Dylan & digitization

Digital Challenge Digitalization Integrity Skills supply Education and training Welfare technology

Come gather around people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
And if your breath to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changing

Without completely abdicating to this dramatic conclusion, it is clear to me that there are obvious similarities between the picture Dylan painted back in 1963 and the transformation Sweden and the world are facing. The transformation itself is inevitable, which means that we as a society must now decide where it will lead. We have to choose between actively taking a stand on how technology should be used to build a tomorrow as we want it, or sitting still and watching it happen... and sinking like stones.

Yesterday, the Digital Challenge think tank took stock and presented the anthology "Digitalization is real". The publication is a conclusion of the work carried out through six separate tracks in the think tank over the past two years, and deals with everything from education systems and future labor markets to the sharing economy and filter bubbles. The ambition has been to problematize and challenge the prevailing view of digitalization as a series of quick fixes for various complex societal problems.

IT&Telekomföretagen started the Digital Challenge think tank with the aim of increasing understanding of the fact that digitization means a revolutionary structural transformation for almost all areas of society. Not least among our politicians who, regardless of orientation and party affiliation, must have an answer to a number of inevitable questions in order to be able to conduct a successful policy and make wise decisions about our common future.

The think tank has delivered. The anthology is good. It does not provide all the answers, of course, but it does provide a number of very important conclusions that can help formulate policies to address the challenges and seize the opportunities presented by digitalization.

We therefore hope that you will find time, interest and benefit from this publication.

With the hope and wish for continued discussions and constructive conversations!