The future of government

This week the World Government Summit took place in Dubai attracting considerable global interest. Though not immediately associated with excitement and anticipation, trends in government are receiving considerable attention. By 2020, 60 percent of the world's population will be living in cities, putting a huge strain on existing government operations. Increasingly it is clear that governments across the board have to overhaul their approach to be more streamlined, effective and dynamic. What had begun as a niche academic reference, "The future of government" is fast becoming a school in itself. With the development of cognitive technologies such as computer learning, natural language processing, robotics and speech recognition -- the need to build government capabilities to use such developments is clear.