Date: Wed 29 July 2020, from 7 – 9 PM

Moderator: Prof Sofia Morales (Project Leader / Executive Committee Member, Internet Society Singapore Chapter)
Speakers:
Professor Sun Sun Lim – contextual background on internet penetration and device adoption rates, the need for metrics to be refined, and research on ‘invisible illiteracies’
Professor Irene Y.H. Ng – implications of a digital divide to low-income households and society, why universal digital inclusion is necessary
Professor Natalie Pang – the laptops initiative, research on digital equity, findings on conceptualising ‘vulnerability’ in digital information practices

More details and speaker bios below

This meeting is to create awareness about different layers of the digital divide, exploring the complex reality of this issue that has been simplified as lack of connectivity and technology. Discussions about this intricate reality are needed to identify different levels of the problem, to find possible and more adequate solutions.
Current initiatives to mitigate the problem will be explained and discussed to recognize the efforts made and its real impact on the inclusion.
——————————-
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
——————————-
Sun Sun Lim is Professor of Communication and Technology and Head of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. She has extensively researched the social impact of technology, delving into technology domestication, digital disruptions and smart city technologies. She recently published Transcendent Parenting – Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society (Oxford University Press, 2020). She serves on eleven journal editorial boards and several public bodies including the Media Literacy Council and the Singapore Environment Council. From 2018-2020 she was a Nominated Member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore. She frequently offers her expert commentary in diverse outlets including Nature, Scientific American, Channel NewsAsia, Business Times and Straits Times.

Irene Y.H. Ng is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Director of the Social Service Research Centre in the National University of Singapore. She holds a joint Ph.D. in Social Work and Economics from the University of Michigan. Her research areas include poverty and inequality, intergenerational mobility, and social welfare policy. Her research projects include a study of in-work poverty among the young; an evaluation of a national Work Support program; National Youth Surveys 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019; a study of low-income households with debt; and an evaluation of Social Service Offices. She is active in the community, serving or having served in committees in the Ministry of Social and Family Development, National Council of Social Service, Ministry of Manpower, and various voluntary welfare organizations. Her teaching areas include poverty, policy, welfare economics, and program planning.

Natalie Pang is Senior Lecturer at Communications and New Media Department as well as Principal Investigator at the Centre for Trusted Internet and Community, both at the National University of Singapore. She completed her PhD in Information Technology at Monash University, where her doctoral work earned two university awards and contributed to a state nomination of leadership in the arts. Her research areas include digital citizenship, digital humanities, datafication and digital well-being. Her latest publication on vulnerability in youth digital information practices has recently won the 2020 Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Competition Award from the Association for Library and Information Science Education.