Talks

Reflections on digital government during COVID and what that might mean for our collective future, for the Institute of Citizen Centric Servies in Canada. I presented a set of stories of incredible achievement, usually against the odds and against the norms of the systems those teams were working in. Digital teams work. Reset operating models around them. Legacy systems are brittle. And not just technology. Reform funding and incentives to unlock them. Data infrastructure is missing. Build the right service models so everyone wins. The things that have worked this year started as risky bets. Get comfortable placing informed bets. Sustained leadership engagement and clear focus remove friction. New governance and new leadership skills are still vital. These were in part drawn from some strategy work Dave Rogers and I had been doing for a Canadian client. ...

In addition to my keynote at Agile India 2018 I led a more focused session on cloud security as a precursor to my full day cloud security workshop. I focused the first part of the talk on understanding the change that cloud migration represents for many large organisations. I talked about status quo bias where risks of what we have today are never considered as serious as the risks of what’s new, even if the new ways of doing things creates new opportunities. A shift in technology requires a commitment to changing culture. ...

Delivering a keynote for Agile India’s Digital Transformation day, I reprised my “Revolution NOT evolution: UK Government’s digital transformation journey” talk capturing my early reflections after leaving GDS. Starting with a potted history of the UK Government Digital Service, I drew out a set of reflections: Starting with a website let us get close to lots of users, really quickly Digital is a chance to reclaim values and history The problem is rarely tech / The solution is never (just) tech I particularly focused on the importance of groups of allies in driving transformation, calling out GDS’ predecessors and broad global network, but also stressing the importance of providing leadership to shape and direct what can otherwise be loose networks into powerful movements. ...

The more we live online, the more vulnerable we are to asymmetric attacks and bad actors. Where once physical limitations kept us safe, the digital nature of the Internet lets attackers scale, adapt, and hide. What’s needed is more than awareness or vigilance—it’s antifragility. Resilience is the best defense a country can deploy, as this talk will explain. I shared a few stories and thoughts at the first FWD50 conference in Ottawa on what resilience looks like in practice, the importance of focusing on users and simplicity, and the vital role and unique opportunity governments have to improve matters. ...

For the inaugural FWD50 conference in Ottawa, Canada, I was part of an expert group laying out the big picture of digital government. My presentation focused on security and leadership, drawing out four lessons: Take responsibility Focus on outcomes Empower teams Change the environment Find more on the FWD50 website.

A couple of weeks back I made my first visit to Ukraine, to keynote the (outdoor!) ITEM conference in Dnipro. It was one of those trips where you don’t really feel like you see the place. Due to flight troubles (the culmination of many frustrations with Ukrainian Airlines) I arrived at my hotel in Dnipro at 3am, and departed at 5.30 the next morning. That, combined with delivering two talks, hosting two Q&A sessions, being interviewed for two different video shows, and being on a panel meant the whole day is a bit hazy in my memory, but a few things stand out. ...

This was originally posted on the Government technology blog A short while back I was fortunate to speak at GitHub’s annual Universe conference in San Francisco. GitHub is a tool we use extensively at GDS and it was good to be able to talk with other customers, share how we’re using the product, and discuss the future product direction with their core team. I was asked to tell the story of GOV.UK and that’s what most of my talk covered. Starting with Martha Lane Fox’s report, the alpha version of GOV.UK and the story from there. I was keen to emphasise a number of points. ...

Last week I delivered the opening keynote at Salford University’s Future of Government ICT conference. Sadly I was only able to be there for an hour or so and didn’t get a chance to hear any of the other speakers, but it was fun to get a little time there and to talk with a few participants. The talk was trying to jam together an update on what GDS is working with and some thoughts on what’s going on in the tech world more generally. That was a lot to cover in half an hour! ...

This weekend was the inaugural BarCamp Grand Rapids. I was only able to make it for the day on Saturday, missing the previous evening’s introductions, talks, and trip to Grand Rapids Brewing Company, but it was good to be able to attend, and even better to have it just a short bike ride away. It was a fairly small group that was gathered, so almost all of the sessions ran in a single room. Java developers were in the majority—probably not a surprise given that it was the local Java Users’ Group that put the event together—but those of us working with dynamic languages made sure that those languages got their share of mentions. ...