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? Ed Vaizey , a former UK government minister, commented in 2017 that he “would completely re-engineer government. I would abolish government departments, I would have government by task, you know, what do you want to achieve?” Knowingly or not, his remarks echo an earlier political ambition for a radical digital transformation of government. A succession of government digital strategies has appeared over recent decades, largely variations on the 1996 classic original ( Figure 1 ). But delivery has rarely matched their good intentions. The failure to modernise government and bring it into the 21st century has created a growing digital / policy divide, an existential gulf between governments’ capabilities and citizens’ needs and expectations. Perpetual panic The lack of a sustained, strategic political leadership of digital, data, and technology (DDaT) has led to a near-perpetual state of panic about all things digital – social media, artificial intelligence, adtech, the gig economy, hybrid warfare. Equally problematic are the politicians and officials beguiled by the spin and hype of the technology spivs, rushing to acclaim blockchain or […]
Click here to view original web page at www.computerweekly.com