Evolving our digital government to deliver a Digital Canberra

Digital transformation refers to the changes associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society.

There are generally two parts to this conversation, (a) an outwardly focused discussion about digital cities and service delivery, and (b) an inwardly focused discussion on creating an agile, connected and highly responsive digital government that can support a digital city.

People need to be able to transact services and access information anytime, anywhere. Like any other service industry, government should design its services in the most user friendly way. Interacting with government should be as easy as Internet banking or ordering a taxi through an app.

We know Australia's been good in the past because we've ranked 2nd according to the UN's eGovernment Survey in 2014. Australia also ranked 7th in its e-participation leadership.

But e-Government is of the old world, part of the Gov 1.0 revolution, now we are transitioning to a digital world and a digital government, now it's about Gov 2.0. Gov 2.0 is about using the power of the crowd and the community to help government (in partnership) deliver services and build information bases.

The E-Government Development Index (EGDI) is based on a comprehensive Survey of the online presence of all 193 United Nations Member States, which assesses national websites and how e-government policies and strategies are applied in general and in specific sectors for delivery of essential services.

The EGDI is a weighted average of three normalized scores on three most important dimensions of e-government, namely: (1) scope and quality of online services (Online Service Index, OSI), (2) development status of telecommunication infrastructure (Telecommunication Infrastructure Index, TII), and (3) inherent human capital (Human Capital Index, HCI).

... but Australia has stalled.

According to the Digital Evolution Index, Australia now ranked 12th falls under the 'Stall Out' grouping.

Stall Out meaning: "Typically, this group has a history of strong growth, but it’s no longer being achieved. Because of various factors, these countries are at risk of slipping in their development."

Looking at the snapshot DEI we see a gradual downward trend since 2010. http://insights.mastercard.com/digitalevolution/

If this is where Australia is, let's imagine what this means for the ACT.

ICT Strategy Objectives:

1 make living in Canberra easier by developing, with the community, an integrated, comprehensive and affordable range of readily accessible online services.

2 improve return on investment on public expenditure on ICT through implementing and sharing higher quality, more resilient systems.

3 use ICT to promote Open Government and online community engagement.

4 contribute to the achievement of its environmental targets by improving the energy efficiency of its ICT infrastructure and promoting the use of ICT to assist other sustainability initiatives.

5 develop its workforce and partnerships to provide the future capacity and skills to implement its ICT programs and strategies.

Let's map our progress against the ICT Strategy. How do you think we've gone? Good, bad, the same?

We have made some good progress with iConnect, Access Canberra, the Shared Services Review, the Open Data Platform. But, unfortunately we haven't fully achieved our objectives yet.

Why?
1. We haven't got internal traction
2. We haven't focused on building enabling infrastructure
3. We continue to work in silos, hampered by a lack of collaborative spaces

What next?
- The things we haven't done we now need to do, but we also need to do more in order to stay current, and also be sufficiently forward looking.

We need your help to add to our research. Help us answer the what and why question of Digital Government. What is it to be a good one, why should we have one?

Your views will help us find the answers to those questions.

Contribute by:
- asking to be a contributor to our Flipboard, or simply following and commenting on our Flipboard - http://flip.it/zgSHn
- emailing or call anyone of the team members of the GIIPO
- come over and talk to us - we're just here!

A blog page will also be set up shortly on the Innovation Hub as another channel for you to contribute your thoughts and vision for a successful digital government.