Taking Digital Citizenry Seriously

It's refreshing to see that digital citizenry is on the rise not only in the U.S. and Europe but in South Africa as well. The third Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) -- an Indaba is an important conference held by the leaders of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples of South Africa -- is now underway in Grahamstown, South Africa, where over 150 digital citizens have gathered to take a closer look at the technologies that now and in the future will provide all Africans a digital voice.

This year's theme is "Technology for the Digital Citizen" and the conference focuses not only on what is said, and who is saying it, but also on how best to say it.

The conference recognizes that with the numerous new media technologies available to citizens, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify which we should take note of and which we should waste no time on; therefore, one of the conference goals is to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to highlight those technologies that so far have proven to truly empower Africa's digital citizens.

The South African digital voice is challenged to a higher degree than here in the U.S. or in Europe by limited broadband access and nation-wide budget constraints, and another goal of the conference is to survey and share where and how best to access inexpensive Internet and how best to use other free mobile technologies.

I salute the DCI for recognizing the importance of digital citizenry and for taking the steps necessary to bring one about.