Above all: saving money
Role of contemporary technology in future public services
Information technology (IT) has a strategic, positive role to play in the provision of better designed, higher quality and cost-effective public services. But it can also be used in ways that are wasteful, irrelevant or unhelpful – if it remains detached from public service reform and is allowed to inflict changes on our society that […]
→ Read moreGovernance
Information Technology has become a strategic asset, capable of helping re-design and improve the UK’s public services. But it is often viewed solely as an administrative or operational tool within the public sector. Government IT strategies exist in isolation from those focused on improving public services rather than being an integral and essential component. Current […]
→ Read moreArchitecture
A successful architecture meets clear business and policy objectives. It provides an all-up design that covers functions, processes, people, organisational structures, organisational information and computer systems (hardware, software and communcations technologies), mapping their relationships to public service outcomes. No such architecture exists in Whitehall. The important relationship between public policy and technology is not effectively […]
→ Read moreProcurement
Current procurement for public sector IT needs to be better and more cost-effective. Massive monolithic procurements that only a few can afford to bid for have been repeatedly discredited. The intention of engaging small and medium-sized enterprises, encouraging innovation and splitting up procurement into bite-sized chunks have not yet matured in practice. OGC Gateway Reviews […]
→ Read moreDesign
The UK’s abundant design skills could transform the quality and effect of government IT. None of our computerised public services was ever formally designed, from intention to outcome. Every one of them should have been. When the Victorians created the infrastructure we still use today, they made it not only highly functional and effective, but […]
→ Read morePersonal Data
Personal data at first glance looks like an asset. But it can be a dangerous liability – both to governmental organisations and to the individual subjects of the data. Once collected, personal data is difficult and expensive to maintain and update, store and keep securely. Yet a failure to do so brings significant risks. Recognising […]
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Data and information are widely recognised as the lifeblood of modern, digital economies. Opening up non-personal public information can help provide a vital economic stimulus, as well as helping innovation. This is one area where the UK has made some good recent progress in the hands of Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The data.gov.uk […]
→ Read moreIdentity and Authentication
Successful and trustworthy online public services require appropriate levels of authentication and trust. Authentication and trust is a two-way dialogue: both parties in the online process need to authenticate each other to establish mutual trust. Some services require no authentication or verification of identity whereas others require high levels of assurance. The state does not […]
→ Read moreInformation Assurance and Cybersecurity
Government data needs to be kept safe and public services running, including under deliberate attack from malevolent people, organisations and states. Today, many government systems are vulnerable – to both insider and external abuse. The recent trend in the UK towards data aggregration and concentration in centralised databases has exacerbated these risks and vulnerabilities. The […]
→ Read moreParticipation, openness and trust in our government process
The ideal government IT strategy supports the central and active role people themselves play in becoming educated, keeping healthy, contributing to a safe society or participating in public life. Government likes to see own role as benign and legitimate, and of course lawful. A strategy – or lack of strategy – which sees government create […]
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