What we talk about when we talk about digitalization

This spring, we launched the report "One or zero?" which describes the current state of digitalization in Sweden - how we compare internationally and how fast we are approaching the government's goal of being the best in the world at taking advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalization. We wanted the report to serve as a basis for taking the discussion on digitization to the level it deserves - as a societal issue rather than a question of ones and zeros.

It's almost time for this year's Almedalen Week, and with at least a week to go, we can say that for the third year in a row, digitalization as a topic is hotter than ever. Last year, 376 of the 3750 activities in the official program were about digitalization - (so far) this year it is 487 out of 3976.

So the fact that almost everyone is talking about digitalization is still true - and good. But just like last year, and the year before that, we are not yet convinced that, despite using the same words, we are always talking about the same thing. Or for that matter, with enough depth.

We believe that there is still too much talk about digitization as an IT issue, a special interest or an industry issue. About turning analog information into digital, about automating and streamlining existing processes. And we continue to argue, with the stubbornness of the convinced, that the ongoing digitalization is something much bigger than that.

Therefore, during this year's Almedalen Week, IT&Telecom companies will also emphasize the social aspect and the customer perspective of the issue rather than the technology. This means, among other things, that we have invited a panel to our seminar on Wednesday consisting of people with two things in common: they represent areas of activity that are central to our welfare and can potentially benefit greatly from digitization, and they work mainly with community relations and advocacy work.

As we are convinced that these people have a lot of concrete contributions to make to Swedish digitalization policy, we have invited our Minister of Digitalization Peter Eriksson to lead the conversation; the minister asks the questions and the panel provides the answers.

We hope that this conversation, and many other conversations in Almedalen this year, will bring those of us who are there (and preferably a few more) a little closer to a common conviction that digitization can help solve many of our most important and urgent societal challenges and is therefore a matter of concern for all of Sweden.