Last week, the OPSI hosted a Rules as Code meet-up for government and inter-governmental organisation (IGO) officials. The meet-up was the first of several that the OPSI intends to host in support of a growing movement in public administration inspired by the promise of Rules as Code (RaC). We at OPSI believe in the promise of RaC as an emergent approach, something we explored in our RaC primer. We think that this is something which...
Posts on Emerging Tech
Since 2016, OPSI and the UAE Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (MBRCGI) have worked in partnership to surface key activities and case studies in public sector innovation, resulting in a series of annual reports on key innovation trends. However, this year is not a normal year, with 2020 being one of the most challenging years in most of our lifetimes. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and drastically changed the daily lives of nearly...
Since late 2019, we have been working to answer the question “why hasn’t blockchain, and its underlying distributed ledger technology (DLT), made a bigger impact in the public sector?”. It has been over two years since OPSI published the report Blockchains Unchained: Blockchain Technology and its Use in the Public Sector, and over a year since the OECD Digital Government and Data Unit published the report State of the Art in the Use of Emerging...
Convening intentional conversations on crisis implications The crisis of this year has required governments at all levels around the world to respond and adapt. The COVID-19 crisis is unique in the sense that, while many individuals, communities and countries have suffered disproportionate impacts, there has also been a global, collective impact that has spared no one. There has been a terrible shock, one whose aftereffects will continue to be felt for some time. It is...
Today, we are pleased to launch OPSI’s third innovation primer, Cracking the Code: Rulemaking for humans and machines. Exploring the exciting emergence of Rules as Code (RaC) in the public sector, we hope the primer will equip public servants (and others) to consider, understand and possibly implement RaC in their own work. Rules as Code (RaC) is an exciting concept that rethinks one of the core functions of governments: rulemaking. It proposes that governments create...
Global Trends 2020: Innovative Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis
Editor’s note: This guest blog, authored by James Fisk of the New Zealand Government’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, is a case study in the creation of Rules as Code. James is part of the GovTech Talent Digital Graduate Programme, which is a 24-month programme where graduates rotate across three different government agencies. Rules as Code is a topic that OPSI is currently exploring through its draft Innovation Primer. Cracking the Code: Rulemaking for...
Recently, OPSI released its third Innovation Primer on Rules as Code (RaC) for public consultation. Cracking the Code: Rulemaking for humans and machines seeks to provide a clear, understandable introduction to an emerging and sometimes complex topic. It explores the concept’s potential and likely benefits, as well as its challenges and limitations. On Tuesday 16 June 2020, we, the authors, James Mohun and Alex Roberts, will host an informal online meet-up about the Primer. The...
Today we’re seeking your help in finalising our Rules as Code primer – “Cracking the code: Rulemaking for humans and machines”. We’re seeking feedback until 24 June, with the hope of finalising the report for release in late July or early August. In November 2019, OPSI commenced work on a new Innovation Primer focused on the exciting concept of Rules as Code (RaC). At the time, we wrote that ‘Rules as Code presents a new approach to…
“Everyone is afraid of making a mistake. Everyone is afraid of the consequence of error, but the greatest error is not to move. The greatest error is to be paralysed by the fear of failure.”– Dr Michael Ryan, WHO Executive Director, WHO Press Conference (13/03/2019) The stakes for innovation have never been higher, the risk of failing has never felt greater. Whenever an organisation innovates they are always taking a step into the unknown, with...