The DQ Institute (DQI) is an international think-tank that is dedicated to setting global standards for digital intelligence education, outreach, and policies. Working together with international agencies and local partners, DQI builds multi-stakeholder coalitions that advance its mission and help people worldwide. DQI’s award-winning educational programs include the #DQEveryChild initiative, which seeks to empower 1 billion children with digital intelligence education. It is registered as a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit charity organization in the US. Its affiliated organizations are DQ Lab Pte Ltd, a global social enterprise based in Singapore and as well as Ahn-Sei Foundation infollutionZERO, a not-for-profit foundation in Korea.
Vision and Mission
Digital Empowerment for All
In the AI age when nations and industries are rushing into rapid digital transformation, digital intelligence is no longer an option, but a must-have for every individual connected to the Internet across families, classrooms, or the workplace.
The vision of the DQ Institute is to empower every individual, organization, and nation through DQ Global Standards in the digital age.
Our mission is to set global standards for education and policies on digital intelligence. We support the following UN 2030 Goals 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 ,16 and 17.
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages in using technology.
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality digital intelligence education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all through digital education for all ages.
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all by providing digital literacy skills to employees.
9. Build digital resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation by enhancing cyber-security and safety skills among citizens.
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries by supporting vulnerable group of cyber-risks and digital divides.
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels by reducing cyber-risks and threats.
17. Build digital resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation by enhancing cyber-security and safey skills among citizens .
People
Yuhyun Park, PhD
Founder
Dr. Yuhyun Park is a world-leading expert in digital skills and child online safety. She created the Digital Intelligence (DQ) concept and framework, which is the world’s first global standards and a common framework for digital literacy, skills, and readiness (IEEE 3527.1) which was endorsed by the IEEE Standards Association, OECD, and World Economic Forum in 2018.
In addition, she has been serving in various international leadership positions related to digital economy, skills, and safety, including as the leader of the EQUALS ITU Digital Skills Coalition, the chair of TikTok Safety Advisory Council AP, and International Lead for Digital Economy in the G20 Civil Society (2020). She also serves as an adjunct professor at Yonsei University and a board member at Future Consensus institute in South Korea.
She has received numerous international awards, including recognition as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Ashoka Fellow, Eisenhower Fellow, and multiple UNESCO prizes. Dr Park completed her PhD degree and post-doctoral studies in Biostatistics at Harvard University.
Mei Lin Fung
Global Partnership Architect & Board Member
Mei Lin Fung is truly a pioneer and leader of various advocacies that leverage its impact on people and communities. She is the current Chair and Co-founder of the People Centered Internet (PCI) Foundation alongside Vint Cerf, which roots its purpose in ensuring that the Internet is a positive force for good and making such vast resources and opportunities accessible to all people. She likewise chairs and co-founded the Impact Network in 2017 and closely works with the IEEE Industry Connections Social Impact Measurement to incorporate the voice of the people and community in achieving true sustainable impact. Her work as a Founding Chair of the California Health Medical Reserve Corps proves to empower individuals and communities to dream and take ownership of their health, and lastly, her leadership for four years in the US Department of Defense brought together community leaders and the government, which represent over 50% of all healthcare spending in the US, paved the way for a brighter and more hopeful Future of Health.
Douglas A. Gentile, PhD
Research Architect & Board Member
Dr. Douglas Gentile is an award-winning research scientist, educator, author, and professor of psychology at Iowa State University. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on the effects of digital media on children and adolescents and his research primarily focuses on how children’s media use influences health and wellness. He is the editor of the book Media Violence and Children (2 editions; Praeger Press), and co-author of the book Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy (2007, Oxford University Press) and the book Game On! Sensible Answers about Video Games and Media Violence. He has authored over 135 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, including studies on the positive and negative effects of mass media on children in several countries, video game “addiction,” and mindfulness practices for reducing anxiety and increasing happiness. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and he was named one of the Top 300 Professors in the United States by the Princeton Review.
Nam-Joon Cho, PhD
Strategy Architect & Board Member
Nam-Joon Cho is the MRS-Chair Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His research activities focus on biointerfacial science approaches to solve important biomedical problems and to translate these capabilities into practical applications for global health. He has published over 230 scientific papers in top journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Science Translational Medicine, and Science Advances. Dr. Cho’s scientific work has been highlighted by international media organizations such as Reuters, CNBC, and Businessweek, and has led to licensed technologies in the fields of antiviral medicine and biotechnology. In addition, he serves on the Future University Committee of the Hanssem DBEW Research Foundation and has collaborated with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to develop affordable science laboratory kits for K12 students in developing nations. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Charles Harvey
Board Secretary
A serial entrepreneur, Charles Harvey has spent his career nurturing nascent emerging technologies to grow from a spark into billion-dollar markets. He is an expert in the policy and business of quantum communications and business development. He led the creation of the world’s first industry quantum standards for QKD and QRNG at the Quantum Alliance Initiative. Mr. Harvey also led the ITU-T and its member states including the United States, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, UK, and Russia to unanimously agree to its first approved global quantum communications standards.
He has worked with the executive leadership of over a dozen global tech firms including IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, and Cisco to develop and execute their respective strategic global market development plans, as well as a quantum policy consultant to SK Telecom’s Quantum Tech Lab and Korea’s Quantum Union.
He currently splits his time on the advisory boards of the Hudson Institute’s Quantum Alliance Initiative, American Defense International, and as an investor to several quantum, AI, and blockchain startup companies based in the US, Europe and Asia.
He is a graduate of The Citadel, where he serves on its Washington, D.C. alumni board.
Davis Vu
Chief Creative Officer
Davis Vu is an alumni of the California Institute of the Arts focused on creating and developing IP and is currently Creative Show Developer for projects in development.
He co-created DQ World and its programs and IP. His production portfolio includes Warner Bros. “Yogi Bear”, Imagi Animation’s “Gatchaman”, Nickelodeon/Wayforward’s “Spongebob Squigglypants”, Tiny Island’s “Dream Defenders”, and created the Little Lives’ “Twinkle Trails” educational series. He has also worked with large advertising clients Unilever, Alliance to End Plastic Waste, National Environment Agency, MiniToons, and many more.
He currently also lectures at California State University, Long Beach and previously also taught at Nanyang Technological University, Digipen Institute of Technology, Lasalle College of the Arts, CG Protege School of Animation, and Ngee Ann Polytechnic teaching Animation, Storyboarding, Cinematography, Foundation Drawing, Character Design, and Professional Practices in Art for nearly a decade.
John Milburn
Technology Architect
John Milburn is a Nuclear Physicist and an Internet Ancient, from early “hacking” in the 1970, high energy physics data exchange in the 1980s, deployment and creation of a national broadband network in South Korea in the 1990s, online shopping in the 2000s, and cloud and blockchain work in the 2010s. He is currently interested in authentication and privacy issues, against the insecure systems and surveillance economy which have emerged.
Matthew Kasdin
Law and Strategy
A lawyer by training with over 20 years of experience, Matt is passionate about human rights, labor rights, environmental rights, anti-corruption, sustainable supply chain management, public company reporting on ESG and other ESG topics. He was previously practicing at Latham & Watkins, one of the world’s leading international law firms and was also the acting Head of Legal at the United Nations Global Compact. His expertise in advancing impact and responsible investing includes working on projects for the World Bank and OECD, and representing leading investment banks and private equity firms in billion-dollar cross border transactions.
Matt co-authored an award-winning law review article on corruption published in the Texas Journal of International Law and edited United Nations publications on embedding human rights in business practices. He was awarded the US State Department Fulbright Scholar advising on legal reform, was appointed as the Executive Editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business, and served as a member of the UNDP Climate Change Stakeholder Advisory Committee for Asia. Currently, he is the Director, Senior Counsel at Maxeon Solar Technologies – a spin-off from SunPower Corporation and a NASDAQ-listed company in Singapore – overseeing key legal, operations, compliance and ESG functions.
Josh Jackman
R&D Strategy
Joshua A. Jackman is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) where he leads the Translational Nanobioscience group, which is focused on applying engineering strategies to solve problems in medicine, biotechnology, and agriculture. In addition to academic research, one of his major passions is youth science and technology education and he has published several articles on training future nanotechnology leaders along with serving on a US National Science Foundation panel. Professor Jackman has participated in DQ Institute activities for over a decade.
Yun Jang
Data Science
Yun Jang received the bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Seoul National University, South Korea in 2000, and a masteral and doctoral degree in Electrical and Computer engineering from Purdue University in 2002 and 2007, respectively. He is an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea. He was a postdoctoral researcher at CSCS and ETH Zürich, Switzerland from 2007 to 2011. His research interests and expertise cover interactive visualization techniques, visual analytics, data science, virtual reality, and human factors.
Sang Wook
Statistics
Sangwook Kang is an associate professor in Applied Statistics / Statistics and Data Science at Yonsei University in Korea. He has a background in biostatistics, with specific training and expertise in multivariate survival data analysis with complex study designs, and he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with a doctoral degree in Biostatistics. For 6 years, he worked at the University of Georgia and University of Connecticut as a faculty member in statistics and biostatistics and then joined Yonsei University in 2013. Applying his knowledge and experience in statistics is his contribution to building a better world for his son.
Claudio Cocorocchia
Partnership and Communications
Claudio supports the Founder and Executive Director with strategy, marketing and communications (marcomms), partnership development and fundraising.
He began his career in management consulting with Accenture, focusing on business process improvement and change management for clients from various industries, then after 6 years pursued an MBA at INSEAD. Claudio then moved into digital commercial strategy, business development, and marcomms for the media and entertainment industry by joining Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he helped develop and successfully expand their first digital business across the EMEA region – He worked internationally across Sony Picture’s Digital, Home Entertainment and Television divisions for a total of 6 years. Claudio was also member of the leadership team that founded Glu Mobile’s (now Electronic Arts) first international offices in 2004. He went on to established and lead Antaes Consulting’s first digital practice, and in 2014, joined the World Economic Forum (WEF) to lead their Media, Entertainment and Information Industries content strategy before establishing WEF’s Shaping the Future of Media platform in 2016. After graduating with a masters in organizational leadership from WEF’s Global Leadership Development Programme, Claudio joined the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to lead and manage their new digital business services unit. He left WIPO in 2021 and joined various start-up management boards as senior advisor and pursued his passion for the digital intelligence space by joining the DQ Institute.
History
2010 infollutionZERO, Korea
Recognizing how technological issues such as cyber-bullying, privacy invasion, and gaming addictions affect children, Dr. Yuhyun Park, started a not-for-profit initiative called infollutionZERO (information pollution ZERO) in South Korea in 2009. It began as an educational initiative that empowered children with digital citizenship skills to minimize risks and maximize potential in the digital world.
2013 DQ R&D, Singapore
Dr. Park moved to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and the infollutionZERO initiative evolved into a research-based digital citizenship education outreach program for Singaporean primary schools, in collaboration with Associate Professor Angeline Khoo and other researchers at the National Institute of Education (NIE).
Seeing the need for a comprehensive approach to digital education, in 2015, Dr. Park’s team pioneered the concept and framework of Digital Intelligence (DQ) – a comprehensive set of digital competencies that individuals need to thrive in the digital economy beyond IQ and EQ.
The team developed DQWorld.net, a research-based online digital citizenship education/assessment platform for 8-12 year-old children with the support from Singtel and the Inter- Medium-level Skillinistry Cyber Wellness Steering Committee (ICSC). The DQ World children education programs have been used by more than 1 million children across 85 countries, and includes one of the world’s largest database and analytic systems for assessing children’s online behaviors and digital citizenship skill capabilities.
2017 #DQEveryChild, World Economic Forum
In 2017, the DQ initiative was featured at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The team’s efforts to tackle the cyber-risk pandemic facing children found strong support from global leaders. In turn, a growing list of international engagements motivated the creation of the DQ Institute (DQI) – an international think-tank that was born in association with the World Economic Forum, and later registered as a 501(c)(3) charity organization in the US. Right away, the DQI started #DQEveryChild – a global education movement with the vision of empowering children in >100 countries with DQ digital citizenship using the DQWorld.net platform by 2020. The DQ Coalition was formed and currently includes Singtel, Turkcell, and Twitter among over 100 partners from around the world.
2018 Coalition for Digital Intelligence
We also initiated the Coalition for Digital Intelligence together with the OECD, IEEE, People Centred Internet, and many others to set DQ as a global standard for digital literacy and skills. On this journey to educate children through #DQEveryChild, it has become apparent that there is an ongoing need for digital skill assessment tools, certification programs, and risk monitoring for adults, especially company employees. With the fast-changing digital economy and AI and other technological advances, it is also critical to train workers with industry-specific digital skills for company growth and economic competitiveness. In collaboration with Singapore SkillsFuture, we developed a set of assessment tools and an analytic system to measure the digital citizenship of the general public and workforce.
2020 DQ Global Standards
2020 was a big year for DQI and we made tremendous progress in three key areas:
building a global DQ standards framework that all nations and sectors can adopt (DQ Global Standards),
implementing a global children’s education program that any child can learn from (#DQEveryChild), and
establishing a global measure for child online safety that all nations can take heed of (Child Online Safety Index).
In February 2020, DQ finalized the Phase 1 of #DQEveryChild in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and published the Child Online Safety Index (COSI), the world’s first real-time measure to help nations better understand their children’s online safety status. Finally on 24th September 2020, Digital Intelligence (DQ) was officially approved by the IEEE Standards Association as the world’s first global standard related to digital literacy, digital skills, and digital readiness (IEEE 3527.1™ Standard)7.
Based on these experiences, the DQ Seal – Global Digital Skills Coordination Project will coordinate, empower, and measure digital skills initiatives worldwide with the vision of “Digital Empowerment For All” to bridge the global digital skills gap through DQ Global Standards.
Affiliated Organizations
DQ Lab Pte Ltd
DQ Lab Pte Ltd is a global social enterprise based in Singapore – R&D and commercialization arm of the DQ Institute. It is dedicated to provide global benchmarking tools of the DQ global standards through real-time data assessment and visualization that empower individuals, organizations, and nations to be digitally safe and competent. Its management is empowered to make decisions with a primary focus on furthering our mission while at the same time maximizing profits within the context of promoting the mission.
Coalition for Digital Intelligence
The Coalition for Digital Intelligence (CDI) is a cross-sector cooperative network of organizations from around the world that aims to improve global digital intelligence by coordinating efforts across educational and technology communities through multi-stakeholder collaborations. It was formed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the IEEE Standards Association, and the DQ Institute in association with World Economic Forum and launched on September 26, 2018.
The Coalition aims to set a global framework for digital intelligence, which includes a common set of definitions, language, and understanding of comprehensive digital literacy, skills, and readiness that can be adopted by all stakeholders worldwide, including national governments, educators, technology companies, and service providers.
A common framework endorsed by key institutions and standard-setting bodies would be highly beneficial for all stakeholders, in both educational and technology communities, by enabling stakeholders to work synergistically rather than discretely to address similar sets of problems and by allowing the coordination of efforts both within and across sectors.
Above: The Coalition for Digital Intelligence brings together cross-sector organizations to enhance Digital Literacy, Skills, and Readiness
Latest News
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