After months of hiatus, one of the engine in Center for Digital Society UGM (CfDS) signature event, DigiTalk, is revived for the fourth time. This time, the issue covered is ICT and Community Development, presented by Mr. Eka Indarto, the Research and Development Head at the Jogja Media Net. The fourth edition was held on June 2nd, at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM. The speaker is one of the most renowned ICT practitioner in the country, as he is heavily engaged with a lot of ICT-related capacitation project initiated by many stakeholders in the country, including the government. His expertise in field exercise on ICT and Development is too-rare not to share.

The discussion opened with the current state of information society, and the orientation of people when it comes to ICT and its utilization. The trend shows that there has been indeed tremendous progress onto a different realm of social life where digital platforms take place as the basic foundation. The transformation that takes place within our society, particularly in Indonesia has also brought consequences into the patterns of technological use and eventually demand, coming from the society itself. Certain approach needs to be opted in order to foster ample development and capacitation of ICT and basic technological needs throughout our nation evenly.

The dichotomy of infrastructure development and ICT capacitation, and the current global trend on the issue were also offered as an alternative view. The speaker quoted that technology is not an issue when it comes to ICT capacitation, as many stakeholders are involved in ICT inventions, and everyday new technology is invented to better equip development agenda. However, the stumbling stone that comes with the effort is the awareness from the wide population, where most of them are unaware of such ‘smart’ environment they are living in, and they are moving towards becoming a digital society. Departing from this point of view, the speaker then began to share his in-field experiences on ICT development in rural places in the country.

“the stumbling stone that comes with the effort is the awareness from the wide population, where most of them are unaware of such ‘smart’ environment they are living in, and they are moving towards becoming a digital society.”

The government of Indonesia has actually put a slight interest on the ICT and development in the country with Indonesia Broadband Plan, launched in 2013, as its main arsenal in the issue. However, the plan, which is aimed to have everyone equipped with mobile connection (among several of its aims) has not shown a promising result so far. There are yet to be disparity in internet usage and utilization, as for now, only around 30% of Indonesians are internet users. Another plan penned by the government is 1 million domain program. This is targeted to small and medium enterprises in the country to enhance their marketing strategy with digital modes, particularly websites with free domains from the government. Targeting small and medium enterprises becomes paramount, as small and medium enterprises as well as home economy still holds the position as the country’s backbone in economy. Plus, community-driven economy will also empower grass root people, especially rural people with limited access to resources. This initiative has also been pulled out very recently, and the results have not been seen much.

The main problem of ICT development in the country, as what also hampers other nations is the capacitation of its people. Not everyone is well aware of the benefits from the utilization of such facilities provided by the government. Often times, people are also very limited in accessing these facilities. Empowering people with adequate ICT literacy, particularly in the ample utilization of it also lags behind. The willingness of people undoubtedly become one of the top prerequisite in the success of smart city implementation in general. Indeed, further studies and stronger efforts need to be opted by the government. Stronger commitment should not only be limited to the infrastructure capacitation, but also the knowledge capacitation of the people. No matter, Indonesia still has a long way to go.