Category: open government
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Rebooting digital government
I’ve written this article for Computer Weekly. It outlines some of what my new book, Fracture. The collision between technology and democracy—and how we fix it, is all about. Nearly 30 years after the UK’s first pan-government website, what has been achieved in digital government—and how do we make it better? Rebooting digital government to…
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Fracture is now published
My new book, Fracture | The collision between technology and democracy—and how we fix it, has now been published. It’s available from Amazon around the world, and should be available soon to order from your favourite local bookshop in the UK and USA. UK direct Amazon link US direct Amazon link Fracture is available in…
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Toxic by design
Digital, data, and technology (DDaT) are increasingly being misused to create a 24×7 surveillance society, behavioural manipulation and, in some countries, institutional discrimination and subjugation. This surveillance increasingly underpins private sector revenue and state control, online and offline. All too often, it can seem like there’s little to distinguish between governments and global businesses as they indulge in…
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‘Fracture’—an overview
I thought I’d add a bit more detail about my next book exploring the interplay of politics, policymaking, and digital, data and technology. Right now, it’s in three sections: ‘The backstory’, ‘Digital trends’, and ‘Policy and technology’, plus a concluding summary with some ideas for action. Here’s a brief insight into the current scope and…
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‘Fracture’—politics and technology in the digital age
I’ve finally got back to working on my book ‘Fracture’ (working title). It’s about the intersection of politics, policymaking and technology — subjects I’ve worked on and written about in blog posts, books and related articles over the past decades. It will also include previously unpublished material from my work with governments, civil society and…
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Back to the past with government identity
The Government Digital Service (GDS) has a generous £400m budget to develop “One Login”, a single sign-on and digital identity system for government services. But it comes with a nagging sense of déjà vu: although billed as a fresh approach, it’s remarkably similar to the solution implemented in 2001 by an earlier Cabinet Office team at a cost…
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What can politicians learn from Universal Credit?
The unfortunate saga of Universal Credit is a powerful reminder of the repeated failure to successfully integrate policy making with technology. A failure that comes with profound human consequences and suffering, not just a financial cost. Universal Credit (UC) aimed to deliver a radically better approach to welfare benefits, one that would provide: “A dramatically…
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Digital Government—stuck in a groove?
For the past ~27 years, UK digital government efforts have largely focused on the left column of this table, occasionally drifting into ‘Rationalisation’ — and then, as teams change and drift away and memory fades, repeating the cycle. It was Ed Vaizey MP, the former minister at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), who commented nearly 5…
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Integrating technology and policymaking
I’ve written before about the need to better integrate technology and policymaking — in 360-degree policy making, policy making in the digital age, and many earlier pieces going back over several decades, such as my 2006 co-authored paper The New World of Government Work. Governments have been keen to take advantage of digital, data and…
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360-degree policy making
How can we improve policy making to make it more effective — not just for politicians and policy makers, but citizens, organisations and communities too? One of the defining characteristics of the “digital revolution” is continuous feedback and improvement. The best organisations learn what works and what doesn’t in a timely, efficient way. They update…
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Policymaking in the digital age
UK Authority have published my article Rethinking policy making in the digital age. It explores the need for a national digital infrastructure that provides open, real time interfaces to public sector systems, processes and data to help open up, democratise and improve the policy making process. Creating this would benefit all those who want to…
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Rebooting ‘progressive’ politics
In his speech at the end of July, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury talked about the need for a “faster, smarter” culture in government and “to make data a key part of policymaking”. If it sounded familiar, that’s because it was. Similar sentiments have been repeatedly expressed by numerous governments over several decades. My…
new tech observations from the UK (ntouk) 