UNS — The Covid-19 pandemic leads to a great digital transformation. Infrastructure and digital economy development are pushed forward, especially for the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME). This condition demands MSME entrepreneurs to enrich their knowledge of the digital world. Digital literacy is an effort taken to improve entrepreneur’s digital skills. Supporting this effort, two Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta faculty members discussed the ethics and safety of digital media usage in the National Digital Literacy Movement Webinar held by Siberkreasi Central Java & Yogyakarta for Tegal people.
This webinar discussed “MSME in Digital Point of View” as a theme and provided an opportunity for Muhammad Yunus Anis, S.S., M.A., and Monika Sri Yuliarti, S.Sos., M.Si., to share vital components in developing digital skills for MSME entrepreneurs.
MSME in Digital Point of View
The benefit of digital literacy is expanding networking. For MSME, this expansion is vital to reach more customers. Therefore, Muhammad Yunus Anis, S.S., M.A., encouraged participants to move into the digital world. “We could get information quickly and facilitate the communication process,” he added on Monday (5/7/2021).
The Faculty Member of the Faculty of Cultural Studies (FIB) UNS also added that digital skills in MSME need to be followed with ethics. MSME could provide an example for the community on how to perform an honest transaction.
Digital Safety: MSME & Digital World
The pandemic has greatly affected MSME, with some of them starting their digital journey while others stay with their conventional ways. Monika Sri Yuliarti, S.Sos., M.Si., explained that this condition is affected by several factors, such as minimum knowledge of the digital world, both in MSME and their consumers. “Because, with or without pandemic, go digital is a vital solution and strategy,” Monika said.
Monika appreciated Kendal District for taking the initial step in MSME digitalization. The district has held a Digital MSME Expo, assisted 3,000 MSMEs, and provided training for more than 2,500 MSMEs. She also explained that digital safety is vital in the digital process as this ensures the safety of digital services, both online and offline. There are five keys to digital security: securing digital equipment, securing digital identity, be careful of digital scams, understand digital footprint, and understand digital safety for children.
“We should protect ourselves with skills that could reduce cybercrime in digital media usage,” the Faculty Member of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences explained. Humas UNS
Reporter: Rangga Pangestu Adji
Editor: Dwi Hastuti