Yes! You too, can create a public service with data!

Every person is capable of creating a public service that provides public value. The traditional understanding of public services is outdated due to new and emerging technologies and it is time for change. There is a belief that is commonly held by many that citizens and public service users should be viewed as customers, totally dependent on the government, however, in today’s data-driven society, this should no longer be the case. We are now entering the age of data-driven co-creation, where anyone is able to initiate and drive the design and implementation of new public services. Open government data has the potential to empower society to a level not previously seen and drive the creation of new and innovative public services. The idea of data-driven co-creation foresees a change in how service users interact with service providers and the creation of a new “co-creation” system where the term service-user and service-provider become ambiguous.

The OpenGovIntelligence project is currently investigating and exploring the concept of data-driven co-creation by piloting six new data-driven co-created public services in six different EU countries. The results from this will provide empirical data validating the ongoing transformation from traditional top-down public service provision to the new co-created data-driven public service system. To ensure that project has the highest possible impact, a framework and general architecture have been drafted and are due to be released shortly. This framework will provide an overview of the co-created data-driven public service system and an architecture has been derived from the system that, if followed, should ensure the emergence of increased levels of public value from data.

While the framework is still being written, it is still possible to read more on the idea of co-created data-driven public services, publications are available here, here, and here.

Please stay tuned for more details and be sure to follow the project at opengovintelligence.eu and github.com/OpenGovIntelligence