IN our introductory article, we outlined nine critical components of a digital society:

• Digital Etiquette

• Digital Access

• Digital Law

• Digital Communication

• Digital Literacy

• Digital Commerce

• Digital Rights & Responsibilities

• Digital Privacy & Security

• Digital Health & Wellness

Each of these components fit into one of 3 overarching categories: Respect, Educate, Secure.

This article will look at the first three components of a digital society: digital etiquette, digital access, and digital law, which fall under the umbrella of ‘Respect’.

Digital access speaks to the equitable distribution of technology and online resources, making sure that the citizenry have easy access to hardware devices, software, and services that allow for the realisation of the benefits of the digital realm. Sometimes this poses a challenge for most developing economies, stemming from a variety of prohibiting factors. Cost is perhaps the most significant limiting factor; however, innovative import and taxation regimes, increased use of free/open-source software, and more innovative Internet access provisioning can go a far way to achieving this goal.

Of course, after you make it easy to get the tools to participate, it is essential to establish standards of conduct or procedures when using digital devices, software, and services. This is what is termed digital etiquette. These standards apply to businesses and individuals, and work hand in hand with a comprehensive digital literacy programme. A programme of digital etiquette must begin at the level of our primary education system and is a continuous programme that must exist throughout all facets of the work/life modality.

Finally, we have digital law. Greater activity in the online digital space presents various opportunities for positive and negative interactions or activities. The advent of social media and other forms of accessible, dynamic communication has demonstrated this. The increase in online scams and nefarious activities have shown us this as well. Therefore, it becomes necessary to ensure that there is adequate governance of this space so that participants enjoy a worthwhile experience while having a means of recourse should lines be crossed. Digital law deals with the legal rights and restrictions governing technology use. In Jamaica, we have been doing an excellent job keeping our legal framework in tune with this. Currently, we have several laws on our books directly related to this space. These include:

• Electronic Transactions Act

• Cybercrimes Act

• Data Protection Act

In our next article we will look at the ‘Educate’ category, which includes digital literacy, commerce and communication.

Trevor Forrest is the founder and CEO of 876 Technology Solutions. Christopher Reckord is CEO of managed IT services provider tTech Limited. Collectively, they have approximately 80 years of experience helping organisations of varying sizes procure and implement information technology solutions and transform digitally.