Every year I send around to former students some highlights of this years work. This time I’m posting here! Hoping some of this work is of interest to all of you. Always keen to hear feedback!

1. Continued Growth of the DPI Map

Our DPI Map has become a go-to resource in the field:

• Now used by multiple Multilateral Development Banks, research teams, and the DPI Safeguards assessment process
• Forms the core of our State of DPI 2025 Report, which we formally launch this week
• Maps digital public infrastructure deployments across 210 countries

2. Economics of Digital Public Infrastructure

• Sustained engagement with the World Bank, UK Treasury, and the Dominican Republic about how they fund digital infrastructure projects
• Adoption of our methodology by the G20 Digital Economy Working Group
• Potential to unlock billions in funding and reshape spending to be much more effective

This is deep, nerdy policy work – but it has real potential for impact.

3. The Largest Randomized Control Trial on Digital Government Skills?

We’re mid-process running what we believe is the largest randomized control trial on digital-era skills for public servants:

• I trained 10 Brazilian experts on how to deliver our digital government course (DPI662 at HKS, Digital Government at IIPP)
• Those trainers have just finished training a first cohort of ~500 public servants
• We’ll now run some tests to see if this training impacts the effectiveness of this first cohort vis-a-vis a second cohort who will be trained later this year

It’s been an absolute delight collaborating with Christian Schuster (Blavatnik, Oxford), Maria Alexandra Cunha (FGV), and Kim Mikkelsen (Roskilde University) on this work.

Also grateful to UKRI for funding this work!

4. New Case Studies & Publications

We published a lot this year. Some highlights below of what I think might be of interest:

Teaching Case Studies:

These are great if you are teaching a digital government course… All free to download and use! Also just great reads for those interested in learning about what is happening around the world in digital government.

Articles & Commentary:

We also have a peer-reviewed papers coming out in January, and a few more teed up for later in the year – stay tuned!

5. Talks & Engagement Around the World

Some presentations I’m particularly excited to be invited to give this year included:

• G20 Digital Economy Working Group in South Africa
• IMF Fiscal Forum Japan meeting in Tokyo
• Multiple sessions at the Digital Public Infrastructure Summit in Cape Town, South Africa
• Presentation to the Canadian Senate in Ottawa
• Women in GovTech (hosted by GovStack, a German-Estonian government-funded project)
• FestiBO Bites in Bogotá (thank you Angela María Reyes, HKS 2016!)

6. Advisory Roles & Other Work

Personal Update: Iceland Adventures

The big personal adventure this year was an 8-day hike through Iceland with my eldest son Alec, my co-founder Luke, and his family. We hiked the Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls Trails back-to-back.

Absolutely stunning landscapes, challenging terrain, and wonderful company. I’ve been lucky to have a life filled with meaningful, challenging journeys, surrounded by great people. I don’t take enough time off, and this was a ton of fun. It was also a powerful reminder of how blessed I am to be able to work and play with people I care about – whether hiking trails or reforming government systems.

Former Students: Alumni Office Hours and Our Digital Government Working Group

Eternal Office Hours: Every year I do about 30-50 calls with former students, sometimes its career advice, sometimes it’s on their new startup (were a LOT of those in 2025), some are collaborations, other times it’s just to catch up. Please feel free to use this link to book in

Digital Government Working group: If you work in the digital government and have something to share (a problem or success) we’d love to host you in our ongoing online seminar with my current researchers and students. For example, Jake Boyd (HKS 2023) presented his work on Open Source Protocols for Elections in December.

Please email me if you have work you want to share!

Hope everyone had a great 2025 and wishing you a successful 2026. The world has never been more in need of good people, working on the right problems, with the best intentions. I hope you are one of them and that our paths get to cross.