The Digital Champion, an ambassador for innovation, is a title created by the European Union in 2012. Each country elects one digital ambassador that must work to “digitalise” his countrymen. (See the European Digital Champions).
In line with the EU recommendation to make the position local, the new Italian Digital Champion, Riccardo Luna, has decided to nominate one for each Italian municipality. That’s close to 8000 digital champions, a network of activists, volunteers and digital enthusiasts that must improve our digital understanding door to door.
Today in Rome at Hadrian’s Temple, the first one hundred Italian digital champions will be nominated. They will have three fundamental tasks:
• Act as a sort of help desk for public administrators on digital issues
• Fight for citizen rights to broadband, wifi and other digital rights
• Promote, even through crowdfunding, digital literacy projects for everyone from infants to grandparents.
Matteo Troia (21) is amongst the first hundred. He was born and lives in Casarsa della Delizia, in the Province of Pordenone, and studies Computer Science at the University of Udine. He is one of the most active knowledge volunteers in the networks promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
For Project Grandparents on the Internet in the Province of Palermo, in the Municipalities of Castelbuono and Isnello, Matteo has just finished writing the “Web Plot” manual, a guide to Internet for elders.
I like to think of computers as a window on the world. Where you see a computer on a desk, it’s as if that room had an extra window, a special window, and when you open it up, you can see an entire world you had no idea about.
Also see, on the blog (in Italian)
