Category Archives: IT-E-government

Digital inclusion takes centre stage

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A free software widget to allow people to search the web for information on public services in their area is to be launched today by the Directgov website. The Directgov team is taking the opportunity to use what may be the last big public showing for the highest profile IT-related programme of Gordon Brown’s government, the digital inclusion drive, according to local government portal UKauthorITy.com:

The National Digital Inclusion Conference, which opens in London today, will open with a message from the prime minister. Digital Britain minister, Stephen Timms, will talk about the National Plan for Digital Participation launched this week. Martha Lane Fox, the champion for Digital Inclusion, is expected to reveal further details of the plan to collect “digital promises” from more than 10,000 private, public and charitable organisations.

One highlight will be a cross-party Question Time featuring long-time digital enthusiast Derek Wyatt MP (Labour), Conservative heavy-hitter Baroness Warsi and the LibDems’ Lembit Opik (Lib Dem).

Helen Milner, managing director of UK online centres, said: “It’s wonderful to see support for digital inclusion coming from the top – and just before a general election is testament to the fact this is now central to the wider agendas of economic growth, social justice and the improvement of government services.”

Downloadable presentations here.



German fairy tales on HMRC Employer CD-Rom

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I have to file my P35 and P14. I reach for for HMRC Employer CD-ROM for 2008-09. It appears to be malfunctioning, with a series of audio tracks and no data. So I call the Online Services Helpdesk and report the issue. The response? That a very small number of the CD-ROMs were incorrectly loaded with German fairy tales. There you go, check your CD-ROM.

Full story on The Register.

Cloud computing step by US Gov

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RT @soachief USA.gov to adopt cloud computing | GovZine http://ff.im/1cgBZ <l hope they take into account issues thrown up by (today’s) Gmail fail.

It’s not rocket science

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I pride myself on working *with* people, rather than doing things *for* them; it is the essence of user-led web 2.0 strategy & practice, no?  (My twitter today)

For example see Gartner report on social networks and public policy which underlines the importance of this for buidling communities online: “Di Maio warned that if the public sector tries to retain excessive control of these networks they want to exploit, it might turn people away, and said government must “recognise that spontaneity is needed for success”.

So to reiterate as a business design principle a community is best built *with* its users, rather than *for* them. It’s not rocket science.

Improving businesslink.gov.uk

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Looking at the businesslink.gov.uk website, and with experience of working on developing the London version in the past, I came up with one positive way to link up the great factual content on the site with the needs of business owners – a live chat facility for the ‘Starting Up’ section. Specifically in this proposal of mine ‘Live Support’, as used in many e-commerce sites. It’s perhaps one small way of meeting some of the criticisms voiced today on Alex Bellinger’s blog Small Biz Pod at Businesslink in general, and his earlier post on the possible impact of Web 2.0 on Businesslink:

“Business Link advisers need to be facilitators and nodes on the network, not gatekeepers.  They need to be keeping communication and mutual support between businesses running smoothly.

“They need to know people, rather than have their computer say no.  They need to blog about their local business scene.  They need to be creating communities on Facebook.  Perhaps they need to be greater in number.  Perhaps they should be seconded from real businesses on short term contracts.

“Whatever Business Link becomes it needs to be more than an advice funnel down which anyone interested in business is forced to be added to a total number designed to justify the spend to tax payers.”

PS: I’ve added a comment on the same Small Biz Pod on the wonders of WordFrame for SMEs today, 3 March 2008.

US Patent and Trademarks Office gets collaborative

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Don’t ask, just join the dots together with the following facts. Wonder if it will influence ‘Transforming Government’ in the UK?:

1. Last August the US Patent and Trademarks Office removed Wikipedia (a collaborative product) from its list of acceptable resource sources, which didn’t help Amazon lawyers’ action to protect its 1-Click patent.

2. Now a collaborative pilot has been announced by — the US Patent and Trademarks Office:

“As part of the efforts of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) to implement its Strategic Plan, the Office is pleased to announce a pilot to determine the extent to which the organized submission of documents together with comments by the public will provide useful prior art for examiners.

“Advances in Internet-based methods of collaboration have produced both technological and business models that have greatly increased productivity in the American economy.  Recently a group of academic and business professionals have proposed a collaborative, online process in which members of the public pool together their knowledge and locate potential prior art. 

“This pilot will test whether such collaboration can effectively locate prior art that might not otherwise be located by the Office during the typical examination process.”

DELL support

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My experience of DELL support on Bank Holiday Monday was generally good in that I got through to tech support (an outsourced solution) pretty quickly each time. That said there were a few interesting glitches for those who like reading about this kind of thing:

1. First tech support person said they’d get back to me in an hour after installing XP; they didn’t.

2. Second person got me to the drivers’ installation, but I couldn’t connect to the Internet. They suggested I contacted my ISP and after I said I was with NTL they put me through to Telewest.

3. After talking to NTL they reported the issue was simple, I had not been sent the correct Ethernet driver. So I contacted tech support at DELL once again (pointed out the Telewest error) and said I needed the correct driver. The support gut sent me an email and said when I replied by email he would ring me back. He didn’t.

4. A helpful tech support guy sent me the correct driver and luckily as I had a IBM Thinkpad (old but just about functioning) with wireless connectivity I was able to download it and save it to my Sony PSP (no memory stick in sight!) and then installed on to the PC, which did the trick. Fantastic.

5. Last guy took over remote control of my PC and also set up the video display set up which was great. Said he would send over a customer satisfaction email. He didn’t.

6. Finished the re-installation.

Internet Governance Forum

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A meeting of the internet’s top brass as well as UK politicians, businessmen, and academics will take place in London at 2pm today – and bloggers have been asked to make their voices heard.

Discussion will cover the future of the internet and seek answers to the problems the medium has thrown up, including spam, phishing, freedom of speech, and child pornography. The results will then be fed into a global meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) that will be held in Athens at the end of the month, and that meeting’s chair, United Nations representative Nitin Desai, will be present and giving a speech alongside trade minister Alun Michael

So, if you have something to say or just want to hear what the experts think, view the webcast from 2pm and blog on events, tagging posts “igf” or commenting at the IGF2006.info blog.

The full agenda for the meeting is here [pdf].

Bush Recommends Blogs

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Bush Recommends Blogs Dropping in on Wheeling, West Virginia yesterday to rally support for the Iraqi War, President Bush also dropped a word that maybe even surprised himself: blogs. The armchair warriors at home whispered among themselves, “did he just say ‘blogs?’”