CDS is often asked to suggest materials on digital government. The resources below are a helpful introduction to digital service delivery and technology modernization. The list also covers digital’s impact on marginalized or under-represented groups.
Several newsletters are also great resources: the Apolitical Digital Government Atlas, the Brookfield Institute, Code for Canada, The Commons, the GC Data community, GC Learning, and Public Digital. For Government of Canada-specific materials, read Canada’s Digital Ambition or explore the Canadian School for Public Service’s Discover Series.
Creating digital organizations
- The agile comms handbook, Giles Turnbull
- A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide, Cyd Harrell
- Content Design, Sarah Richards
- Digital Transformation at Scale (first and second editions), Andrew Greenway et al
- Digital transformation is a leadership problem, Mike Bracken
- Good services, Lou Downe
- The Government as a Platform Playbook, Richard Pope
- Histoire d'un rituel : le stand-up, Pierre Pezziardi (French only)
- ‘I don’t know how to use a computer!’, Leah Lockhart
- The public service’s digital literacy problem, Ryan Androsoff
- The Service Organization, Kate Tarling
- Shifting from planning to learning, Ashley Evans
- Think Digital Podcast (English only)
Decolonizing digital and Indigenous perspectives
- Decolonizing Design, Dori Tunstall
- Decolonising Digital Article Series, Niiwin
- A Digital Bundle, Jennifer Wemigwans
- Indigenous Leadership in Tech: Understanding Access and Opportunity in BC, First Nations Technology Council
- The First Nations Principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession, First Nations Information Governance Centre
- Residential School Records and Data Governance, Yellowhead Institute
Improving digital access, equity, and inclusion
- Canadians’ use of the internet and digital technologies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Statistics Canada
- The case for describing race in alternative text attributes, Tolu Adegbite
- Coded Bias (film), Shalini Kantayya
- Complicating Access: Digital Inequity and Adult Learning in a Public Access Computing Space, Suzanne Smythe and Sherry Breshears
- Design for Cognitive Bias, David Dylan Thomas
- Design for Safety, Eva PenzeyMoog
- Inclusive Design Toolkit, Government of Ontario
- Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, Kat Holmes
- Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action, Kevin Guyan
- Race After Technology, Ruha Benjamin
- 7 myths on digital accessibility, Neesha Dass
- Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech, Sara Wachter-Boettcher
- Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil
- A Web for Everyone, Designing Accessible User Experiences, Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery
Modernizing technology
- The benefits of coding in the open, Anna Shipman
- Detecting Agile “BS”, Defence Innovation Board
- Do we still need systems integrators?, David Eaves
- How To Use GitHub, Aayushi Johari
- Pourquoi la sécurité des produits numériques n’est pas celle des projets informatiques, by Laurent Bossavit (French only)
- What is DevOps?, Pivotal Software
- Why internet-era CTOs hire developers, James Stewart
- You might not be as agile as you think you are, Julia Lindpaintner and Stephanie Rivera
Procuring and governing digital
- De-risking custom technology projects, Robin Carnahan, Randy Hart, and Waldo Jaquith
- De-risking government IT projects, CDS Policy Team
- Digital-Era Governance: IT Corporations, the State, and e-Government, Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow, and Jane Tinkler
- Funding Software Related Activities, Rémy Bernard
- Governance Vacuums and How Code Is Becoming Law, Bianca Wiley
- Moderniser l’État grâce aux Startups d’État, Matti Schneider (in French only)
- New Public Management is Dead: Long Live Digital-Era Governance, Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow, and Jane Tinkler
- Outdated procurement rules hindering digital government, Luke DeCoste
- Prerequisites for modular contracting, Waldo Jaquith
- Why Governance is good, Cate McLaurin
- The work before the work: what agencies need to do before bringing on an Agile vendor, Waldo Jaquith
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