From October 13th to October 17th, Associate Professor Rony Medaglia from Department of Digitalization, Copenhagen Business School, was invited by Professor Xiaomi An to give a series of cutting edge lectures on digital transformation in government at SIRM, RUC.

Topics covered in the lectures include: Digital Transformation and the Public Sector, Digital Government and Citizen Service Transformation, The Future of Digital Government: Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Governance, The Future of Digital Government: Blockchain and the Internet of Things, Bridging research and practice of digital government. The lectures are hosted by Professor An Xiaomi. Over 30 teachers, PhD student and master students attended these lectures.

Figure 1 Discussions between teachers and students

According to Rony Medaglia, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), founded in 1917, is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the most well-known business schools in the Northern Europe. The Department of Digitalization is known for its cross disciplinary research on information systems, public administration and business management. Its research area covers sharing economy, big data analysis, blockchain technology and digitalization.

Figure 2 Overview of Copenhagen Business School and Department of Digitalization

In his first lecture on October 13, Rony started with the basic definition and history of digitalization. Then he explained four main evolutionary stages of government digitalization: digitalization, transformation, engagement and contextualization.

Figure 3 Lecture on Digital Transformation and the Public Sector

In the second lecture on October 14, Rony focused on the topic of digital government and citizen service transformation. He proposed a diversified way for digital government to provide services.

In the third lecture on October 15, Rony discussed the application of artificial intelligence in digital government. Through the cases, Rony explained the three risks of government’s application of artificial intelligence, including Biases and Discrimination, Lack of Explain Ability, and Filter Bubble.

In the fourth lecture on October 16, Rony discussed the application of the latest information technology in government. To help the audience understand the technical principles, Rony introduced the concept of distributed ledger technology and blockchain from the difference between paper documents and electronic documents. Using three cases of Land Title Registry, Blockcerts Academic Credentials, and UPort Decentralized Identity, Rony analyzed the risks in the application of new information technology in the government departments.

In the fifth lecture on October 17th, Rony took his published SSCI journal papers as an example and described the process of writing a paper and his experience in research design. Rony believed that research should start with interest, and the research steps should include but are not limited to problem definition, concept definition, data collection, data analysis and research discussion.

At the end of the lectures, Rony summarized his teaching experience over the past five days and patiently answered students’ questions. Meanwhile, he encouraged students to show themselves and take an active part in the international communications.