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Vox Pop: e-City UK

There's a £10m prize for the best ideas and proposals for digitally-driven schemes that improve and transform the delivery of public services. What's your reckoning on this government initiative? Check our Vox Pop and add your own views...

By Deirdre Molloy

Talk is rife of late about "e-readiness" in regards to e-government services, and the debate is widespread well beyond Britain's digital and political commentariat.

In the sixth annual survey of e-government in 22 countries released by management consultancy Accenture earlier this month, Canada came first, with the UK twelfth in the league table. A result that could only spur on discussion and action in this area.

Then there was the EC study of online service provision which put Britain third amongst its Eurpoean counterparts, below Sweden and Austria. In 2004, the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual e-readiness survey put Denmark at number one, the UK second and Sweden third, with the US trailing at sixth.

So it's swings and roundabouts in the survey rankings. But whatever the comparitive merits of tracking e-readiness by means of these charts, the objectives of e-government are certainly of primacy to more and more countries. And in the UK on 31 March the goverment announced a novel initiative to promote innovation at a local authority level by launching a £10 million prize competition for the UK's most e-aware city.

The competition - seen as akin to the creative bids that comprise the jockeying for the City Of Culture mantle - will encourage local authorities to submit ideas and proposals for digitally-driven schemes that improve and transform the delivery of public services.

"Local authorities", reported ZDNet UK, "will compete in regional 'heats' to win the opportunity to represent their region in the competition. Each regionally nominated community will receive £100,000 to develop their bids, with the winning bid awarded £10m to implement their idea."

In turn, the Institute For Public Policy and Research is currently running a 3 week consultation blog at www.digitalmanifesto.org (7th-13th April: Innovating; 14th-20th April: Reassuring; 21st-27th April: Empowering) as a way of gathering opinion, ideas and recommendations for its forthcoming Digital Manifesto.

All these initiatives seem to hinge on engagement - ie. consulting, tendering and harvesting ideas - in order to spur credible innovation and solutions. So in the spirit of dialogue, we asked three clued-up folk a consultant, a policy-researcher and a regional digital network manager for their say on the objectives of the city of e-Technology prize and its potential pitfalls and benefits...

What do you think about these initiatives and our sample of opinion? Register and post your own comments below...

(1) Can local authorities harness innovation to transform the delivery of public services?

Of course. The challenge is delivering sustainable innovation in ways which citizens want to use. Lots of things seem like good ideas but if they're not well managed and implemented we end up with a spiders webs of websites, systems and projects which confuse and don't help citizens. It isn't easy but there are high payoffs to those who crack the public service delivery nut. Jason

Undoubtedly, but so long as they see innovation as primarily social, not just technological.
Will

I think they could do this in partnership with the private sector, or more likely, being guided by the key private sector and University researchers and innovators. But it's not likely in isolation. Judith

(2) Is the £10 million prize a good way of spurring them on?

Yes!
Judith

It might be. I don't know the details of how this will be implemented. My concern is to make sure that any innovation can be sustained once these handouts are gone. It will be very exciting to see some forward-looking councils doing creative things to take the prize. I hope that what wins is not merely flashy stuff, but good solid, easy-to-use services.
Jason

Yes, if it shifts the urgency closer to the grassroots.
Will

(3) The government admits that up to now most public bodies have responded to the communications revolution by simply putting existing services online rather than using technology to be truly innovative. Is transforming the DELIVERY of public services the right next step to take?

Probably, but this is very difficult where a service has been in existence for decades. It's much easier when the service being delivered is itself new (e.g. congestion charging).
Will

I don't think we can separate the nature of public bodies from how they deliver services. To fundamentally alter the way services are delivered then the supplying bodies and their processes need to be re-engineered. Technology can either help that revolution or hinder it. The huge amount of knowledge and money tied up in existing government IT is a major barrier to trying really new things.
Jason

Yes, especially where efficiency can be improved. The introduction of digital delivery methods provides the opportunity to review internal processes.
Judith

(4) If councils enter ideas to the competition, and the winning local authority gets to implement the ideas of others as well as their own, how will the losers benefit?

By borrowing ideas from the winner, and injecting some energy into their local strategy. Will

It's hard to say without knowing what sort of ideas come up. I hope that as much as possible is made available under Open Source licenses. Councils can be fairly good at sharing their experiences so I'm sure the winner would work hard to spread the word, where possible.
Losers will have spent time thinking creatively about their processes and technologies. I imagine that with or without the prize money they will be finding neat ideas that improve services and save money.
Jason

Good question! Not sure. Do they need a shared intellectual property agreement?
Judith

(5) Does this have anything to do with combating social exclusion or bridging the e-divide, and if so, is it a promising approach?

Anything that makes services more accessible to a wider audience should count in this respect, as long as it makes the choice of access-method broader, not narrower.
Judith

I don't see it in that light at all, though I know the government are trying to push that angle. The digital divide is being and will be bridged by a coalition of organisations from schools and universities to councils to institutions such as the BBC. Improving the average wealth of our citizens will also help. But perhaps we need to get more proactive in exploring lower-cost forms of Internet access. I'm thinking about municipal wifi, subsidised low-cost computers and more reform of the telecoms market.
Jason

I'm not sure that's it's main objective. It's not necessary to bundle every digital policy agenda together like that. Just because it's not a digital inclusion policy as such, doesn't mean it's not worthwhile.
Will

[Register and add your own views below...]

Related Links:

£10m prize for e-aware city - article, The Guardian

Accenture e-Democracy Services

Economist Intelligence Unit

IPPR Digital Manifesto consultation blog


Contributor Links:

Jason Kitcat - Managing Director, Swing Digital

Will Davies - Senior Research Fellow in Digital Society, IPPR

Judith Peacock - Business Development Manager, Codeworks Connect