GovTech is an approach to public sector modernization which promotes simple, efficient, transparent and citizen-driven government thought technology.
The GovTech approach represents the current frontier of government digital transformation. (WorldBank, 2020)
GovTech refers to the use of technology to improve and innovate government services, operations, and interactions with citizens and businesses. It encompasses the application of various technological solutions to address public sector challenges, enhance efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of government services. GovTech initiatives aim to modernize and transform how governments function and serve their constituents.
It emphasizes three aspects of public sector modernization:
- Citizen-centric public services that are universally accessible.
- A whole-of-government approach to digital government transformation.
- Simple, efficient and transparent government systems.
Key components of GovTech include:
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Digital Services: Developing user-friendly digital platforms and applications for citizens to access government services, make payments, submit applications, and interact with government agencies online.
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Data Analytics: Leveraging data to make informed decisions, predict trends, and optimize government processes. This involves using data analysis tools to gain insights into citizen needs, service demands, and areas for improvement.
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Open Data: Making government data accessible to the public in a transparent and easily usable format. This allows for greater transparency, encourages innovation, and enables the public to participate in governance.
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Smart Infrastructure: Implementing technology to improve infrastructure management, such as using IoT (Internet of Things) devices for efficient public transportation, waste management, energy conservation, and urban planning.
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Cybersecurity and Privacy: Ensuring that government systems and citizen data are secure and protected from cyber threats. Maintaining robust cybersecurity measures is crucial to safeguard sensitive information.
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Collaboration and Partnerships: Collaborating with private sector tech companies, startups, and academia to leverage expertise, resources, and innovation in developing and implementing technological solutions.
By leveraging open source solutions, governments can create more transparent, cost-effective, and adaptable systems that foster collaboration, innovation, and security while aligning with their goals of providing efficient and accessible services to citizens.
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Tansparency and Accountability: Open source solutions provide transparency in their code and functionality. Governments using open source software can showcase their commitment to transparency, allowing citizens to inspect the code, understand how systems work, and ensure accountability in government operations.
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Cost Efficiency: Open source software is often cost-effective compared to proprietary solutions. Governments can avoid hefty licensing fees and can customize open source software to suit their specific needs without being tied to a single vendor.
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Collaboration and Innovation: Open source fosters collaboration among developers, both within and outside the government. It allows for collective problem-solving and encourages innovation by leveraging a global community of developers who can contribute enhancements and fixes.
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Security and Reliability: While misconceptions about security in open source software exist, the collective scrutiny by a community of developers often leads to faster identification and resolution of vulnerabilities. Many open source projects have robust security measures due to the constant feedback and contributions from a large community.
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Flexibility and Customization: Open source software can be tailored to meet specific government needs. This flexibility allows agencies to modify and extend the software without constraints, adapting it to local requirements and ensuring it aligns closely with their objectives.
Software developed by or for the government for public use should be based on open standards and open source software.
Standards play crucial roles in ensuring consistency, interoperability, quality, and efficiency in digital systems and services.
Self-hosted platforms for internal and external use.
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- CKAN - A powerful data management system that makes data accessible – by providing tools to streamline publishing, sharing, finding and using data. CKAN is aimed at data publishers (national and regional governments, companies and organizations) wanting to make their data open and available.
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- Dataverse - An open source web application to share, preserve, cite, explore, and analyze research data.
- GeoNode - A web-based application and platform for developing geospatial information systems (GIS) and for deploying spatial data infrastructures (SDI).
- GeoServer - An open source server for sharing geospatial data.
- PostGIS - Extends the capabilities of the PostgreSQL relational database by adding support for storing, indexing, and querying geospatial data.
- SuperSet - A modern, enterprise-ready business intelligence web application.
- Grafana - The open observability platform.
- Decidim - A participatory democracy framework, written in Ruby on Rails, originally developed for the Barcelona City government.
- Consul - A citizen participation and open government platform, originally developed for the Madrid City government.
- FixMystreet - A citizen engagement platform for reporting street problems to the local authority.
- OpenSSF - The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) is a cross-industry collaboration that brings together leaders to improve the security of open source software (OSS). OpenSSF initiatives include:
- SLSA - Supply chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) is a framework for ensuring the integrity of software artifacts throughout the software supply chain.
- OWASP - The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a nonprofit foundation that works to improve the security of software.
- Wagtail - A free and open source content management system written in Python.
- Querido-diario - A project to scrape and make available government gazettes.
- Internet In A Box - A digital library of educational resources.
Useful tools.
- Dashpress - A Laravel admin panel and CRUD generator.
- Alfresco - An open source content services platform.
- Papermerge - An open source document management system (DMS) primarily designed for archiving and retrieving your digital documents.
- Fusio - An open source API management platform which helps to build and manage REST APIs.
- QGIS - A free and open source geographic information system (GIS) application.
- GRASS GIS - A free and open source geographic information system (GIS) software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics and maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization.
- Apache Sedona - A free and open source cluster computing system for processing large-scale spatial data.
- StreetMix - A free and open source street section builder.