The title says nothing, we need KPIs, average life span, mortality rates, unemployment rates, health indices, education indices, overall quality of life indices. Fancy titles are meaningless.
Estonia is running its country like a tech company
51–60 of 203 posts
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#52Let's hope that the model doesn't include a hostile takeover by a big incumbent.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this competitevness is stupid and Baltic countries should stand together because of so much history.
I agree, mostly because I think it's just practical for small markets (like ~1 million person countries) to band together but I remember in Estonia everyone always thought of themselves more as a Nordic country rather than a Baltic one
They have similar language to nordic ones, Yes. But the place itself feels and looks totally as Baltic country and there is absolutly nothing wrong with it. (I've been in all 3)
I think the reason is that Estonia and Latvia used to be same country - Livonia but I might be wrong.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#54Anybody got experience in UK vs Estonia? I have lived and run companies in the UK and USA. The UK is light years ahead of the US in terms of all online interactions with the government. It's also been a long time since I have done any paper-based interaction with the government in the UK, the online systems have been really good for years.
Curious how it compares to Estonia.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#55No opinion on Estonia and its e-government, but running a country like a tech company sounds like a plot of a comedy set in a dystopia. I certainly hope that Estonia is ran better than most tech company
Tech companies have many problems that I don't want see in a Government:
- Security breaches (and just like every other tech company Bulgaria recently had a dump of the personal data of 5 million citizens)
- Privacy issues, like contractors listening in on sounds recorded by their devices
- tons of intrusive ads
- discrinatory pricing
- products people rely on being killed off for no reason
- hype-, and resume-driven development
- general lack of accountability, masked with trendy but misunderstood methodologies like Agile, Scrum
- move fast and break things works for Facebook, but not for health insurance software
Tech companies fail all the time, but the pieces are picked up by investors, yet governments cannot afford to fail in the same way.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany and Estonia have two completely opposing views when it comes to personal information, and the Estonian way is the way to success. OTOH, the issue with USA is the conflict of interest between the public and private sector. Turbotax is a prime example.
As a German, I don't think the issue is with our handling of personal data. The real issue is Kleinstaaterei, a not-quite-translatable word that describes every small administrative entity insisting on doing its own thing and failing to see the bigger picture. What today is Germany used to be about 100 separate nations until 1871, and a still somewhat loose federation until 1918. I think the mentality from that time…
In my experience Germans love bureaucracy,it makes them feel safe and gives them "trust" for the system even if everyone hates it. Additionally it "empowers" the people (and not in a good way) who are given a tiny amount of power wrt some mundane issue that you need to resolve at some city/state office. (The "soup nazi" gag is spot in Seinfeld).
Seriously here in "DDR" you wait in a line to get a waiting number for starting your real wait. (I'm looking at you zulassungstelle).
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#57As a Norwegian I can relate to many things written here. Estonia is clearly ahead of us but this thing of not being the innovator but still using off the shelf technology was something I was forced to reflect upon while living in the US 15 years ago. It was surprising how the country behind so much technology innovation was so bad at using it. It was noticeable both in the private and public sector. It was something…
America is very backwards in tech for daily life. About 2 years ago I was blown away when I arrived at the San Francisco airport and had to buy a train card with a Visa card; the customer service guy got flustered and pulled an old carbon paper swiper thing out from under the desk, and asked for my signature. In Australia it's all wireless payWave or PayPass. My Chinese GF uses her phone to pay for things and considers me old fashioned for using a card.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#58No opinion on Estonia and its e-government, but running a country like a tech company sounds like a plot of a comedy set in a dystopia. I certainly hope that Estonia is ran better than most tech company Tech companies have many problems that I don't want see in a Government: - Security breaches (and just like every other tech company Bulgaria recently had a dump of the personal data of 5 million citizens) - Privacy i…
Most countries are ran far worse than a company. If citizens had the option to freely jump between countries, most of them would go bankrupt, that's why they rely on coercion. Very few countries are ran efficiently and they re typically very small like Singapore.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#59As a Norwegian I can relate to many things written here. Estonia is clearly ahead of us but this thing of not being the innovator but still using off the shelf technology was something I was forced to reflect upon while living in the US 15 years ago. It was surprising how the country behind so much technology innovation was so bad at using it. It was noticeable both in the private and public sector. It was something…
America is very backwards in tech for daily life. About 2 years ago I was blown away when I arrived at the San Francisco airport and had to buy a train card with a Visa card; the customer service guy got flustered and pulled an old carbon paper swiper thing out from under the desk, and asked for my signature. In Australia it's all wireless payWave or PayPass. My Chinese GF uses her phone to pay for things and conside…
America's banking system is the best example. My clients still pay me via ACH that takes 2-3 days to clear. Meanwhile in my local market, I can send/receive money instantly for either zero or a fee capped at less than $0.10/transaction.
Re: Estonia is running its country like a tech company
#60Before people start praising Estonia for its e-voting system, which inevitably happens on such stories, let me remind you that the system was indeed open to compromise: https://www.zdnet.com/article/estonias-id-card-scrisis-how-e... The timeline may also match the hack the GCHQ and NSA did against the Estonian e-ID provider, Gemalto: https://theintercept.com/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/ So remember that even with hard…
But what are the alternatives ? paper ID cards are even easier to fake