Access To Freedom Through Personal Computers: Creating worthwhile and unbiased access to technology for the world's next 2 billion users

Rob McQueen is CEO at the Endless OS Foundation (EOSF). Rob is an experienced engineering manager and company leader, and has been a user, developer and advocate for a Free and Open Source Linux desktop for nearly 20 years. Based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, Rob also currently serves as the President of the GNOME Foundation, a 501(c)(3) in the open source desktop space. This is an adapted version of his post on Endless OS Foundation.

Where will the world's NEXT 2 billion digital users come from? – Not where you might think.

By 2050, the world will grow from 7.5 billion to 9.8 billion people, with most growth from nations in developing areas. Alongside that, computer access will continue to grow. But without a strong foundation for a growing new-PC-user ecosystem, what will the roadmap to digital computer access and subsequent user experience actually look like?

The next step in global access: the whole world empowered with PCs, not just phones. For nearly 10 years Endless has been working to empower as many people as possible with access to their own useful personal computing experience. Why do we think PC access for all is important? Our core thesis is that being able to fully take part in a digital life on a PC opens transformative opportunities: accessing more information, learning in a better setting, developing deeper work and life skills, and increasing earning potential via the digital economy. All of this development is simply not possible with just a cell phone.

But, access to a PC is not enough: users also need useful information and experiences. Once achieved, we believe that simply having access to a computer is not sufficient. To effectively utilize a complex and powerful tool, people need knowledge and experience. Access is not created equally, especially when one considers new users.

How do we imagine the first-time computer experience of 2 billion people by 2050? Will it be a wonderful and intuitive experience that immediately brings value, or will it be a confusing and frustrating experience? We think about this question a lot at Endless, and it underpins our long-term investment in desktop usability in Endless OS and the wider GNOME community.

New users navigating, managing, and thriving in a new digital world. Beyond one’s own ability to engage with the technology, it’s also important to consider what the technology is enabling us to do and how it influences the choices we make. Our ability to access technology and information on our own terms is essential because computers can impact every part of our lives – where we choose to live, what we do for work, how we access educational resources and support, reach healthcare and welfare support and information, and much more.

This proves complex because corporate actors have gained substantial control of our window on the world and the design of people’s experiences with PCs and technology more generally. Having the tools to access a new digital world plus the ability to understand and navigate these external influences can be life-changing, but we cannot assume that new users will have these critical skills.

Even experienced PC users should think about this influence. Have you ever asked who decides what software you can run and what information you can see? Who controls which apps you find in the app store and what conditions they have to meet to be there? At this point, the majority of technology comes to us all from just five US-based corporations, some of the largest corporations in the world by market capitalization.

These are big problems, starting with the computers in front of us. Software freedom is a big part of that puzzle. The struggle for unbiased access and information control extends all the way to the OS and software on your PC. This is an important consideration for the world’s next 2 billion PC users.

Putting computer users in control: Why we believe in FOSS. Technology nonprofits and foundations like GNOME are working to build trustworthy personal computers with access to large amounts of information and software for users to engage with on their own terms. The free and open source (FOSS) community is built on this principle, and considering the impact that information and misinformation has on the global political landscape, it's an important part of the discussion about how technology can be trusted with so many new people interfacing with technology.

Everyone should be empowered by technology they can trust. If we want to build software that’s useful for people around the world, we need to include their perspectives in what we design, build and implement.

Next steps to collaborative global impact for good. So how do we get to a place of building universal and useful access to computers for the world’s next 2 billion computer users? To start, Endless OS Foundation partners with like-minded technology, software, and information resource organizations to make digital tools and a wealth of information more easily accessible to all. We hope our part in this, together with our partners present and future, will improve digital access and literacy on a worldwide scale in the upcoming years.