Short abstract:

Many countries share knowledge and best practices in public digitalisation. But with knowledge sharing comes a sharing of politics and values made durable through code, design and processes. We describe public sector knowledge sharing as a transnational network of artefacts, events and expertise.

Long abstract:

Public digitalisation efforts in many countries are rapidly approaching their ‘teenage years’ with flagship digitalisation projects such as GOV.UK in the UK and the Danish identification infrastructure EasyID emerging in the early 2010s. Many of these earlier adopters of digitalisation have had the opportunity to consolidate their approaches and share their knowledge with other nations who are at the start of that road; a practice that only solidifies their status as exceptional digital frontrunners.

However, what has so far received little attention are questions related to the types of politics and values that are carried from one nation to another when their approaches to digitalisation are emulated. As formulated by Tsing (2005), the moments of ‘friction’ these attempts at ‘global connection’ spark. In our presentation we discuss the framing and approach of our research project DIGI-FRONT, where we conceptualize knowledge sharing of best practices in digitalisation as a transnational network of artefacts (e.g. Kelty 2008), expertise (Chong 2018) and events (Pinch 1993).

We suggest that nations distribute knowledge through code and design patterns, expertise through formal and informal bilateral visits and exchanges, and share best practices and set collective projects and strategies through events such as conferences, meet-ups and summits. We draw on examples from the UK, Denmark and Israel to illustrate how knowledge sharing in digital transformation is not only a managerial endeavour meant to increase public sector efficiency but also a mode of asserting a nation’s image and values through technology.