
Community
Civil servants / Public administrations
- Created: 27 April 2016

It is very important that no one is left behind! When it comes to accessing citizen services, especially those addressing life events, everyone should be enabled and particularly the elder who may have a bit more trouble making it to the public administration offices.
Local governments are more and more using open data to provide public services to their citizens. However, they lack tools on how to involve citizens, especially older citizens, in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of these initiatives.
Through the process of co-creation, civil servants and public administrations can contribute in making the use of open government data beneficial for all citizens. Thus, assisting older persons in having more inclusive online public services through the use of mobile technologies. This will increase transparency and trust in public authorities and "Digital education should be given much greater priority and local governments have a role to play", underlines Kieran McCarthy, Member of the European Committee of the Regions and of the Cork City Council (Ireland). Actions can be undertaken by all stakeholders to support the co-creation of inclusive open digital services. "We need a Digital Airbus. Airbus was a political will, which turned out to be an economic success. Such ambition is now needed to build an inclusive Digital Europe", concluded Mikael Snaprud, one of the MobileAge partners. Public administrators are as important as all other actors along the chain, when building the public services of the future.