Advertise on podcast: Talking About a More Digital Government

Today is International Women’s Day, and we’re taking this opportunity to speak with three amazing women working in civic tech. We hear from Kyreena Hay, a Developer and Service Designer who has worked in the public sector as well as for various NGOs; Michelle Cabanela — Principle Product Manager at Service NSW, and Cassitie Galliott, Code for Australia’s Head of Delivery and People. Read more on this episode's accompanying blog: https://bit.ly/3pO3CI7 Credits and thank yous: The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. Music by Daniel Semo. This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia Code for Australia are a for-purpose organisation working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government

In this episode we hear from the folks at Design System AU, who are keeping the Australian Government Design System alive via a community initiative; we’ll hear from Ken Tsang, creator of COVID-19 Near Me; as well as the folks at Civic Makers, a volunteer led initiative who are helping councils solve big problems. Credits and thank yous: The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Consulting producer is Daniel Semo. Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. Music by Daniel Semo.  This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia Code for Australia are a for-purpose organisation working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government

We speak with Lisa McClean, CEO of Circular NSW and Cate Turner, Manager Data Insights & Intelligence Sustainability Victoria about government initiatives in the circular economy space. Credits and thank yous: The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Consulting producer is Daniel Semo. Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. Music by Daniel Semo.  This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia Code for Australia are a for-purpose organisation working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government

We speak with Damon Rees, the Chief Executive Officer of Service NSW. Damon has led his team through some unprecedented times, from the horrific bushfires that have swept our nation, through to the current pandemic. All the while Service NSW have managed to innovate their ways of working and share their learnings along the way. We speak with Damon about what makes the team successful, the role digital has in service provision, and much more. For a full transcript and links to the resources mentioned, head to this post Credits and thank yous: The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Consulting producer is Daniel Semo. Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. Music by Daniel Semo.  This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia Code for Australia are a for-purpose organisation working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government

We’re talking about design in government: how it can be implemented, what the benefits are, and how it can de-risk projects. We speak to Sarah Hurcombe, who was most recently Director of Human-centred design in Commissioning New South Wales, and has been a change agent within various government bodies here in Australia as well as in the United Kingdom. We also chat to Jo Szczepanska, who has years of experience in design and is currently a Service Designer at the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Victoria. For a full transcript and links to the resources mentioned and for more information head to this post. Credits and thank yous: The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Consulting producer is Daniel Semo. Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. Music by Daniel Semo.  This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia Code for Australia are a for-purpose organisation working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government

Summary: In this episode we speak to the incredible Pia Andrews - who is currently working for Service Canada - about Rules as Code, an approach to creating and publishing policies in a machine readable way. We also talk to Liam McCann from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment and Ram Parameswaran a Code for Australia Fellow who are both  currently working on a Rules as Code project. Transcript: The full transcript of the episode is available here. Resources Mentioned: Cracking the Code by OECD Rules as Code Part 1 and Part 2 by Canadian School of Public Service Rules as Code Case Study from New Zealand by Tom Barraclough Community Gaming Regulation in NSW New Zealand Public Service Act 2020 Rules as Code Wiki We need to recode the rules of government by Pia Andrews & Tim De Sousa Rules as Code in 2020: The Year in Review by Tim de Sousa Credits and thank yous: The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Consulting producer is Daniel Semo.  Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. Music by Daniel Semo. This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia Code for Australia are a for-purpose organisation working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government. To find out more about Code for Australia head here  Want to be a guest on this podcast? We’re always looking for folks working in civic tech and government to speak with about themes you're encountering or work being done. If you’re keen to have a chat to us contact us at [email protected] 

Summary:  Matt Sawkill, Managing Director of Code for Australia and Jithma Beneragama Executive Director of Digital Design and Innovation at the Department of Premier and Cabinet explore what civic tech is, what makes a digitally mature government and tell us about some great initiatives happening around Australia. Transcript:  A full transcript of this episode is available here. Key takeaways:  “When you're talking about change and you're talking about re-imagining processes and products, the technology is the easy part of that and there's always a huge amount of effort to get the organisation to have an aligned point of view about what the problem is and what a solution might be.” “You need to make sure that you have the right capability within the organisation and that the organisation itself is at a point in time and has the mindset around change and being able to accept change” “The more decisions you make before you have a team on the ground building software, the greater the chances are that you're building the wrong software” “That whole framing, that there's an idea of a non-technical person is, you know, it's something we really challenge.” “People tend to work in the public sector because they want to make impact and they want to do something that's beneficial for society” "The biggest barriers to doing digital well happen before the tech team is on the ground." Resources mentioned:  Read more about digital transformation on Code for Australia’s blog Join Code for Australia’s Slack channel Tech For Non Tech training Get involved in Civic Makers Single Digital Presence Vic Gov API Engage Victoria Human-centred Design Playbook Digital Victoria Credits and thank yous:  The show is hosted by Esther Semo and Sean Hua. Consulting producer is Daniel Semo. Podcast artwork designed by Nigel Moyes with illustrations by Indah Ibrahim. This episode is brought to you by Code for Australia  Code for Australia are a not-for-profit organisation, working in collaboration with public sector teams and the tech community to help create a world class digital government. To find out more about Code for Australia head here  Want to be a guest on this podcast?  We’re always looking for folks working in civic tech and government to speak with about themes you're encountering or work being done. If you’re keen to have a chat to us contact us at [email protected]