InfoCoBuild

The Digital State

Almost every aspect of taxpayer services is being transformed by technology. In this series of lectures we will look at the current state of the art, the future and what it means for our tax bill and the services we expect.

Richard Harvey is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology at Gresham College and Professor at the School of Computing Sciences at the University of East Anglia. (from gresham.ac.uk)

Lecture 1 - Biometrics: How Unique Are You?
If people cannot identity themselves digitally then the digital society does not work. How do biometrics help reduce crime and is it possible to have a biometric system yet not broadcast even more personal information than we do now?

Lecture 2 - Taming the Trolls of Social Media
Barely a day goes by without some lunatic assertion on social media. Thinking-people shake their heads, but what can be done about this? It turns out that there are a variety of scientific and engineering approaches which might be adapted to tame the trolls of social media.

Lecture 3 - The Digital University and Other Mythical Creatures
In 2013 Sir Michael Barber declared that "An Avalanche is Coming" and that universities would be swept away by new digital technologies. Six years later nothing seems to have happened, yet there has been change.

Lecture 4 - Is Robocop Now a Reality?
Robocop (1987) embodied a particular vision of an electronic crime fighter but what is the reality of electronic crime fighting? How are the police and security services using technology to trap villains?

Lecture 5 - The Cashless Society
Money may well make world go round but cash is surely an encumbrance we can do without. What does a cashless society look like? What is the technology behind the digital economy and the new forms of currency and money?

Lecture 6 - Digital Healthcare: Will the Robot See You Now?
It is commonplace for governments to complain that the cost of healthcare is rising. Various reasons are put forward: some claim that modern medicine is inevitably more expensive; some claim that the ageing population is the cause of the problem; others opine that the only option is rationing.