Thinking about the future

UK Government e-Strategy released

The document formerly known as the Government's e-Strategy is published today, now calledTransformational Government - Enabled by Technology.

“The Government has published 'Transformational Government - Enabled by Technology', a strategy for transforming public services using technology. The strategy sets out how effective use of technology designed around citizens' and businesses' needs can make a real difference to people's daily lives. It is not simply about the internet, but is a far more profound approach that goes to the heart of public services delivery.”

A Press Release is available on the Cabinet Office web site, which lists the ways in which public services will be improved through the report's recommendations. Of these, the first two resonate particularly well with Library 2.0, and activities at Talis;

• “Designing technology and services around the needs of the citizen improving the citizen's choice of interaction with public services.
• Sharing services and information across public sector to achieve efficiency and reduce duplication for staff and the public.”

The Prime Minister's Foreword also fits this model;

“The future of public services has to use technology to give citizens choice, with personalised services designed around their needs not the needs of the provider. 

Within the public services we have to use technology to join up and share services rather than duplicate them.”

Absolutely. And so nice to hear the Prime Minister agreeing with us.

More once I've read the report...

Jonathan Schwartz is a clever man

Jonathan Schwartz, Chief Operating Officer at Sun Microsystems, was an early entrant in the senior management blogging stakes, and his blog continues to prove incisive, insightful, and refreshingly free of either overhyping his own organisation or over-slating his competitors. Compulsory reading.

His latest post takes a look at the role of Government in standards setting, using the public-good arguments that allow mobile phones to make emergency calls whether in-credit or signed up to a talk plan or not as his jumping-off point.

“What should we mandate? That all public information, that is, all data and services provided by governments, from 'who to call' lists to video broadcasts of critical information, leverage open, royalty free, freely sublicensable standards. The government should be silent, in my view, on the selection of technologies - that's not their core competence or role. But they have a productive role to play in the standardization and provisioning of emergency services, and the guarantees around service levels and availability. In my view, they have to date underleveraged that role in driving the productive evolution of the network as a social utility.” (my emphasis)

I agree. So, I remember, did those behind the gestation of our own e-Government Interoperability Framework(e-GIF). I do worry, though, that there is an increasing tendency to go a step too far, and stray into the fraught territory of over-mandating technology (and applications).