| | 9 MARCH - 2022these technologies. For example, the New Zealand Government Chief Digital Office has produced API guidelines for public sector agencies that create tailorable standards to promote agency interoperability. Agencies can use this core infrastructure to develop seamless, integrated customer journeys that traverse organisations. The New Zealand Smart Start service for new parents (that registers the baby's birth, gives them a tax number, and connects new parents with welfare services) is a good example of this kind of integrated service, traversing several government agencies. This core digital infrastructure can be also used to create considerable economic value. Creating ways for companies and NGOs to access government digital services in real time means they can innovate atop public agency data and processes to create new services. For example, an NGO working with families in poverty in a local region might need and have access to education, welfare, health, and justice data and workflows. Currently they manually integrate this information. Government as a Platform would enable them to automate integration of data and workflow with agencies to deliver services in a way that allows them to focus more on their client needs rather than whether they have accurate, up to date information or not. Co-design with citizensWorking toward the goal of Government as a Platform requires agencies to give special attention to how they develop digital services to build trust in government. One approach to this is people centred design, especially co-design. True co-design that shares decision making is vital to building effective digital public services with disaffected communities. This requires a fundamental shift in how projects develop digital services. It means adopting digital development approaches that focus on clearly understanding what people need and want, as well as creating ways to share decision making throughout the design and development process. Often government digital service development provides system efficiencies but that is not the same as better or more equitable services. Effective co-design counters this and provides an approach for developing services for people rather than to put processes online. We need to learn to develop for the people not for our process.Build transparency into digital servicesCreating transparency of digital service delivery can also build and maintain trust in government digital services. In May 2020, the New Zealand government released an algorithm charter. This includes direction to publish how algorithms are used in plain language, how data is collected and how the algorithm is used to inform decision making. While this creates challenges in the procurement of AI algorithms (many companies see them as proprietary) or their development, it is crucial for ensuring people can understand how digital technologies are being used to deliver services.Allowing citizens to easily see the information the government has collected about them, possibly through a verified identity platform, can help build trust in public services. It can also be used to allow people to curate their experience of digital public services where appropriate. The next 5 to 10 years are critical for modern governments. We need to protect our people, build transparent services, and unlock knowledge economies. I think Government as a Platform can help achieve that. What would it look like in your public sector? If you work in the private sector, what services could you build on it? Public sector technologists can work to create a digital ecosystem that enables Government as a Platform
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