SMARTERCITIES
SMARTERSERVICES
Jeremy MillardSenior ConsultantDanish Technological Institute
2020 VISIONEight mega trends in e-governmentfor the next eight years
The three ages of government
1) Kafka’esque
• Arbitrary• Random• Coercive
2) Bureaucratic
• Rules-based• Administrative• Top-down• Gov-centric• One-size-fits-all
3) Open & participative
• Transparent• Responsive• Innovative• Both bottom-up & top-down• User-centric• User-driven• Participatory• Open• Personalised• Relationship- & behaviour-based• From ”e” to ”smart” government
Eight mega trends
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1) The web becomes social and semantic
2) Smash the silos and share (everything?)
3) Get lost in the cloud
4) The future is mobile
5) Users change how they access and use services
6) New ‘business’ models
7) eParticipation and social media
8) Open and relationship-based government
4It’s not the technology, stupid
• Facebook accounts for 25% of all US pageviews, and 10% of all Internet visits*
• Users are sharing more and more
– Stronger integration and instant data sharing between devices and networks
– The social signal becomes the most important
* Source: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-dougherty/2010/11/facebookcom_generates_nearly_1_1.html
• Privacy issues
– The incentive to share data becoming stronger, that users are changing the way they think about privacy
Web 2.0 – the web has already become social
Wide-scale seamless ubiquitous networks From html to RDF (resource description framework) Machines as well as people can “understand”, find, evaluate and
sort data thereby creating knowledge and services
– Huge unexploited data reservoirs– Distributed data, seamless ‘cloud
computing’– Data mining, pattern recognition,
visualisation, gaming– Information, consultation, polling,
voting, etc.– Greater precision on policy choices
& trade-offs
What about Web 4.0??
Contextualises data about people, places and things – e.g. data about who people are, who they know, where they have been, are now and plan to go, what they are doing, etc. Can be used automatically to assist and support people in their everyday lives…..can also be used subversively
Web 3.0 – semantic web and internet of data
The web becomes social and semantic
For example www.trueknowledge.com & www.wolframalpha.com
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What’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine
Sharing (everything?) through networking
Sharing things which all parts of public sector need to do in the same way: infrastructures, resources, data, content, services, widgets, apps, etc., etc.
For example, PAs make their data available to each other enabling them to compare and identify e.g. similar locations, user groups and/or services through analysing socio-demographics, service use, etc.
Enables each PA or group of PAs to take an evolutionary approach to learning and building good practices, what works, what doesn’t, policy modelling, etc., so only compare, rank and simulate between similar contexts and/or similar strategies
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…don’t say: ”get off of my cloud”
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In January 2010, the United Kingdom government announced the creation of its own internal cloud computing system as part of a radical plan that it claims could save up to £3.2bn a year from an annual bill of at least £16bn.
The key part of the new strategy will be the concentration of government computing power into a series of about a dozen highly secure data centres, each costing up to £250m to build.
These will replace more than 500 presently used by central government, police forces and local authorities which are frequently run at far below their capacity because they are dedicated to one department.
The cloud – massive cost savings ?
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A cloud of public services ?
Highly specialised and personalised services somewhere in the cloud using advanced search engines Standardised building blocks From scratch
Combining apps, widgets, service components normally requires programming skills – but if users could simply drag and drop them to create unique service combinations, the sky’s the limit
The necessary semantic-based SOAs are in place or under development
The silos approach Breaking down into fundamentals
Opening up Cloud of public services (who’s in charge?)
A cloud of public services
European Commission, 2010
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Widgets on Danish citizen portal
The service utilises data from the personalised user profile authorised by the user. The system clarifies whether the actual user has permission to view the requested data
Single sign on widget
Don’t trust your public health service with your data? Outsource your health data to Microsoft
17Google: 27 April 2011 ”39 percent of people use their smart phones while going to the bathroom.”
Mobile addswhere, when and who I amto government services
The power3 of mobile
• More convenient accessibility and availability – power of pull– always on– carried around everywhere, thus can
provide instant information and response
• Better precision and personalisation in targeting users and delivering content – power of push– mobile devices are used mainly by
single individuals (although can also be shared for example in a family or local community)
– this increases the acceptance, adoption and usage of online government
• Larger and wider user base compared to wired services – power of reach
Nearest Tube by acrossair. iPhone app
Augmented reality and place-related services Smart mobile phones + GPS
(digital TV)
Location-based / place-related
Real time, augmented reality
Offered appropriate everyday services as walk down the street
Location or event creates real time opportunities for content, participation, action
BUT only very small % of 350,000 iPhone apps are for public services
UK’s world class citizens portal
http://www.direct.gov.uk
The big battle… HOT NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE
The UK is (probably) leading Europe in eGovernment:– Number 4 in world, highest in Europe (UN 2010)– Number 4 in world, 2nd highest in Europe (Waseda 2009)– Joint number 1 in online availability in Europe (EU 2009)
Over last 4 years, UK spent $60 million on main government portal: direct.gov.uk – acclaimed as worldclass
BUT this is used LESS than an unofficial site which cost nothing apart from half a day’s work by concerned volunteers
WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON ??!!
“Citizens” usurp government
http://www.directionlessgov.com
The government accepts the challenge….
“Only a small minority of Directgov users come in through the home page (12%) as the majority of visitors arrive from search (52%) or via an external link (43%) straight to one of the big transactions such as car tax, student loans or job search” (2010)
Source: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/digital-default-proposed-government-services
….and so government starts the fight back….
Launched 10 May 2011: http://www.alpha.gov.uk
….but the “citizens” are sceptical…
http://www.directionlessgov.com
….the battle continues
The dominance of portal eGovernment will soon be over…?
Portals are important, especially for large scale, top down ‘administrative’ services (one stop shop concept)
BUT citizen usage is low – DTI research:• “Why go to a portal first when I am already somewhere
else on the web? I want to go direct to the service I need.”• “Everything (services, applications, platforms,
infrastructure) is – or will be – in the cloud anyway, so just use Google or other search engines to find what you need.”
• “Do we hang on to grandiose portals because they are a showcase – just like an imposing town hall – but what do they really do for all that money?“
• Some even predict no more web-sites in 5 years ? !Organisations/firms/individuals make content available (in the cloud) and users create their own content, services on their own platforms.
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Time for change…?
Usurping the role of government (1)
Usurping the role of government (2)
Southwark Circle, UK: the neighbourly way to sort the everyday - 1
Networks of users, helpers/carers, volunteers, entrepreneurs and the LA, to solve any problem
Focus on elderly people (but little distinction in practice)
Critical: LA funding enabled a team to spend time with 250 elderly in their homes and networks (ethnographic research) to involve in own service design
Elderly no longer seen as a burden or group to do something to – but rather as a resource for their own self and mutual help
£2.4m LA savings expected over 5 years: a threefold return on investment
People are core, but enabled by ICT, e.g.: website for information and
matching needs with solutions/volunteers
club and other events earning/buying and spending
tokens access to other services mobile/SMS alerts, ICT training, etc. coordination and data exchange
between LA, NGO and volunteers
Southwark Circle, UK: the neighbourly way to sort the everyday - 2
New bottom-up business models Mainly a bottom-up ad-hoc process which exploits existing resources
Contextual implementation of ICT – start from the needs of the citizen (perhaps mediated by people or organisations closest to them) rather than government
Leadership, ownership & accountability at the grassroots
New (power) relationships between professionals and citizens
Builds widespread skills and competencies
Re-use existing public sector information (open government / open data)
Involves much less finance, has much shorter development cycles, and includes a whole range of stakeholders
More experimental and may ‘fail’ as often as large scale top-down government initiatives, but being cheap and small can be quickly corrected, and then scaled up if successful (Clay Shirky: “publish then filter, rather than filter then publish”)
Because they start from the bottom, many address not just the physical needs of disadvantaged citizens but also helps give them self-fulfilment and esteem, etc.
Lesson: just do it, get it wrong, then learn, do it better and scale up.
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The Almighty: ”What have you done in your life?”
Supplicant knocking on heaven’s door: ”Didn’t you read my tweets?”
New paradigm
• No longer just the state (visible hand) and the market (invisible hand): now also all and any groups (many hands), self-organising and ‘organic’ (out of control ?)
• Groups easily and freely forming, cooperating, acting, dissolving (the platforms are free and the costs are zero)
• Complex societal problems cannot be solved by the state alone (or by the market alone) …. tried that…
• Challenges: often leads to single issues, very parochial / local / blind to trade offs; prone to coarsening the debate; digital elite / mob; loss of voice & acountability; trivialisation
Why?
To improve public services
To improve the functioning of the public sector
To improve decision- and policy making in the public sector
To improve social and economic outcomes for everybody
BUT does it work? – the jury is still out
Source: http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.htmlAnalyze your own audience’s participation: http://www.forrester.com/empowered/tool_consumer.html
How people use social media
What is ‘open’ government ?
Open for business – outward looking
Open for collaboration (PPPs, PCPs)
– always more relevant talent and knowledge outside any organisation (including government) than inside. The challenge is to understand this, find the talent or knowledge and use it wisely – crowdsourcing
Transparent, participatory and personalised
Open data, services, resources, infrastructures, etc., for sharing and innovation
Relationship-based government
Citizenship isn’t a transaction in which you pay your taxes in and get your services out. It’s a relationship.
In times of austerity, are we in danger of moving away from a vision in which there are ties binding us all, and towards one that is purely transactional.
• Norway: surveys asking citizens whether knowing the civil servant personally improves the service experience: YES
• UK and Netherlands: personal budgets: huge improvements reported in cost savings, quality of service and citizen satisfaction
• UK, London: personal dialogue with citizens refused public housing increased acceptance from 10% to 70%
Netherlands: alternative dispute resolution - 1
• Conflict between citizens, communities and government: miscommunication, poor behaviour, unclear rules, leading to disputes
• Normal judicial resolution costs at least €400m pa
• NEW POLICY (2007-2008)
• First intervention by telephone • Informal dialogue, including in person: what is the
best way to handle the conflict• Use of mediation techniques• Government taking an arbitration role
Job satisfaction civil servants
Citizen
satisfaction
Trust in government
Administrative burdens
Workplace
Education and development
Management
Timely services
Treatment
Professionality
Results
Transparancy
Admitting mistakes
Integrity
Equality
drivers
Netherlands: alternative dispute resolution - 2
Reduction of government costs > 20%
Increase in civil servant job satisfaction 20%
40% increase in citizen satisfaction
Strong preference for informal approach, leading to a solution in 50%-60% of objection cases and 70-80% of complaint cases
Open government is porous:– turning government inside-out:
• exposure of inside of government (transparency, openness, accountability)
• civil servants and politicians out on the streets but still connected
– turning government outside-in: • letting in private & civil sectors (PPPs, PCPs)• letting in users (e.g. to design policy, make
decisions, as ‘co-creators’ of services)
• Future mandate of public sector – loss of competence?– loss of knowledge, competence and control through
commoditisation and outsourcing– government shrinks to a rump -- arms length
government?– danger in going this far as government is the sole
promoter of the public interest based on democratic accountability
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