Realising the potential of digital governance with Aaron Maniam

“Digital governance” is a term commonly used to refer to the transformative potential of integrating contemporary technological advances into the day-to-day activities of government. Electronic filing of tax returns, text message reminders to get your vaccine booster, medical records that can follow your around as you change doctor’s offices – all are examples of digital governance. Digital governance holds much promise, most obviously in terms of efficiency and convenience, but also many risks such as cybersecurity breeches, creeping paternalism, and the alienation of citizens from the activities of their own political representatives. In this episode, ePODstemology hosts Dr Aaron Maniam from Oxford University to help you understand these issues. Aaron is Fellow of practice and director of digital transformation education at the Blavatnik School of Government. He also co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology Policy and is a member of the OECD’s expert group on Artificial Intelligence Futures. He was previously a high-level policymaker in Singapore, most recently Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information. Few are better place to explain how we can make the most of digital governance. 

Aaron’s website:

https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/aaron-maniam-0 

Follow Aaron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-maniam-a86a842/?originalSubdomain=uk 

Episode with Malte Dold on behavioural public policy:

https://epodstemology.buzzsprout.com/1763534/episodes/13401729-can-we-make-the-world-a-better-place-with-behavioural-economics 

Statecraft podcast on Obamacare and policy implementation

https://www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-actually-implement-a-policy

Clayton Christensen on the Innovator’s Dilemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma 

Helen Margetts, Peter John, Scott Hale, and Taha Yasseri, Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action. 

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691159225/political-turbulence 

How to run a gold standard deliberative democracy exercise:

https://assemblyguide.demnext.org/#introduction