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BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

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Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#31
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we still have to walk to the doctor's office to get that prescription for the same Asthma medicine you always get every three months. Instead of just getting it electronically to the nearest pharmacy. Now we have to queue up in the doctor's office with sick people, wait for them to print and sign a red piece of paper and then walk to the pharmacy. Maybe this changes too in the future?

You can’t call in advance and pick up the receipt an hour later?

Yes you can.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#32

I really like the idea. But I am skeptic - digitalisation of Germany's public services and offices in the past hasn't exactly been a success story.

In this case, the slow digitisation had a good side-effect of allowing a open, decentralized encrypted messaging protocol to be maturely adopted. Not much consolance for the German people, who still have to deal with a lot of paper administration but a happy accident nonetheless.

From my experiences with DMG Mori and Siemens employees servicing my equipment and managed by a 100% electronic appointment booking and part ordering systems, German society is wholly and irrevocably doomed by the move away from physical paperwork.

All German productivity will end and even German language itself will be replaced by grunts and shrugs.

In the end, I got rid of my DMG Mori machine with its Siemens control and replaced it with a Taiwanese machine that functions reliably.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#33
It's really awesome to see the public sector being able to experiment with new technologies to see what works. Rather than a top-down approach imposed on everyone all at once, the trial-and-error approach seems to work better. If it succeeds, then try to scale it up. If it doesn't, then it doesn't bring everyone else down with them.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t call in advance and pick up the receipt an hour later?

You can but they'll likely only starting preparing the Rezept when you arrive, and you'll still need to wait 30 minutes. At least that's how my Hausarzt works

You should change your Hausarzt. They can be so careless only because enough people tolerate such behaviour.

I just send an email what I need, they reply to me the same day or tomorrow that it's ready to be picked up. I got there, and get it in 2 min.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#35
post #16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we still have to walk to the doctor's office to get that prescription for the same Asthma medicine you always get every three months. Instead of just getting it electronically to the nearest pharmacy. Now we have to queue up in the doctor's office with sick people, wait for them to print and sign a red piece of paper and then walk to the pharmacy. Maybe this changes too in the future?

> Maybe this changes too in the future? E-Rezept was supposed to launch in 2022 but has been postponed until mid 2023. Some regions already tested it. It didn't work out well, so some regions dropped out of the testing phase. I'm pretty sure it won't work well at launch and we will have to rely on printed prescriptions for quite some time until all pharmacies and doctors use the new system.

Greetings from Poland, e-Recepta here launched in 2019.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#36
post #28

Makes me happy to read that. One of the bright lights on horizon is that the Bundeswehr opted for a open-source, federated, multi-platform and secure messaging framework. Instead of some proprietary, closed-source piece of crap from a Big-IT vendor which make same depending in a negative way.

This was possible only because Ursula vdL is not in charge of Bundeswehr any more.

That being said, god save the EU, since these walking tax-money black hole is now leading the whole EU.

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#37

I really like the idea. But I am skeptic - digitalisation of Germany's public services and offices in the past hasn't exactly been a success story.

It hasn’t but it’s on the right track. I am working as a developer in one of the federal agencies and have direct contact with the efforts. It helps a lot that public agencies can now offer a so called IT Zulage of a few hundred euros to 1000 per months that brings salaries on par with the private sector. In my team, this worked wonders and we managed to get some really good people. On the other hand, the task is eno…

> we were discussing last week that if we had double the man power

Are you looking for more people?

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#38
Germany was quite advanced when it came to technology but then the drive to make more of it somehow stopped.

It has always been incredibly sad to me that the German ID card (Personalausweis) has an RFID chip inside with trust zones, certificates, authorization features, and much more and just never had been used. Like at all except for getting cigarettes at vending machines.

12 years after the first RFID Personalausweis had been issued it is only possible to register your car in some cities. Maybe there are other minor uses but it's negligible.

It's a very cool technology with a certificate authority and cryptographically secured claims for various things (proving you are over 18 without revealing your DOB, only giving out the name and address, authenticating as a German citizen, pseudonymity with separate identities for each service you use etc.). All functionality is also available for use over the internet.

The German Wikipedia has a good overview: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalausweis_(Deutschland...

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It hasn’t but it’s on the right track. I am working as a developer in one of the federal agencies and have direct contact with the efforts. It helps a lot that public agencies can now offer a so called IT Zulage of a few hundred euros to 1000 per months that brings salaries on par with the private sector. In my team, this worked wonders and we managed to get some really good people. On the other hand, the task is eno…

> we were discussing last week that if we had double the man power Are you looking for more people?

This. Please point us to where things happen.

Also, how fluent in German must one be?

Re: BundesMessenger, a secure messenger for Germany’s public administration

#40
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe this changes too in the future? E-Rezept was supposed to launch in 2022 but has been postponed until mid 2023. Some regions already tested it. It didn't work out well, so some regions dropped out of the testing phase. I'm pretty sure it won't work well at launch and we will have to rely on printed prescriptions for quite some time until all pharmacies and doctors use the new system.

Greetings from Poland, e-Recepta here launched in 2019.

And was given prime time thanks to covid, same as remote call with doctor, which allowed getting electronically recipe without coming into doctors office.

Covid accelerated a lot of remote services.

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