Q. Digital Equity has many definitions. What are they?

Digital Equity Terminology 

1. Digital Equity 

"Digital equity is a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy. Digital equity is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning and access to essential services." 

• Digital Equity Playbook: How City Leaders Can Bridge the digital divide. National League of Cities. (2021, December 16). Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nlc.org/resource/digital-equity-playbook-how-city-leaders-can-bridge-the-digital-divide/ 
   

2. Digital Belonging 

Accompanying or membership in a digital space supporting equitable access, benefits, services, and equal rights where digital accommodations are available at school, work or in public. Digital belonging does not support affinity bias and works to build relationships directly impacting access to opportunities for growth and development. 

1. "[D]iversity directly impacts [a person’s] ability to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace...[It] positively impact[s][the] ability to problem solve, embrace innovation, build collaborative cultures, and achieve goals. " 

2. https://www.hrzone.com/lead/culture/belonging-the-forgotten-tenet-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion 
    
    

3. Digital Inclusion 

Digital Inclusion refers to the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).  This includes five elements: 

1. Affordable, robust broadband internet service; 

2. Internet-enabled devices that meet the needs of the user; 

3. Access to digital literacy training; 

4. Quality technical support

5. Applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation and collaboration. 

Digital Inclusion must evolve as technology advances. Digital Inclusion requires intentional strategies and investments to reduce and eliminate historical, institutional and structural barriers to access and use technology. 
 
https://www.digitalinclusion.org/definitions/ 

4. Digital Justice 

"Digital justice, in the corrective sense, concerns the rectification of past wrongs – that is, harms that have already been done to an individual or a group. Often, such correction is carried out by imposing a correlative liability on the responsible wrongdoer. Corrective injustices occur, for example, when the extent of harms is underappreciated or they go fully unnoticed, when there is no accountability or when there are no effective pathways for redressing harms to individuals or groups."  (examples) 

2. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Pathways_to_Digital_Justice_2021.pdf 
    

5. Digital Discrimination 

1. *Digital-Related = An action that provides evidence that technology use or actions, directly or indirectly affected and or affecting negatively services, accomodations, and products that established and or defines, teaches, trains, enhances the outcomes of digital equity, digital literacy, digital civil rights, and cybersecurity equal rights. 
    

6. Digital Literacy 

"Like information literacy, digital literacy requires skills in locating and using information and in critical thinking. Beyond that, however, digital literacy involves knowing digital tools and using them in communicative, collaborative ways through social engagement. ALA’s Digital Literacy Task Force defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” 

https://literacy.ala.org/digital-literacy/ 
 

7. Digital Redlining 

"The term was popularized by Dr. Chris Gilliard, a privacy scholar, who defines digital redlining as "the creation and maintenance of tech practices, policies, pedagogies, and investment decisions that enforce class boundaries and discriminate against specific groups.” 

1. Example: Refusing to offer to use WebEx for those located at other campuses, for a campus meeting that does require exclusivity. 

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_redlining 

8. Algorithm Bias 

Algorithmic bias describes systematic and repeatable errors in a computer system that create "unfair" outcomes, such as "privileging" one category over another in ways different from the intended function of the algorithm. This bias can have impacts ranging from inadvertent privacy violations to reinforcing social biases of race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. 

1. Example: For example, algorithmic bias has been observed in search engine results and social media platforms. 

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm 
    

9. AI and Human Rights 

“Best practices related to Al and Human Rights, such as those developed by the UN, and those that appear as recurring themes in this report, [regarding] best practices [found in some] [r]esponsible [t]echnology reports…These themes and values include”: 

   • Transparency                            •  Privacy by default       

   • Explainability                             •  Participant centered 

   • User Notification & Consent      •  Conducting impact assessments 

   • Oversight & Accountability        •  Creating standards, regulation    

                                                         and legislation 

                                                       • Due Process & Redress 

https://alltechishuman.org/ai-human-rights-report 
 

10. Cybersecurity Equity 

Cybersecurity and Human Rights 

“Digital technologies present new and unforeseen challenges to human rights and security, which will require more documentation, research and analysis. Until cybersecurity and human rights are understood and treated as mutually reinforcing and complementary, both will suffer.” 

“The danger of cyber insecurity should never be used as pretext to violate human rights. Instead, recognizing that individual and collective security is at the core of cybersecurity means that protection for human rights should be at the center of cybersecurity policy development.” 

https://www.apc.org/en/news/why-cybersecurity-human-rights-issue-and-it-time-start-treating-it-one