Bridging the Digital Divide: A Rhizomatic Approach to Global Digital Inclusion
4th September 2025, 19:00 to 20:00 BST
Overview
This webinar explores the global digital divide and digital exclusion through the lens of the Rhizomatic Digital Technology Ecosystem framework—a novel approach that redefines digital access by integrating five interdependent components: access, affordability, availability, adequacy, and acceptability. We will share case studies, including real-world implementations from our work at the Media and Innovation Lab (MIL) at the University of Miami, to highlight how this framework can drive equitable and sustainable digital inclusion, particularly in healthcare.
Aims
To introduce participants to a comprehensive understanding of the digital divide and exclusion and present a novel systems-based framework—the Rhizomatic Digital Technology Ecosystem—as a blueprint for global digital inclusion.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this webinar, attendees should be able to:
- Understand the multidimensional nature of the digital divide beyond traditional definitions.
- Identify and explain the five components of the Rhizomatic Digital Technology Ecosystem.
- Recognise how structural barriers (e.g., affordability, availability, acceptability) influence digital inclusion.
- Explore innovative policy and technological solutions that can be adapted in both high-resource and low-resource settings.
- Apply insights from real-world case studies to develop inclusive strategies for digital equity in healthcare and beyond.
Panellists
Our panellists include:
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Dr. Azizi Seixas - Dr. Seixas is a leader in digital health innovation and policy, with extensive experience implementing inclusive digital solutions across urban and rural settings, including large-scale deployments of remote health monitoring infrastructure and AI-driven care tools. He is the Interim Inaugural Chair of the Department of Informatics and Health Data Science, Founding Director of The Media and Innovation Lab (The MIL), Associate Director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences (TSCS), and Director of Population Health Informatics within the Institute for Data Science and Computing at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Seixas is a nationally recognised scientist and technology leader. He was named Cell Press’ Top 100 Most Inspiring Black Scientists in America, 2022 Amazon’s Education Champion Award, 2023 M.I.A. Miami’s Most Influential and Powerful Black Business Leader, 2024 M.I.A. South Florida’s Black Educator of the Year, 2024 Academy of Science, Engineer and Medicine of Florida Rising Star Award, the winner of the Inaugural 2024 Tipping Point Award from Malcolm Gladwell and T-Mobile, and 2025 US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) the highest honour given to scientist at this stage of their career by the US government.
CPD
1 Hour
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Recording
A recording of the webinar will be made available on this page in the days following the live broadcast.
