How to Innovate on the Operating Model of Public Services
A common critique of digital government is that many initiatives amount to little more than adding a slightly better digital front face to the same old processes behind the scenes. This is transformation at its most superficial: creating a more user friendly experience, yes, but doing little to fundamentally improve a service. This observation speaks […]
Putting people at the heart of local government digital reform
This article was written for, and first appeared in, Government Business. For the best part of the last decade, ‘digital’ has been the watchword of local government reform. Councils have embraced the idea that online technologies can provide services that are cheaper to deliver and easier for citizens to use. Many councils have started by […]
What’s the ideal model for an Office of Data Analytics?
For the past several years, I’ve argued that the UK’s cities and regions should establish offices of data analytics (ODAs). Inspired by US cities like New York and New Orleans, the idea was to set up dedicated teams of data scientists who could help cities source, analyse and act upon data from multiple local government […]
A brief tour of digital transformation in the UK
The following article was written for the European Public Mosaic (EPuM) Open Journal on Public Service, with the aim of providing an overview of recent activities in the use of digital by the UK government and public sector. The UK’s journey in using technology to improve the functioning of government has been through many different […]
Civic Engagement, Data, Digital Democracy, digital government, featured, GDS
Retrofitting Democracy with Robust Digital Tools – BBC Click
On 28 February 2017, I look part in this BBC Click episode to talk about Nesta’s recent research into Digital Democracy. You can read Nesta’s report here. I was joined in the studio by the amazing Ellie Mackay, co-founder of The Plastic Tide, and Dr Sue Black, who spoke about her campaign #BeBoldForChange. What a […]
The future of democracy is digital – lessons from Iceland, Brazil and Spain
What can digital technology offer democracy? Just trouble, you might think, at least if your reference point is social media. Concerns are growing that platforms like Facebook and Twitter help create partisan echo chambers, spread fake news and render intelligent argument impossible when clicks are valued more than facts. Yet there is a more positive […]
It’s time to say goodbye to the open data portal. Here’s why…
Look at some of the most transformative operating models used by leading digital organisations such as Wikipedia, Twitter and TripAdvisor and what do you notice? Their value comes from sourcing data from outside their organisation. In light of this, many cities’ approach to open data can be seen to have a glaring shortfall: the flow […]
How adding a little ignorance could improve First Past the Post
The 2015 general election was labelled as the most unpredictable in a generation. In part, that was because of one great certainty: faith in politicians is at an all time low. According to Ipsos MORI, from the start of 2014 the majority of the electorate was dissatisfied with the performance of the government and each […]
What South Park can teach us about civic engagement in policy making
As a former politics teacher who struggled to give my students a decent definition of democracy, I often found myself turning to the words of Abraham Lincoln. Democracy, he famously declared, is “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. With the rise of web-based tools and apps, many have hoped that technology […]
How to harness the wisdom of crowds to improve public service delivery and policymaking
The Fuel of Government Data is the single most vital ingredient for good policymaking and the effective delivery of public services. It provides policymakers with the evidence they need to identify, define, and find solutions to issues both large and small. For public services, having the right data enables the targeting of finite resources at […]
