The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, publicly supported the use of open source software in eGovernment, in a public speech at a seminar hosted by OpenForum Europe in Brussels on 10 June 2008.
The Commission must do its part. It must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards, and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology – jeopardizing maintenance of full control over the information in its possession.
This view is born from a hard headed understanding of how markets work – it is not a call for revolution, but for an intelligent and achievable evolution.
But there is more to this than ensuring our commercial decisions are taken in full knowledge of their long term effects. There is a democratic issue as well.
When open alternatives are available, no citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to use a particular company’s technology to access government information.
No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first.
These democratic principles are important. And an argument is particularly compelling when it is supported both by democratic principles and by sound economics.
I know a smart business decision when I see one - choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed.
On 10th June the World Wide Web Consortium launched a new forum aimed at discovering how technology can best be used to improve both governance and citizen participation.
The group is open to governments, citizens, researchers, and any interested parties.
“Open Standards, and in particular Semantic Web Standards, can help lower the cost of government, make it easier for independent agencies to work together, and increase flexibility in the face of change,” said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. W3C invites participation in the new eGovernment Interest Group, which is open to the public. The group will identify best practices and guidelines in this area, document where current technology does not adequately address stakeholder needs, and suggest improvements via the standards process
The eGovernment Interest Group kick-off teleconference is scheduled for 25 June 2008
Tom Watson MP Minister for Transformational Government, Cabinet Office
Below is an excerpt from the speech he gave at the Tower ‘08 conference on 10th March 2008.
You are all in this room today because you “get it”.
You know that the way that government configures public services is going to change beyond comprehension in years to come and you want to be part of it.
We all of us in this room understand the possibilities of technological advance.
Our challenge is to use it to make a difference to the lives of people we are all here to serve.
I began to understand the change going on in the world when I set up a political blog five years ago.
At the time it was seen as a radical act. People could not believe that I had opened myself up to such scrutiny and occasional daily abuse. I sometimes still wonder about that bit myself.
But the blog broke down the walls between legislators and electors in a way that interested me so I persevered.
Yesterday I read with regret the story of an anonymous civil servant blogger by the name of Civil Serf. Her bluntly written blog about life in Whitehall was taken down, after it came to the attention of the national press. Now, I’m not going to say that we should tear up the civil service code it’s very important that civil servants play by the rules, nor do I agree with everything she says, but surely a truly transformed government would be one in which speaking engagingly about life our public services would be far from newsworthy, and far from career wrecking.
When the MySociety people established the theyworkforyou web site, I began to understand how the old order of things was going to change.
Put simply, I began to understand the power of information.
So let me tell you where I stand.
I believe in the power of mass collaboration.
I believe that as James Surowiecki says ‘the many are smarter than the few’.
I believe that the old hierarchies in which government policy is made and crucially for you in this room the way in which it is delivered - are going to change for ever.
People tell me that we are entering a post-bureaucratic age. I don’t accept that. It?s just old thinking - laissez faire ideas with a new badge.
The future of government is to provide tools for empowerment, not to sit back and hope that laissez-faire adhocracy will suffice.
And as Kevin Kelly says “the bottom is not enough”.
A post bureaucratic age misunderstands the idea of an enabling state, one that moderates collaborative activity for a shared social good.
The collaborative state still requires leaders and enablers, doers and thinkers. It still requires public services but services with boundaries porous to external ideas.
Interesting Series of blog entries and comments debating as to whether Civil Servant Bloggers in the UK should be governed by a set of blogging guidelines or whether adherence to the UK civil service code should be sufficient. This was all prompted by the recent posts of an anonymous blogger ‘Civil Serf’ known only as a 33-year-old civil servant who attacked the civil service for its lack of innovation and also highlighted incompetences regarding some of the UKs ministers. More on this here..
Tom Watson posted these suggestions on his own blog last Tuesday (11 March 08).
1. Write as yourself
2. Own your own content
3. Be nice
4. Keep secrets
5. No anonymous comments
6. Remember the civil service code
7. Got a problem? Talk to your boss
8. Stop it if we say so
9. Be the authority in your specialist field – provide worthwhile information
10. Think about consequences
11. Media interest? Tell your boss
12. Correct your own mistakes
The CSC is based on values not specifics, and as a result is both rather good and rather flexible. It seems to me that any blogging code should be based on a similar expectation and assumption of trust and professionalism - and should therefore be phrased in similar terms, rather than at a level of “do not use anonymous comments” (which are fine anyway if properly policed and can be beneficial - for example in a discussion of forced marriage).
The meat of the Civil Service Code covers, among other things:
and I prefer those concepts, rather than a great fluff of detailed prescriptions and explanatory notes - whether brief or not. Civil Servants are grown-ups; treat them as such.
So my 10 recommended guidelines are in the next section. The Blogging Code
1. 99.9% of Civil Servants are sensible and professional people of integrity.
2. Civil Serf is an exception in not behaving professionally.
3. Exception control for the 0.1% in this case should be by disciplinary action of the 0.1% under the Civil Service Code, not by creating guidelines for the 99.9%.
4. Blogging guidelines are only an unnecessary result of a need to be seen to take dynamic action.
5. A multiplication of guidelines like rabbits will only serve to generate more boundary quarrels, and waste more time in argument about whether the letter of the guidelines has been breached or not.
6. And then there will have to be a review of the guidelines to identify the weak points.
7. And a policy commission to evaluate the results.
8. And then there will be even more guidelines.
9. And they will have to be put under version control, and distributed to all the Intranets etc etc etc … sod it … go to 5 and continue in circles.
10. In summary - Ockham’s Razor just shredded the guidelines. Or the need for them. Just follow the Civil Service Code.
Required Action
Mr Milliband (or whoever) needs to issue a two sentence policy reminder:
You may write about your work on your blog, but must do so in accordance with the Civil Service Code, the “personal use of office computers” policy, and local policy. Discuss any specifics or questions with your line manager in the usual way.
Job done. Back to work.
And finally (unfortunately?) it seems that Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, is to set out new guidance to civil servants to cover blogging and online social networks following the demise of the “Civil Serf” blogger, The UK Times has learnt…
Sir Gus will shortly issue guidelines to tell officials whether they can start up blogs or use social networking websites such as Facebook and YouTube, and even if they can change details on Wikipedia.
A Cabinet Office spokesman denied that the move was directly linked with the Civil Serf blogger, believed to work for the Department for Work and Pensions, who has embarrassed Westminster with her revelations about officials and ministers.
Computerworld Blog Post by Mary Brandel Framingham on the necessity for CIO’s to take on Web 2.0
“There are kids coming out of school who can run circles around IT in terms of Web 2.0 technology,” Hayes says. “That makes it important to become more business-oriented so that we don’t become hindrances to getting business done.”
Gartner analyst Anthony Bradley foresees “a significant shift in power” within organisations. With free internet applications, web platforms and social software, “the consumer side of the world is driving most technology advancement, not enterprise IT”, he says.
The job of maintaining the perception of relevance — and possibly avoiding extinction — may require IT managers to take a close look at their current management styles and make some tweaks, especially if they’ve been working in IT for a while. “The main issue for CIOs is that they’re just plumb unaware [of consumer technology developments] or pretend it’s not there,” DePaul’s Kellen says.
The essence of the paper is that we are ’sleepwalking into a surveillance society’
The surveillance society has come about almost without us realising..
It is the sum total of many different technological changes, many policy decisions, and many social developments. Some of it is essential for providing the services we need: health, benefits, education. Some of it is more questionable. Some of it may be unjustified, intrusive and oppressive. People may have many different opinions. But in fact most people know very little about the surveillance society: it is seen as the stuff of science fiction, not everyday life. So there has been very little public debate about surveillance. The surveillance industry is already massive and (especially since 9/11) is growing much faster than other industries : the global industry is estimated to be worth almost $1 trillion US dollars, covering a massive range of goods and services from military equipment through high street CCTV to smart cards. The surveillance society has come about often slowly, subtly and imperceptibly and by the unforeseen combination of many small paths into one bigger road. It is a road whose direction we urgently need to discuss and debate. Read on
I was hoping to have had a chance to finish reading this report before I posted it but decided to post it now in case anyone find it useful. It a report commissioned by the Australian QLD government entitled, ‘Legal Aspects of Web 2.0 Activities: Management of Legal Risk Associated with Use of YouTube, MySpace and Second Life’. The report was created by researchers Jessica Coates, Nic Suzor and Dr Anne Fitzgerald.
As Web 2.0 technologies proliferate, an increasing number of Australians, especially young Australians, are relying
primarily on information and communication technologies to engage and interact with each other and the world. If governments are to have meaningful interaction with young people, it is therefore important for them to explore
the potential of these communication platforms. But legal considerations must be taken into account when strategising how best to make use of emerging technologies.
The report identifies the practical legal risks associated with activities conducted in online participatory spaces. Encompassing Copyright, Privacy, Defamation, Breach of Confidence and other areas of law, the report outlines the main considerations that arise when engaging in the online environment. It also examines the popular social networking platforms YouTube, MySpace and Second Life in detail, analysing legal issues specific to their Terms of Use and functionality.
Just thought I would draw attention to New Zealand’s E-Government Website http://www.e.govt.nz/
The site is a resource for government agency people in New Zealand who need up-to-date, easily accessible and authoritative e-government information & resources to assist them to achieve their agency’s e-government goals.
The e-government goals:
By 2007, information and communication technologies will be integral to the delivery of government information, services and processes.
By 2010, the operation of government will be transformed as government agencies and their partners use technology to provide user-centred information and services and achieve joint outcomes.
By 2020, people’s engagement with the government will have been transformed, as increasing and innovative use is made of the opportunities offered by network technologies.
The Public Sector Intranet (psi.govt.nz) aims to provide a single point, accessible by all public servants, where they can share information with their colleagues. It makes it easy for people to find information they need for their work, and make contacts in other agencies. It enables a sense of community, shared interests, and cross-agency cooperation.
The Public Sector Intranet (PSI) is provided by the NZ State Services Commission. The Commission launched PSI as a full production system in mid-June 2006.
The homepage lists some outline information about the Public Sector Intranet:
Why do we need PSI?
To achieve shared outcomes and work across agency boundaries, we need tools which support cross-agency work. We can all use PSI to gather together useful information across agency boundaries.
Benefits of the PSI
We can organise and share information and resources for our colleagues to reuse, reducing duplication of effort and promoting collaboration. We can share good practice and specialised services designed for cross-agency use. We can find and access our online-communities and locate useful contacts.
There is no charge for joining or using the PSI.
What will be on it?
Information you can expect to access through PSI:
news and links relevant to all agencies
toolkits and good practice
online communities and cross-agency projects.
How can my agency join?
Most public service agencies, non-public service departments and Offices of Parliament have already joined
State sector agencies that are interested in using PSI, are invited to contact the PSI Team.
The NZ ‘E-Government’ Strategy seems to have been recently expanded into an overall ‘Digital Strategy’ involving a large degree of public consultation
The Digital Strategy is about creating a digital future for all New Zealanders, using the power of information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance all aspects of our lives. It is an action plan for ensuring New Zealand is a world leader in using information and technology to realise our economic, environmental, social and cultural goals, more on the digital strategy…
It seems to me that New Zealand may be leading the way in developing an approach to formulating Government Technology strategy. Hopefully a few of the powers that be in Ireland are paying some attention…
The National Disability Authority have for several years now, provided some excellent online resources for those designing websites, software and other IT related hardware and services. All government related IT projects should be created with accessibility in mind but it is important too that those creating solutions in the private sector adhere to these guidelines. Accessibility and access to information for all is the basis of an inclusive society. This site is a fantastic resource. Link
Excellent Multimedia Presentation outlining how DataPortability gathers existing open standards into a blueprint for a social, open, remixable web where your online identity, media, contacts and content can follow you wherever you go. Find out more at dataportability.org
