This open source Digital Government and Civic Tech curriculum is based on The Observatory of Public Sector Innovation's "CORE SKILLS FOR PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION" April 2017 beta model.
Use of new technology demands that government services are more responsive and citizen-focused. In order to meet the exponentially growing demand from citizens governments need a strong understanding of the tools and processes of both technology and design. This curriculum will introduce public servants and those interested in public service to these concepts to prepare them to lead digital transformation in and around government. Focusing on case studies and practical applications, the curriculum will cover emerging best practices in digital government and civic tech.
By the end of the course, students will be familiar with the tools, methods, and processes of digital government, and be able to identify opportunities to apply them to their own work.
A core tenant embraced by the Civic Tech community is to leverage open source technologies to:
- Lower cost to develop and deploy
- Increase the potential contributor-base
- Share and reuse tools and creations within and between Civic Tech groups
- Build a knowledge base of success and failure stories
It is in this spirit that the curriculum will be developed and maintained as an open source resource. Although the basic foundational elements will be developed by a small group, the goal will be to open up the course materials to a broader civic tech audience to keep the content fresh and contextually relevant. GitHub will be used as the project repository. Once the first iteration of the course materials are completed, it will be opened up on Github so other groups and individuals can fork, contribute and create their own customized offering.
- Introduction - introduction to the core skills for civic tech, digital government and public sector innovation
- Iteration - incrementally and experimentally developing policies, products and services
- User centricity - public services should be focussed on solving and servicing user needs
- Open - creating and participating in the open ecosystem
- Data literacy - ensuring decisions are data-driven and that data isn't an afterthought
- Curiosity - seeking out and trying new ideas or ways of working
- Storytelling - explaining change in a way that builds support
- Insurgency - challenging the status quo and working with unusual partners
- Putting it all together - understanding how to put these skills into practice
You can also browse these pages and the slides to navigate the content.
"CORE SKILLS FOR PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION" by Observatory of Public Sector Innovation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO Licence.