Data driven public service creation; an Estonian example
On the 16th of September Tallinn University of Technology hosted a user workshop with members from 7 different public sector agencies and 2 Estonian companies: Mooncascade and Teleport. The purpose of this workshop was to design a new Estonian Real Estate Portal which is part of the OpenGovIntelligence (OGI) project. The Estonian Real Estate Portal is one of six pilot programs within the OGI project.
The user workshop is the first step in the process of developing a new data-driven public service. The data-driven public service which is to be created will utilize Linked Open Statistical Data, which was emphasized by many participants as being an important aspect of this project. The aim of this user workshop was to involve as many different agencies as possible to develop the design and functionality of a new Estonian Real Estate portal. At the workshop many different problems and solutions were discussed, benefits of the portal were debated by all present at the workshop, and different personas and user stories were developed by the group. Examples of the personas varied from ’Mikk’ the 35-year-old father moving to a new City to a foreign student moving to Estonia for the first time. We also learned that the five most important data sets which could be presented to users of this service were: price, safety, transport, points of interest, and property information. The user work shop was well received by all and all participants were visibly enthusiastic about participating. At one point one of the participants stated that the biggest benefit of this service, and this approach, was that we could create something which benefits the citizens of Estonia and that, ultimately, “making the citizens happy” was why they chose to work for the government.
The information which was gained from this workshop will allow us to develop the initial prototype service which will be built upon the ideas of the participants of the workshop. Truly this is exciting, the success of this workshop leads us to believe that this new co-design innovative approach towards public service design is the way of the future for public service creation.
For more information about Tallinn University of Technology’s Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance and the Estonian Real Estate Pilot Program please click here.
