Vending machine vs. the application store

Forget top-down control, give citizens data and tools and let them self govern.

At a couple of different events (Shakespeare Review and Innovate 2013)I attended recently  the question of how we can generate economic benefit from opening up government data was explored.  It got me thinking about the shift to government as a platform Tim O’Reilly and others have been writing about this for a while, and point the idea is built on a set of principles that are the exact opposite of the way government traditionally works.  These principles include transparency (open standards and data); simplicity (build a simple system and let it evolve); participation (design systems and programmes to be as inclusive as possible) open mindedness (learn from critics); experimentation (including the embrace of failure as the way we ultimately learn to succeed); and visibility (track all participation to be able to learn from data mining about aggregate behaviour). Governments that are able to adopt and act on these principles are going to be able to mobilise enormous economic and social power in the service of addressing problems. There will be governments who are not afraid of their own societies but rather seem to empower their citizens.

As resources for government as a vending machine fall and the speed of change makes government as control tower ever more difficult, government as platform will become ever more attractive. It is the very nature of platforms that it is possible to prescribe or predict how and where citizens will decide to use their newfound powers of participation and innovation.

In my world I’m beginning to see this come to fruition with an appetite for platforms such as the Government G cloud and interest in how the business application stores like AppWave can tap into the social elements of work.