What do you mean by Digital?

I get this question a lot: what is Digital? Do you have a Definition of Digital?

I used to reply that Digital is a collection of behaviours, ways of working, business mechanisms and opportunities that are enabled by, but not restricted to, Digital technology. Quite a mouthful, I’m sure you’ll agree, and not very clear to the noninitiated.

Luckily, my former Coop colleagues at Public Digital have taken up the challenge and created the official definition of Digital:

Definition of Digital
Applying the culture, processes, business models & technologies of the internet era to respond to people’s raised expectations.

I love it. A couple of lines capture the essence of the sea change that is transforming business, government and society – and identify clearly the cause as people’s raised expectations, not the technology that may have helped create the rise. Digital is all about people – those doing it and those benefitting from it. Great work Tom!

I like this definition so much that I have created a poster to display in my home office. Would you like your own copy? Download the Definition of Digital poster. Have you got a better definition? Leave a reply at the bottom of the page.