Government as Platform

Government as platform is a research-through-design project collaboration between the AUAS research group of Play & Civic Media, the Digital Society School and the Municipality of Haarlem exploring the design of digitized government services from a platform-based approach.

In the last decade an unprecedented digital transformation is taking place in the field of government technology (GovTech), leading not only to the digitation of traditionally offline services, but also to heated debates around privacy and access to data. How can citizens benefit from personalized services free of bureaucratic impediments, while engaging with digital processes they can trust? How can we design governmental services that shift the perception of government as a ‘black box’ to that of a trustful digital facilitator? Working in collaboration with the Union of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and the Municipality of Haarlem, the project explores such questions applying a service design approach. The output of the project will be a proof of concept that is scalable to other municipalities throughout the Netherlands.