Apparently, the digital summit does not want critical voices.
(Photo: dpa)
In front of a blue wall on which dots and circles connect with each other and the “Digital Summit” logo is emblazoned, ministers, state secretaries and other decision-makers hold the microphone this Friday. There was also a large crowd at this year’s digital summit meeting of the federal government and companies.
Those who are here ask themselves why, despite all the enthusiasm, digitization in Germany is still lagging so far behind. However, if you want to find the answer to this question, you should look for it in the absence, not in the presence. Because what really stands out is who isn’t invited.
>> Read here about the digital summit: New institute to strengthen use of data in Germany
The Lobbycontrol association criticized even before the summit began: “We found that almost no civil society participation is planned.” That was “unacceptable”. In fact, the voices of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) are missing at the digital summit.
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The CCC had repeatedly cast a critical eye on the federal government’s digital projects. A disruptor in the supposedly ideal world of the state’s digital self-adulation. But those who do not want to deal with the security concerns of IT professionals, in particular, risk dangerous missteps in an environment of growing cyber threats.
Missing view to the outside
In addition to civil society, another group in Berlin is conspicuously absent. Because the field of participants in the old industrial hall on Berlin’s Landwehr Canal is shockingly homogeneous. You hardly ever see people with non-white skin here.
>> Read here: Bad grades – That’s how far the digital projects of the federal government are
This is also a problem, and not just for reasons of diversity. Because the avant-garde of IT is no longer primarily located in Germany – but in China, India, the USA or Mexico. International input to learn from. If only almost everything did not revolve around all the great things that have already been discovered in Germany. There is no view of how far the others have come.
The main topic of the conference, for example, the utilization of data for business and politics, is by no means new internationally. In South Korea, for example, a program to digitize the most important data fields in public administration, education and national defense ran between 1987 and 1995.
If Germany had taken the Asian country as a model back then, many of the speeches by German ministers at the digital summit would have been outdated by now.
More: The federal government’s data strategy – that’s what the traffic light coalition promises to business and consumers.