About US

The Center for Inclusive Digital Enterprise (CeIDE – pronounced “seed”) was founded in 2018 and became a research partner of the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (www.diaa.nz) in 2019 with the shared purpose of advocating for policy changes with thought leadership and evidence-driven recommendations.

The overarching vision of CeIDE is a collective focus on bringing about digital inclusion and equity for the well-being of the currently disadvantaged communities. Consistent with the ideals of “tech for good”, CeIDE believes that digital inclusion is a fundamental and universal right of active citizenship and should contribute to the growth and development of all all.

As the Cyber Future Foundation puts it: We are a collective of committed scholars actively building trust and inclusion in cyberspace. Whereas the future is promising, confident, bright and positive – not because we are utopian or positivist in perspective, but because that’s the most desirable outcome for humanity to lead into a digital and connected future – with hope, and humility we collaborate, cooperate and co-create this future together for ourselves, our future generations, and the global village in which we live.

A McKinsey Global Institute Discussion Paper (May 2019) declared that: “The development and adoption of advanced technologies including smart automation and artificial intelligence has the potential not only to raise productivity and GDP growth but also to improve well-being more broadly, including through healthier life and longevity and more leisure. Alongside such benefits, these technologies also have the potential to reduce disruption and the potentially destabilizing effects on society arising from their adoption”.

In short, CeIDE was established to undertake research-informed advocacy for the currently dis-enfranchised to benefit from such digital opportunities.

Vision

CeIDE’s current mission is field research on “tech for good” and “inclusive digital enterprise”. It goes beyond addressing socio-economic inequality in that we examine whether a level digital playing field can counter the adverse impact of the 4th industrial revolution, particularly Generative AI, big data, etc., among the vulnerable and the unfair advantage of intellectual (ie structural, human and relational) capital per se. CeIDE will hence reach out to the socio-economically disadvantaged segments of society such as the indigenous people, disabled, elderly, trans-migrant and small-local business communities. Domains of interest include digital health, online education, electronic governance, and digital citizenship.

At its core, CeIDE will develop systems-based narratives that could transform segments within our society to a state where they would demonstrably be better off than before. A unique characteristic of the research initiatives at CeIDE will be the use of data analytics and knowledge discovery in conjunction with action design research (ADR) and thinking in the development of “rich narratives” that capture the transformation of the currently social-economically disadvantaged to becoming more digitally empowered.