The Agency for Digital Italy (Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale, AGID) has updated the strategy for public administration digitalisation for 2024-2026.
The latest Three-Year Plan for Information Technology in Public Administration, published in early 2024, strengthens the guidelines for interoperability and, for the first time, prepares for the uptake of artificial intelligence.
AGID is responsible for reaching the goals of the Italian digital agenda and coordinates the work among and between the different levels of public administration. The new plan is the main document for setting objectives and guides 23,000 Italian public administration organisations in their digitalisation efforts. It was written in collaboration with public administrations, universities, businesses, and trade associations.
The new triennial informatic plan continues the Italian government’s commitment to open source as one of the guiding principles of procurement and development of digital public services. Together with procurement guidelines, it steers the Italian public administration code reuse, development, and distribution.
The Plan recommends maximising the re-use of open source software, setting ambitious targets including reaching at least 125 administrations releasing open source software and at least 2,800 entities re-using open source software in Developers Italia in 2025.
“A key part of its directives is dedicated to open source, in order to improve the efficiency and transparency of the Italian public administration and prevent the risk of technological lock-in”, explains the Director General of AGID, Mario Nobile.
“The objective is to promote the reuse of open source solutions to improve the quality of public administration applications and services, trigger significant cost savings and foster the creation of reuse communities among public administrations that adopt shared and open software. “
Improved interoperability and preparing for AI
Following the European Interoperability Framework, the new version has interoperability as a cross-cutting principle. The interoperability of digital services is enhanced on two levels – by open data and API integrations, and with the country’s open source design system, developed for improving accessibility by default.
For the first time, the document also introduces a plan for artificial intelligence, helping public administrations to adopt AI. With the guide, Italy wants to increase automation to free up resources, improve data-driven decision-making, and provide personalised public services. AGID will publish guidelines for the procurement and development of AI in Italian public services before the end of the year.
“For some of the most cutting-edge administrations, AI is already a reality,” said Mr. Nobile. “Considering the digital transformation path of the Italian Public Administration, the application of the open source paradigm can be an opportunity to facilitate the continuous evolution of ICT solutions to meet the challenges of Artificial Intelligence. This will benefit the enhancement of public information assets and the competitiveness of the Italian system.”
Aiming to respond to fast-paced technological development, the strategy will be updated yearly, hoping to give means and time for public administrations to adapt to the rapidly evolving digital environment. The first update is due September 2024.
Useful links:
-
Digital Public Goods
-
Digital/internet commons (EU)
-
Digital technologies in Civic Tech and GovTech
-
Civic Tech and Civil Society
-
Public sector. Open Source Solutions
-
Civic technology. Open Source Solutions
Source:
- Joinup: Italy Highlights Open Source’s Key Role in Public Service Digitalisation
- AGID| Agenzia per I’Italia digitale: Pubblicato il Piano Triennale per l’Informatica nella PA 2024-2026
