The digital divide, which at first mainly affected older people, has ended up becoming a class issue. While many grandmothers have become the queens of WhatsApp, there are entire families that are increasingly left on the margins of society because they cannot be digitized.
They are not isolated cases. According to the latest survey by the Barcelona City Council, 8.1% of the inhabitants of the Catalan capital do not have internet access.
‘We connect Barcelona’
The difference in these times is marked by a good connection and the devices to be able to take advantage of it. Being on the sidelines of that means that children cannot do the homework that is assigned to them at school. Or, their parents, not being able to make an appointment to get vaccinated against covid.
To try to reverse this situation, the municipal government plans to launch a pilot test in September – baptized as We connect Barcelona– which will start in Trinitat Nova for 400 vulnerable families and which will address the issue from different dimensions.
Connectivity, devices and training
They will be provided with a good internet connection, but they will also be given devices and they will be trained with the necessary knowledge to take advantage of it.
“Never before has a project in the world addressed the three dimensions of the digital divide: connectivity, devices and training,” highlights the Deputy Mayor for Digital Transition, Laia Bonet, who presented the project yesterday along with a large part of those involved.
400 families
That same aspect was highlighted by the president of the Taula del Tercer Sector, Francina Alsina. “Internet access is not the only barrier, so are access to devices and the use that is made,” said Alsina.
Once the connection is installed in the homes of the 400 chosen families and computers and tablets are provided, some of them will be offered specific training and will be accompanied with support and stimulation actions.
Zero digital divide
Others, on the other hand, will be offered the connection and the devices but not the training, to be able to evaluate the impact that these programs have during a year, coinciding with the 2021-2022 school year.
At the same time, in this period, the actions that are most effective will be analyzed to define clear digital policies that can be extended to the rest of the city and allow progress towards the ambitious goal of the zero digital divide in the future.
Mobile World Congress
About thirty organizations, between entities and companies, have been involved in the pilot project. There are the majority of telecommunications operators (Vodafone, Orange, Parlem …), manufacturers of digital devices (Lenovo, Toshiba, Microsoft …) and even representatives of the technological ecosystem such as the Mobile World Congresss organization and the Mobile World foundation Capital.
At the same time, third sector entities (Cáritas, esplais foundations, the Red Cross …) and the Nou Barris district itself have also been involved to reach the families who need it most through the Trinitat Nova school institute, the neighborhood casal, the outpatient clinic, the library or the neighborhood association, among others.
New Trinity
The fact of starting the project in Trinitat Nova is due to the fact that it is one of the neighborhoods that concentrate some of the lowest incomes in the city and one of the largest nuclei of people in a situation of registered digital divide.
In addition, it is the neighborhood that has accumulated the most inquiries to carry out electronic procedures within the framework of the neighborhood plan in recent years.
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