GDS is building a reputation for creating a digital government based on user need. We’re transforming digital services, opening up government, and building skills and capability in government.
Together we have designed and delivered the award-winning digital platform of GOV.UK. We work with some of the most vibrant and digital savvy people in the UK.
We get a huge amount of interest from overseas governments and organisations wanting to learn about our work and share their knowledge.
I have recently done some research to see where our visitors to Aviation House have come from.
In 2013 GDS hosted over 100 international visits from all corners of the world. We’ve built a nifty graphic that shows you where our visitors have come from. From heads of state to ministerial visits to developers and web operations teams. International visits are a great way to share our work and learn from others.
The main areas our visitors want to learn about include:
- service improvement and cost reduction through Government IT and open standards
- transforming digital services
- identity assurance
- digital strategy and policy
- transitioning websites to GOV.UK
- the unique culture at GDS
Visit requests are prioritised according to our current programmes of work. Our colleagues in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) help with these decisions.
We can't accept every visit request - we need to focus resources on our current programmes of work. But we do respond to all requests and provide follow up information.
We continue to work with international partners in areas of common interest, and building our reputation for first class delivery based on user need.
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1 comment
Comment by simonfj posted on
That was a useful one. Thanks Abby.
It's always good to get some idea of just how much interest in, and influence on, the GDS teams are having on their global peers in the development of open government. (N.B. There is little difference between open governance and open research. One has a .gov domain focus, & presents a National perspective. The other has a .edu domain & aims to present a Global view ).
I wouldn't say the GDS teams have a unique culture, although it is certainly more comfortable for me than its international peer groups. (English heritage). That said, they have certainly made some impact on their peers in (given some direction to) other .gov silos. e.g. http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/waltzing_matilda/ Simple, clear communication is always step No. 1. It just gets (very) messy when trying to communicate between groups with different languages and cultures. Youse dun gud.
It would be sooo useful at this time to have a complete list of all the GDS (and GCN) teams. You've one the logical split, of infrastructure and services. https://gds.blog.gov.uk/technology-leaders-network/ So that's good. But we've still got a problem with the idea of shared services - both between internal, and external, groups/teams. (External ones being people from OS, and Local, govs). e.g. when designing the visa applications, no one (it appears) asked your visitors to help.
This is the kind of opportunity that will shape the development of the OGP.
In the same way, with GDS and GCN teams joining with the Local gov teams to share a common (cloudy) "knowledge exchange", many of the issues about identity assurance/security will be seen to be paper tigers.
Upwards! And Downwards.