The objective of the Fondazione Italia Digitale is to constitute the privileged place for the discussion and development of digital policies at Italian and European level.
The Foundation was born from the experience of the PA Social Association On the strength of its vast membership and of an intense and fruitful dialogue with all public and private actors involved in the development of the digital ecosystem, PA Social authoritatively represents the operators of the ‘new’ communication and information in the Public Administration, exercising an important task of developing practices and skills but also of representing this world vis-à-vis the highest institutional, political and private actors.
The Fondazione Italia Digitale is intended to build a natural development of the work carried out in recent years by PA Social, gathering additional energies (private and public) and aiming to be a point of reference in the digital world at 360°.
The area of action is the development of the most appropriate digital policies to best cope with the tumultuous changes taking place in the social, cultural, political and economic environment.
The scenario we are witnessing definitely calls for such action. Indeed, a profound transition is taking place in recent years, from a society organised vertically, by hierarchical roles, to a kind of horizontal, participative society, characterised by ‘platform democracy’. This enormous change of perspective involves many important and sensitive areas It is often demonised because of the fear that change always generates, and because of the obvious upheaval of established balances. Rather, it requires paradigm shifts, the development of skills and attitudes, and the development of an appropriate formal and informal regulatory framework The pandemic then opened up a new scenario in a short space of time, accelerating many paths, shining a huge spotlight on the many digital issues, creating virtuous and innovative paths but also points of tension and fractures..
To do this, the Foundation interfaces with digital communication stakeholders. These certainly include public authorities and political power, but also private companies, individuals, all the more so if they are authoritative and have distinctive skills, other foundations, organisations and think tanks.
The foundation is intended to be the physical and digital place where stakeholders meet to talk about these issues, discuss possible solutions, elaborate operational hypotheses by entering into or stimulating questions such as the action of the Authorities on these issues; the role of action at EU level; the division of public and private roles; and so on.
To do this, it develops a relational dimension and activity that is associated in parallel with the scientific one, in the style of 'pragmatic visionaries'. This objective, however, corresponds to an obvious gap, if only at a national level; there is a lack of subjects (associations, foundations, think tanks, etc.) capable of interacting on digital issues in a competent, in-depth and fruitful manner. Interacting with political power is an important dimension of the Foundation's role. The Foundation presents itself as a neutral subject, without 'other' economic interests, which enables it to reflect and manage change beyond the albeit legitimate role of private individuals who intervene in various ways in transformations and shifts in paradigms and balances.