Ines Mergel in 10 sentences #CeDEM17

Ines Mergel is one of our keynote-speaker at the CeDEM17 at the Danube University Krems in May 2017. We asked her to send us 10 sentences about her keynote, her expectations of CeDEM17 and her vision of the future.

CeDEM17 – International Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government 2017 (17.05-19.05.2017)
Registration open

Professor Dr. Ines Mergel is full Professor of Public Administration in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Previously, she served as Associate Professor with tenure at the Department of Public Administration and International Affairs at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse, NY, USA. Before joining the faculty at the Maxwell School, Professor Mergel taught at Harvard’s Extension School in the Management Master Program and stayed as a doctoral student and postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Professor Mergel’s research focuses on public management topics, specifically the managerial and technological processes in the implementation and institutionalization of innovative public management practices. Current projects include digital transformation, open innovation, big data, and the use of inhouse social networking technologies in the public sector.

Professor Mergel is Associate Editor of the journal Government Information Quarterly, serves on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review, Information Polity, Public Performance & Management Review, and the board of directors of the Public Management Research Association. In 2016, Professor Mergel was appointed as a Senior Fellow at the German Research Institute for Public Administration.

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What are the main assets of your keynote?
What are your expectations of CeDEM17?
What is your vision of the future?

Digital transformation in the public sector needs to be more than transition from analog to digital service delivery.
In order to achieve digital transformation, government needs to abandon its internal logic when rethinking services.
Along the innovation continuum, government needs to move from formal pathways of traditional request-for-proposal processes that are

led by contract managers, to new forms of co-production and co-innovation with users of services (either citizens or other agencies as clients).

New structural forms of innovation creation are emerging: a) innovation labs as internal think tanks that focus either on internal processes or external citizen participation; and b) digital service teams and digital agencies.
Both are using agile innovation methods to rethink how public administration can operate and deliver services.
They are focused on changing public administration processes and culture and aim to respond to changing needs of the public.
However, moving responsibility for digital transformation back into government, we will need to solve the innovation paradox: Where should innovation in the public sector come from?
My expectation for CeDEM17 is to start a productive conversation with other participants on how to purse digital transformation in government.
I am expecting to learn from others about their digital transformation projects.
My hope for the future is that government allows public servants to rethink and question existing practice to lower the burden of access and increase trust in institutions.