Public Transport Symposium 2023: Moving forward with vigour towards a fully digitalised public administration

The public administration must face up to the fact that the Online Access Act (OZG) has not achieved its original objective. Even among the defined top administrative services, only a few have been implemented and are usable. Without sugar-coating the situation, however, the OZG has made a difference in the minds of decision-makers and has also spurred cooperation amongst them, as well as joint digitalisation projects with the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The NRW Local Government Portal and the model regions project are just two examples of this, alongside exciting new best practices that were shared at this year’s Public Administration Symposium.

The conviction and intrinsic drive towards comprehensive digitalisation are stronger than ever. However, sustainable financial support, a coordinated vision and greater dialogue between the federal government, the state and local authorities are also essential. Dr Marco Kuhn, Deputy District Administrator for the NRW district and representative of the local authority umbrella organisations, highlighted (at times sobering) challenges in his keynote speech. Against the backdrop of mandatory tasks such as refugee assistance, the mobility and climate transitions, whilst simultaneously facing reduced budgets and a continuing labour shortage, it is important to remain optimistic and focus even more strongly on digitalisation.

From electrification to digitalisation – just a faster caterpillar or a butterfly?

How, then, will the next milestone – a fully digitised public administration – be achieved? One of the most important next steps here is the integration of specialist procedures and registers, as well as the digital signature as a building block in many digital processes.

Overall, there are high hopes pinned on the use of artificial intelligence. The topic of data management and AI is on everyone’s lips and runs like a common thread through the agenda of this year’s Public Transport Symposium. The facets and potential applications of Artificial Intelligence are diverse, ranging from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to the use of smart assistance systems based on sophisticated large language models.

Materna has very recently entered into a partnership with Aleph Alpha, the developer of the AI-based language model Luminous, and has unveiled a solution that could prove groundbreaking for the digitalisation of the public sector. Luminous runs via a data centre in Germany – but also directly in public sector data centres – and can be regarded as the European response to language models such as OpenAI or GPT – with the decisive advantage of data protection compliance and data security. It can be implemented as a core AI technology in virtually every federal state and helps to ease the workload in areas such as support and document checks during application processes, in case handling – for example, through text and image analysis and text generation – as well as in areas such as knowledge management and the implementation of accessibility measures.

Other key topics in the presentations, discussions and interactive formats – such as workshops, fishbowl sessions and World Cafés – at the largest gathering of public authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia were IT security and collaboration solutions. We also came across ‘old acquaintances’ such as EfA (Einer für Alle), as well as new names such as RuDi (Netzwerk Ruhr Digital) and DiANA (Digital Alarm and Emergency App). In total, just under 80 speakers and 33 exhibitors took part.
We have put together a few highlights for you here.

The public sector event, which was fully booked well in advance with around 650 participants, will mark a very special anniversary next year. We would like to extend a warm invitation to you now: to the 25th-anniversary symposium of the public administration in North Rhine-Westphalia on 11 September 2024.