Platform land – a new project looking at platforms and government

I’m starting a fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The Kennedy School is a graduate school for students specialising in public policy or administration — broadly people who want to go on to either set public policy and regulation, plan on going in to politics in some form, or aim to go on to implement and manage a public service at the highest level.

Specifically, I’m part of digitalHKS, which, along with a fellowship programme, offers courses to students in subjects like digital transformation and product management.

For the next 10 months, I’m going to be researching the idea of Government as a Platform and, more broadly, exploring how digital platforms will change government and society.

The aims of the work are to:

• Give digital service units resources to help them build good platforms
• Develop common language for talking about government platforms
• Stimulate a conversation about the institutional, societal and democratic implications of digital platforms in government and the private sector
• Test ways of explaining the value and implications of digital platforms to politicians and leaders

I’m going to be interviewing people who’ve built and run platforms in government and the private sector. If that sounds like you please get in touch at richard@memespring.co.uk. Thank you to those who have already given up you time.

You can find out more at platformland.org