It’s been helping me and my colleagues (an endless list of Biscay town halls) a lot for 15 years. Regardless of age, studies, or residence in the most remote town, BiscayTIK puts technology at everyone’s service, managing to overcome any digital divide and allowing everyone in Biscay, no matter where they live, to deal with me and the rest of my town hall friends in a very simple and agile way.

VIRTUAL WINDOWS TO THE WORLD

BiscayTIK helps us to open up to the public and to the world through web portals that are virtual windows that one can look through in search of anything: interesting news and agendas, catalogues of municipal services, government plans, and even fascinating routes to explore (after all, we sure have a lot of good ones).

In a single click you can get your certificate registration in the municipal census, or even a building permit. You don’t even have to come visit me to do it. And make no mistake, I’m not making this up... I have proof: in 2022, for example, a total of 346,059 administrative procedures were carried out online, 31% more than in 2021. Isn’t that amazing?

I’d also like to tell you that, although BiscayTIK gives all the web portals the same visibility, it still allows each one of us to have our own voice. We all keep our souls, what characterizes us. If you want to see for yourself, just go to my website and take a look. Don’t you think the color I chose is to die for?

LINK BETWEEN THE PUBLIC AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT

BiscayTIK has managed to place the relationship between the public and their local governments at the base of Biscayan society. If we were to imagine Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for example, e-government would be on the lowest rung; that is, at the base, with basic needs. Eating, drinking, and having close relationships with me and my friends through an electronic device, you know?

All this is serving to put citizens at the center of everything the municipality does. To accomplish this, technological advances are being used. And, truth be told, nowadays everyone is looking down at their phones when they pass by me... so it’s much easier to get people to participate in anything online than it’s in person.

With this in mind, the different tools for participation came into the picture, ones driven by a great desire to involve everyone in the building of a more engaged and higher-quality local government. The “Kalezaindu” tool, for example, helps people to report incidents in a municipality, such as problems with public lighting, the status and progress of construction work (sometime technology isn’t needed to find this out… you can hear the drills at 8:00 a.m.), accessibility problems, etc.

CRYSTAL CLEAR

Town halls don’t keep secrets. It almost seems like what happens in the town hall stays in the town hall… but this isn’t the case. In fact, another of the things that we do with BiscayTIK is show ourselves just as we are: transparent, with no limitations or intermediaries. “Udala Zabaltzen” is a tool that allows us to make information transparent, accessible, and public. Using it, anyone can have the most important local management data right in their pocket: information on the government’s team, annual accounts, plenary session minutes, etc. And remember: everything is available in just one click.

At the same time, the Accountability project strengthens BiscayTIK’s commitment to the Open Government model, disclosing to the public objective and truthful information about the degree of compliance with commitments made during election campaigns, and doing so in a simple and understandable manner.

BISCAYTIK AND ITS PEOPLE

Although we, the town halls, are grateful for everything that BiscayTIK does, we know that the feeling is mutual. All these services are strengthened by awareness-raising work, technical support, and ongoing assistance, all of which BiscayTIK does with those who work in local government. Not only do they help their own governmental agencies on a daily basis, but they also help the human resources, tax, and municipal registry departments (among others), as well as providing support services to public users, to help them submit requests and ask questions.

In addition, close to 1,500 annual hours of training are imparted, thus increasing the level of general knowledge about the tools available. The results are clear: close to 70% of the local governmental agencies have improved the quality of their services. But BiscayTIK is not alone as it does all this work. Participants and collaborators include the Basque Data Protection Agency, Izenpe, Lantik, the Government of Biscay, Zugaztel, Gaia, and an entire public/private technological network.

Thanks to all this work, all the people who live in Biscay, we town halls, and all the people who work with us, come out as winners. I know that times have changed and that the digitalization of government is – as we have already said – a vital need for all those who reside in Biscay. But, if I can ask you for something, it would be this: stop by your town hall every once and a while, OK? I mean, although all this technology is cool, a little visit to say “Hello” from time to time is also nice.