From Dinosaur To Digital

I recently came across a reference to how governments across Canada have lost their global leadership, and how governments in Canada at all levels provide analog services to a digital society.

It made me reflect back on the 2011 report from Dillan Theckedath and Terry Thomas titled “Advancing Canada’s Digital Society” and ask myself if we’ve truly made any advancements in the past five years. The Digital 150 Federal Government strategy was published a few years ago with a list of 39 initiatives implemented or in progress at the time. Time will tell if the goal of a Digital Country will be achieved by 2017.

For the last 50 years, technology in government has been viewed as an expense and as a necessary evil not always understood by elected officials and senior administrators. However, information and technology are part of every aspect of a city, county, region, province, territory and country, and are critical in delivering services. It is time to see digital technology as an investment, as a way to innovate, reduce costs, enhance citizen service delivery and transform government operations.

Now more than ever before, governments in Canada need to find ways to innovate, to transform and to create a foundation that is sustainable. Now is the time for both courage and innovation in government.

Let’s become a society that provides digital services to digital citizens. It’s time to move to the 21st century.

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15 Initiatives To Consider For Improving Any Government’s Digital Strategy

1. Build 21st century digital infrastructure like the Chattanooga Gig City Project.
2. Build WiFi networks like the City of Edmonton on your own and in partnership with others.
3. Provide technology and internet to children and youth in need like the city of Toronto.
4. Connect to a national education and research network like Cybera in Alberta or CANARIE.
5. Create a national digital government taskforce to leverage the power of the collective across all orders of government.
6. Run more hackathons with bigger prizes and adjust government procurement to easily adopt solutions created by passionate entrepreneurs.
7. Collocate government digital teams (and other key government projects) within local startup incubators and coworking spaces. It’s time to demystify government and embrace the mainstream. The best examples of innovative digital governments are the City of Barcelona and New Urban Mechanics.
8. Develop a digital government strategy that includes “open government” – the City of Montreal has on of the more progressive digital strategies in the country.
9. If open government is too big a leap, then start with open data. Edmonton is our national leader in local government open data.
10. Build a citizen dashboard to showcase your government services and commitment to the public.
11. Put your crime data online like th eEdmonton Police Service. This approach to digital innovation requires courage and lots of thought by law enforcement agencies.
12. Consider a pilot project with sensor technology for parking like th eCity of Nice or for waste management like the City of Barcelona.
13. Embrace Car2Go, Modo and UBER as ways to move people in your city.
14. Consider turning your IT department into the Innovation and Technology Department like they did at the City of Chicago.
15. Partner with other governments (at all levels) to create a shared Innovation and Technology agency.