SPD on digital affairs

The SPD wants to support workers through digital change with further training and stronger employee co-determination. In rural areas it wants to promote coworking spaces, which state and municipal employees should also use.

Work is becoming more digital. The SPD wants to help workers with training. There should be more coworking spaces in rural areas. These are shared offices close to home. This saves people long commutes.

For state and municipal employees, the SPD wants to sign framework contracts with coworking providers. The platform expects shorter commutes, lower costs, a better balance of family and work, fewer fixed office desks in the administration and a contribution to climate protection. Schleswig-Holstein is described as a suitable location for secure data centers because of its renewable energy. Cloud providers should meet international standards and data protection rules.

The SPD wants to make digital processing the rule without exception in state administration and change the legal basis to do so. A Chief Digital Officer in the State Chancellery is to coordinate digitalization, while agencies stay reachable in person and in writing.

The SPD wants government offices to work digitally. One person in the State Chancellery should lead this. Each ministry gets such a person too. People should still be able to visit offices or write letters. Experts in citizen offices should help with applications.

Digital administration is to be low-barrier and work without switching between paper and digital formats, guided by the Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (accessibility law). All ministries are to get their own CDOs with a digital strategy for their area. Government data is to be opened up, and companies should find it easier to work on solutions with agencies, with extra money set aside. Staff and their representatives are to be closely involved. Citizen offices are to be developed further and get specially trained staff who act on citizens' behalf with applications.

The SPD wants the state to run its own digital infrastructure and be independent of private providers. Public IT service providers are to be strengthened, and joint platforms and centers are to be built with Hamburg, the northern German states and Denmark.

The state should have its own digital technology. It should not depend on private companies. The SPD wants to build a public data platform with its neighbors. It should first manage traffic better. Everyone should have access to the digital world.

As a digital public service, communication platforms between citizens and government are to be created. The "Digitale Knotenpunkte" (digital hubs) concept is to be carried out better, with help for low-income neighborhoods to prevent a digital divide. A smart public platform with the Hamburg metropolitan region and Denmark is to help manage traffic first and electricity use later, with local smart-city projects linked up for this. A public technology and data management center run with other northern states is to use artificial intelligence, big data and automation for government work.

The SPD wants the state to protect consumers' rights on the internet as well and to make existing law enforceable there. Digital tools used at work, in schools and at universities are to be secured against sexual harassment.

The same rules should apply online as in daily life. The state should protect consumers' rights on the internet. Digital tools for work and school should be safe. Nobody should be sexually harassed there.

The SPD wants to work on digitalization questions in dialogue with all groups in society, because in its view the effects of artificial intelligence and data markets are not yet well enough understood. It warns that digitalization without protection could lead to less freedom rather than more. Communication tools for work, continuing education, schools and universities are to be protected against harassment by internal and external participants. The platform points to experience from the pandemic.

The SPD sees digital infrastructure as a responsibility of the state. Together with municipalities, it wants to provide fiber, 5G and free Wi-Fi statewide and to offer everyone a public cloud with office software.

The SPD wants fast internet everywhere in the state. The state and the towns should pay for it. There should be fiber, 5G and free Wi-Fi everywhere. Everyone should also be able to get their own online storage.

The state is to invest jointly with municipalities where private providers do not deliver. The plan covers fiber, 5G and free Wi-Fi across the state, plus low-cost access to future technologies. Working with public IT service providers, the SPD wants to offer all residents their own cloud and office applications, for example for writing texts and managing email. Permanent monitoring is meant to pick up people's concerns about digitalization. Residents of nursing homes and facilities for people with disabilities are to get devices and help using them, and consumer advice centers are to be equipped for digital risks.

The SPD wants to expand media counseling for young people, parents and professionals and to develop media literacy training starting with daycare and elementary school children. The state is also to build active digital youth protection to shield children from online risks.

Children and teenagers use the internet every day. There are dangers there too, such as bullying. The SPD wants to offer more advice about media. Children should learn early how to use media well.

Media literacy concepts for kindergarten, elementary school and youth work are to be developed together with the Offener Kanal Kiel (a community broadcaster) and other providers. The platform lists cyberbullying, sexual harassment, tracking and cost traps as risks. The SPD sees the new federal law on protecting minors in the media as a foundation that the state should now fill with its own measures. At the same time, the platform stresses the opportunities digital media offer for participation and support.