Well Done, British Columbia … Where Innovation Thrives

I live in a country where my digital engagement with government is almost zero. I have virtually no properly digital engagement with the NHS. I have virtually no meaningful engagement with my local council. Why? Because we have vastly under funding the re-building and re-mapping of government services, and where there are few people around who are willing to define an Estonian X-Road. We have too many pilots (small-scale trial systems and pin-point bits of innovation), and not enough focus on building scalable architectures.

I also live in a country where large and faceless countries are given large government contracts, and who have failed to deliver on true transformation. Large companies often have no motivation to truly change things, and will typically peddle the same old tech that they have done for years.

But there are some countries who are changing their ways of working, and breaking down barriers. Finland is a great example of changing its governance, and increasing focused on properly digitizing health and care services. But they have had a digital ID system since the 1960s. In my country, I have an ID that different parts of government know me by.

And so, British Columbia are showing great vision in transforming at scale, and using cryptography to build new (and more trusted) ecosystems…