Device confidence
Using your own device without fear of breaking it.
Measure. Understand. Improve.
A clearer way to understand digital confidence.
In developmentPARLEN is being developed as a structured framework for describing everyday digital independence — whether someone can carry out common digital tasks on their own, judge what is safe, and act when something looks wrong.
Current status
Why access alone is not enough
Digital inclusion has historically been counted in devices and connections. Those are measurable, fundable, and visible — and they stop short of the thing that actually determines whether someone participates.
A person can own a smartphone, have broadband at home, and still not book an appointment, check a balance, or judge whether a message is genuine. Counting the device records none of that.
Confidence is what turns access into participation — and it is the part nobody is measuring.
PARLEN and the Digital Confidence Index
PARLEN grew out of earlier work called the Digital Confidence Index. It is not that framework renamed. The scope widened — most substantially into scam awareness and counter-action — and the questions changed with it.
That distinction matters for reading anything we publish. The South Fulton pilot figures on our results page were produced by the Digital Confidence Index, and they stay described that way. We have not restated them as PARLEN results, and we will not: a number means what the instrument that produced it was measuring, and relabelling it would quietly claim a track record PARLEN has not yet earned.
The Digital Confidence Index work is fairly described as predecessor development evidence. It is not evidence that PARLEN works.
The eight pillars
The structure the framework is being built around — each one a distinct area where confidence either exists or does not.
Communication
Reaching people — calls, messages, email, video.
Scam awareness & counter-action
Recognizing digital fraud, resisting manipulation, verifying a suspicious message, acting to protect yourself, and knowing what to do afterwards.
Essential services
Banking, benefits, utilities, and city services.
Healthcare
Portals, telehealth, and managing health information.
AI readiness
Understanding what AI tools do and where to be careful.
Problem solving
Recovering when something goes wrong, without giving up.
Independence
Doing what matters to you without needing to ask.
How measurement is intended to connect to improvement
A score on its own changes nothing. The framework is designed so measurement leads somewhere.
Assess
Understand where confidence actually sits across the eight pillars for a defined population.
Implement
Deliver the parts of the ecosystem that address the specific gaps found — not a generic program.
Measure
Reassess after delivery, using the same structure, so change is comparable.
Improve
Use what the second measurement shows to shape the next cycle.
BTATL's role
Bridging Technologies ATL is developing the framework, and would implement and steward it. We are open that this is an unusual position — the same organization defining a measure and delivering the programs measured by it.
That is exactly why the validation and governance work matters, and why we will not describe PARLEN as an independent standard until independent validation exists. If we ever claim otherwise, hold us to this paragraph.
Potential uses
- Cities understanding where residents actually need support
- Healthcare organizations assessing whether patients can use digital care
- Libraries shaping programming around measured need
- Employers considering the digital confidence of an aging workforce
- Sponsors wanting a defensible measure behind community investment
- Government and researchers studying digital inclusion beyond access statistics
These are the intended applications of the framework once validated — not services available for purchase today.
Data governance and responsible claims
- Assessment data belongs to the organization that collected it, not to BTATL.
- Self-reported confidence is reported as self-reported and never presented as objective competence.
- No individual is identified in any reporting.
- No organization is compared against another without its written agreement.
- Framework changes will be documented, so a measure taken later can be understood alongside an earlier one.
- Until validation exists, no PARLEN figure will be published as evidence of impact.
- PARLEN results and Digital Confidence Index results are reported separately. Earlier DCI figures are never restated as PARLEN figures.
Discuss a future pilot.
If measuring digital confidence in your population would be genuinely useful, we would like to talk — including about whether the framework is mature enough yet for what you need.