From the Desk of a Digital Change analyst…

Hi, my name is Kayle Hatt and this is my first Medium post.

I recently joined the Office of the Chief Information Officer at TBS and my management has encouraged me to work in the open.

Despite being active on Twitter, this is a new experience for me as a public servant — over the last 3 years I’ve tweeted about policy innovation and side projects (like Canada Beyond 150) but not my active files. I had previously worked more openly at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities but as a public servant most of my work has been “secret” by default.

So now I’m following Michael Karlin’s lead and starting a Medium account.

3 things about me:

Fun facts:

· The only time I recall using a fax machine in my entire life is when I had to send my student Loan agreement to the government with my signature … by fax … in 2011.

· A couple years ago, I had ordered my first chequebook so that I could submit an access to information request … which latter arrived on a CD-ROM.

· And in 2016, I bought a house with my wife (@MelissaLGruber) and through six rounds of offers we never once signed had a physical piece of paper.

What I’m working on:

I’m am working on Digital Government initiatives with the amazing Olivia Neal on the Digital Change team.

Minister Brison gave a great TEDx talk about the Digital Government vision and you should watch it … but, in short, I am working on making government more like buying a house with e-signatures and less like learning how to use a fax machine.

Side note: lots of work on this is already being done and the government has been making great progress. For example, as I previously wrote, when my wife and I had a baby last fall we were able to get a birth certificate, social insurance number, and register for government programs through a single “tell-us-once” approach.

Expect more soon!