Why big data is this century’s most valuable government resource

“It is raw information that is the new resource of the digital age,” said David Fricker in his Senate Occasional Lecture at Parliament House in April. 

Fricker is the Director General of the National Archives of Australia and is responsible for the storage of Australian government records.

Fricker says that as we accumulate more digital information, we are creating what he calls ‘information assets’ – data sets that offer government huge potential for societal prosperity. 

“These information assets and the abundance of this information resource offers tremendous opportunities for government to deploy more advanced and effective services in a much more agile and responsive way.”

Traditional government systems used to manage information including lengthy papertrails and shopfront government services are quickly becoming redundant methods that strain efficiency for both citizens and government employees.

This is largely due to an increasingly technologically-savvy population who prefer the speed, scope and accessibility of a digital-first approach – not just when it comes to government services, but in all facets of modern life. 

Recent figures coming out of the Bureau of Statistics suggest we are approaching almost 100 per cent internet saturation in Australian households, with 86 per cent of Australian households having internet access and 97 per cent of households with children under 15 years having internet access. 

Further, our familiarity with technology is changing the way newer generations access the internet. Roy Morgan released research in August 2016 suggesting 91 per cent of Australians aged 14-17 have a mobile phone. Of that percentage, 94 per cent own a smartphone. 

The way intergenerational Australians use smartphones is also rapidly evolving. Australians 14-17 years of age are around twice as likely to use their device for playing music, videos and games compared to regular mobile phone users.

In adulthood this generation will expect their smart devices to also give them fast and comprehensive access to services including taxation, medicare, immigration, employment services, health services and much more.

The way we make, keep and use digital information in the 21^st century differentiates this period from every other period in human history. Fricker argues that this both affords government opportunity to increase digital citizen engagement yet demands that government services are intelligent enough to meet this ground-swell demand. 

"Information, and our control over it, defines the ability of governments to work with transparency, integrity and security. But, just as for any other valuable resource, information must be properly understood and carefully managed to completely achieve its full economic benefit,” he says. 

Evolving government technology to increase both the accessibility and efficiency of citizen-first services has seen real world benefits in countries including Estonia, one of the world’s most developed digital societies. A digitally-ambitious approach has put Estonia on the front-foot of e-governance, with 99 per cent of public services available to citizens online.

Filing taxes in Estonia has been digitised since 2000, and typically takes just three minutes to do, thanks to the prefilling of big data into the tax system. Last year, 95 per cent of all tax declarations in Estonia were filed electronically, cultivating a society where conducting business online is extremely convenient. 

In 2008, Estonian public health has also experienced a big data revolution with the introduction of e-Health, a unique online record assigned to each citizen. The record contains all previous medical case notes, test results, digital prescriptions and x-rays, as well as a full log-file tracking access to the data. This has revolutionised efficiency for the Estonian health industry and vastly improved the level of care that Estonian citizens receive in the public system. 

Estonians also use one of the most advanced digital signature systems in the world, known as the ID-Card. The card is encrypted with a 2048-bit public key encryption and used as definitive proof of identity for voting, requesting medical data, submitting tax claims, logging into bank accounts and as legal travel identification within the European Union. The Estonian government say 67 percent of the population use the ID-Card regularly, and estimate the efficiency of the digital signature system saves each citizen five entire days per year.

When a government recognises big data as a resource, and manages it as such, huge opportunities are afforded to streamline efficiency and encourage growth and prosperity amongst citizens and businesses. Certainly considerations must be taken into privacy and security as technology revolutionises into previously uncharted waters, but Fricker remains optimistic that society will continue to problem-solve glitches along the way.

“Just as the challenges of the information society are unprecedented,” he concludes, “so too is our capability to meet those challenges.”

This story is sponsored by DocuSign.