Culture, skills, policies, best use of the enormous resources provided for digital. This is what we need to focus on, from public administrations (national and local) to businesses, from professionals and experts in the sector to citizens. Do not waste the opportunities that come from the PNRR, the acceleration given by the pandemic, the huge spotlight that has been accessed on digital at 360 degrees. Making up for that lost time (a lot) that made us occupy less than optimal positions in the ranking and showing that we have understood the lesson of the last year and a half.
Unfortunately, it took a pandemic to make issues central and topical (from the front page and not from a blurb), to name but a few, such as the correct use of digital platforms, the simplification and greater diffusion of digital services, smart working, the use of social networks and chat for public communication and the direct relationship with the citizen, the need for dedicated skills and professionalism, the fundamental importance of a large and constant investment in digital culture. Now I ask myself: what else needs to happen to make this normal? What else needs to happen to ensure that this opportunity is not wasted and remains an emergency response? What else must happen to convince the Government and Parliament that this is a turning point that cannot be postponed anymore?
These are questions that unfortunately we must continue to ask ourselves because today, despite everything, Italy is a country that does not give clear and formal recognition to the professionalism of digital communication and information (think of the most famous, the social media manager, but there there are many others) and does not provide for an organization of work in step with the times.
It is a country that despite everything we have seen in the last year and a half continues not to include important professional figures in public selections such as communicators, journalists, social media managers (an example is the recent public competition to select 500 figures for management of the PNRR, which includes economic, legal, IT, statistical-mathematical, engineering, management engineering profiles) … The expert in digital communication and information, much requested and little recognized, does not formally exist in the Public Administration to date, but also if we move to the private sector or to the world of utilities, at the level of professional recognition it is not that the situation is so different. There are very creative ways across the country to rely on an expert in the sector, but not a clear and recognized path.
We continue to refer to a law of 2000 (the famous – for insiders – 150), I would say “one world ago”. This would be enough to understand that it can no longer be adequate, that it refers to something that no longer exists, that needs an update for which we are too late. Even before the pandemic, times, tools, languages, work organization were revolutionized, today they are even more so and even the most skeptical or distracted have had a confirmation during the emergency. It is first of all a cultural revolution and therefore more difficult and longer, but we cannot waste any more time and postpone a future that has already been here for years. It is time to face the mature era of digital communication and information and I would say the mature era of digital at 360 degrees. Knowing opportunities and distortions, governing and accompanying change, promoting good practices and a great plan for digital culture.
Fortunately, thanks to the work of many extraordinary professionals throughout Italy, we have not been stopped in recent years and we are full of great experiences, we have to make everything “system”, normality. I go back to the beginning: culture, skills, policy. We still need to do a lot, but a quick change on paths on which we are accumulating delay is necessary: 1) we approve the reform of public communication in the digital sense, the work has been done in recent years with the participation of all the main entities of the PA, journalism, communication (here to learn more https://www.pasocial.info/legge-151/), is ready and shared, it just needs to be completed. Thus we give recognition to professionals who have a central role in the new relationship between PA and citizens (a global universe estimated at about 20,000 people according to data from the National Observatory on digital communication of PA Social and Istituto Piepoli. of the Observatory, of a scenario in which 80% of citizens ask to have communication, information, services available on digital, social and chat platforms) and we change organizational models with watertight compartments that belong to another world and are no longer able to respond to current needs; 2) let’s discuss, put public and private, universities, stakeholders at the table and write policies on the digital world together. The approach of demonizing platforms (which are tools, let’s always remember it, counts how we use them and with what culture and knowledge we face them.
As has happened in the past with newspapers, radio, TV, websites) does not lead anywhere, we work on regulation and on creating the best conditions to bring out positive and quality use. With the newly created Fondazione Italia Digitale we will also work on this, because it is time to give everyone an extra contribution to make the revolution that has been going on for years completed and useful; 3) digital is decisive if it improves everyday life, if it simplifies everyday life. We must bring digital to the places of normality, make digital identity, apps, digital communication platforms something familiar even in the daily relationship between PA, businesses and citizens. It cannot be something only for experts or insiders. “Staying where the citizens are” has always been our motto with the PA Social Association, I believe that it is still very topical today. 4) we open, truly and without absurd “backyard” battles, the traditional professions (from journalist to communicator) and the paths connected from universities to digital professionals. We open doors and windows for example of the Order of Journalists, digital activity is now central in the public and private sectors, it must be recognized like the others, no ifs and buts; 5) we use and do not waste the historic opportunity of the PNRR for a great 360-degree digital culture plan and to ensure that within our public sector we operate with a “digital thought” and with an increasingly oriented approach to citizen.
These are reforms and changes that do not concern only some professional categories, but citizens, because they mean quality communication, information, services, dialogue and daily interaction. Unfortunately it took a pandemic to recover some lost ground, we have an opportunity not to be missed, it would be really incomprehensible to waste it.
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