A Case Study of the Public Sector Digital Ecosystem in Estonia

Abstract

We discuss the core features of the Estonian digital ecosystem that have led to an exponential growth of in public digital service usage and started a move into the so-called post-digital society. A universal electronic identification system ensures that all citizens have default access to digital services. Uniform universal access is complemented with a distributed data exchange layer called X-Road, which allows service owners to engage in peer to peer data exchanges. Such a system has created positive dynamics from service demand (citizens) and supply (service owners) side. The secure digital identity enjoys high trust, which leads to high service usage rates and increased demand for more digitalized service. That same secure universal access and a data exchange system that is designed to create network effects, ensures a large immediate customer base for service owners, which makes data intensive digital service development faster and more cost-efficient. Finally, the frequent exchange of technologists between the private and public sector ensures rolling out of services and policies, like the e-residency program, that create new international customers for otherwise national digital services.