Digitalization—what a big word!

Dear model airplane enthusiasts

Not too long ago, we—especially from the federal government in Bern—were bombarded almost daily with appeals, lectures, and warnings about an impending economic decline without digitalization. To what extent the average citizen understood these messages—or could even make sense of them to some degree—remains to be seen. Most of us, however, have been forced into digitalization. Banks, government agencies, and even associations are demanding more and more self-service from their customers, citizens, and members. Everywhere we go, we have to log in and enter data—from energy bills to money transfers, and so on. Only very rarely do these personal efforts result in fee reductions, since

they were ultimately intended to help service providers work more efficiently. In other words, citizens have quietly grown accustomed to the achievements of digitalization—likely also because they are constantly forced to do so. But what about our “leaders”? The coronavirus pandemic has apparently laid this bare in a brutal way. In the federal administration, communication with cantonal branch offices still takes place via fax, and video conferences are organized using the aging Skype platform. During the Council of States debate on exempting model aircraft from the EU drone regulation, Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga remarked that the registration requirement couldn’t possibly be a problem—it could be handled with a single mouse click. So

she may well be right. However, I seriously doubt whether her departments—DETEC and FOCA—would be capable of processing the entire data flow in a timely and secure manner, and the EU’s ideas on this matter are nothing short of ridiculous.

Sincerely,
Emil Ch. Giezendanner