Know What's Happening in GovTech
Know What's Happening in GovTech
The RavaBIM 2026 seminar examined Finland’s shift from PDF‑based permitting to mandatory BIM/IFC submissions, highlighting both regulatory progress and lingering gaps in standards and technical capacity. Panelists stressed that regional disparities, especially among smaller municipalities and modest design firms, demand focused investment in skills, standards, and cooperation to avoid a digital divide. They advocated a "Digital Fast Track" where high‑quality, machine‑readable models earn faster approvals, and promoted a pilot‑clinic pre‑consultation approach to tolerate early‑stage incompleteness. Overall, the discussion positioned BIM permitting as a catalyst for broader data‑driven construction efficiency and lifecycle management.
🇰🇭#Cambodia's payment infrastructure: Outsourced to overseas vendors, platforms and foreign-owned banks. How to maintain the country's sovereignity?
HMRC has introduced the Assist nudge tool within the Making Tax Digital (MTD) Income Tax Self‑Assessment beta, delivering data‑driven reminders through accredited software. A recent trial of similar nudges generated an extra £27 million in revenue, and the department plans to...
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on cybersecurity governance are exposing a stark inconsistency in public‑sector disclosures. Large NHS trusts and other big bodies tend to refuse or invoke national‑security exemptions, while smaller organisations often provide granular details. This uneven approach...
HM Treasury senior official Beth Russell told the Treasury Committee that the department is actively deploying artificial intelligence to handle routine administrative tasks and support policy work. The Treasury has introduced an HR chatbot, is piloting Microsoft Copilot with 25%...
Artificial intelligence has surged up the ranks of elite forecasting tournaments, moving from obscurity in 2024 to challenging top human forecasters. These contests span geopolitics, economics, and pop culture, measuring pure predictive skill rather than domain expertise. Simultaneously, AI is...
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has opened a large‑scale GDPR inquiry into Elon Musk’s X over its AI tool Grok, which has been linked to a surge of sexualized deepfakes, including images of minors. Regulators estimate Grok produced three million non‑consensual...
Minister of State Rahayu Mahzam opened Phase 2 of the First Device Campaign, a new effort by TOUCH Cyber Wellness to provide community‑based support for parents navigating children’s digital lives. The initiative moves beyond online guides, offering hands‑on workshops and peer‑learning...
The Bank of England is spearheading a sovereign payment system to challenge Visa and Mastercard’s dominance in the UK. A dedicated industry group will receive detailed infrastructure blueprints next year, outlining the technical and regulatory framework. The initiative aims to...
State and local governments are shifting from perimeter‑based defenses to an identity‑first security model, as highlighted in the State CIO Top 10 Priorities for 2026. The article argues that who a user—or nonhuman account—is matters more than where they connect,...
Telefónica Tech is launching a unified digital identity platform for Spain’s insurance sector, enabling secure, self‑sovereign access to digital services. The initiative builds on a 2023 European trial and integrates cloud, IoT, big‑data and blockchain capabilities. Partnering with the insurance...
Carroll County, Maryland launched a Whole Blood Program in May, enabling paramedics to carry and transfuse 500‑ml Type O‑positive units on scene. The initiative has saved 14 lives and been used 17 times, with 100% survival for internal hemorrhage cases...
EU Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcer Prabhat Agarwal urged regulators and civil‑society groups not to be intimidated by recent U.S. actions that exposed their identities and barred some from entering the United States. He highlighted the Commission’s commitment to protect...
Federal officials secured a $9 million grant to modernize firehouses on Staten Island and Brooklyn. $5 million will fund a new EMS classroom facility, cutting travel time for trainees, while $2 million upgrades Squad Company 8’s station to accommodate larger crews and equipment. An...
The UK government plans to embed Henry VIII powers in the Children Wellbeing and Schools Bill, enabling a rapid ban on social media for under‑16s via statutory instrument. Simultaneously, it will broaden mandatory age‑verification for social media, VPNs and AI chatbots,...
IT integrator Ailanto announced a sovereign cloud service for Swiss organizations built on Cubbit’s DS3 Composer software‑defined object storage. The offering launches with 1 PB of capacity hosted in Swiss‑based data centres and will expand later in 2026. It provides S3‑compatible,...
In this episode, host Michael J. Keegan talks with Professor Bert George about the fundamentals of strategic foresight and how it can be woven into an organization’s strategic planning and management processes. George explains the core concepts of foresight, the...
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the WSIS+20 outcome document in December 2025, cementing a ten‑year architecture for global digital governance aligned with the 2030 Sustainable Digital Goals. Coupled with the Global Digital Compact adopted at the 2024 Summit of...
The Data Checkup framework, launched by dataindex.us, offers a systematic way to evaluate the health of federal datasets across six risk dimensions. It moves beyond simple URL monitoring to assess historical and future availability, quality, statutory context, staffing, funding, and...
In this episode, host Brett King chats with futurist Cecilia Tham about the convergence of science, design, and business to create products and services that don’t yet exist. Tham explains how Futurity Systems delivers Futures‑as‑a‑Service, helping corporations and governments move...
TomTom has entered a strategic partnership with engineering firm AECOM to embed TomTom’s high‑resolution mobility data into AECOM’s global planning workflows. The collaboration gives AECOM access to precise traffic, safety and congestion insights, enabling more accurate, data‑driven decisions for road...
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a UK consultation on children’s online safety, targeting addictive social‑media features such as infinite scroll and autoplay. The three‑month review could lead to swift regulatory action, including a possible ban for under‑16s, though a full...
The City of Atlanta announced an expansion of its partnership with Oracle and Deloitte to deploy Oracle Permitting and Licensing (OPAL) across planning, zoning, code enforcement and inspections. The new ATLcloud Permitting solution builds on the city’s existing Oracle Fusion...
U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has ordered all federal agencies to patch the actively exploited BeyondTrust Remote Support vulnerability (CVE‑2026‑1731) within three days. The flaw, an OS command‑injection that enables unauthenticated remote code execution, affects Remote Support 25.3.1...
The Home Office has issued an early‑engagement notice for a £102 million hosting capability supplier contract to manage its on‑premises datacentre estate. The agreement is slated to commence in December 2026 with an initial three‑year term, covering 24/7 operational support, maintenance, engineering...
The UK government will merge the Crown Commercial Service with central commercial teams in the Cabinet Office to form the Government Commercial Agency (GCA) on 1 April. The new agency will operate as a self‑sustaining trading fund, led by CCS chief...
The UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is recruiting a chief digital and information officer with a £95,000 salary to overhaul its 18‑year‑old practical test booking platform, which has been plagued by bots and resale schemes. A National Audit...
Four‑in‑five UK councils now list digital connectivity as a top local priority, with gigabit broadband and rural inclusion driving the agenda. Yet nine‑in‑ten admit they cannot quantify the economic or social returns of improved connectivity, and 70% would like formal...
The European Commission will launch a call for proposals on 21 April 2026 to fund two large‑scale pilots that deploy cloud‑based AI and generative AI for medical imaging, allocating €9 million under the Digital Europe Programme. The pilots target real‑world clinical settings,...
Everdrone and the Ambulance Services Administration in Region Stockholm have signed an agreement to roll out an autonomous emergency‑response drone system. The drones will transport defibrillators to suspected cardiac arrests and deliver early situational awareness at accident scenes. Placement of...
Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran told the AI Impact Summit 2026 that India’s ascent to a global AI leadership position will not happen by accident. He emphasized that sustained political will, robust state capacity, and a national commitment are...
Natural England’s Reducing Seabird Collisions Using Evidence (ReSCUE) project is deploying LiDAR‑enabled aerial surveys to map seabird flight heights across UK offshore waters. The 12‑month campaign, running September 2025 to August 2026, will conduct 20 surveys in the North Sea, Irish Sea...
The SEC announced an AI Task Force led by a newly appointed Chief AI Officer to centralize responsible AI integration across the agency, backed by a 2025 AI Compliance Plan aligned with OMB guidance. This internal effort signals a durable,...
Santa Monica will become the first U.S. city to equip its parking enforcement fleet with Hayden AI’s scanning technology, deploying the system on seven vehicles to spot illegal bike‑lane blockages. The AI captures a ten‑second video and license plate only...
The General Services Administration announced it will publish documentation on the USAi program, detailing how federal agencies are testing and deploying artificial‑intelligence tools. Chief AI Officer Zach Whitman said the agency will release a six‑month performance report and form a...
NOAA's National Geodetic Survey is nearing completion of the modernized National Spatial Reference System, which integrates GPS and GNSS to replace the legacy NAD83 and NAVD88 datums. The new system will deliver centimeter‑level accuracy, streamline surveying, and cut costs for...
Federal agencies are rapidly appointing chief artificial intelligence officers (CAIOs) to comply with President Biden’s 2023 AI executive order and a 2025 Trump administration memo that mandates AI leadership. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has also launched a...
In this episode, Deputy Chief of School Planning Chyanne Eyde discusses the pitfalls of public outreach to historically marginalized communities in Washington, DC, highlighting how missteps have hampered school boundary planning. She outlines specific challenges—such as tokenism, limited access to...
The U.S. Navy is moving to a continuous cybersecurity model that relies on artificial intelligence to detect and mitigate threats in real time. Navy Installations Command (CNIC) is replacing its legacy risk‑management framework with the Cybersecurity Risk Management Construct, emphasizing...
Alabama’s Department of Human Resources is issuing EMV chip‑enabled electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards to curb rising fraud, partnering with Conduent, the chip supplier. The chips create a unique encrypted code for each purchase, making data skimming ineffective. Alabama follows...
Rural ISPs repeatedly cite financing caps as the primary barrier to expanding broadband, not a lack of willingness. Lenders impose strict borrowing limits based on cash flow, debt ratios, and broader market conditions, which many small providers cannot exceed. Grant...
The Police Digital Service (PDS) has signed a six‑month, £600,000 contract with data‑analytics specialist Bays Consulting to pilot data‑driven planning for football match policing. The initiative seeks to replace traditional analogue risk‑assessment matrices with crowd‑modelling and predictive analytics, aiming for...
The Cyber Express weekly roundup highlights a series of high‑profile cyber incidents across continents. The European Commission’s mobile device management system was breached but contained within nine hours, while Senegal’s national identity services were crippled by ransomware. In Australia, FIIG...
The Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) was rapidly expanded under President Trump to let states bulk‑verify voter citizenship. Early deployments in Missouri and Texas flagged dozens of lawful citizens as potential noncitizens, prompting local clerks...
Uzbekistan’s Digital Technologies Ministry confirmed that a cyberattack on three government information systems in late January exposed roughly 60,000 individual data records, not the personal data of 15 million citizens as earlier rumors suggested. The breach, which lasted from January 27‑30, was...
Government labs are accelerating first‑responder capabilities through two NIST‑sponsored challenges. The prize competition pushes drones to generate high‑resolution 3D indoor maps, while the First Responder Smart Tracking (FRST) challenge develops rugged wearables that pinpoint personnel inside structures where GPS fails....
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a December proposed rule to overhaul the Transparency in Coverage (TiC) machine‑readable files, with implementation slated for 2027. The rule would filter out payment rates that never apply to a...
U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan detailed the Golden Fleet initiative, which pairs AI, autonomous systems and distributed shipbuilding to accelerate fleet growth and modernize the maritime industrial base. Central to the plan is ShipOS, an AI‑driven connective platform that integrates...
The Department of Defense has long struggled with the high cost and long timelines of traditional missile programs, where a single system can exceed millions of dollars. To counter this, the Naval Postgraduate School introduced the Tactical Missile Innovation Challenge,...
Regulators are shifting fee‑transparency from a best‑practice suggestion to enforceable law, with the FTC warning rental‑software providers and states mandating upfront disclosure of all mandatory charges. Property managers must now display administrative, amenity and move‑in fees consistently across listings, emails...
