The government needs to embrace
Web 2.0 to make more information available to the public, the
government IT managers group Socitm, told a meeting at the
Labour party conference yesterday.
"Web 2.0 puts people in control. There is nothing that
government can do to stop that, so we should embrace it and make
information available to help people make decisions themselves,"
Steven Hopson, president-elect of Socitim and CIO at Chester County
Council.
"Instead of designing services around citizens, we should put
information in place to allow them to design services that they
want."
Hopson, who will take over from Socitm president Richard Steel,
was speaking at a meeting hosted by Microsoft and the Social Market
Foundation, looking at how IT can improve public services.
He said government still does not take IT seriously enough, with
too few CIOs sitting on the board of local authorities.
"The changes coming from things like Web 2.0 will begin to alter
that, because it will become obvious that citizens are in control,"
he said.
Jerry Fishenden, technology advisor at Microsoft, said policy
makers need to look further than the internet for new
technology.
"There is an extent to which the use of technology could be more
aspirational. This is about much more than the web. You do not need
a web brower to take advantge of the digital age.
"We still lack forums where technologists and policy makers come
together to work out where technology is going."
Antonio Cordella, a lecturer in information systems at the
London School of Economics, said there is too much focus on the
amount of money spent on IT, and that focus should instead be
placed on the effect this IT has on public services.
He said, "The typical critique is that the public sector is
spending too much money. But we should keep our focus on the
effectiveness that these new technologies have on the public value
delivered by government.
"If we want to assess the effect of ICT on the public sector in
terms of service delivery, we have to look at the effectiveness of
the service delivery, not the efficiency. Improved delivery is
related to the nature and quality of services, not to the amount of
money saved."
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