memex

“Digital government is emphatically not about some flashy Internet of Things gadget dangling around a lonely, housebound patient’s neck as a substitute for all-important face-to-face visits that may serve a host of other useful purposes (combatting loneliness, for instance). Quite the opposite. For us, digital public services will help drive a larger share of the public wallet to the front line – which will increase, not decrease, the resources available to spend on appropriate face-to-face services. It is about improving the funding for those activities – particularly caring, educating, policing – that (in our view) are best performed by public officials. This can only be achieved by spending less on all those unnecessary activities, layers of bureaucracy, or even suppliers that have inserted themselves in the way, as governments consume standard services directly from a plural, vibrant marketplace. Digital allows us to separate out important services from internal overheads: to move from multiple versions of the same thing, organized around the internal needs of the bureaucracy, to the same version of different things, organized around the citizen.”