Matthew,

I found your lecture both thought provoking and visionary. I also share your desire for a new society created by us all, and, I believe, I can help you to realise your vision, and more.

Your statement that policy can change the world but only when it is part of a bigger shift and when it is shrewdly designed to channel and accelerate a wider civic momentum was the trigger for this response. It was obvious as soon as you said it, but I hadn’t appreciated how powerful a lever it could be, nor do I have “nudging” skills at my disposal, but I suspect you do.

I would, however, argue that there is another vital component that needs to be in place, and that is robust software solutions to ensure the effective delivery of the new policy. Connecting for Health and Universal Credit being examples of policies where, regardless of their merit, the solutions could not be said to be robust.

Furthermore, assuming universal basic income (UBI) is part of the financial relationship between the citizen and the State, that relationship, and others such as healthcare and justice, need policies to be designed around the citizen rather than the current provider silos, for example DWP. All these components together can deliver truly revolutionary solutions.

There is a unique opportunity to achieve this fundamental transformation to citizen-centric public services by better exploiting the Web, as explained in a potted history, and potential, of computing below.

The Web enabled community software designed around the demand-side over twenty years ago, for example eBay and Uber, but public services are still operating using business software designed for a bygone computing era.

The future of public service computing is either to carry on trying to extract more value from legacy solutions, or REPLACE business software with community software.

For example, REPLACE millions of payroll systems and the various taxes and benefits systems, both local and national, with a taxes and benefits algorithm.

A prototype already exists supporting this and it could easily be extended to include UBI as defined by RSA in various papers.

But, as already stated, we need to look beyond UBI. To be truly citizen-centric there needs to be one algorithm covering all personal taxes and benefits. Indeed, it could be configured to support more than one regime at once. This would, of course, enable the tapered introduction of new policies, such as UBI.

The prototype also includes a basic healthcare episode application that replaces the thousands of applications in operation in GP surgeries, pharmacies and hospitals today. Similar opportunities exist in justice, education and elsewhere.

In terms of policy design, then the objective would be to extend the prototype to cover all public services.

In terms of the creation of the operational software then that is covered here. It is analogous to the rigorous engineering of the Industrial Age, far removed from today’s hand-crafted, cottage industry extensions to legacy business software created by GDS and others.

Collaborative policy design of citizen-centric public services and rigorous software engineering together can lead to a new society created by us all.