Digital government learning list

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

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
• 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

Suggestions for this page? Send us an email.

For CDS updates, sign up for our newsletter.