A National Debate on the Swiss Digital Agenda
While most countries have appointed or commissioned high ranking political officers to lead and champion a digital agenda for their countries as a strategic issue for society, Switzerland is still in a difficult position of having neither such a responsibility nor a concrete digital agenda. By connecting public and private organizations across sectors interested by innovation and technology, Lift in partnership with Le Réseau and ThinkServices, kicked-off the debate in January 2015 to contribute with its community and network.
Digital Switzerland Quo Vadis ?
The first step was the launch of a debate at Lift15 with the workshop "Digital Switzerland Quo Vadis ? Launch of a National Debate on the Swiss Digital Agenda".
The objective of this panel was to initiate a discussion on these issues. In particular, the creation of a State Secretariat for the Digital Society and the creation of a Swiss Digital Agenda. This panel was also the official start of a national debate on these issues proposed in the context of a partnership between Lift Conference, Le Réseau and ThinkServices. Panelists, together with the participants, discussed and generated some ideas for moving forward.
Co-creation fo a Swiss Digital Agenda
Following the workshop, the platform NumeriCH was launched. NumeriCH had the ambition to cover two distinct aspects of the Swiss Digital Agenda: the agenda itself and the debate.
- For the Swiss Digital Agenda, we chose a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach based on a Kit anyone can download to organize workshops to identify the challenges and ideas for the Swiss Digital Agenda. Each workshop would lead to items to be document on the DomocracyOS participatory platform for debate.
- For the National Debate on the Swiss Digital Agenda, we have worked closely with a great startup that was discovered at Lift15 Venture Night: GovFaces.com who instrumented the debate. The debate on the Swiss Digital Agenda ran from July 20 to end of September 2015 with five conversations figuring high profile experts, politicians, academics, organizations, citizens ans journalists. Each conversation framed key issues that were summarized in the end.
Digital Agenda: national challenges for international opportunities
The national debate on the Swiss Digital Agenda at Lift15 drew over 20,000 views in two months, we took the opportunity to take this initiative to the next level both from a national and international standpoint during a workshop at Lift16. The objective was to continue the debate and discuss challenges and opportunities moving forward trying to co-creatively share and shape best practices and ideas for countries, in whatever digital maturity level they are.
