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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John Wells chats to David about his reflections inspired by the meeting, and his perspectives on the value of these intergovernmental gatherings to people working in the trenches. This opens up a wider discussion about the ways that governments create and leverage roles such as CIO and CTO, and what this communicates about a Government’s attitude towards technology.

I think we’re at a really interesting place around the role of ICT in government…I always like to look to see where the CIO sits in the org chart – it’s a very ‘old school’ thing to do, but it tells you a lot about how that government understands technology.

About David Eaves

David is a public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert and frequent speaker on these topics. He is retained by several governments to advise on open government and open data, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project, and advises businesses on open source strategies and community management. Three years ago David advised the Mayor of Vancouver on Open Government and Open Data and helped draft the Open Motion. He has also launched a number of open data projects including Recollect.net and emitter.ca.

David blogs regularly at eaves.ca where you can read more about his projects and upcoming speaking engagements.

CC feature image courtesy http://owni.fr/

About the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV)

The Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV) assists countries in adapting their public sector governance arrangements to the changing needs of society.

Through the sharing of country experiences, the OECD work on Public Sector Innovation seeks to develop a better understanding of innovative approaches and tools, and their impact on government performance and public service delivery.

OECD work on e-Government explores how governments can best exploit information and communication technologies (ICTs) to embed good governance principles and achieve public policy goals.

How you can use this episode

Listen to the episode

Episode links and resources

• OECD Public Sector Innovation and e-Government
• OECD E-Leaders: Strengthening the strategic agility of the public sector
• OECD National e-Leaders meeting: E-Government: New ICT Solutions for Public Sector Agility
• OECD and the Internet Economy
• David Eaves’s blog

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• People and organisations:
  @daeaves
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  @OECD_ICT
• Tags: #opendata #egov #opengov #OECD