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The Knowledge Volunteers Network

 

The address given by Alfonso Molina, Professor of Technology Strategy at the University of Edinburgh and Scientific Director of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale at the Knowledge Volunteers Awards Ceremony.

 

I am extremely please to be here, in this historic hall. It is a great honour to address so many outstanding volunteers who worked to help others.

I am convinced that volunteering has a crucial role in human, individual and collective development. It is necessary to successfully tackle the great challenges that this newly born 21^st century reserves to people, organization, Europe and the world. I can see the resources in you, the hope for a better future, generated through the creativity and innovation of all generations and sectors of society.

We are living in an extraordinary age of rapid and continuous technological developments, scientific progress, and social and economic dynamics. Knowledge plays a key role in each.

In the next ten years, technology will provide us with hitherto unimaginable opportunities. Great leaps ahead are being made at the scientific and technological level in the fields of robotics, nanotechnologies, genetics, semantic networks, theory of complexity and neuroscience.

Important developments are also taking place in other spheres (such as mixed and augmented virtual worlds) that lead to a future of open immersive realities that can be custom-tailored to economic, educational, social and societal needs.

This progress will lead to the diffusion of social learning and innovation, two areas that will have a fundamental impact on the future of humanity and our planet. There is no doubt that our scientific and technological know-how has developed enormously and will continue to do so, multiplying their benefits and opportunities. 

 

However, all we need to do is look around to understand that these scientific and technological developments are not accompanied by an ability to create a just, inclusive world that can extend these benefits to everyone. Quite to the contrary, we have created economic, social and cultural systems that threaten the environment and the world in which we live.

Humanity continues to grow exponentially and will probably reach 12-14 billion people by 2050. Naturally, everyone wants to access consumerism and the lifestyle of the richest countries because the global market spreads the idea that consumerism is a form of happiness.

However, we also know that this pace is not sustainable. The world needs to identify and implement new formulas for a sustainable future. This is the only way in which we can leave wars, poverty and ignorance in our past.  It’s a true dream, but today we are still far from it, although we have all the necessary tools to develop it. 

For example:

Is it not wrong that we live in a society in which everything revolves around money rather than individuals and relations with other individualss and the planet?

Is it not unreasonable that we spend billions of dollars a day while over 4 billion people live with less than four dollars a day?

Is it not absurd that we live in a world where the rich less taxes than poor people? Why should the poor pay for the selfish and insensible finance world that has lead the western world to collapse?

It is unacceptable that nearly 35% of young Italians and 50% of their Spanish counterparts are unemployed. Estimates indicate that, by 2050, two million young people will have abandoned southern Italy in search of a better life.

I believe that this is very, very unacceptable. This is why volunteering is so important for our future and especially that of the younger generations.

 

Why volunteering and what type of volunteering?I believe that the shift towards a just and inclusive world will occur only if we are able to grow by understanding the full complexity of humanity and richness of our multi-dimensional nature.

 

The most powerful and versatile tool we have, a tool far more versatile than any technology, has been created by nature and we carry it inside our bodies. The human brain is free. We know that the human brain is the most complex organ in the universe. It only weights about 1.4 kg, but contains one hundred billion neurons, each with about 7000 connections or synapses. An adult has, on average, between 100 and 500 trillion synapses; a three-year old has a quadrillion synapses.

It has been postulated that there are more potential connections amongst these neurons than atoms in the universe. 

It is a miraculous organ and the seat of our intelligence, thoughts and feelings, of our principles and values, of our imagination and creativity, and of our conscience of what is right and wrong in the world.  Our brain is constantly changing. It is constantly creating new neuronal connections that underlie learning, new knowledge, habits and, above all, new personal and social behavior. 

Today, the problem is living in a society, which forces us to think in an individualistic and consumerist manner. We must stimulate thoughts, habits and a behavior that is based on the best aspects of our human multi-dimensional nature.

In brief, we have to create educational and life-long processes that can stimulate our most virtuous actions in a continuous and vigorous manner.

Volunteering is an activity that naturally provides this type of education. We see this through the work of the many individuals and organizations that work to make our lives fuller and better. We see this in each one of you, knowledge volunteers, in the beautiful result of your work, in the time and skills you have donated through the simple desire of contributing to the community. You have helped us not only to overcome the digital divide, but also the generational gap. You have spread energy and a positive message that motivates all of us to reward the beauty and excellence that you have reached.

Knowledge volunteering is a highly educational experience that has created a solid basis to develop new approaches and activities that can elevate the educational and formative value of volunteering, transforming it into a pillar of 21st Century Education. An education that includes the development of life skills such as creativity, critical thinking, the ability to communicate and work in a team, social and personal responsibility and a range of other positive aspects that are at present not systematically incorporated into formal education. However, these are the aspects that are crucial for success in work and in the 21st century. I believe that these aspects are the key to the development of our rich multi-dimensional human nature towards thoughts, habits and behaviour that, based on our best dimensions, will help us create a more just and inclusive knowledge society. 

 

Thus, we must develop a new type of volunteering for the 21^st century, a volunteering with a high educational value that can create systemic and participatory processes of personal and social learning based on concrete community-based projects.  Today, active, experiential education based on projects is all the rage. And this is exactly what a new form of volunteering can do, especially in terms of the systematic learning of life skills.

The Fondazione Mondo Digitale is committed to this outlook on reality and trusts that other organizations are working towards the same goal. At the FMD, we believe in the contribution of school, of teachers, headmasters and students, working for the community. And we appreciate the work of other organizations. We are working towards creating alliances that will lead to the best possible results. I would like to mention two related initiatives that the FMD is promoting in this context. One is the initiative called “21^st Century Volunteering that is being presented to national and international organizations, while the second is the International Fair of Social Creativity that is promoted by the City of Rome as part of the activities held at the Rome Città Educativa. The latter aims to raise awareness, amongst the young, of being generous, encouraging active citizenship and the correct use of new technology. 

We believe that this type of initiative, with the right alliances and cooperation amongst organizations and YOU, the knowledge volunteers, can make a dream come true and make the world a better place through volunteering.

 

Last but not least, I would like to heartily thank everyone at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, the members of the jury and all those of you who have contributed to this beautiful event. And a heartfelt thank-you to all the volunteers for the message of generosity and hope you have given us.

You are all winners!

Thank you!