Blog & podcast
What lessons learned should governments and public officials take away from this year? In this year’s final episode of the Digital Government Podcast, former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves shares his hopes, fears and criticisms on how governments have coped with the pandemic challenges. As expected from the former President of Estonia, his recipe […]
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In parallel with the long-anticipated and widely followed US Presidential election, 2020 was an important year also for many democracies in Europe. In the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic, electoral management bodies across the world were pushed to re-examine the strategic planning and decision-making process that go into running an election. For many election […]
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In a democratic society, the quality of the relationship between governments and citizens is a key talking point – and if not, most probably it should. Across the layers of governance, municipalities certainly represent the closest governmental actor to citizens. Such proximity not only works as the testing ground for state-to-people interactions but also as […]
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In the light of the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, today’s Digital Government podcast addresses one of the most sensitive topics – privacy and human rights while governments are combating COVID19 and developing tracking apps. Are our rights and privacy in danger? How can governments address these concerns and what should be a good practice? Listen to […]
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Recent elections in the US and in other countries raised a lot of claims that election results might be manipulated. Our CyberConf2020, to be held online on 24 November, dives deep into the topic of how to secure elections in the digital era. In this episode of Digital Government Podcast, Mr Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former […]
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| The project is responsive to the following SDGs of the United Nations: 5 – 8 – 9 – 16 | What do a small north-eastern European country and the massive continent of Africa have in common? Originally, very little. At first glance, even less. And still, these two dimensions introduced through only a few […]
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Keywords: Benin, Data exchange, Digital transformation, e-Services, Estonia, Interoperability, Podcast
In parallel with a crisis of public health, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused great damage also to the national economy of most countries. Regardless of how hard these have been hit in terms of casualties and infection rates, lockdown measures have been enforced to different degrees almost everywhere in Europe and around the world. As a […]
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In the Digital Government Podcast Episode, the previous contributors to the report “Freedom on The Net”, Linnar Viik and Katrin Nyman-Metcalf, shed light on this year’s Internet Freedom Index global report. They clarify two different views on freedom of expression, which is one of the cornerstones of Internet freedom, and answer the question of why […]
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At times of COVID-19, cyber hygiene became particularly important. Being more cyber aware and practising healthy cyber hygiene is what will ultimately help you keep your business or administration continuity when you need it. In this blogpost and podcast, our senior cybersecurity expert Merle Maigre shares best practices of cyber hygiene from France, Estonia, the UK that is […]
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| The project is responsive to the following SDGs of the United Nations: 17 | It is probably since the discovery of fire that we learnt a crucial lesson – technology brings benefits, but also risks. Far be it from us to carry out an exegesis of all human explorations and inventions, it […]
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Keywords: Küberturvalisus/Cybersecurity, Podcast
The sovereignty debate in the EU can inspire the revision of the EU NIS Directive and even provide insight into future changes to the EU Treaties. The Network and Information Security Directive (NIS Directive) is one of the most important pieces of cyber legislation in the EU. Only four years after its entry into force, […]
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When it comes to political participation, elections represent something that most countries have in common, but that differentiates them between each other at the same time. All democratic nations set rounds of voting to renew people’s representatives in national assemblies; however, almost all nations vary in the ways elections are carried out. From registration to […]
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In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, countries undertook years’ worth of digital transformation in a matter of weeks. The public sector – traditionally viewed as the slower player in the digital game– accelerated its innovation efforts to keep countries in function while decreasing risks to public health. It was only natural that governments would […]
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Much as in the fight against Covid-19, prevention proves to be a key determinant of our safety on the internet. However, deliberate threats to both citizens and organisations still hide just around the corner. Despite our individual care and attention towards cyber behaviours, malicious actors might intentionally try to hijack personal data or information systems. […]
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Where do we come from? Where do we stand? And where to go from here? Though the feeling might be that of a high-school psychology blog, there is no existentialism in these questions – at least in the current case. In order to formulate with efficacy digital transformation roadmaps for governments, policy makers must first […]
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To many, the road to e-governance may seem rocky. Not only during some client meetings, but also in seminars and just conversations in general, an age-old question is often brought up: “Digitalization, okay, great. But there are too many legal obstacles to implement it in our country.” Today, we get this one off the board […]
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Young people are the most reluctant social group to engage in voting. Research has clearly shown that across the past two decades, starting from seminal works on social capital and democratic participation, citing diverse explanations – from a decline in the perceived value of voting, to general disaffection towards institutions and party systems. In the […]
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In the last few years, the Government of Ukraine has endeavoured incessantly to detach itself from paper-based procedures, to enable and provide e-services, and to reduce corruption with the help of IT-solutions and of the secure data exchange platform ‘Trembita’. How has Ukraine managed so far? What to highlight in terms of successes and setbacks […]
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