PD Newsletter #2: Planes, automobiles, cash for AI and iterative delivery done well

Welcome to Public Digital’s newsletter #2. We're always interested to hear about teams delivering great work; send ideas or feedback by email or to @egawen on Twitter.

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German federal government plans e-Government agency

Germany’s new State Secretary for Digital Affairs, Dorothee Bär, aims to accelerate digitisation, and plans to set up a new “e-Government” agency. She's already facing an uphill battle with distributed power in a coalition government and a strong federal system. Hopefully they will stay away from the #flugtaxi ✈️🚕for now.

[Handelsblatt | Morgenpost (for the pictures), both German].

Mexico promotes continuous improvement of public services

A helpful worked example of the Mexican birth certificate, iteratively delivered. We like the emphasis on continuous improvement and measurement including: decreased delivery time, cost per service channel and number of completions.

[Gob.mx | Spanish, google translate works well]

Well Digital demonstrate Internet-era ways of working

Well Digital share how they built the UK’s first Viagra subscription service. Look beyond the product, and what you have is Internet-era ways of working done well: start small, keep testing with users, work from feedback and build as little as you can. Lots to learn from here.

[Well Digital Part 1 | Part 2, more in part 2 about ways of working.]

Why technical ignorance is not leadership

This can't be said too many times, and Jennifer Pahlka of Code for America is on a mission: “Digital competence is core to successful government...If you are a powerful person, you don’t have to understand how the digital world works...but what we are saying is that you do have to care.”

[Techcrunch]

Trebles all round for technology suppliers in Ireland

In the words of Patrick O’Donovan, Minister of State, the Irish Government are offering “funding to support the development of products in the potentially very lucrative artificial intelligence arena”. The funding aims to improve access to Gov.ie. 🤖Lucrative indeed. Meanwhile, access denied as 450 people have welfare payments suspended after failing to sign up to a Public Services Card.

[Irishtechnews | Irish Times]

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In brief

• 😼If you’re tired of reading machine learning press releases, try instead using Google’s Teachable Machine. It's easy to try: you just need a webcam and tolerance for animal gifs.
• Singapore’s Li Hongyi talks about the importance of getting prototypes in the hands of users quickly for Parking.sg, and why they should have done it even sooner.
• Some doubts forming on how well Modi’s flagship Digital India initiative is going. Clearly the effort isn't going to state department websites 👎. An announcement of phase 2 is rumoured for June.
• The UK launched the first of 5 competitions in their GovTech catalyst last week. The focus on outcomes not technology is a positive one.
• Don't go building paper towns: 11:FS on the futility of innovation theatre. Written for financial services but much more widely applicable.

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