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Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

karlsnotes.com

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Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#21

Post by tapland »

rcarr wrote: post #8

Until there's a solar flare and instead it's just cost them 1640 years. Or a catastrophic computer virus. Or any number of black swan disaster scenarios. I'm a tech guy and I do think that this is good news. I just hope that the people in charge of designing these systems have also thought about what happens if these systems catastrophically fail. And that measuring things like '820 years saved' are only really claim…

Isn't it all still stored digitally though? Paper tax forms that have to be sent in are still processed to be read and stored digitally, but it would be much easier to not have to send the paper forms.

The solar storm will strike individual systems that aren't connected as well.

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#22

Post by joenot443 »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #10
myroon5 wrote: post #6

Even without changing processes, hundreds of years of time could be saved by reducing the frequency we have to interact with government at all For example, almost 20 American states require license renewal every 4 years or more frequently: https://ballotpedia.org/Driver%27s_license_costs_by_state,_2... When I renew, there's no test (not even vision), and they don't even retake my picture or let me update my height. T…

That's mostly an american problem, not a "government bad" problem.

Same story in much of Canada.

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#23

Post by giantg2 »

rcarr wrote: post #8

Until there's a solar flare and instead it's just cost them 1640 years. Or a catastrophic computer virus. Or any number of black swan disaster scenarios. I'm a tech guy and I do think that this is good news. I just hope that the people in charge of designing these systems have also thought about what happens if these systems catastrophically fail. And that measuring things like '820 years saved' are only really claim…

My thought is that adversarial state actors are the biggest threat. Didn't Russia interfere with some of their services at one point?

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#24

Post by dottedmag »

alberth wrote: post #12

Homeless / Underprivelleged? How does moving things online work for those in poor economic conditions since they might not have online access (no smart phone, etc).

They can go to the local council / municipality and get the help there (either computers they can use for free, or from the clerks who can help them).

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#26

Post by rcarr »

scottLobster wrote: post #15
rcarr wrote: post #8

Until there's a solar flare and instead it's just cost them 1640 years. Or a catastrophic computer virus. Or any number of black swan disaster scenarios. I'm a tech guy and I do think that this is good news. I just hope that the people in charge of designing these systems have also thought about what happens if these systems catastrophically fail. And that measuring things like '820 years saved' are only really claim…

Black swan events affect non-digital information as well. How many paper records have been lost to fire, floods and simple decay over the millennia? At least with digital records there's the chance that they're backed up offsite somewhere

Personally I think the ideal system would include both. Maybe a digital system that is periodically (say once a year) transferred to tape and stored in a secure facility like the Svalbard Seed Vault.

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#27

Post by ryukafalz »

myroon5 wrote: post #6

Even without changing processes, hundreds of years of time could be saved by reducing the frequency we have to interact with government at all For example, almost 20 American states require license renewal every 4 years or more frequently: https://ballotpedia.org/Driver%27s_license_costs_by_state,_2... When I renew, there's no test (not even vision), and they don't even retake my picture or let me update my height. T…

I'd go the other way; we really should require retesting for driver's license renewals.

New Jersey for example just enacted a "safe passing" law earlier this year in an attempt to make bicyclists and pedestrians safer. But existing drivers will never have to demonstrate that they know this because we never retest people after they get their license once.

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#28

Post by notch656a »

myroon5 wrote: post #6

Even without changing processes, hundreds of years of time could be saved by reducing the frequency we have to interact with government at all For example, almost 20 American states require license renewal every 4 years or more frequently: https://ballotpedia.org/Driver%27s_license_costs_by_state,_2... When I renew, there's no test (not even vision), and they don't even retake my picture or let me update my height. T…

Arizona driver license don't expire until you are 65. The linked website is innaccurate.

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#29

Post by concordDance »

itake wrote: post #17
vander_elst wrote: post #5

Saving 820 years is great, but it would be nice to define it better. From the article I not sure if they mean 820 man years in total or man years per year or something else. It would be useful to know how much energy was spent to achieve this e.g. of they spent 8000 man years to achieve this it would change the perspective. Edit: grammar

Quoted post unavailable.

"Man" is an ancient word that means both "human" and "male human" depending on context. The former usage actually predates the latter.

Re: Estonia saved its citizens 820 years by moving public services online

#30

Post by giantg2 »

Arrath wrote: post #9
myroon5 wrote: post #6

Even without changing processes, hundreds of years of time could be saved by reducing the frequency we have to interact with government at all For example, almost 20 American states require license renewal every 4 years or more frequently: https://ballotpedia.org/Driver%27s_license_costs_by_state,_2... When I renew, there's no test (not even vision), and they don't even retake my picture or let me update my height. T…

Renewing online sure takes a lot of the burden out of the regular renewals. Of course, I'm now 33 and still using a picture of 21yo me on my license which gets me second glances from bar tenders, TSA, etc. But if it keeps me from having to go in to the DMV...

Will they even allow that for REAL ID now?
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