Options for Government in the Digital Age: Change or Be Changed - New Directions for Government #7

In February, in collaboration with the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the Blockchain Research Institute published its recommendations to the Biden-Harris administration for leading the United States in the next era of digital technology. We published the recommendations in a comprehensive report. Our larger goal was to assist governments everywhere in using these technologies in their operations and economies, with their allies and global partners. This is the last of seven posts in which I review the priorities and opportunities at hand.

America’s problems are many: a global pandemic leading to a crushing recession, hardship, disruption to many industries, and unprecedented levels of debt, social injustice, right-wing extremism, and a country divided. The former administration delayed the battle against climate change by four years and left a crisis of legitimacy in government, the free press, elections, and democracy itself.

At the same time, the pandemic has accelerated the relentless march of the digital age, as people work, learn, shop, communicate, and entertain themselves online. For the last 40 years, we’ve seen the rise of mainframes, minicomputers, the personal computer, the Internet, the Web, the mobile web, social media, the cloud, and big data.

We’re entering a second era where new digital technologies infuse virtually all goods and services and every business process.

As we move forward, the US government’s digital journey will transform business and organizational models, processes, and competencies to create a superior value proposition for citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders of government. Digital transformation, after all, is not just about modernizing technology and tools. It is about adopting appropriate digital technologies to change how we work and deliver public value in the digital economy.

Leadership commitment to managing change is vital—leaders must foster an organizational culture that genuinely puts users first, collaborates across departmental silos, and modernizes policies and governance structures to support innovation and experimentation. This is hard work—the hardest work of all in transformation. It is not for the thin-skinned, the half-hearted, the short-sighted, or the partisan driven. Leaders in policy, human resources, legal, technology, and communications must come to the table and walk the halls in rolling out the digital agenda.

Just as the modern multinational corporation sources ideas, parts, and materials from a vast external network of customers, researchers, and suppliers, the federal government must hone its capacity to integrate skills and knowledge from multiple participants—from very local to very international—to meet their own citizens’ expectations for a more responsive, resourceful, efficient, and accountable form of governance.

Federal employees must feel as if they are on the same journey to becoming a high-performing team. It is truly a time when either US federal government plays an active and positive role in its transformation, or change will happen to it. The transformation process is both exhilarating and painful. Still, the price of inaction is a lost opportunity for the United States to redefine its role in the lives of its people and as a force for good in the world.

 Thank you for reading this series about digital government. This is my final article in a seven part series about digital policy and strategy for governments, which I would encourage you to read in it's entirety if you haven't already. I will be revisiting the topic in the future, alongside many others. Stay tuned!

Below, you will find some news headlines that I considered note worthy for the past week. Enjoy!

News from the Digital Economy

The biggest headline, I think we can all agree, was the unprecedented Coinbase IPO this week, fetching an $85 billion valuation. The Wall Street Journal did an excellent breakdown, well worth a read.

• Bitcoin Price Shoots Past $60K, Ether Hits New All-Time High
• Elon Musk Shows Off Monkey ‘playing A Video Game’ Via Neuralink Implant
• Russia's Digital Currency Is Getting Closer To The Prototype Stage
• Starlink Just Launched 60 More Satellites
• Microsoft makes $20bn bet on Speech AI Firm Nuance
• China Slaps Alibaba With $2.8 Billion Fine In Anti-Monopoly Probe
• IBM Releases Qiskit Modules That Use Quantum Computers To Improve Machine Learning
• Facebook Is Trying To Make AI Fairer By Paying People To Give It Data
• Jamaica & Ireland Firm Partner to Test CBDC Project In 2021
• Can a Digital Pound CBDC Retake London's Financial Hub Status Post-brexit?
• Huobi’s Charity Division Commits $1 Million In Bitcoin And Fiat Currency To Unicef

The Clootie Wall: Processing a Pandemic by Sarah Gowan, photo by Gov. Tom Wolf, 2020, used under CC BY 2.0 license; The Capitol and People Who Have Died Unfairly by Maria Thalassinou, 2021, used under Unsplash license; and Global Climate Change Strike by Markus Spiske, 2019, used under Unsplash license.