In our latest edition of Impact Experts Question Time, we’re joined by Freddie Quek, the founder of the #JoiningTheDots movement. Freddie is a dynamic technology leader on a mission to close the digital divide, advocating for equitable access to digital resources. Through personal insights and powerful career experiences, Freddie witnessed the profound gaps in digital accessibility firsthand during the pandemic.
Read on as Freddie delves into his milestones, inspirations, and biggest work lessons, offering us a window into the resolve that drives his impactful work to ensure digital access for all.
What is the biggest thing you have done to create or improve social impact?
Being a technology professional and leader, I have taken for granted that everyone is like me who can use digital services and tools for everything. My day job is all about making everything possible with technology.
It was during Covid that I saw the challenges of my children trying to get an online education, the teachers struggling to do their jobs, and then realising that there are many, from the young to the old that are not even online for various reasons.
One of my peers started a device donation campaign to help 3 schools in an academy trust in the north east of England as it was one of the most deprived parts of the country, and asked if I would get involved. This experience made me realise not only how big this issue was for socially disadvantaged school children, but that it is a huge issue across all age groups and geographical areas. Having spoken to many of my peers, we all realised that now we know what we know, what can we do to help?
This led to founding the #JoiningTheDots movement, connecting up the various tech professionals communities so that we can be more joined up in thinking and action to tackle closing the digital divide. This community came together very quickly, and today, we have 15 communities – UK IT Leaders, S.E.E.D., Horizon CIO Network, HotTopics.ht, CIO WaterCooler, BCS, Tech Monitor, Computing, Charity IT Leaders, CIO Online, IDC, Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, Digital Leaders, OpenUK, CIO Network. In November 2024, I look forward to the 16th community being part of this.
What is the biggest question that you have been asked to provide an answer for?
This is a really good question. The obvious one for me originally was how can we close the digital divide and end digital poverty? However in July this year, I participated in the celebration of the Internet’s 50th anniversary and also a workshop on answering the question of ‘What are the fears, hopes and expectations of its next 50 years?’
It struck me that I cannot imagine a world without having the internet, and yet it can face existential threats due to increased demand and energy consumption. Having been involved in the telecoms sector in the early part of my career, I learnt that what underpins the Internet is the telecoms infrastructure, and why it is a critical infrastructure because it is an enabler to address our fundamental human right – our right to communication (Article 19 of 1948 UN Convention of Human Rights). From using smoke signals in the past to analog signals for making phone calls to everything digital today for work, living and entertainment.
It is a big question because if being connected is a measure of being digital, then today we have 2.7 billion people unconnected, averaging 30% of disconnect in each country. Being a strategic and systemic thinker and problem solver, here’s what I would like to share my answers to this huge question:
Hope: truly inclusive and equitable digital world where everyone is able to interact with the online world fully.
Fear: The digital world that the internet has helped create widens the digital divide between the Haves and Have nots, Cans and Cannots, Wills and Will nots.
Expectation: A world where we all embrace our responsibilities as individuals, communities and organisations to be socially conscious and “leaving no one digitally behind” by #joiningthedots to have joined up thinking and action.
What is your biggest work lesson? And why?
I have learnt many lessons both in work and in life. For me, the biggest work lesson probably is learning that it is not about being right, but much more important to do the right thing, no matter how uncomfortable or unpolitically correct it can be. Many times we want to get our own way, win an argument, but surely the context is key. In the work context, if I win for my own belief and my team but at the expense of the entire organisation, then isn’t that a greater loss? Likewise if we apply to the context of closing the digital divide, we may represent an organisation to do something, but we must not forget that we are all together to solve this, not to be in competition just to get our own way.
Can you share some key milestones or proudest moments in your career?
I am delighted that I am a technology pioneer using a word processor and dot matrix printer to create my first printed book for a school project, helping the organisations I worked for in publishing to transform from a majority print to a majority digital business, using technologies that were not a thing and then became a thing like NoSQL, establishing ways of working and specialisms that were not a thing and then became a thing like Agile practices, Project Management etc., the list grows as technology continues to advance at pace.
But probably my proudest moments are celebrating the team successes with the teams I have the privilege to lead in various organisations. Most of the things we do well would have gone unnoticed, but as soon as there is a blip, the fingers will start pointing at the technology teams, heads will roll etc. So I realised that unless as a leader I made a conscious effort to celebrate and showcase the team successes, who else will do that? A number of my teams have received the accolades of the UK IT Industry Awards, and I am also a judge for these awards to help encourage and celebrate successes.
What is your most embarrassing moment at work?
Who likes to talk about embarrassing moments? I do have my fair share. One that I now use as a constant reminder to myself and also to my teams, is learning to deal with the perceptions of others. When I was a young leader, I often thought “I don’t care what people think of me, because I know what I am doing is right”. I mentioned earlier about being right vs doing the right thing. I realised that I was not exactly doing the right thing, but more about wanting to be right. I learnt it the hard way in one instance where I was ignorant of what others thought about what I was doing. With hindsight, I realised that others’ perception, whether right or wrong, is a form of feedback, and we have to learn to accept all feedback. It is only through feedback that you can be aware and decide what you can do. So I learnt that if the perception is wrong, I now have a choice to make whether to let it persist or to do something about correcting the perception.
Who or what inspires you to continue pushing the boundaries of ethical and impact driven business practices?
There are many questions that I am curious to find the answers to, but it is hard to figure them out on your own. I therefore look at what I can learn from others, whether past or present. It has let me connect with other like-minded individuals. I want to give a shout out to some of these individuals who have been instrumental in being with me on my personal journey in a space that I know very little about at the beginning, giving me the support and confidence throughout, and now I am delighted to call them my friends – Paul Finnis, former CEO of Digital Poverty Alliance and Leigh Smyth, former Community Board Chair of the Digital Poverty Alliance and now CEO of ImpactMatch. We share the same purpose-driven mission of driving positive social impact by #JoiningTheDots so that the solutions can be more strategic, systemic, sustainable, scalable, further reaching and faster.
What is your favourite quote that you would like us to include?
I do have a number of guiding principles in life. One of which is a Chinese saying “Every journey begins with the very first step”. This is to remind myself and others when we think something is hard to do, taking the very first step even if it is a small one, becomes the start of solving big problems. It sounds so obvious, but the challenge is that we talk ourselves out of doing many things because it is hard and we think we need to know more before we feel equipped enough.
My other favourite is an African saying “To go fast, you go alone, to go far, you go together”. This is a great principle to remind ourselves that we can’t rely on ourselves for everything, that there are others out there that can support and are on the same journey as you. It is the principle that led me to founding the #JoiningtheDots. Also it is more fun and less lonely to do it with others!
