Sweden ready for digital leadership - who takes the ball?

How has Estonia managed to become so successful at digital social good, and what can we in Sweden learn and perhaps copy? This was the title of two knowledge seminars we co-organized last week: the first in the Riksdag with Emma Henriksson (KD) as host, the second in our premises on Sturegatan with about thirty interested representatives of both member companies and the public sector.

Both seminars were a popular follow-up to the meeting held on 22 May this year when some 40 IT managers and others interested in digitization met in Stockholm City Hall to learn more about the national Estonian platform x-road, a digital portal that covers virtually all contact areas a citizen may need - from health care and doctor contacts to tax returns and car registers.

So what was the answer to the question of what we can learn and emulate from Estonia? Would we also benefit from an x-road, in practice a common "gutter" built with open source code for municipalities, county councils and other authorities to connect to, to best and most efficiently serve our citizens?

Anette Åkesson (M), who presented and answered questions on her and Niklas Wykman's motion "Introduction of a national platform inspired by X-Road in Sweden (2017/18:2033)", certainly thinks so. Their message is clear: Sweden would have much to gain from learning from Estonia's determined and successful approach to digitalization... and the Swedish government should therefore investigate the possibilities of establishing a national digital platform inspired by Estonian x-Road.

And in fact, at the end of the afternoon, after a moment's reflection, everyone in the room answered the question with a resounding YES. So that's it, isn't it? Well, that would be the answer. Because as great as the consensus was on the benefits of a national solution, it was about the challenges of successfully moving from words to action. Clearly, Swedish municipal autonomy is a complicating factor, as is the lack of willingness to take clear national leadership for the digitization of our welfare.

I usually use sports references and here it is perhaps not so much the upcoming Winter Olympics as the World Cup that comes to mind; for what is this but a perfect free kick opportunity? A little late in the game, but not too late for the politician or politicians who dare to pursue a vision of a cohesive digital Sweden all the way to the finish line. Who will take the ball?

(Want to know more about x-road? Contact me if you want to take part in the presentation given by Külle Tärnov, Manager of the Department and Health Tech Cluster, Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol)