With the emergence of new trends like open government and open data, there is a perception by many that eGovernment is yesterday’s news, and has largely been completed.

In a candid conversation, Barbara-Chiara Ubaldi, head of the OECD’s eGovernment unit, explains that there is much work still to be done to bring eGovernment into the daily work of the public sector.

In the real world, policymakers responsible for individual areas still don’t talk to each other, don’t work together – so, we still haven’t reached that level of interoperability, integration and coordination which is indeed essential for the implementation of larger interests like open government, for instance.

Barbara also highlights the ways in which the OECD is starting to connect the dots between national eGovernment policymaking and practical implementation by both the public sector and civil society.

About Barbara-Chiara Ubaldi

Since October 2010, Barbara-Chiara Ubaldi has led the OECD E-Government Project within the Division for Public Sector Reform at the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate.

Ms. Ubaldi has been serving the OECD as Policy Analyst since February 2009. In this capacity, she managed a number of thematic reviews on e-government and participated in several Public Governance Reviews, which include Denmark, Greece, Mexico, Italy, Estonia, Egypt, Spain and France. Ms. Ubaldi has been co-ordinating for the past three years the OECD work on e-government indicators and the analysis on the use of new technologies – such as cloud computing and mobile technology – to enhance public sector’s agility and mobility, as well as open government.

Prior to joining the OECD she worked for more than seven years as Programme Officer at the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York where she was responsible for the full scale management of technical cooperation programmes targeting e-government and ICT use in the public sector, and for developing the content of online self-assessment and capacity building tools in the area of e-government and knowledge management.

Ms. Ubaldi is also a speaker at the ICEGOV 2012 conference – hear her sneak preview (5 mins) of the conference here.

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Episode links and resources

• OECD eGovernment Unit
• OECD report on M-Government
• OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

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The 54 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations represents more than 2 billion people across every region of the world and a vast diversity in development and capacity.

Professor Tim Unwin, well-known as UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, now heads up the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO). In this wide-ranging and provocative discussion, he explores the impact of ICT across diverse economies, the value of technology for governance and also provides an overview of the CTO’s work.

Prof. Unwin claims that, while it can change the relationship between citizens and the state, technology by itself doesn’t change very much.  It is how people use the technology that matters.  He also argues that social media’s role in participatory democracy may be over-hyped, and that while technology can accelerate change, it only does so for those who have not only access but also the literacy to use it, and that an over-focus on technology can in fact create a greater development divide.

If ICTs are to be used effectively by governments, all their people need to access them – otherwise, they’re going to lead to greater inequalities.

About Prof. Tim Unwin

Tim Unwin has been Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation since September 2011. He is also Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. From 2001-2004 he led the UK Prime Minister’s Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education initiative based within the Department for International Development (DFID), and from 2007 he was Director and then Senior Advisor (until 2011) to the World Economic Forum’s Partnerships for Education initiative with UNESCO. His recent work has concentrated  on the use of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), and in 2004 he created the ICT4D Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London, which is now one of the world’s leading centres for ICT4D research and teaching.

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Episode links and resources

• Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
• CTO Strategic Plan (PDF)
• Tim Unwin’s blog
• The ICT4D Collective

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Space Apps Challenge

Chris Vein, Deputy US CTO for Government Innovation and Nicholas Skytland, head of NASA’s Open Government Initiative, discuss how momentum for open government and open data is building internationally within policy leadership and also practical on-the-ground problem-solving events and initiatives.

Chris Vein shares some insights into how open data and code-a-thon events are a useful ‘sensemaking’ tool for open government, and ways in which this can turn into sustainable innovation inside governments. He encourages public sector agencies to…

…find groups of people, bring them together around an issue or problem that needs to be fixed, then step out of the way and let the collective energy of the people in the room come together and really take that data and solve things in creative and imaginative ways that we would never have done ourselves.

Nicholas Skytland talks about the inspiration and background to the initiative, which currently has 25 cities, around 70 organizations and more than 800 people across the world signed up to participate.

You’re able to solve challenges that might take months to do in government, but only take a weekend when you get the right people in the room together.

About Chris Vein

• Chris Vein is the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Government Innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, Chris searches for those with transformative ideas, convenes those inside and outside government to explore and test them, and catalyzes the results into a national action plan. Prior to joining the White House, Chris was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City and County of San Francisco where he led the City in becoming a national force in the application of new media platforms, use of open source applications, creation of new models for expanding digital inclusion, emphasizing “green” technology, and transforming government.

About Nicholas Skytland

• Nicholas Skytland is a NASA engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and advocate for NASA’s Open Government Initiative. He has a passion for engaging all generations in the adventure of space exploration and is continually working to help NASA embrace new technologies, increase public participation and innovate on how the Agency does business. Combining elements of space exploration, science, technology, visual art and storytelling, Nicholas is well known for many of his presentations promoting NASA, the human space program, participatory exploration and the Open Government initiative.

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Episode links and resources

• International Space Apps Challenge website
• NASA Open Government website
• Open Government Partnership website
• US Government’s Open Innovator’s Toolkit

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• Tags: #spaceapps #opengov #opendata #nasa #OGP

Tune in to a Gov20 Radio conversation with Nathaniel Heller, the founder and Executive Director of Global Integrity.

We speak about the international Open Government Partnership program, with an ever-increasing list of countries signing up, and the innovative Networking Mechanism that Nathaniel and his team are coordinating that aims to connect Open Government practitioners inside and outside Government.