California just launched a "Digital Service" based on the amazing UK Government Digital Service

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/09/california-just-launched-a-d.html

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18F is a kickass USG group that gets similar treatment despite doing yeoman’s work. Greedy gonna be greedy, I guess.

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I hope it works out and doesn’t just turn in to a method of cutting the workforce and disenfranchising people who don’t have access to the internet.

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[quote=“doctorow, post:1, topic:90905”]Since 2011, the UK’s Government Digital Service has radically transformed the way Britons interact with their government, streamlining bureaucratic processes, opening up data, and making APIs available for community groups and commercial players[/quote]With the endless heaps of snarling invective directed at the UK government on this site (Snooper’s Charter and so on), I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be sarcasm. Amazing.

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Surprisingly, no. The UK Government Digital Service was an exceptional demonstration of how public services can work for the benefit of the public more efficiently than the private sector. Of course it had to die.

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So hooray for California! Except, boo on California! Just what point is this article making?

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Government procurement for software is indeed a nightmare. I was extremely pleased when Ontario’s Open Government Office recently decided to use open source software to create a platform to house it’s data catalogue. It seems so obvious that open source and government ought to go hand-in-hand.

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wow! does this mean the DMV will become functional?!

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• Please provide a list of the APIs made available by GDS to community groups and commercial players.

• The open data movement in the UK long precedes the creation of GDS.

• GDS have no experience of public administration and cannot be credited with any streamlining of bureaucratic processes.

• On-line interaction between us Brits and the government again long precedes the creation of GDS.

• GDS like public services to be delivered by computers – physical meetings are regarded as failure, similarly telephone calls and letters. The opposite of humane, GDS press for efficiency.

• GDS have demonstrated no skills with data analytics …

• … but they want to store all our personal information in canonical registers and use apps to work out how to maximise our utility.

California is advised to choose a different pin-up.

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