Category Archives: Digital

Sowing the seeds of digital data collection

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Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

As you’d expect, here in Welsh Government we gather a wide range of data, and one of our longest running surveys is the Welsh Agricultural Survey which has been running since 1867! This is a large survey and every year farmers provide us with lots of information about their land, livestock and the people who work on their Welsh farms.

Things have moved on a lot since 1867 and this year we were able test out whether we could take a more digital approach for collecting this information. Up until this year, farmers would complete paper forms and send them to us to process and bring together the data so that we could analyse it. Whilst this approach is well established, it’s not the most efficient method and also not necessarily the easiest way for farmers to provide us with their information.

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Digital Strategy for Wales: Mission 2 – Digital Economy

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Post by Lee Waters MS, Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

This is the third in a series of blogs outlining the ambitions and plans for our Digital Strategy for Wales. Please see the introductory blog for further background and Mission 1 on digital services for what we have published so far.  

Mission 2 – Drive economic growth, productivity and resilience by embracing and exploiting digital innovation.

As I’ve already said in my first blog, digital is not just about technology – it’s about people. The future of our economy is no different.

As we emerge from the pandemic and exit the EU, digital innovation will continue as a disruptive force in our lives. But this disruption has benefits. It will release people from mundane tasks so they can be more creative and productive. It will support higher skilled jobs of the future. It will open new markets for trade. It will help drive a well-being economy for the people and businesses of Wales.  

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Digital Strategy for Wales: Mission 1 – Digital Services

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Post by Glyn Jones, Chief Digital Officer, Welsh Government

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

This is the second in a series of blogs outlining the ambitions and plans for our Digital Strategy for Wales. Please see the introductory blog for further background.   

Mission 1 – Digital Services: Deliver and modernise services to a common set of standards so that they are simple, secure and convenient

As the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport said in his introductory blog earlier this week, digital is more about people and a mind-set than about technology. It is about modernising services within organisations and delivering services across organisational boundaries, based around user needs.

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Digital Strategy for Wales – setting the context

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Post by Lee Waters MS, Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport

Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

It’s not just about computers. Let’s just be clear about that at the start.

The term ‘digital’ covers a lot, but in essence it’s about using technology to make things better – to make firms more productive or to create new products and markets. And to develop services that meet the needs of customers.

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Digital Innovation during a Pandemic – Supporting Welsh Businesses

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Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

The covid-19 pandemic has been devastating in many ways and has prompted the need for us, and others, to deliver digital public services at pace and based around user needs.  An example is the work of the Business Wales Digital team, who provide support to businesses across Wales in relation to financial support, training, marketing and much more.  In this blog, Rhys Morris, Operational Delivery Manager in Business Wales, explains how he and his team used agile and fast delivery approaches to put in place much needed support for Welsh businesses.

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Reflections from a new digital leader

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Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

This week it’s Digital Leaders Week which felt like a good time to write my first blog as Chief Digital Officer in Welsh Government since I started in July (not quite the famous “100 first days” that politicians refer to but not far away). It’s been a whirlwind few months learning what is going on across the organisation and outside, and at the same time trying to take forward some key pieces of work which we think are important in terms of responding to the pandemic and getting ourselves ready for the future. As with many other work places we have of course primarily been working from home since March. This of course has huge benefits which have been well described over the past few months, but it does present a very different experience in starting a new job and not being able to have face to face contact with my new teams!

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A beginners understanding of what user research is

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Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

Throughout school I always enjoyed taking part in making and designing new things for others (my favourite lesson being Textiles). I’m not implying that creating a dress is the same as implementing a policy, but they have very similar needs. These include, a (hopefully) happy user, an end product and that feeling of success! It turns out that by finding out what people wanted, and adapting to their needs I was actually carrying something called user research.

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From A Level to Apprenticeship

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Picture of Tia, Digital Data and Technology Apprentice

Planning my future looked as though it was going to be the biggest decision I would ever make in my life, so I tried avoiding it. Whilst coming to the end of my A-levels this year, not knowing what my favourite subject was, or whether I wanted to go to university, I was completely clueless. However, after speaking to those with experience it landed me in this amazing opportunity that provides so many choices. Continue reading →