Scenario Technique to Elicit Research and Training Needs in Digital Government Employing Disruptive Technologies
Alexander Ronzhyn, Vera Spitzer, Maria A. Wimmer · 2019
Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of things, chatbots and other disruptive technologies may bring innovations to the public sector. However, the way in which such disruptive technologies could be deployed in various areas of digital government needs systematic investigation to understand emerging research and training needs. Future scenarios can be used as a method to elicit potential future evolutions of new technologies. In this paper, we suggest a future scenarios technique to identify research and training needs along the introduction of new disruptive technologies in the public sector. The paper describes the methodology of this scenario approach and an exemplification of identifying research and training needs relating to the implementation of Internet of things in public service provisioning, based on the application of the scenario approach. The methodology foresees expert engagement in the interactive workshops aimed at identification and prioritisation of the needs through a moderated discussion of the pre-constructed future scenarios. The methodology proved to be a useful tool for the identification of the research and training needs based on the expert input and produced useful and useable results during its application.