Italy’s Team Digitale, the government digital transformation team, is about to start testing a smartphone app for its IO service, which will provide citizens with easy access to all kinds of government services. The entire software stack is open source, and the code comments and nearly all of the documentation are written in English to encourage international cooperation.
The launch of the IO test was announced in Vienna last week, at the High Level Conference on Digital and E-Government organised by the Austrian government, the current Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The pilot will involve some 3000 citizens who will be accessing services from several dozen public sector organisation from the local, regional and central government, says Matteo De Santi, chief product & design officer at Team Digitale. His presentation is available online De Santi’s presentation starts at minute 37).
The IO stack is designed to give citizens access to many different government services and all kinds of documents, and to help them contact public sector organisations. Examples include requesting a vehicle registration document, setting reminders, requesting reimbursements of medical bills, and paying fines. For the public sector, IO will make it easier, simpler and faster to deliver services, Mr De Santi says. All of this will also help to save money. IO comes with real-time monitoring, which Team Digitale says will help to improve payments and welfare programmes.
Citizens will find it much easier to access government services via IO, and they can easily discover new services that are available to them, including income support initiatives. Using IO should help citizens avoid paying late fees. In addition, they can see what kinds of data are managed by public services.
In Vienna, Mr De Santi encouraged public services in other EU countries to participate in the development of IO. “Every part of IO is available as open source. This is most important to us.”
More information:
IO website
Presentation by Matteo De Santi (starts at minute 37)