Today, the temporary committee on the Digital Future (Tijdelijke Commissie Digitale Toekomst, TCDT) presented its final report, ‘Update required – towards greater parliamentary control on digitisation‘, to the Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives, Khadija Arib. In July 2019, the TCDT was set up to investigate how the Dutch House of Representatives could get a better grip on the subject of digitisation. The TCDT has concluded that the first step is to set up a standing Parliamentary Committee on Digital Affairs, starting from the next legislative period.
A number of academics from VSNU’s Digital Society research programme offered their insights to the committee in two dialogue sessions, which included both data scientists and their colleagues from social sciences and humanities. In addition, Digital Society coordinator Inald Lagendijk joined the parliamentary committee’s advisory group and fact sheets were produced for the committee members to better grasp the challenges of digitalisation. This collaboration was kindly facilitated through ‘Parlement & Wetenschap’.
The Digital Society programme aims to contribute to the public and societal discourse on digitalisation and its impact on society. Together, the universities strive to enable the Netherlands as a global pioneer in human-centred information technology.
