I've just red an interview with Vivek Kundra, a US government CIO, in the new Wired magazine. It is impressive how radically he is about to change the level of government transparency by applying some well known and already widely accepted (in real sector) standards for investment management.
Two bold goals are highlighting his strategy:
Radical transparency
We, the tax payers, want to know how is government spending our money. Not only on what, but with whom (who are the prime contractors) and also how effectively (what are the results and how many projects actually failed). This is the entry level for any discussion on digital strategy for any given contry. It's the basic hygiene. Nothing else should be accepted.
Moving forward, the interest of political elites, in keeping the budgets low profile and non transparent can't be sustainable. It is not about the legal frameworks, nor national security, not even about citizen data protection. It's about transparency that you expect from any publicly listed enterprise. Think of yourself as a supervisory board member or a shareholder of your country. What would you like to know from the ones that you've awarded with 4yrs management contract. I guess everything. Once again, great example can be found at http://www.usaspending.gov ! Search the government contracts, investments, projects or initiatives by any imaginable criteria and enjoy.
Data infrastructure
Government bureaucracies all around the world have been producing all kind of data collections for at least 300 years. In last 30 years, it is mainly digital. In last 5 years, we are witnessing a great trend in digitalizing everything. So, what do we do with it? Nothing. Nothing, because the government is expected to do something with it but it can't be innovative by its definition. It is like a buried capital.
Unlock the potential of the public data by exposing it in machine readable formats to the world. Today, data is the main asset of the digital world. Structured, unstructured, whatever... Innovative applications, ideas, scenarios, business models are appearing daily all over the web. Their main asset is the data. Recently, it's a user generated data in a Web 2.0 world.
We (the citizens) are the owners of these government managed digital assets, but the data itself is currently in possession of political elites. Give the data to the web. Another great project, and great example on how to turn the data infrastructure into the meaningful applications is the data.gov. It's a web site exposing and publishing government created data in a machine readable way.
Governments have always been in charge of creating the roads and highways, but private sector will create cars and truck to use them. This is the new paradigm of public-private partnership. Give us the data, we'll know how to use it. For sure, new applications will emerge.
Finally, this is how Mr.Kundra himself explains the ultimate goals of data.gov:
"A primary goal of Data.gov is to improve access to Federal data and expand creative use of those data beyond the walls of government by encouraging innovative ideas (e.g., web applications). Data.gov strives to make government more transparent and is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. The openness derived from Data.gov will strengthen our Nation's democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government."
I couldn't agree more!
PS. Dear croatian political elite (especial the one behind www.e-hrvatska.hr), please read this post and act accordingly.
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