Digital Government Podcast

On Estonia's Independence Day on 24 February, we are glad to share with you the secret behind the digital transformation success story of Estonia. So, why did Estonia succeed? To a great extent, Estonia's success is a story of luck and timing. But hindsight has allowed the architects of the digital state to extract a blueprint to support digitalisation in other countries. With Linnar Vii...

By now, we have become familiar with how the relationship between big tech firms and governments has largely been portrayed in the media . So often it looks like a clash between opposing factions – the first standing on its ground to keep the market as free as possible, with the latter proposing laws to holding these companies increasingly more accountable. Is there, actually, a conflict between t...

Welcome to our 26th episode of the Digital Government Podcast! In today's episode, Janek Rozov, Strategy Director at the Information Technology and Development Center of the Ministry of Interior and the former Chief Digital Officer of the Estonian Government, clarifies the questions that should be answered before going digital with public services. We talk about the value of e-services, the l...

What comes in your mind when you hear someone mentioning the Pacific Islands? Probably sandy beaches, palm trees and sunshine. In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, we go beyond the tourist attractions and take a look at the digital side of these countries. Today's guest, Hannes Astok , sheds light on how the governments of Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga are resolving the main...

Do you know how old is the concept of online voting? It comes back to the 19th century when Thomas Alva Edison introduced it to the US congress. Why then, even two centuries later, are there so few countries that use online voting to ensure equal access for their citizens to express their democratic rights? Even in today’s world, where due to pandemic it would be safer to vote remotely, staying at...

“Corruption as a disease , for which transparency is the cure ” is a politically popular analogy, that surely resonates when trying to capture such widespread, global challenge all countries continue to face today. But researchers contend that the actual manifestations of corruption are far too complex to fit into the simple frames built by this parallel. If we build a conceptual bridge with healt...

At the beginning of the year, we summed up our lessons learnt from the digital transformation journeys of various countries. Our team has been on these journeys for the past 18 years and obtained useful lessons that could benefit every country that starts or continues its digital transformation. In this episode, Federico Plantera and Hannes Astok provide the list of preconditions and main features...

The year 2020 became definitely a crossroad in digital transformation. Has it been any easy, with all the pain this pandemic caused? Absolutely not. But, on the flip side, the digital way has been now internalised as a must and a necessity by everyone like never before. This year, what awaits is a systematisation of all the disruptors that shaped new normality. With Linnar Viik , Programme Directo...

What lessons learned should governments and public officials take away from this year? In this year’s final episode of the Digital Government Podcast, former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves shares his hopes, fears and criticisms on how governments have coped with the pandemic challenges. As expected from the former President of Estonia, his recipe for governments to challenge the pandemi...

In a democratic society, the quality of the relationship between governments and citizens is a key talking point – and if not, most probably it should. Across the layers of governance, municipalities certainly represent the closest governmental actor to citizens. Such proximity not only works as the testing ground for state-to-people interactions but also as an incubator for innovative ideas direc...

In the light of the ongoing pandemic, today's Digital Government podcast addresses one of the most sensitive topics - privacy and human rights while governments are combating COVID19 and developing tracking apps. Are our rights and privacy in danger? How can governments address these concerns and what should be a good practice? Listen to Katrin Nyman-Metcalf and Linnar Viik to find out.

In today's Digital Government podcast we invite you to Benin, a West-African country with more than 10 million inhabitants. Our collaboration partner Serge Adjovi, Director General of the National Information Systems and Services Agency (ASSI), and our Project Manager Marit Lani talk about the lessons learnt by the Beninese government, gained through the implementation the Estonian-origin bac...

Recent elections in the US and in other countries raised a lot of claims that election results might be manipulated. Our CyberConf2020 , to be held online on 24 November, dives deep into the topic of how to secure elections in the digital era. In today's Digital Government Podcast, Mr Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former President of Estonia and a speaker at the conference, sheds light on the ways co...

In parallel with a crisis of public health, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damage also to the national economy of most countries.  Regardless of how hard these have been hit in terms of casualties and infection rates, lockdown measures have been enforced to different degrees almost everywhere in Europe and around the world. As a consequence, an unprecedented economic crisis has disrupted j...

In the Digital Government Podcast Episode, the previous contributors to the report "Freedom on The Net", Linnar Viik and Katrin Nyman-Metcalf , shed light on this year's Internet Freedom Index global report. They clarify two different views on freedom of expression, which is one of the cornerstones of Internet freedom, and answer the question of why governments don't like the I...

At times of COVID-19, cyber hygiene became particularly important. Being more cyber aware and practising healthy cyber hygiene is what will ultimately help you keep your business or administration continuity when you need it. In this episode, our senior cybersecurity expert Merle Maigre shares best practices of cyber hygiene from France, Estonia, the UK that is useful for every Internet user and o...

In today's episode, we focus on cybersecurity, as October is European Cyber Security Month. Epp Maaten, Programme Director of Cyber Security at the e-Governance Academy peeks into the main features and goals of the National Cyber Security Index (NCSI) to explain how it serves as a fundamental tool for governments to advance their cybersecurity capacities and protect their cyberspace.  Tune in...

When it comes to political participation, elections represent something that most countries have in common, but that differentiates them between each other at the same time. All democratic nations set rounds of voting to renew people’s representatives in national assemblies; however, almost all nations vary in the ways elections are carried out. From registration to counting and publishing of the...

Much as in the fight against Covid-19, prevention proves to be a key determinant of our safety on the internet . However, deliberate threats to both citizens and organisations still hide just around the corner. Despite our individual care and attention towards cyber behaviours, malicious actors might intentionally try to hijack personal data or information systems. As a discipline, cyber security...

Where do we come from? Where do we stand? And where to go from here? Though the feeling might be that of a high-school psychology blog, there is no existentialism in these questions – at least in the current case. In order to formulate with efficacy digital transformation roadmaps for governments, policy makers must first understand the digital maturity of their own institutional environment. Linn...

To many, the road to e-governance may seem rocky. Not only during some client meetings, but also in seminars and just conversations in general, an age-old question is often brought up: “Digitalization, okay, great. But there are too many legal obstacles to implement it in our country.” Today, we get this one off the board too. Katrin Nyman-Metcalf , Senior Expert on Legal Framework at e-Governance...

Are you interested in starting your country's digital transformation despite the pandemic? Wondering where you should begin? Listen to our new episode of the Digital Government podcast where Annela Kiirats, Programme Director of e-Governance Training explains the benefits of the e-governance training group courses, offline and online, where all team members are included. Having more than deca...

In this podcast, Kristina Reinsalu, e-democracy programme director, sheds some light on e-participation. She explains what makes ‘e-participation’ similar to ‘participation’ and why they differ. The use of ICT-solutions in decision-making processes is more and more popular in the world, but does it motivate people to participate more and are they heard by the government? She shares examples of var...

eGA's Digital Government Podcast is focusing today on Ukraine’s digital developments. Linnar Viik and Hannes Astok shed some light on the latest digital developments and challenges in one of Europe's biggest countries. In the last few years, Ukraine’s government has endeavoured incessantly to detach itself from paper-based procedures, to enable and provide e-services, and to reduce corru...

Hannes Astok and Linnar Viik continue examining the DESI - the Digital Economy and Society Index. This time they focus on how citizens use internet services, how businesses are moving towards digital, and on the development of e-government in different European countries. They look behind the numbers and explain where EU's national governments have succeeded and where they have failed.