digital Business and Digital Government.

The MCA is working on three particular objectives related to Digital Citizen: achieve widespread e-literacy, promote safer use of the internet, and facilitate access to high-speed internet.

With the help of EU funding, the authority has developed a training programme to promote ICT and foster digital literacy among citizens. The project called Enter is aimed at increasing the participation rate in lifelong learning by offering courses to individuals between the ages of 25 to 64 years. These courses are held at various NGOs, local councils and government centres and are free of charge.

There are two types of courses. The first covers basic ICT for our daily needs while the second is related to employment and teaches participants how to create a CV, build spreadsheets and databases, and use social media for marketing purposes. Over 3,500 individuals would have benefited from these free courses by the end of February.

The internet is a limitless resource of information, but one has to browse with caution.

“Notwithstanding the oppor­tunities which the digital world presents, there is a growing scourge of harmful content and risks. Addressing these threats and strengthening security in the digital society is a shared responsibility,” says Dr Woods.

For this purpose, the MCA, in conjunction with the Foundation for Social Welfare Services and the Office of the Commissioner for Children, continued with the rollout of BeSmartOnline!, a project geared towards building trust in the digital world by raising awareness on the safer use of the internet.

Various initiatives target minors, parents, carers and educators, to help ensure a positive online experience and empower citiz­ens to become more digitally enabled.

Mobile commerce, payment services and location-based marketing will expand rapidly

One of these initiatives included touring of all primary and secondary schools, and talks with Year 6 and Form 3 students about various issues such as the digital footprint – the trail of data left behind by users on digital services – and their rights and obligations on the net.

Another initiative saw the setting up of a hotline, ChildWebAlert to provide the public with an online form which can be used to anonymously report online content related to child abuse. The project also offers support to the public on 24/7 basis on support line 179.

Another objective of Digital Citizen is to facilitate and promote access to high-speed internet. For this purpose, the MCA continued to invest and strengthen free Wi-Fi services across Malta and Gozo. During 2013, the MCA set up six new free hotspots, bringing the total number of hotspots to 191. These are installed in squares, gardens and other public places.

Digital Malta covers the years 2013 to 2020. By the end of this period, Dr Woods envisages a high-tech scenario where the ‘digital natives’ – those born after the 1990s – would have come to expect “ubiquitous, reliable high-speed connectivity” and telecom services would have become more “commoditised”.

“Telcos will continue to invest in high-speed mobile and fixed broadband. More traffic will be migrated to IP-based networks and content-based services and innovation will be the key to growth,” says Dr Woods.

“This shift to content and OTT will necessitate that operators will have to align themselves with the real digital world. We will see a further refinement of operator strategy towards diversification and bundling of digital content and communications services.”

Operators will keep a central role in driving innovation and growth in the internet of things, machine-to-machine and mobile commerce. Dr Woods expects the number of active wireless connected devices to continue to impact our everyday life.

“Mobile commerce, payment services and location-based marketing will expand rapidly, disrupting existing market scenarios. Machine-to-machine communications will continue to change many industries. These technologies will create massive amounts of data that once processed and analysed will lead to real-time business intelligence. This concept, also known as big data, will be one of the major drivers of the digital economy.”

In Dr Wood’s view, telecommunication companies would have positioned themselves both as providers in delivering cloud-based services and in adopting the technology to become more cost-efficient.

“Most of the businesses will be fully adapted to the cloud”.

“This shift would also bring a change in the required skill set where, apart from the traditional IP and telecom skills, an emphasis will be placed on creativity, specialised marketing skills and the ability to manage commercial content agreements.”

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