#OpenGovTech
ODI Leeds has always been more about taking action over talking about taking action - doing, building, and creating rather than too much discussion or another report. And we do it in the open. We publish on our website, we create repos on GitHub, we have shareable and editable documents. We use this approach because it helps to nurture the environment required to encourage innovation at all levels. To make things better for everyone. And nowhere is this more applicable than 'GovTech'.
Lacking any official definition, GovTech encompasses all kinds of things that are basically aimed at making the public sector more innovative, agile, development-oriented. Our sponsors are roughly 50:50 private sector and public sector in the way they are organised, and much of what we do could be described as GovTech.
We now have a significant set of assets, tools, and knowledge that we want to share in order to develop and create the greatest value possible. This includes our open innovation events and open innovation work, our open products and tools, our hints and tips, and our work with partners on projects and programmes. We know that being #RadicallyOpen gives us the best opportunity to achieve this. We also know that bringing people and organisations together with a common aligned interest gives us all the best opportunity to benefit from the #MassiveSurpluses that being #RadicallyOpen can create.
So in classic ODI Leeds style, we want to put all of what we think is '#OpenGovTech' - the same development and driving force as seen in GovTech but with the added ability for people to contribute and improve - in one place and make it easy to use, share, and re-use. This also creates the ecosystem and infrastructure that allows us all to reach in, when we are ready, to the commons that we want to create.
The first thing we are going to do is to host an open session at Wuthering Bytes, where we will work in the open to create a starting point and springboard for #OpenGovTech.
The organisations that have already expressed interest are Yorkshire Water, Northern Power Grid, Bradford Council, Calderdale Council, Leeds City Council, FutureGov, DXW, Open Data Manchester, WYCA, NHS Digital, ODI HQ, Open Contracting, Connected Places Catapult, University of Leeds, University of Bradford...
Please do join in, share, and help us work out how #OpenGovTech can create a massive surplus of value for all of us.
