EU Commission Workshop: Public Sector Innovation
In May 2016 I was invited to speak at an EU Commission workshop entitled: "How Can the Public Sector Become an Agent of Innovation through ICT".
I was there on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council to discuss a project we were working on to implement a mobile app and website to crowdsource reports of highway defects (potholes, graffiti, broken street lights, etc.). The general public could install an app on which they could report issues, take pictures, and send their location to the responsible authority. Maintenance teams would receive the reports and go out and fix it, using the app to record their work and share pictures of the completed fix. All of this information would be available publicly online.
I was managing the Council's project, working jointly with the small not-for-profit social enterprise MySociety to develop the tool, called FixMyStreet.
The European Commission had chosen our project as a leading example of using modern technology in the public sector to provide "open, collaborative, and digital based services characterised by a deliberate, declared and purposeful effort to increase openness and collaboration through technology in order to deliver increased public value".
The workshop itself was varied and interesting, with excellent examples from across Europe of participatory decision-making, customer feedback management, and dissemination of public information, showcasing open standards and tools to enable public participation.
Download the full EU Commission report here
