When IT Meets Politics

A Database too Far: NICE but NASTY

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:01:09 +0000

I have just received an FIPR alert on the NICE (National Instute for Clinical Excellence) consultation on a proposed database to help prevent injuries to children. Last week I attended a presentation of the restructuring of the MOSAIC service

An implosion of trust and confidence?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:51:28 +0000

Yesterday, at the annual Get Safe On-line conference, it was good to see the commercial sponsors talking of the direct business benefit they were getting from being seen to take the security of their customers seriously. This also came through in the annual GSOL survey which showed buyers increasingly focussing their purchases on trusted websites.

Four strikes before the E-Death penalty

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:36:41 +0000

No this is not what happens to the household whose teenagers download material that they cannot buy. It is what happens when the unemployed respond to an on-line advert offering them the opportunity to work from home helping forward overseas payments.

From Toxic Liability to Strategic Asset: Unlocking the Value of Information

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:00:39 +0000

There has been much debate on "The Value of Information" and on responsibilities for protecting personal data. Last week the Audit Commission released a report on the need to address the problems of quality in public sector information: "Nothing but the Truth". Today the Information Society Alliance (EURIM) released a one page summary for political audiences on the need to treat information as an asset in order to prevent it from turning into a liability.

Who is the biggest threat to your privacy? Government, Google or the Gossip next door?

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:28:49 +0000

We have a very muddled and muddied set of debates over privacy, security and data sharing. It can be summarised as "I want more efficient joined up services from government but I don't want my information used by bureaucratic snoopers". Meanwhile the latest jobsworth excuse for poor or non-existent service is "Sorry can't do that because of Data Protection".

Support the future against the past

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:40:38 +0000

The Department for Culture Media and Sport has today issued a consultation on product placement on television. The consultation runs for two months and closes on Friday 8 January 2010. I deserves thorugh support from all who wish the UK to retain a content creation industry - for all the reason I gave when I blogged on the previous, potential disastrous, to ban product placement as opposed to using the leeway in the AVMS Directive.

Using the Internet to put "Hope" into Africa

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:57:01 +0000

Next week I will be blogging again on the competition being run by the Information Society Alliance, EURIM, for those capable of using multi-media to explain complex messages to politicians. In the meantime I been sent details of a rather simpler on-line art competition where you can all be judges and then bid to buy the entries you like, whether they win or not.

The power of government misinformation: be very afraid

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:36:29 +0000

"The still calm voice that drives the strongest of men to panic". Today the Audit Commission launched a discussion paper "Nothing but the Truth" to start "a discussion on how to ensure that data on local public services is fit for purpose". Read it. Think. Then be afraid. Because some of the data on the files of central government is much worse.

Towards realistic regulatory frameworks for Identity

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:18:40 +0000

Over the past year the Information Society Alliance (EURIM) has been trying to structure a group to look at Identity Governance: the professional and regulatory frameworks that should govern Identity Management systems and those who run them.

Why do you need to know who I am?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:36:04 +0000

Andrew Yeomans raises some profound points in his comments on my previous blog. They also trigger some obvious "end-user" questions: Who are you? Why do you need to know? What's in it for me? Why should I trust you? Will you tell me if what I tell you is "compromised" while in your custody? WIll you pay me damages for any loss or inconvenience I incurr as a result?

Citizen or Subject - the root politics of personal identity?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:55:58 +0000

On Wednesday I was a guest at a conference which brought together delegates from Central Government departments and their would-be suppliers to discuss Identity and Information issues. There was a common assumption among the delegates that it was a self evident truth that we all need coherent electronic identities within frameworks regulated by government

What is not different about the Internet?

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:05:15 +0000

I enjoyed Government 2010 on Thursday despite the tunnel vision of enthusiasts who believe the Internet changes everything but will nonetheless be much the same in 2015 as it is today. That may, unfortunately, be true in the UK where the Digital Britain vision is still only for one-way video-streaming rather than the "competing inter-active, broadcast quality video networks to the home" that was the vision of the last Government for 2002.

What is different about Public Sector Systems?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:55:51 +0000

Much rubbish is said about the differences between public and private sector - often to justify centralised empire-building or reluctance to clarify objectives and set priorities. But there are some genuine fundamental differences. Failure to recognise them has doomed several well-intentioned systems to help those in most need.

Getting more for less: the reform of public service delivery

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:01:40 +0000

IT suppliers find it hard to understand the animosity to them from politicians when they are blamed for "failure" despite having done all that the contract said. The reason is that the politicians remember being told that the new system will do whatever they want - but not that they had to be clear about what they wanted - and were not allowed to change their minds.

Why didn't we celebrate the 40th Birthday of the Internet?

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:24:53 +0000

Is it because most of the closed community which controls the Internet wish to avoid taking responsibility for their actions/inaction by pretending it is an immature but precocious child?

Why does each generation of technology devotees feel compelled to repeat the mistakes of the last one - like teenagers discovering sex?