Let’s Think Digital is a podcast about what it takes to use digital technologies to transform our world to improve peoples’ lives. Hosted by Ryan Androsoff, Fou...
Welcome to Estonia (with Liisa-Ly Pakosta, Ville Sirviö, and Siim Sikkut)
Follow the digital government space long enough and you will hear about Estonia. Despite being a small country of 1.4 million people with an overall economy that by total size is only 101st in the world, it is a powerhouse in digital government services. In the most recent United Nations e-government ranking, Estonia ranks 2nd in the world, and has been in the top 10 for many years. So what is it about Estonia that has allowed it to leapfrog into being a global digital government leader? On this episode we’re going to explore this question with those who have been on the front lines of Estonia’s digital government revolution.We’re speaking to Estonian Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa-Ly Pakosta who was recently appointed into that role in July of this year. She has an interesting mandate as both the digital government lead for Estonia as well as leading the Justice portfolio. We also spoke to Siim Sikkut, who was the CIO of the Estonian government between 2017 and 2022 and was one of those responsible for the development of Estonia’s e-residency program in his prior role as an advisor on digital government to the Estonian Prime Minister.And we also heard from Ville Sirviö, CEO of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions, the non-profit that leads development of one of the core pieces of digital infrastructure in Estonia, the X-Road.You can also find the full, uncut interviews with Minister Pakosta, Siim, and Ville on our Let's Think Digital YouTube channel. This is the first of two episodes on the Estonia digital experience. Watch out for our next episode where we delve deep into the topic of trust as a key ingredient for modernizing government. Watch on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ9Tl4c-uUoRelated LinksMinister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa-Ly PakostaDigital NationNordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions“There is no blockchain technology in X-Road”, blog post from NIISE-Estonia“How it all began? From Tiger Leap to digital society”, Education EstoniaChapters00:00 Welcome and introductions03:17 Liisa-Ly Pakosta and the Estonian experience07:25 Siim Sikkut and e-residency20:31 Ville Serviö and X-Road26:13 Getting past bureaucratic and political blockers37:25 Improving the foundations50:14 Conclusion
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52:24
The Radical How (with Anna Hirschfeld and Alex MacEachern)
Canada has fallen from 3rd in the 2010 UN e-gov rankings to 47 in 2024. We’re stuck when it comes to modernizing government for the digital era. But our guests this week, recorded on location at this year’s FWD50 conference in Ottawa, have a new playbook that they say can help get governments in Canada out of the rut and back on track.Anna Hirschfeld and Alex MacEachern and are two of the authors of a new report from the UK-based digital government advisory firm Public Digital called A Radical How for Canada (https://public.digital/where-we-work/canada/a-radical-how-for-canada). It takes inspiration from a similarly titled report that Tom Loosemore and others from Public Digital published last year focused on the UK. It lays out concrete recommendations on the steps that governments in Canada need to take in order to change how government works for the better.Anna has been with Public Digital since 2020 where she is now their Regional Director for Canada. She has supported work with the Nova Scotia and British Columbia provincial governments, as well as other projects back home in the UK. Before that, she worked in the UK government including as the Senior Product Manager on the UK Universal Credit programme, scaling it up from a proof of concept to a live service supporting six million people.Before recently joining Public Digital, Alex was Chief of Staff at the Canadian Digital Service as the team grew from just 30 people to 150, and was involved in a number of significant digital transformation projects in the federal government.Related LinksA Radical How for CanadaWatch on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/kA0cc1mdQ7sChapters00:00 Welcome and Introductions02:41 Interview and Anna and Alex07:40 A Radical How for Canada16:34 Reflections on ArriveCan24:48 Political Transitions38:38 Funding and Procurement46:47 Conclusion
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48:02
What I Wish My Boss Knew About Digital
Live on location from the FWD50 conference! In the most recent United Nations e-government rankings Canada has dropped from a high of #3 in 2010 down to #47. We are stalled out while other countries pass us by. There is a real question from many in public service about whether senior leaders have the necessary digital era competencies to get us back to the top of the rankings again. That's why the team at Think Digital ran a workshop at this year's FWD50 conference called "What I Wish My Boss Knew About Digital" to spark discussion and reflection on what it will take to build up the digital competencies of the public service.On today's episode, Ryan kicks-off the conversation with this year's FWD50 hosts, Alistair Croll and Hillary Hartley, about what they were hearing on the conference floor. They talk about how Canada's decline in global e-government rankings is a pervasive theme for participants, and also the importance of events like FWD50 to reenergize those working to spark change. Ryan then has a conversation with Meghan and Nick from the Think Digital team for a debrief on what they heard at the workshop, including the continued importance of getting senior leaders to understand foundational aspects of the technologies that impact so much of our lives in today's world. Watch on YouTubehttps://youtu.be/ioolbJQkAoERelated LinksFWD50 ConferenceWhat I Wish My Boss Knew About DigitalChapters00:00 Alistair Croll and Hillary Hartley from FWD5005:46 Themes at FWD5011:43 Workshop reflections from Meghan and Nick13:44 How knowledgeable are public service leaders?17:00 What did you wish your boss knew?24:32 Importance of curiosity32:37 The path forward41:51 Final workshop reflections
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50:33
The Hard Yards (with Natasha Clarke)
Season 3 premiere! For those of us in the digital transformation and government modernization space, we are feeling tired and burnt out. We heard a lot about this last season where we talked about how it seems like the efforts to modernize how government serves its citizens are stalled. Here in Canada it feels like we're stuck in the mud. We heard about projects stalling and innovation teams being disbanded. Most notably the Ontario Digital Service having been disbanded this past spring.That's why this season on the podcast we're going to explore how we get unstuck, or as our guest this week says, putting in the "hard yards" of actually realizing the promise of digital government and modernization. This week we have Natasha Clarke, the Deputy Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Solutions in the Government of Nova Scotia. Over the last 25 years, she has worked to build programs and services that are easy and accessible for the people that use them. That includes going from leading a 30 person digital service team to now leading Nova Scotia's shared services department of over 700 people. In our conversation she talks about putting in the hard work of institutionalizing the digital mindset in government, the challenges and benefits of working on digital transformation in a smaller organization at the provincial level, and the work needed to build a strong foundation for modernization that'll result in real structural change over time.Natasha is going to be speaking at the FWD50 conference in Ottawa next week (as are we!) so if you are planning to be there either in-person or virtually be sure to check out our sessions and come say hi!Watch on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzBS4gQJ2L4Related LinksNova Scotia Department of Cyber Security and Digital SolutionsNatasha Clarke at FWD50What I wish my boss knew about digital, FWD50 Workshop by Think DigitalChapters00:00 Intro and Welcome03:54 Interview with Natasha Clarke07:43 The Nova Scotia Digital Evolution15:16 Chief Digital Officer vs CIO23:04 Lessons from Around the World29:31 Scaling Digital Transformation33:25 Cybersecurity43:24 Setting Up Generational Change56:42 Conclusion
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58:35
Let's Think Digital Season 3
Let's Think Digital is back for Season Three! We've heard from experts and leaders in digital modernization about how new technologies have the potential to redefine the way government works in the modern era. From new technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality to policy issues like procurement and incentivizing innovation.And we talked about how it seems like we're stuck in the mud when it comes to digital government in Canada. There's a reason why we've fallen from third in the United Nations global e-government ranking to 47th. We heard about projects stalling, innovation labs shuttered, and low morale and burnout all across the public sector.So on this, our third season of Let's Think Digital, we're going to talk about how we get unstuck. How do we get past the seemingly intractable bureaucracy? And what does success really look like? Season Three of Let's Think Digital. Coming out later this Fall. Find us wherever you get your podcasts, on YouTube, or at: letsthinkdigital.ca
Let’s Think Digital is a podcast about what it takes to use digital technologies to transform our world to improve peoples’ lives. Hosted by Ryan Androsoff, Founder of Think Digital, alongside an incredible community of digital innovators from all walks of life, in this podcast we go beyond the traditional tech hype of founder culture, user counts, funding rounds and quarterly profits. Instead we talk about why systems resist change, and how transformation is just as much about people and culture as it is about tech stacks. We’re eager to talk about the political and philosophical ramifications of technology and what it means for the future of government. Our goal is to help you to learn about how digital is impacting our world, to ask better questions, and to be able to call bullshit when you need to!
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