Theres a really good book called “Recoding america: why government is failing in the digial age and how we can do better” that does a good job on why digitizing govt doesn’t automatically improve things. One of her explanations was that govt digitizing doesn’t automatically improve productivity is that although they may digitize some parts of govt, they’re not improving the underlying processes so govt is still having to go through many hoops to deliver services. Another thing she mentioned is that policy making is considered a high status job but implementing them is considered low status grunt work. She also said that policy makers and the people implementing policies don’t communicate directly. And when they do, it tends to be a one way street (policy makers -> implementers).
Although she wrote this book about the US, im guessing the explanations are also relevant for canada
Ah, another big point she made is that the public service is very process oriented and not outcome oriented. When they build new websites of digital services, they’re supposed to fill N number of requirements. Many of those requirements are simply “check the box” exercises that may not even be relevant to the specific digital service or website they want to launch. However, if they fail to check any one of those boxes and the website or digital service doesnt work as it should, they could potentially get fired. However, if they check all those boxes but the service still doesnt work, then they would be fine. So the incentives for the public service is completely skewed. They breed employees that are risk averse and ones that rigidly follow specific processes.
Second, you solicited comments about your voice over. First, the AI "voice" certainly is monotone; good for a chuckle by listeners but the "voice" certainly wouldn't understand that we are laughing at it. As for the basic idea of a aural version of the column, I am much more interested in the written version for two reasons.
Reason one: I always find a point in a column (any column, any publication) where I say something like, "Who is that?" "What is their position/expertise/etc." "Wasn't the opposite asserted above here?" and so forth and I then go back in the column to see what I erroneously glossed over, just plain well missed, etc. Much easier with the written format than the aural format.
Reason two: I am an old dog and hearing loss has set in so my listening skills are pretty inferior.
Oh, and by the way, I also remember those tax forms. In fact, as an accountant in the old days I was "the one" completing X gazillion of the things (first by hand and then by computer to be printed) and sending them to the various tax centres. By the end of my work life we had graduated to online filing; a mixed blessing, to be sure.
Thanks. Actually I almost never listen to audio (or video) versions either. But everyone says there's a percentage of people who do. It's incredibly easy to create these audio files, so I'll keep at it for now.
And yet the Armed Forces and the RCMP are chronically undermanned (at the pointy end, anyway. The executive level and the civilian support services are perhaps fully staffed).
Theres a really good book called “Recoding america: why government is failing in the digial age and how we can do better” that does a good job on why digitizing govt doesn’t automatically improve things. One of her explanations was that govt digitizing doesn’t automatically improve productivity is that although they may digitize some parts of govt, they’re not improving the underlying processes so govt is still having to go through many hoops to deliver services. Another thing she mentioned is that policy making is considered a high status job but implementing them is considered low status grunt work. She also said that policy makers and the people implementing policies don’t communicate directly. And when they do, it tends to be a one way street (policy makers -> implementers).
Although she wrote this book about the US, im guessing the explanations are also relevant for canada
Those are excellent points. Thanks!
Ah, another big point she made is that the public service is very process oriented and not outcome oriented. When they build new websites of digital services, they’re supposed to fill N number of requirements. Many of those requirements are simply “check the box” exercises that may not even be relevant to the specific digital service or website they want to launch. However, if they fail to check any one of those boxes and the website or digital service doesnt work as it should, they could potentially get fired. However, if they check all those boxes but the service still doesnt work, then they would be fine. So the incentives for the public service is completely skewed. They breed employees that are risk averse and ones that rigidly follow specific processes.
Sounds like there's enough meat here for at least a complete follow-up post. I may get the book, too.
Thanks,
Sir, I offer two comments.
First, as always, a very interesting read.
Second, you solicited comments about your voice over. First, the AI "voice" certainly is monotone; good for a chuckle by listeners but the "voice" certainly wouldn't understand that we are laughing at it. As for the basic idea of a aural version of the column, I am much more interested in the written version for two reasons.
Reason one: I always find a point in a column (any column, any publication) where I say something like, "Who is that?" "What is their position/expertise/etc." "Wasn't the opposite asserted above here?" and so forth and I then go back in the column to see what I erroneously glossed over, just plain well missed, etc. Much easier with the written format than the aural format.
Reason two: I am an old dog and hearing loss has set in so my listening skills are pretty inferior.
Oh, and by the way, I also remember those tax forms. In fact, as an accountant in the old days I was "the one" completing X gazillion of the things (first by hand and then by computer to be printed) and sending them to the various tax centres. By the end of my work life we had graduated to online filing; a mixed blessing, to be sure.
Thanks. This voice - which comes courtesy of OpenAI - is a million times more engaging than anything Amazon Polly has to offer!
Thanks. Actually I almost never listen to audio (or video) versions either. But everyone says there's a percentage of people who do. It's incredibly easy to create these audio files, so I'll keep at it for now.
And yet the Armed Forces and the RCMP are chronically undermanned (at the pointy end, anyway. The executive level and the civilian support services are perhaps fully staffed).
Whenever there are systemic inefficiencies you can pretty much assume useful resources will be badly allocated.