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This whitepaper captures the Government of Canada's (GC) approach to move towards a more open environment. While the GC has been operating in an open manner in some places, this will be our first attempt to bring all of these efforts together to more purposefully improve service delivery to the public. This includes changes in how we work, purchase, and provide information and services. Recognizing that as Canadians, and our partners become increasingly digital, the same must happen to our workforce. This whitepaper will outline the activities that support becoming more open in our digital society.
This direction is coming from the top, supported by the Prime Minister, in October, 2017, the President of the Treasury Board (TB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) concerning Digital Government with the United Kingdom. This MOU outlines the need to work together to provide public services in an open manner based on the following Digital 5, Principles: User Needs, Open Standards, Open Source Software, Open Markets, Open Government and Assisted Digital.
The GC’s continuous utilization of open source software (OSS) can be found in Environment Canada’s weather infrastructure, TBS’s Government of Canada 2.0 tools (i.e. GCpedia and GCconnex), the Open Data Platform, as well as in multiple departments openly contributing to the Web Experience Toolkit OSS project on GitHub (Source). Although prevalent, there has been little done to update GC policies, governance, funding and processes to ensure that open source tools are being used at the right place and at the right time. Moreover, a need exists to ensure that OSS are supported in a sustainable way, and there is appropriate policy and guidance for employees using these tools when needed.
This whitepaper aims to demystify GC’s current use of OSS tools, programs and activities. It also aims to identify current gaps to outline a path forward in creating a more complete open environment.
This whitepaper is being co-developed by members of the GC open source community in an effort to get the full-picture of open in the GC. Once we can better understand our use of open tools, programs and activities, we can find new ways to work, build and provide services. While we have made a first attempt at gathering research, including best practices and jurisdictional case studies, there are still gaps where community members can contribute. If you have something to add, we would encourage you to contribute your thoughts, expertise and references.
We want to learn from Canadians, our partners, academics and technical experts to help us incorporate an open lens as we update GC policies, governance, funding and processes.
Inspired by of the United Kingdom Government, the Government of Ontario and other jurisdictions, the GC has recentrly drafted digital principles that will guide how we work, interact with Canadians, and do business.
Start with user needs and build for them, and with them. Conduct ongoing testing with users. Do the hard work so that they don’t have to.
Develop in an agile manner using alpha, beta and live phases. Test end-to-end and continuously improve in response to user feedback. Test early and often.
Create and empower multidisciplinary teams, linking policy with delivery.
Lead and implement a team and departmental culture focused on users.
Share and collaborate in the open, plan to make data open from the start.
Consider business context. Manage risks.
Give equal consideration for open source. Use open standards. Build in an interoperable and reusable way.
Use common government solutions and platforms. Build cloud first.
Be open and transparent in the use of automated systems and comply with ethical guidelines.
Build in inclusiveness, official languages, and accessibility by design.
Manage data in line with standards. Implement analytical tools and use the data you collect.
Define user-centred performance metrics. Publish real time data.
Recognize that an organization can’t have all the best ideas. Create partnerships and collaborate.
Enter into sensible contracts and comply with procurement standards.
Test all new public-facing services with the Deputy Minister and/or Minister responsible.
Three key principles that have guided this whitepaper are open culture, user needs, and interoperability. As you will learn, these concepts permeate all sections of this paper, therefore, we have expanded on this below.
Being self aware of how we do our business is key. Conversations about how to break down silos between departments, our conversations with our partners, academia and the public continue to evolve. The use of open tools, practices, and involvement in open communities will help us to break through these silos and more directly connect people, ideas, tools, information, and services.
Gone are the days of designing a program, service, or tool without talking to the person who is going to be using it. Consultations, user experience testing, public opinion research are all important aspects of how we do business, and will continue to do business in the future. Once we incorporate the needs of our users, we can build servicea that help them with task they want to do more effectively and efficiently, and most importantly without having to understand government. This shift will require leaving behind many assumptions.
Individuals, businesses, the public, institutions and things all communicate via computer exchanges. These computer exchanges have become an essential conduit, and their overall heterogeneity is an even greater reason for interoperability, meaning the ability to make a variety of information systems communicate with one another. A lack of interoperability can lead, at best, to a breakdown in communication or operations and, at worst, to an outright loss of access to valuable information.