2012/09/06 by J. Fishenden, Jerry Fishenden, M. Thompson +1 · 5 citations
Social Sciences · #E-Government and Public Services #Local Government Finance and Decentralization #Public Policy and Administration Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/jopart/mus022
openalex publication_date 2012/09/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This article argues that the future of public services will be shaped increasingly by the evolution of global, Internet-enabled, digital platforms, with two distinctive technical and commercial features. First, use of open standards and architectures that separate standard business logic from supporting applications will allow government to become technology- and vendor-agnostic, freeing it from its overdependence on proprietary systems and suppliers. Second, over time, open standards and increased market choice will drive both innovation and progressive convergence on cheaper, standard “utility” public services. These two features will combine to create a powerful dynamic situation, driving disintegration of traditional “black boxed” technologies and services, traditionally organized around “systems integrators” and departmental structures, and their reaggregation around the citizen in the form of services. Such reaggregation is allowing progressively sharp distinctions between niche/innovative and commodity/standard offerings, supplied by a plural, innovative, and more cost-effective marketplace, with unprecedented implications for the way in which the state buys and deploys technology. We draw on a range of data from across public and private sectors to illustrate our argument and identify some key policy and implementation recommendations.