On Wednesday, April 15, the Transformative Innovation Unit of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia organized an innovation camp on cybersecurity and the digital divide with the aim of finding joint solutions to two complex challenges: the role of citizens in cybersecurity and community action and of public administration for digital inclusion. In this context, Mar Beneyto, professor at the Faculty of Education, Translation, Sports and Psychology of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia and researcher at the Educational Research Group of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia and the Digital Social Innovation Laboratory of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia, presented the Vic Digital Facilitation Network. "This is a community project that aims to promote digital inclusion based on support processes among citizens," explains Beneyto. "We are different entities that offer several points where people can go with specific doubts about the technological field and receive personalized support and shared learning. We want to reduce the digital gap in the city of Vic. According to our needs survey, we have seen how this goes far beyond one generation and reaches young people, for example, with digital procedures," says Albert Rivas, technician for the Vic Community.
Specifically, in 2021, in the city of Vic and as a result of the will of the Vic City Council, the first synergies between the different agents of the territory occurred. "We were different agents of the territory who began to network, to debate, to talk and to work together on how to contribute to reducing the digital divide in our city. In 2023, the network was born. Over the course of these three years, we have mainly provided support in digital procedures, responding to the needs of citizens", explains Beneyto. "From the Digital Social Innovation Laboratory, for example, we contribute by teaching, researching and training, that is, we participate in management meetings, we do research on the impact of the network and on digital inequalities in the city and we deepen the training of volunteers", adds Beneyto. Currently, the members of the Vic Digital Facilitation Network are the Vic City Council , the Vic Community , the Punt Òmnia Pla del Remei , the Osona Red Cross, the Digital Social Innovation Laboratory of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia and the El Remei Primary Care Center. "There is a driving team made up of different agents from the territory and at the same time we have a team of collaborating entities, associations and organizations that participate by offering spaces and providing volunteers," Rivas specifies.
Therefore, the Vic Digital Facilitation Network seeks to be a practical case study on how to promote digital democratization throughout the territory. "In digital issues, there is a very key factor, which is the network you have to ask for help. The Vic Digital Facilitation Network responds to this need. Although we are a small proposal from a specific municipality, we are a collective resistance in a world that advances digitally very quickly and sometimes in a very perverse way", reflects Beneyto. "Our purpose is to generate a network of mutual support where the neighbors themselves can lend a hand to each other to reduce this digital gap and generate spaces of shared facilitation in the city of Vic", elaborates Rivas.