My Kama vacation: as a governor, Permians and Skolkovo gathered to digitize their homeland

    I think you do not need to be an expert on tourism to suggest that Perm is not the most popular holiday destination. Unless, of course, you are a resident of the Perm Territory or a fan of the opera. Yes, operas: The Perm Opera and Ballet Theater cannot boast the history of the Bolshoi or the Mariinsky Theater, but managed to reach their level in importance . I, like many residents of Moscow, would have seen Russia no further than Sheremetyevo, if not for work. And it was for business that I had to check in at the Bolshoye Savino airport recently for the first time, on May 18, when I flew into a conference link to the Concept for the Development of the Digital Economy of the Perm Region, organized by the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO in conjunction with the Perm company ER-Telecom Holding JSC"From the filing of the new governor of the Perm Territory Maxim Reshetnikov.


    As you can guess, in the photo it looks as boring as it sounds. Therefore, for KDPV I had to resort to expensive computer graphics

    Perm was unexpectedly close - just two hours flight from Moscow. And in two time zones - therefore, upon landing, the clock hand jumps for 4 hours from Moscow departure time. That's not cool. But then flying back is very fun: the plane, like a langolier, swallows two hours of time, and lands in Moscow at about the same time as it flew out. Or even earlier - it is quite possible to write down a message “to yourself five minutes ago” before departure, and when landing, when the clock is set to Moscow time, you may just be five minutes ago.

    We landed in a completely new international terminal of Perm Airport, opened only last November. It looks quite compact - no comparison with Moscow monsters, stretching for kilometers - and at the same time, all the time that I spent there, it was practically deserted. Again, compared to almost everywhere congested airports, this is a pleasant change. Flights from Moscow and back fly from early morning until late evening. The schedule is tight, like a bus schedule. Late for flight? Don’t get up, the next one will be soon anyway. Prices, by the standards of aviation, are also almost bus - 2000-3000 rubles. All together, this leaves a pleasant feeling of "just a stone's throw from Moscow."

    Perm in 2018 is a puff cake from eras, topped with a layer of globalization. Through the world brands of chain establishments and stores connecting Prague, Moscow, Perm and Amsterdam into a single cultural space, the Soviet foundation, which has not yet been completely worn out, is covered in spots of trash architecture from zero, creating a pleasantly surreal feeling of a “fellow” between the worlds : as if I returned to my childhood, to the post-Soviet Severodvinsk, while not letting go of the iPhone. But McDonalds and Pull & Bear are still an indicator of normality for a modern metropolis, one of the elements of a designer that forms a single global context that is understandable to urban residents of the entire planet.

    Perm is unique in its cultural ambitions inherited by the city from the "enlightened governor" Oleg Chirkunov. The city logo, made in Lebedev's studio in 2009 , caused a flurry of banter in RuNet. But the success of the Perm Opera does not seem a joke. Co-productions with European opera houses are respected (you also need to understand the opera, but how it comes to logos - so every mother has an art director). The situation is also unique when the fashion instilled by the new boss is already undergoing two shifts of governors and turns into a real trend. For Russia this is an important phenomenon: even our best undertakings usually turn out to be the effect of a “new broom” and hold on only until budget money runs out, but still no longer than their initiator sits in his chair.

    But I’m not a theater critic and I honestly don’t understand opera. My topic is IT, and in Perm, I, because it was IT, the new governor of the Perm Territory, Maxim Reshetnikov (appointed to the post in 2017), who I chose as a hashtag, under which, apparently, he wants to stay in the history of his small homeland.

    The event, under the official name “Strategic Session, Concept for the Development of the Digital Economy of the Perm Territory” ”last Friday brought together various Moscow experts, Reshetnikov himself, representatives of the Perm IT sector, as well as local officials as spectators in the hall. The first part of the working day consisted of a series of speeches with general discussions about where Perm has a chance to take a place in the global IT and expert stories about his own successful cases on automation and AI -ization.

    In the second part of the day, all the participants dispersed from the large hall to five audiences to work on the groups “Strategy and creating conditions for the digital transformation of the region”, “Digital transformation of production”, “Personnel for digital transformation”, “Digital transformation of public administration” and “Smart city” ". Local officials and IT entrepreneurs, together with invited experts as moderators, had to brainstorm a list of problems and Wishlist, transform them into a list of tasks, which later will again be voiced from the big stage in the final part of the day.

    The names of the groups show the directions that they decided to pull out due to "digitalization" when everything else did not work: Housing and communal services, public transport, industry, education and the work of the state as such.

    A typical problem of good undertakings, when the energy for transformations is spent on creating plans for these very transformations, ending with them, Reshetnikov decided to eliminate it like this: “ But there will be no plans .” Like, we’ll write down the conclusions of the working groups, but we won’t formalize them - we’ll just be meeting in such a format once a quarter, checking informally hours and replenishing notebooks with new ideas, solutions and suggestions. However, everything that happened looked more than formal, but the method was clear and even witty: to leave the gestalt unclosed instead of the usual feeling of completeness after planning the task. Cool - yes, but only the result will show the real value of what is happening.

    The promise to put things in order on the roads and in the social network is part of the mandatory program of every “strong business executive”, probably starting with the heads of village councils. And with every new business executive new promises come.

    The Perm initiative is an example, as historians say, of “modernization from above”. And therefore, listening to the first performances from the stage, I decided to start acquaintance with her, too, from the very top. Actually, no one promised me an interview with Governor Reshetnikov, but there was nothing to ask him about. The organizers supported the idea of ​​the interview, but his fate hung in the balance to the last. The reason for this is the employment of the governor. Spontaneity and governance are generally poorly combined. As I was later told, organizing an interview with an official of this level in less than a few days is unrealistic. But it turned out the same.

    However, this can not be called a full-fledged interview - it quickly became clear that with my, as it seemed to me, modest request of "a maximum of half an hour," I rolled my lip wider than Kama. I managed to literally seep into the governor's schedule, and the initial list of questions had to be reduced first to seven, and then to four - to which we could get the most meaningful answers. So it didn’t work out for me to ask, for example, what are his favorite articles on Habré or how to develop digital technologies in a country where entire departments are working to combat them (Roskomnadzor). In the short list, in the end, there were:

    1. What is your motivation as a governor in the development of the digital economy of Perm - is it your personal ambition, is it dictated politically or is it somehow somehow motivated?
    2. Many innovations require major changes in laws. For example, self-driving cars. In the United States, some states have already adopted amendments to allow robotic cars to drive on roads without the presence of a driver. Is this possible in Russia at the regional level or is it a federal issue?
    3. What areas of the digital economy are most easily implemented without changing laws at the federal level, changing laws at the regional level?
    4. Why Permians can count on the fact that all the steam does not go off the whistle and all the work on modernization does not end only on drawing up plans for this modernization itself?

    We managed to talk about this exactly - albeit at the cost of a difficult ignore of the press secretary Reshetnikov, who, in the last minutes of the interview, signaled behind the scenes about the elapsed time and looked with a look that her governor would be returned to her.


    - Hello, Habr, my name is Yegor Kotkin. Now I am in Perm, where local officials, led by the governor and Moscow experts, have gathered to solve the issue of developing the digital economy - how and why this should be done. Today I have the opportunity to talk with the frontman of this process - the regional governor Maxim Reshetnikov, who will answer several questions specifically for Habrahabr.

    This is my first time in Perm, but I got the impression that everyone is nodding at you as the initiator of this process. Therefore, my question will be about your motivation: is this for you related to personal ambitions or to the implementation of a political plan; Do you want to stand out among the governors, fulfill the instructions of the president, or something else ?


    - Well, firstly, not only officials and experts gathered here. Very different people gathered here. These are mainly business representatives: those who implement digital technologies and carry out digital transformation, as well as those who produce solutions and products for this. Also here are representatives of the fields of education and science. So we tried to gather all the participants in the process. Officials are also present, but primarily here are representatives of enterprises and organizations leading the process of digital transformation and providing services, including in the healthcare system. We are also introducing the same innovations and we have the same problems as large industrial enterprises: how to change business processes, how to change organizational areas, where to get people, what and how to teach them. It's about large scale, when we talk about the digitalization of healthcare, because the Internet must be connected to each feldsher-midwife center in every village, and it should have four-way lane, train feldshers, install computers, and provide the appropriate software. But the main thing is that you have to change all business processes. Suppose a car arrives every two weeks, picks up biomaterial, and takes it to the laboratory. The laboratory does the tests, and the very next morning the paramedic can see their results. It is being implemented now. picks up biomaterial, carries to the laboratory. The laboratory does the tests, and the very next morning the paramedic can see their results. It is being implemented now. picks up biomaterial, carries to the laboratory. The laboratory does the tests, and the very next morning the paramedic can see their results. It is being implemented now.

    - You said that officials here are more listening and studying, is that so?

    - Yes. The officials in this case are the same participants in the discussion, they are no worse and no better than the rest. There are good enterprises that are actively introducing [innovations], so there are those who have not yet come to this. And the officials are exactly the same. We have departments where the digital transformation process is in full swing, and there are those who, for various reasons, are lagging behind. Our task is to maximize the involvement of processes within government, enterprises, municipalities, utilities and so on. Regarding personal motivation, I can say that from my point of view, there is a great chance for Prikamye to change as a whole. We have gained competence, and in order to further support companies and engage in the development of the digital economy, we must accept the innovations ourselves.

    - And where exactly did the opportunity window open ?

    - You know, probably, it has been accumulated historically, that is, we have a lot of companies that offer and introduce new technologies. We have the second largest broadband Internet access operator in the country, now private - Rostelecom. Our Promobot is now at the peak of service robots. We have powerful universities and a very powerful bunch of business, education and science.

    - So you think that you have already accumulated sufficient quantitative changes, and now you want to translate them into quality?

    - Yes.

    - And how will you do it at the legislative level? Indeed, many innovations require changes in laws. Let me give you the latest example: just the other day I read about the fact that in America a number of states allowed robotic cars to ride on roads without a person driving and generally a person in the cabin. They have such moments decided at the state level. What do you plan to do with such innovations, which can be implemented at the regional level and which will require intervention in federal legislation ?

    - I think that the legislation, probably, is a certain limiter, that is, it sets a certain ceiling, but we have not yet reached it in so many directions, so it’s incorrect to say now that the legislation is hampering digital transformation.

    - Let's talk about directions that are free. What areas are open to you at the regional level so that you can carry out reforms? Can you launch the same self-driving cars in the Perm Territory without approval ?

    - And if we need self-driving cars?

    - Well, for example, in terms of road safety.

    - You see, any technology must be in demand. Everything will go naturally if it is economically feasible. Now we have other tasks. Consider a specific example. If we talk about passenger transport, we need to change the route distribution model. We are discussing the implementation of the so-called “Moscow model”: the city, municipalities themselves order transport work, respectively, making demands on the quality of rolling stock, introducing a unified ticket policy, developing a unified accounting system and so on. So let's build this structure, we will understand how much we really have one hour of transport work, and then we will correlate economic indicators.

    - This applies to public transport. I am interested in a specific very popular innovation - robotic machines. Will they be able to travel around the Perm Territory, is it in your power to make the first, say, Yandex taxi without a driver work in the region ?

    - Firstly, of course, this is not in the power of the region - and you know this very well, this is the prerogative of federal law. But is there an economic proposal: calculate how much a taxi service costs now without a driver and how much with a driver? Is there a specific suggestion?

    - The economic benefits there are huge, in fact. Taxi will be much cheaper, traffic safety will increase.

    - The key word here is "will be."

    - But Yandex is already testing these robots. The British do it, the Americans.

    - So it's beautiful. There will be a service - we will, of course, actively implement it. There are two aspects to this. The first is the introduction of technology. Of course, we must be champions in this field. Another point is the production of technology, when our Perm enterprises can offer a unique product. Of course, we are trying to combine these two aspects and encourage companies to take Perm partners and open centers of competence here.

    - What directions can you develop without restrictions from the federal legislation? Which of them can you name priority ?

    - The entire digital transformation within government, issues related to smart cities - there are practically no restrictions, or rather, it all depends on us.

    - A housing and communal services?

    - Housing and utilities in the first place. Housing and communal services, transport, lighting, security.

    - Explain about security, please.

    - Traffic management and control, compliance with speed limits, dimensional control. All this we perfectly understand.

    - Well, in general, things are at the municipal level.

    - So, in fact, we must understand that since the digital economy and digital transformation affect specific processes, we go where these processes and this specificity are present. That is what a person is faced with every day.

    - And education, health care are included in this?

    - This also applies to public administration. When we talk about the digital transformation of government, we do not mean issuing certificates, we mean all areas.

    - They already signal me that our time is running out, so I’ll ask the main question, which I can’t help but ask. How can you be sure that this whole initiative will not end with the fact that all the steam will leave as soon as you complete the plan, as is usually the case with government initiatives? What reasons can you give Permyaks for such confidence ?

    - Firstly, we are not making a plan, because this is probably, probably, not a very good sign. We do not even endorse this concept. This is a living document in which we will constantly make changes. We will discuss all the time where we moved and where not. Our plans are concrete projects. We launched a pilot project on smart lighting, two sites in a smart city, launched a big transformation in healthcare that people are already seeing: an electronic record is going to the doctor, people see how the doctor works, everything is documented in electronic maps.

    - What will drive these projects if you do not take into account the factor of your personal involvement? Will the governor change or your priorities will change, how will the projects continue?

    - Where we introduce digital technology, it will be impossible to go back. And forward the projects will be driven by a common understanding of all participants in the process, in which direction it is necessary to move.

    - When will this point of no return be reached? When will the first project be implemented that you cannot deploy?

    - In the health care system, this is already underway. Everywhere electronic medical records; we still don’t like everything there, like the doctors themselves, so we don’t stop there. A public procurement system has also been introduced. Portal “We manage together” [the portal of the Government of the Perm Territory] is already working.

    - Thank you for answering the questions. We will observe in real time. Read an article on Habré.

    - Thank you for coming. Come again!

    Also popular now: