digital

💡 How the Institute of Digital Public Services could get started

A lot of people seemed to like the idea of the ‘Institute of Digital Public Services’ (IDPS) – admittedly a few didn’t, but not enough to convince me it isn’t an idea worth pursuing!

How on earth to get something like that off the ground though? I must admit I am well outside my comfort zone with things like this. Findings funders, setting up governance arrangements, creating legal entities. Not really my wheelhouse.

So, as is often the case with one of my ideas, I think about how it could be bootstrapped with minimal effort and risk. Of course, that means there’s a higher chance of it not being as effective, but I have to work with what I’ve got, right?

So how about this:

  • The IDPS is a website. People join, which means they are added to an email list
  • Every other month, a clever digital government type is asked to pen an article that sets out a big idea, and it gets published via the site and the email list, and all the social get a ping. Comments on the article provide a space for discussion
  • A few weeks later, an online session is run where the author gets to explain their idea, an expert panel quizzes them, and a Q&A happens with the attendees
  • Rinse and repeat every couple of months
  • Maybe – maybe – an annual in person get together where the speakers discuss their ideas in person and everyone gets to meet each other, which might be nice

So, cost = low, risk = low, impact = probably also low. But it would be a start and maybe enough to get serious people interested in doing it properly.

Thoughts?

📅 Daily note for 22 November 2024

Whoops, forgot to hit publish on Friday. #

Another kerr-azy week of having too much to do and too little time and energy to do it. #

A short post I put up on LinkedIn (and published here and on Localise⬈ as an archive) blew up in a modest way. It even attracted a comment on a blog post! Good heavens. Does feel like there is a gap here to be filled by something. #

Atika has started her CDO type role at Luton Council and she’s published the first blog post⬈ on the Council’s brand new blog in her first week! An inspiration to us all – this is how you impact on culture early. #

Ben Holliday: Analogue because of digital⬈:

My concern is that the default solution to this type of reform will be more technology. However, we still have a greater need for more joined up systems that make better use of existing technology. This includes recognising that not all legacy technology is bad. Dare I say, even some of the pagers and the fax machines.

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Alan Wright’s favourite tools for analysing user and product data⬈ #

💡 I think we need an “Institute for Digital Public Services”.

Where’s the centre of gravity for conversations about how we can and should be leveraging the digital revolution for the benefit of society through our public services? I think about the flurry of activity when James Plunkett kicked off a debate a few months ago⬈ about ‘local GDS’ or the more recent excitement caused by the publication of Richard Pope’s <a href=“https://anatomyofpublicservices.com/”>Platformland⬈. Going back a few years, Mark Thompson has tried to get conversations going with a number of different analogies, whether Lego⬈, Heart FM, or Tesco⬈.

But these discussions are never sustained, and they never seem to make it past conversations and into ‘test and learn’ (to quote Philippa Newis⬈!) to identify which of these ideas might work better than others.

It feels like an institutional gap that an ‘Institute for Digital Public Services’ would fill. A home for the discussions. A place for convening and curating of ideas and practice. A way to consider the full breadth of public service, from central government to local government, with health and blue light services and everything else in-between.

Most importantly a place where the concepts and the theories can be prototyped, experimented with, and new things learned, with practice being developed and adopted along the way – turning ideas into reality.

📅 Daily note for 30 October 2024

Am thinking again about the structure of my blogging here. I’d much rather than the individual paragraphs in these daily notes existed as posts in their own right, as well as being collected together for the whole day. That way I could publish each item as soon as I type them in, rather than waiting til the end of the day. Main inspiration here is Dave Winer⬈, while Coté⬈ does it but keeping the posts separated rather than presented as daily collections. #

Richard Pope (again!) on services that work harder⬈. #

Dave Rogers: Toxic Technology⬈. Not come across this before (how!?) but Sarah Drummond⬈ linked to it so thanks to her 🙂 #

Paul Maltby: Why public sector procurement needs a serious rethink to deliver on the promise of AI and tech⬈. #

Sharon Dale⬈ shared TidyCal⬈ on LinkedIn – basically Calendly⬈ but more flexible and a lot cheaper. I have set mine up here⬈. #

📅 Daily note for 24 October 2024

Patient records and the NHS App⬈ – or why this stuff is really, really hard. #

Southwark Council⬈ have made some interesting design decisions on their new LocalGovDrupal website.

A week note from Catherine Howe⬈ should always be celebrated. #

A gobbet from a piece I’m drafting for a project:

Consolidation, harmonisation, standardisation… call it what you will. The opportunities however are boundless, but to take them we have to all agree on the central premise: councils have too much to do, and everyone will be better off if they can focus on what really matters to local people.

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4 ideas for the digital centre of government⬈ from dxw. #

The role of Transactive Memory Systems in great teams⬈ by Emily Webber.

Daniel Wegner introduced the term ” transactive memory System” in 1985 as a counter to more negative perceptions of group behaviours.

Transactive memory is like an index of where to find things rather than knowing them yourself.

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