Platformland

“An updated and nuanced homage to O’Reilly’s seminal work on ‘government as platform’, Richard Pope’s Platformland adds two necessary elements. First, a very readable near-history of the digitalization of UK public services. Second, a walk-through of the potential of methods and technologies within our reach to fundamentally transform the experience of public services for citizens and those who serve them. For decision makers the question should not be ‘Have you read Platformland?’: it should be ‘Why haven’t you read it yet?’” — Theo Blackwell MBE, Chief Digital Officer for London

“Clear, concise and full of solid examples – this book will really help policymakers understand how to improve the use of technology in public services. Its value can be summed up in one of the chapter headings: ‘Complexity simplified’. No prior specialist knowledge is needed to understand the wealth of good advice in this book.” — Richard Allan, Baron Allan of Hallam

“Anyone involved in the reform of public services must read Platformland. Must, not should. This extraordinary book represents a quantum leap in thinking around public service reform, written from the perspective of a uniquely experienced practitioner. It explains clearly, with examples, how to radically reinvent public services to make the most of the potential of the digital age, while mitigating its downsides. I cannot recommend it highly enough.” — Tom Loosemore, Partner, Public Digital

“Richard Pope – one of the most creative thinkers in public sector digital design – shows in this excellent book how the digital revolution in public services is still far from realizing its full potential. Platformland fizzes with ideas about how the next generation of digital public services can avoid the pitfalls seen in current systems and make government work better in our everyday lives.” — Joe Tomlinson, Professor of Public Law and Director of Administrative Fairness Lab, University of York

“This book is my go-to for ‘read this and then we’ll talk’ in terms of digital government and the future. This is now the beacon in the various futures that could be; we should all be reading it and engaging on which of those futures we choose. It was when I started highlighting too many sentences in quick succession that I realized how packed and efficient the book is at delivering the exact value that anyone interested in the next generation of public services and infrastructure should be seeking. The book emphasizes ensuring a caring, deliberative and inclusive future in delivering services to people, and it provides detailed and practical methods and frameworks (or ‘patterns’) to implement our collective humanized digital future.” — Richard Gevers, Founder, Open Cities Lab

“Richard Pope presents the most original, persuasive and practical set of design principles for digital public services since the UK Government Digital Service swept the global stage more than a decade ago.” — Richard Sargeant, Partner, Boston Consulting Group

“The field of digital transformation and the role of platforms in government and public services is only growing – in both opportunity and challenge. Richard Pope has been at the forefront of seizing this opportunity and solving problems, and this book is a testament to his experience and clear-sighted vision for digital transformation that delivers in the public interest.” — Emrys Schoemaker, Caribou Digital/London School of Economics

“A resourceful, well-evidenced and easy-to-read guide applying state-of-the-art design thinking to digital public service, based on a deep knowledge of the technically possible, and all without ever ­losing sight of the ‘public’ bit: that citizens should expect simplicity, efficiency and empathy in their interactions with government.” — Morgan Currie, Senior Lecturer in Data and Society,
University of Edinburgh

“Platformland achieves the rare feat of providing in-depth analysis of the innards of public sector digitalization programmes while remaining accessible to those without the technical expertise of the author. The book will change the way you think about the design and delivery of public sector digital services. It is a ‘must-read’ for those tasked with designing, studying and researching these systems.” — Jed Meers, Senior Lecturer in Law, York Law School,
University of York