#discussionpaper

The driving force behind the IDEA Summit, held in June 2013, was to better understand:

How might Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people leverage digital technology to increase wellbeing for themselves and their community?

When the Indigenous Digital Excellence (IDX) Initiative was announced at the Summit, the NCIE’s and Telstra Foundation’s hope was that we could build upon the important learnings and insights from participants at the Summit to see IDX thrive.

The key themes from the summit (as outlined in Summit summary report (PDF 2.2MB)) are an example of what participants highlighted as being critical for success. The project ideas that were workshopped at the Summit also provided important clues as to what was important to community, and what IDX might look like in practice.

A number of co-designers at the Summit were invited to expand on their thinking in the form of a series of essays—entitled Making the Connection—that were published in December last year (2014). While we view these essays as an important contribution to the dialogue surrounding IDX, since the authoring of those essays (which occurred in the months proceeding the Summit) we have had the opportunity to dive more deeply into the topic of Indigenous participation in the digital economy, primarily through the activities of the IDX Initiative.

We’ve shared a lot of this thinking (and its evolution) as we went, in conversations with dozens of people in community, but also on this weblog—things like the 3Ps model and AUDIO framework, for example. And we’ve also had some ideas and thoughts around objectives for how IndigenousDX can be fostered and thrive.

We’ve collated these thoughts into a discussion paper—The Indigenous Digital Excellence Vision—which is now available for download (PDF 937KB) from the IDX website (or we have printed copies that are available by request).

The document is structured in three parts. Part 1: What is IDX? sets out to create a more robust definition of what IDX is. Part 2: How can IDX thrive? presents one perspective on how we might bolster examples of Indigenous Digital Excellence, and get to a point where we can develop and implement robust policy (in the context/form of a National IDX Strategy). Part 3: Background and context pulls together the case for Indigenous Digital Excellence: why we think it’s important, what we know to date, our journey so far, and the type of outcomes the expression of IDX might achieve.

Reinforced throughout is the fact that we see IDX as a reflection of the great work that’s already happening in community, and that we hope to see gain greater support (like the Yijala Yala Project, pictured in the excerpt from the paper above). So we’ve also highlighted a number of examples what we consider are examples of IDX in practice across the paper. We know that a lot of effort has already been put into this goal in the community—some folks we know have been working in this space for decades. So, for some of you at least, elements of what’s outlined in this document may not be all that new.

What we hope we have achieved, though, is a clear articulation of the opportunity that IDX represents, what it means, and ultimately to inspire a diversity of action and greater support into IDX-related projects. To see IDX grow and advance, with organisations and individuals across the country getting behind (and benefiting from) the concept, not just through our actions, as an Initiative.

As Jason Glanville, CEO of the NCIE, says in his opening remarks:

The NCIE is excited to be at the forefront of IDX, but we know it’s something that is much bigger than us. It is about our people and our communities. We developed this paper to continue the conversation and to encourage more thinking, more creativity and more engagement in pursuing excellence.