We heard from Kate Russell, hosting the discussion between speakers including Geoff York, Digital Transformation Lead from Sapient Razorfish; Alison Freer, Director at durhamlane, and Alison McKenzie-Folan, Deputy CEO at Wigan Council.

See the full recording here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL-dJIEIRPT5eXo3h4Ia6lWmCQGWpjrsid&v=OzxsLqDSHY8

Alison Freer talks culture change, legacy, digital as a utility and engaging employees:

https://youtu.be/H9dUXveM0LA

Alison McKenzie-Folan says be courageous when it comes to digital transformation:

https://youtu.be/Ci9vdnA_HVg

Geoff York talks culture, change management and putting people at the heart of transformation:

https://youtu.be/rgaDmmXZWAw

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On Tuesday 20 June we had a webinar presented by Tris Lumley, Director of Innovation & Development, Compliance Director and Andrew Weston, Policy & Development Officer from NPC, discussing ‘Helping young people face complex challenges using technology’. Find the Webinar recording here:

On Tuesday, we also heard David McGlade, the Cyber Security lead at Kainos, present a webinar ‘Are you at risk of a cyber attack?’ He took us through the threats that exist today, their impact on sectors and how you and your organisation can be best prepared to meet the rapid surge in cyber security incidents. Find Kainos’ full webinar recording here:

Are you at risk of a cyber attack? from Kainos on Vimeo.

Then on Tuesday evening, Kate Russell presented her ‘favourite episode’ of DLTV, where she interviewed experts from various sectors, including Jake Kennard, Co-founder of Kets Quantum; Shadi Razak, CTO at CyNation and Bruno Huttner, Quantum Safe Product Manager at ID Quantique. The speakers discussed the current state of quantum technologies, as well as the role of the government in accelerating its commercialisation in an effective and safe manner. Find the episode recording here:

Also on Tuesday AXSChat hosted an event on Inclusive Digital Leaders with Jacqueline de Rojas.  The AXSChat team Neil Milliken, England, Antonio Santos, Ireland and Debra Ruh, Virginia interviewed Jacqueline about Inclusive Digital Leaders and why society functions better when every citizen can participate and contribute in the technology and communications landscape. Find the interview recording here:

The final Webinar on Wednesday 21, was presented by Jane Walshe of Enforcd, joined by Mathias Wegmueller, Co-founder and Head of Business Development, Qumram, and Wendy Jephson, Co-Founder & Chief Behavioral Scientist at Sybenetix. The speakers discussed what RegTech can do, and also possible pitfalls to be avoided in its use. Find the Webinar recording here:

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The French government who introduced electronic voting for those living abroad for their 2012 presidential election, last month revoked the right of French Nationals to vote electronically next week, referring to the threat of external hacking. Since then, the e-voting debate has been reinvigorated, years after it was being piloted across Western Europe.

Liberal Emanuelle Macron stated this week that electronic voting should be available to all of France by the next presidential election in 2022 and Conservative François Fillon called for e-voting to be re-established for French Nationals abroad in time for then.

In the age of digital transformation, the failure of large Western European states to adopt successful e-voting systems is perplexing.

The issue has been that hacking has been able to adapt to innovations in cyber resilience and that the systems that have been piloted haven’t been transparent enough to earn the trust of average voters. Last year, California, Florida and New Jersey piloted online voting for the presidential election and the hackers immediately sought to overwhelm it, with cybersecurity start-up Cylance immediately stating that they could hack their system.

The French election comes weeks after the Netherlands election. It marked 10 years since the Dutch outlawed electronic voting. The 2007 decision was largely put down to “reliability and risk” and followed a highly controversial 2006 election, in which 90% of votes were cast online. Investigations found that the machines were not secure, with an ineffective security lock making it possible to wirelessly connect to the machines from a radius of 10 metres.

The German Constitutional Court banned the use of NEDAP voting machines in 2005, stating that elections had to be “public in nature”, stressing the need for transparency.

Ireland bought e-voting machines, but they were suspended from use after a small pilot before being scrapped in 2010. The Irish press referred to this as the “e-voting scandal”. Despite this, the Irish announced last month that they were going to explore the introduction of electronic voting for citizens living abroad.

In the UK, online voting was piloted 5 times between 2000 and 2006, but then discontinued. Last year John Penrose MP stated on behalf of the Government that the UK did “not have any plans to introduce electronic voting … in poling booths or remotely via the Internet”.

Estonia, which has an electorate of fewer than 900,000 people, is the only EU country with successful long term electronic voting in place for all citizens.

There should naturally be a demand for trustworthy transparent electronic voting. During current election counts in the UK, each candidate will send polling agents to a town hall at which party members will watch over independent counters sieving through paper ballots in order to confirm the democratic legitimacy of an election. It has historically led to election results not being known until the early hours of the morning, with some constituencies not releasing results until the following day or later.

There has been a participation crisis in some European Democracies and it is thought that electronic voting could have positive implications for turnout, particularly among young people. Last year, in a regional online poll conducted in the Veneto, Italy, turnout was over 60% in a non-binding referendum on their position within Italy. In Estonia, scholars have found that “casual voters” that make up 10-15% of their current electorate probably wouldn’t have voted if the online option hadn’t been available.

In the coming weeks, without the benefits of electronic voting, the French and Europe will face an agonising wait to find out the election result.

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The Parliament voted the resolution down, but clearly the idea of taxing robots is being considered as are dealing with their consequences to the human labour force. It has been suggested that a Robot Tax” is a potential way to finance the introduction of Universal Income, currently being piloted in parts of Finland. The introduction of a Universal Income along with taxation on artificial intelligence (AI) has also become a policy platform for French Socialist Presidential candidate Benoit Hamon.

The report behind the European Parliament resolution was about more than taxing robots and also raised various legal and ethical issues relating to the development of AI and robotics in the workplace. The suggestion is that as AI replaces jobs currently done by humans, so taxes paid by these workers will reduce and this will see a squeezing of the government budget to deal with this workplace disruption combined with more people out of work, reducing household incomes. Replacement of blue-collar workers has been happening for some time, but more recently, the impacts of AI are looking like they will have a negative effect on white-collar unemployment.

There is evidence to back up this view that use of AI is accelerating with the sale of robots in the EU increasing by 29% in 2015, having averaged just 17% per year from 2010-2014. In addition, major disruptors like Amazon have been piloting a “clicks to bricks” strategy in which consumers can go into an Amazon outlet with no checkouts or check out staff. Such moves could lead to many families’ incomes being reduced by losing a second income from such store jobs.

Taxing AI or a robot tax has been criticised by some as a burden on innovation and a backwards step in digital development, but last week talking to Forbes, Bill Gates came out on the side of taxing robots saying “if you can take the labour that used to do the thing automation replaced, and financially and training-wise and fulfilment-wise have that person go off and do other things, then you’re net ahead. But you can’t just give up that income tax, because that’s part of how you’ve been funding it”

Back in the UK, there has not yet been any comment from the government on taxing robots. In a recent article, the Financial Times ran a piece briefly exploring the possibility of the UK government introducing a tax on robots to fund the shortfall in public finances having given self imposed bans on raising income tax, VAT and national insurance. Despite this, a look at press coverage in the UK suggests that the concept of a Robot Tax is not yet being debated this side of the channel.

Back in the European Parliament, the European Commissioner for research science and innovation, Carlos Moedas, speaking in the debate said, “This is only the beginning. Without doubt we need to frame and facilitate the technical revolution brought by autonomous systems”. So it seems that like the robots of the future may inevitably face death and taxes alongside the rest of us.

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In light of the challenges of public participation at the European level, the panel discussed what the next steps should be. Suggestions included innovation, deliberation and piloting small initiatives, using local examples to learn. 

The OpenEU report was described as a useful starting point. The report analyses the existing practice of open policy making in the UK and similar approaches at EU level. The findings strongly suggest that there is appetite for increased openness in the EU and potential for open policy making to work at this level, with a productive partnership possible between institutions and civil society. The recommendations suggest proposals for the Commission and open policy making pilots linking national and local levels, with close monitoring and evaluation. 

Read more about the Open EU Project here.

What is open policy making?

It is a method for making government policy which brings in contributions, not just from civil servants, but from a wider and more networked college of people whom the policy will affect. Open policy making is a move from traditional hierarchically organised, government-bubble policy making. It’s a term that originated in the UK government’s civil service reform work.

Open policy making and the EU

To most citizens EU policy processes can seem complex and difficult to engage with, but civil society and policy makers share a common interest in creating better conversations and a wider range of perspectives on policy. The European Commission’s approach to open policy making has followed developments elsewhere. As public sector practice has developed, the EU’s practice has developed, but it has not sought to position itself as an innovator. In this context, we discuss several initiatives, such as Plan D, the 2001 White Paper on Governance, and the most recent Better Regulation proposals.

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The Salon was joined by five inspiring speakers: Laure Batut, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee, Dana Eleftheriadou, Policy Coordinator at DG GROW and EU Coordinator of the Strategic Policy Forum on Digital Entrepreneurship, Caroline Bergaud, Head of EU Partnerships at Mind the Bridge Foundation, Bogdan Ceobanu, Policy Officer at Entrepreneurship & Innovation, DG CONNECT, European Commission and Emilio Corchado, Coordinator of the WELCOME Project.

Digital Transformation

The importance of Digital opportunities for EU businesses was highlighted during the Salon. Digital is evolving rapidly, affecting work, business and learning, and transforming the traditional sectors of the community. Digital can make an important contribution to accomplishing economic recovery and reducing unemployment but it was suggested that there is still a long way to go. ‘Digital Transformation of European Industry and Enterprises‘, a report from the Strategic Policy Forum on Digital Entrepreneurship, highlights the potential for growth but also where Europe has been falling behind. When looking to countries such as Sweden or the US, it is evident that there is much more potential that could be achieved in Europe for increasing jobs and employment through adopting different formats.

Furthermore, there has been a large decline in the number of ICT graduates, and thus a decline in skilled workers, which means it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill Digital jobs. The skills gap could be filled by introducing IT education in primary schools, the use of specialised e-learning tools. There is also potential in using educational programmes, such as those provided by Mind the Bridge Foundation, to support the development of entrepreneurship to produce high quality startups.

Entrepreneurship is for everyone

Europe has a rich history of producing internationally-renowned digital businesses in sectors including music, gaming, fashion, travel, FinTech, food delivery and apps. 25 unicorns (billion dollar companies) have already been identified. Startup Europe is a programme that promotes entrepreneurship in Europe, creating a business environment that supports digital ideas and business to grow. It was argued that the current social model cannot be sustained so there is a need to generate more entrepreneurship; indeed “the biggest risk is to take no risk”.

One of the key areas of discussion was around the pros and cons of supporting startups to scale up. Should we nurture startups and keep them in Europe rather than sell them off and let the business move out of Europe? It was suggested that the acquisition of startups often created jobs in Europe and that the money generated from selling startups is frequently reinvested in new European startups. However there is a need to understand more about the role of startups in generating employment and rate of success and failure.

“Data is the new oil”

The idea of data as the next big commodity for investment was discussed. An investment plan for Europe lays out how the European Commission intends to address the investment gap that currently exists in the digital business market. Through revitalising the economy with investment, the private sector will be encouraged to invest further investment in digital businesses. The cooperation between businesses, especially SMEs, and government to secure investment and financial support, including through non-traditional methods such as crowdfunding, is of particular importance in addressing this issue.

Discussing the proliferation of available data, the issue of protecting the rights of users and developers in terms of privacy, children and cyber security was raised. Big data needs protection for which education, forging global partnerships and investment are essential. It is important that as Digital transforms businesses in Europe the fundamental rights of its citizens are not overlooked.

To find out more about the programmes discussed, click here to view the presentations from the Salon.

Eleanor Radford is the Digital Leaders Manager

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