MAKING A SPLASH IN THE DIGITAL POOL

Infoxchange has been recognised in Australia and internationally as a creative social enterprise delivering on the vision of Technology for Social Justice. This year, Infoxchange won both the Victorian and the National Australian Information Industry Association’s iAward for our work on e-Inclusion and recently were Highly Commended in the Australian and New Zealand Internet Awards for our work connecting low-income communities.

The Infoxchange story makes one thing very clear: digital inclusion is a complement to promoting and sustaining a democratic society.

Digital inclusion is a key to social inclusion and is a strategy that nurtures a civil society.

It is a strong philosophical claim to assert that digital inclusion is a means of sustaining democracy and nurturing civil society.

Even without such a grand claim, however, lesser claims for digital inclusion are quite profound.

A digitally inclusive society:

• improves living standards
• meets social needs
• eliminates social exclusion through the accumulation and sharing of knowledge for creativity, innovation and production
• uses networking as the central principle of cooperation essential for further societal growth.

Having a digitally proficient community sector can:

• improve the opportunity for the homeless to get better access to a bed
• enable the person seeking respite to find time out
• enable the unemployed to find a job
• enable the hungry to find a meal
• enable mental health sufferers to find peace.

After twenty-three years, this is my final report as Founding Executive Director of Infoxchange Australia.I am extraordinarily lucky to have been able to make a contribution to the building of a fair, equitable and just society. Infoxchange is well placed both financially and through its clever and creative staff team to continue to make a significant contribution to civil society.

I thank you all and invite you to view the Infoxchange Australia e –Annual Report for 2011 

Click here to view the Infoxchange Australia Annual report 2011