{"id":5405,"date":"2025-10-31T14:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T13:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/?p=5405"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:16:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:16:31","slug":"week-183-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-27-31-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/2025\/10\/31\/week-183-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-27-31-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Week #183 at the Digital Service: Notes for 27\u201331 October"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recovering from another round of COVID, I was only able to work the second half of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, this is a shorter note. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting blog posts out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Two blog posts are done and in review. One is on our international efforts. It has been lingering for a couple of months already. The second one is about our approach to design systems and our commitment to adopting the KERN Design System going forward. I started penning it on a train ride last month. It then grew to a 1,600+ word piece that now requires some trimming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My yearly goal is 7 published texts. Currently, I am standing at 3. Adding these, I am still 2 texts short. Back in August, I made a list of texts I want to write.<\/a> All remain valid. I am swiftly moving to the next ones. Katrin and I started outlining our article for the next German Service Gazette, which we will now have to delay. I still want us to publish the article online in November, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing struck me this week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a co-author of 25% of all blog posts published on the designnotes.blog.gov.uk<\/a> in 2025. Because there are only 4 blog posts out this year so far. If the following post is our international one, I will have co-authored 40% of all blog posts published there this year. I am not even a UK civil servant. This is so wrong. Even I cannot fathom it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blogging is broken, and only a few people seem to care. It\u2019s not just the UK. Germany isn\u2019t any better. Digital Service is doing fine<\/a> (with 25 blog posts this year so far), but the rest of the public sector is almost consistently abysmal. At the same time, trust in the state sits at 37% in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People aren\u2019t incentivised to blog. People don\u2019t see blogging as a priority or a routine activity integral to their work. Instead, people see barriers rather than support in communicating about their everyday work \u2013 and hence, getting blog posts out. Even though radical transparency might move the needle regarding state trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On servicestandard.gov.de<\/a>, we are building a dedicated section for cross-government blogging. We have 2 stories published and multiple others in the works. We are replicating what service.blog.gov.uk<\/a> was intended to do for the UK Service Standard, but for Germany and in German. And minus the fragmentation, which we could not address at the time in the UK due to priorities and resources. By integrating the stories of teams directly into the Service Standard offering, we can better link them to the standard points and make the content more easily discoverable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope we can support more colleagues in blogging \u2013 by creating the structures, providing support, and nurturing a longer-lasting appetite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formalising our accessibility procedures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How do we support a growing number of service teams to publish the most accessible services? Marion and I discussed what we need to do to ensure the quality of tools and procedures across smaller and bigger teams. We have ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We already do quite a few things today:<\/p>\n\n\n\n