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Blog Series: Local governments in the new digital world

Entry #1: Local governments must transform or get left behind by the new digital world

Introduction

Digital technologies have transformed the way we live, play and work. It has made the world a “global village.” There are numerous examples of how the transformative power of digital has transformed the lives of humanity.

Positive examples of the new digital world

The old ways have gone to the wayside. We use modern ways and tools to connect, communicate and collaborate. Digital solutions have transformed our educational systems and delivery of educational instruction. Modern health service inventions have contributed to improving the overall health of humanity and contributed to people living much longer than ever before. Digital has contributed to new business models and created a “shared economical” model. UBER, ER, Airbnb, Netflix, etc. are some of the many examples of these new business models. The old way of digital aligning with business have been thrown out the door and business has become digital.

Negative examples of the new digital world

Despite these positive outcomes, there are also casualties. The lack of innovation and failure to leverage digital technologies have contributed to the demise of many successful businesses. Unfortunately, as usual, a segment of our society has been using the power of digital to prey on children and other vulnerable members of our society. To spread hate among different sectors to create unrest and contribute to the killing of millions. But positive impact contributed by the digital revolution continues to outweigh the negatives. As a society, we need to continue to leverage the transformative power of digital to overpower the negatives and transform the world into a “just world” for all.

Local governments in the new digital world

The institutions, including governments which are supposed to be at the forefront of leveraging the power of digital, have been lagging behind in embracing this transformative power. They continue to use outdated systems, tools, and processes to operate their institutions and deliver services to their constituents. This approach has created a huge gap between businesses and other government and, semi-government institutions, health care institutions, charitable and not-for-profit sectors, etc. Unless the leadership in these institutions embark on a digital transformation journey, the gap will continue to widen, and the productivity of nations will go down the tube. This will have an enormous g-term impact and diminish the economic power of nations. Ultimately, the quality of life for their citizens will go down and might contribute to social unrest, including civil wars, nation-to-nation wars, etc. In this series of blogs, we will be examining the ways local governments can leverage innovative digital solutions to transform their communities to improve the quality of life for their constituents.

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