Government’s role needs to shift significantly with the Fourth Revolution. In the past it used a lot of resource for data capture and crunching, which is now done automatically and more quickly using digital tools. In a series of post ‘Teaching Digital at the Kennedy School of Government: A Road Map‘, David Eaves outlines some principles.
His main point is that “It is the digital sphere?—?and the rules, norms and structures that come to define it—that will, in many cases, control the physical sphere. This is why digital’s impact on the economy, democracy, and society should not be underestimated. It is also why understanding, shaping and engaging in those rules, norms and structures is essential to a policy school.”
Some key questions remain to be resolved: “What government can and should look like in a digital age is a real and pressing question“. ” Can governments become learning organizations that move at the speed of digital?“. It needs a fundamental rethink of how government conducts its operations and what value it adds to the People. The issue of regulation of the digital world is also acute.
Solutions are not yet available in a standard format but this area is certainly a very interesting field to watch as experiments are conducted in certain countries!
