Digital Government

The first question is: What will the state of the future look like? Digitalisation creates new possibilities for the organisation of the political-administrative system. The execution of tasks can be supported with intelligent digital tools or even completely automated. Processes can be organised and interconnected more efficiently, effectively and sometimes even completely differently than before. Administrative services can be better adapted to actual needs and personalised. The potential for innovation is huge and growing.

But the reality is often different. Many state institutions were unable to introduce a home office during the Covid-19 health crisis because the infrastructure requirements were lacking. When it comes to e-government buses, most people think of an information bus that travels from city to city. And they don’t want to hear anything about personalised portals for 10 years. That’s why the second question is: How do we get to the state of the future? How do we deal with the situation that growing complexity, acceleration of social change and a mix of technology and anti-institutional narratives are putting increasing pressure on the state? Or do we actually have to ask ourselves a third question: How can we reorganise the state’s guarantee tasks or even democratic processes with technology in an institution-free way?

All articles on Digital Government

How a Triplestore can publish data of the Swiss lakes

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The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) uses a TripleStore database to publish environmental data on the Internet. This article shows which…

Do citizens’ councils bring a democracy update for cantons and communes?

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In many countries, participatory and deliberative approaches have been used in recent years to increase the direct involvement of citizens in…

Energy and climate data in the canton of Bern presented on a new platform

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BFH Business School makes data visible: The Digital Sustainability Lab of the Institute Public Sector Transformation has realised a platform…

Bringing open data to life and making it tangible through visualisations

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Which members of the Grand Council intervene the most, and with whom? Do parliamentarians work together across political divides? Are men more…

The Future of Democracy: Why the Trends of Participation and Deliberation Give Hope

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What can be done when citizens do not trust their governments or do not exercise their rights of participation? Innovative approaches are needed…

“We are all connected to the phenomenon of data colonialism”

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The media scientist and expert on data sovereignty, Ulises Mejías, was a guest at BFH Wirtschaft for a few weeks last May on the occasion of…

Exploring democracy 2.0 with experiments

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From fuzzy voting to liquid feedback - how much change does democracy need? The project "Democracy Lab Basel" by BFH Wirtschaft and Smart Regio…
Daniel-Huerlimann

Obituary: A great champion of Open Access is no more

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Daniel Hürlimann, Professor of Legal Informatics and IT Law at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) and Attorney at Law by Laux Lawyers…

What skills the employees of a digital administration need

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Digital services for citizens and more efficient processes - these are two of the goals of an administration of the future. In order for this…

Data Colonialism and the Role of the Public Sector 

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Data is not only the oil of the digital age, but also a commodity that can be unethically obtained or misused. Prof. Dr Ulises Mejîas from the…

Data sovereignty – more than just hype

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Digital sovereignty is used by governments in Europe as well as by the EU Commission as a reference for the digital policy legal decrees that…

From notarial deeds to hate on the net – digital solutions for legal issues

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Who would like to spend a whole Sunday and half a Monday and the night in between in a legal laboratory? 90 people answered yes to this question,…