Digital Government fit for a Digital Global Age

Dr. Jayshree Pandya, Founder of Cyber-Security Risk Research Center at Risk Group discusses “Digital Government fit for a Digital Global Age” with Prof. Jack Pitney, a Claremont Mckenna Professor of American Politics.   Introduction   The rapidly evolving digital technological landscape is bringing both an opportunity as well as a challenge for each and every component of a nation—and government is no exception. Like every other component of a nation: industries, organizations, academia and individuals, the promise and expectations of a digital global age are pushing the governments at all levels, across nations, to deliver public services, in a cost-effective, efficient and accessible manner. Building a government, governance model and integrated governance framework that are data driven and fit for a digital global age requires each nation and its innovators to think beyond political ideology, divide, computer code, technology or internet. To meet the need of the time and to keep up with the pace of change in ideas, innovation and technology, innovators across some nations have already begun to experiment with ideas and innovation for better and effective data-centric digital governance models. However, the interconnectedness and interdependencies of a digital global age requires each government at every level (global /regional/ national/ local) to securely design their governance systems for interoperability at all levels within, between and across nations boundaries in cyberspace-geospace and space (CGS). Across nations, there is a strong need for common, collective and collaborative governance standards—to produce and promote a governance model that is based on real data and not ideological agendas and wishful thinking. While the digital government and data centric governance model is a need of the time, it faces its biggest obstacle—Politics. The Digital Global Age The rapidly evolving digital global fundamentals are pushing each and every nation: its governments, industries, organizations and academia (NGIOA) to look for new ways to do things, develop new products & services and come up with new ideas and innovations that would take advantage of information, communication and digitalization technology. Across nations, technology is already transforming how industries conduct its business and individuals live their daily lives. The question is whether governments at all levels have started looking for new ways to govern that is fit for a digital global age. The digital governance necessities are fairly new, and are largely driven by information, communication and digitalization technological innovations. However, today- Any nation of any size and complexity can use information, communication and digitalization tools and technologies to grasp the digital opportunity and fundamentally transform how their government serves its citizen’s needs. Any nation can build a digital framework and governance model that is fit for a digital global age. Any nation can better serve its citizens in an efficient and affordable manner. By designing, building and operationalizing an information and fact based data-centric governance model, each nation can design their digital governance systems for efficient, effective and elective services at lower costs, faster speeds, and universal accessibility. Digital Governance: Beyond Technology Nations that are exploring digital governance will need to develop a collective process to manage the rising challenges and divides of different cultures, diverse processes, and skill sets that are not in tune with a technologically advanced, data-centric digital global age. Overcoming these complex technical and non-technical barriers will be a key for any digital governance initiative or a digital government of a digital global age. It is important to understand that as information, communication and digital technology promises to overcome all these traditional gove...