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-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 September 2004 15:06
To: egb-html
Subject: E-Government Bulletin - 05 September 2004
E-Government Bulletin, HTML version:
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+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 169, 05 September 2004.
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
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++ISSUE 169 CONTENTS.
01: School of the future arrives in Lewisham
- London borough opens smart academy.
02: Open source passes health check
- Sun lands on NHS desktops.
03: IT heads need emotional intelligence
- e-government leadership report
04: Route to fame for partnerships
- resource for joined up working.
News in Brief: 05: Social support - online resource; 06: Be prepared -
public safety; 07: African partners - e-government summit.
Section two: EGB seminar report - security.
08: Trust is the key: demand for joined-up public services is rising, but
so is concern about data security. Mel Poluck saw experts discuss the
key ingredients for secure joined-up working at a recent EGB seminar.
Section three: Opinion - service take-up.
09: Much of the direction and funding for the e-government agenda
comes from Whitehall. But to increase take-up of services a broad
range of front-line professionals need to be won over, argues Jason
Lever.
[Contents ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION:
- THE 100-DAY COUNTDOWN.
- An E-Government Bulletin Seminar
- 21 September, CBI Conference Centre, Centre Point, London
E-Government Bulletin's series of successful one-day seminars on key
e-government topics continues with a valuable run-through of what
you need to know, and actions you need to take, in the last 100 days
before full implementation of UK Freedom of Information law.
Speakers include Graham Smith, the UK's Deputy Information
Commissioner; Susan Healy, Head of Information Legislation at the
National Archives; Kelly Mannix, Corporate Records Manager at
Southwark Council; and Michael Cross of The Guardian. Places cost
295 pounds plus VAT for public sector and 395 VAT for private sector
delegates. Additional delegates booking at the same time receive a 100
pound discount.
For further information and to register see:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/freedom3 .
[Special notice ends].
++SECTION ONE: NEWS.
+01: SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE ARRIVES IN LEWISHAM.
The first of a new breed of "smart schools", delivering lessons,
coursework, TV content and telephony over state-of-the-art networks,
opened this month in the London Borough of Lewisham.
The Crossways Academy sixth form college
(http://www.crosswaysacademy.org.uk) is equipped with a virtual
learning environment with multimedia resources, online content, and
videoconferencing facilities. The underlying "smart building"
infrastructure, which includes a Wi-Fi network for wireless and mobile
computing, also provides integrated voice, data and building
management functions such as CCTV surveillance and access control.
Schemes of work, homework tasks and resources will be made
available online, so that they can be shared with other schools and
accessed by pupils at school or at home. Crossways is part of a
federation of five schools in the area, and as the IT centre of excellence
for the federation, the college will specialise in developing online
teaching methodologies for wider dissemination across the borough.
"All lessons will have an IT component and teachers will be able to
conduct full class teaching using IT should they wish," the college's
principal Anthony Bravo told E-Government Bulletin. "We hope to
inspire students by providing access to industry-standard IT within a
dynamic learning environment."
Some teaching staff will move between schools in the federation and
so mobile connectivity was an important requirement for the network.
The campus has a Wi-Fi network and uses IP (Internet Protocol)
telephony so that teachers can log on to telephones in different
locations, but keep the same number. They could also use the IP video
conferencing facilities to conduct virtual lessons across a number of
sites, resulting in economies of scale.
+02: OPEN SOURCE PASSES HEALTH CHECK.
The first large-scale public sector defection from Microsoft desktop
software is underway with the deployment of the Java Desktop System
(JDS), a set of applications based on open source software, to 5,000 of
the estimated 800,000 terminals used by the UK's National Health
Service.
Following trials of the software earlier this year, the health service
"concluded that the Java Desktop System represents a viable desktop
alternative for certain types of user communities," a spokesperson said.
Although the health service declined to identify which user groups are
involved, it confirmed that the move is unlikely to be an isolated case.
"The National Programme for IT continues to view the use of open
source software and open systems architecture as a key way of
achieving best value and systems interoperability into the future," chief
technology officer Duncan McNeil said in a recent statement.
JDS, developed by Sun Microsystems, runs on the Linux operating
system and contains Star Office 7.0 for everyday applications such as
word processing; the 'GNOME' interface (http://www.gnome.org)
which has a similar feel to Windows; plus other open source
messaging, calendar and document handling facilities.
"This is clear confirmation of how appropriate JDS is for government
use," Richard Barrington, Sun's head of government affairs and public
policy, told E-Government Bulletin. According to Barrington, lower
cost is only one reason for the public sector to consider a move to a
mix of software suppliers. Interoperability is also a key factor, he said.
"We've had to work very hard to make our products access data stored
in old Microsoft formats for example. We know of some government
bodies that access this data using Star Office because Microsoft's new
products like XP can't do it," he said.
+03: IT HEADS NEED EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.
Council heads of IT often lack the strategic intelligence and
relationship skills needed to fully exploit the potential of e-
government, according to the latest research from the council's IT
management body Socitm.
'Delivering local e-government - an analysis of the governance, roles
and management skills required' (http://fastlink.headstar.com/socitm3)
maps out the key leadership requirements if e-government is to reform
the internal workings of councils and deliver online public services
effectively.
Typically, a council manager designated as 'e-champion' promotes
transformation and sets strategic direction, while the head of IT
delivers technical infrastructure and operational services, but softer
skills are increasingly more important than knowledge of technology in
these key roles, the report said. Successful leaders of e-government
need skills in organisational awareness, relationship building,
communicating, customer service, leadership, and influencing,
according to Socitm.
However, there is considerable evidence of gaps between the skills that
heads of IT need and those they actually have, said the report. Socitm
research suggests that heads of IT tend to lack business understanding,
leadership ability, communication skills and interpersonal skills. There
is also divergence between the roles of heads of IT in small and large
organisations because strategic thinking is more likely to be an
attribute of IT managers in larger organisations than in smaller ones
where problem-solving is given greater value, said the report.
+04: ROUTE TO FAME FOR PARTNERSHIPS.
From next month, local authorities, and other public agencies such as
the police and health service bodies will be able to draw on new
guidance and technology to help them work together from the
Framework for Multi-Agency Environments national project (FAME -
http://www.fame-uk.org).
The 6 million pound project, one of 23 government-funded national
projects for local e-government, is developing case studies based on a
range of social welfare scenarios and will produce a generic
framework, offering practitioners guidance on implementing multi-
agency working. Process and workflow guidelines, data standards and
legal guidance will be included.
The need for councils to take a more active role in joined-up working
has sharpened because the Children's Bill, which followed the Climbie
inquiry, laid responsibility for coordinating the multi-agency handling
of children's cases with local authorities.
The project has produced a technical architecture to enable agencies to
exchange information quickly and securely and the software will be
licensed to local authorities at a preferential rate.
Technology is only part of the picture, emphasised Mark Baptist of
Lewisham Council, which is coordinating FAME. "Technology is just
a catalyst to facilitate multi-agency working," said Baptist. "It
represents less than ten per cent of the effort required. The rest is about
people, processes and working cultures and structures."
As well as child protection pilots at Lewisham Council
(http://www.lewisham.gov.uk) and Bradford City Council
(http://www.bradford.gov.uk), FAME also draws on integrated mental
health records in Shropshire; a single assessment procedure for
vulnerable elderly people in the Wirral, Surrey and Woking; and multi-
agency assessment of disabled people's needs in Newcastle.
NEWS IN BRIEF:
+05: SOCIAL SUPPORT: A web site aimed at those working on the
front line tackling deprivation has been launched by the government's
Social Exclusion Unit. The site contains information on discrimination,
poor housing and family breakdown, and provides resources on mental
health, crime and employment and links to papers and resources.
http://www.socialexclusion.gov.uk/ .
+06: BE PREPARED: Advice on what to do in an emergency such as a
terrorist attack or natural disaster is available online. The Cabinet
Office site accompanies the 'Preparing for Emergencies' booklet
distributed to homes across the UK this month and contains
downloadable versions translated into 18 languages. Regional editions
can be found on the Scottish Executive and Northern Ireland Office
sites:
http://www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk/ .
+07: AFRICAN PARTNERS: The African Computing and
Telecommunications Summit 2004 is to be held in Mauritius from 7 to
9 September. The event aims to focus on "building partnerships to
mainstream Africa's ICT sector," and will include specialised forums
on African open source, African e-government and a regional
workshop on standards for e-goverment security organised by the UN
Economic Commission for Africa.
http://www.aitecafrica.com/act2004 .
[Section One ends]
++SPECIAL NOTICE: THE UK'S MOST COMPREHENSIVE
INDEPENDENT E-GOVERNMENT REVIEW AND PRIMER
- Summer Discount Offer.
'E-Government Outlook 2004-05: Key issues for better services' is E-
Government Bulletin's second comprehensive, independent survey of a
year in UK e-government. The 160-page report includes in-depth
analysis of the current situation and predictions and tips for the future.
It examines in detail the key issues that everyone involved in e-
government projects will have to master in the year to come.
Interviewees include European Commissioner Erkki Liikanen; Oxford
Professor of E-Democracy Stephen Coleman; and Society of IT
Management President Chris Guest. Full results of a new survey of UK
e-government practitioners are included, covering what people view as
their biggest e-government challenges.
In a special summer offer, orders received before 6 September attract a
50 per cent discount, with the discounted price at 125 pounds for
public sector and 175 pounds for private sector readers. To find our
more and order your discounted copy today, visit:
http://www.headstar.com/egovoutlook .
[Special notice ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE
MASTER'S DEGREE IN E-GOVERNANCE.
Do you need to strengthen your understanding of the dynamics of
decision-making and public administration? Should you improve your
knowledge of ICTs? Do you want to develop your leadership
potential? Would you like to study for a Master's degree but do not
have time to take a year off?
The Executive Master in e-Governance is the answer. Starting in
December 2004 and lasting 12 months combining classroom and
collaborative learning, the programme will take place at seven different
leading institutions in six countries in Europe and North America. The
course focuses on how to make the best strategic use of ICTs in the
public sector. It costs 29,000 Euros including all travel costs and study
materials.
For more information email Claire Clinton on [log in to unmask] .
[Special notice ends].
++SECTION TWO: EGB SEMINAR REPORT
- SECURITY.
+08: Trust is the Key
by Mel Poluck.
The typical government response to holding and sharing vital personal
information about the public is "Let's build a database!" Such was the
analysis of Brian Glick, news editor of IT publication Computing, as
he addressed delegates at E-Government Bulletin's seminar: 'E-
government partnerships - security pitfalls and how to avoid them'
(http://www.electronic-government.com/partnerships.htm).
Recent examples include the national ID register, NHS patient records
and the online register of electors, among many others, said Glick.
"But the more often information is stored, the greater the chance of a
link in the chain breaking and making that information insecure," he
said.
Typically, the government unveils plans for yet more data repositories
in the wake of high profile cases where there has been a failure to share
information effectively said Glick. Hence, there are plans to create
databases in the wake of the Harold Shipman case, the Soham murders,
and the killing of Victoria Climbie, he said.
The problem with this approach is that information can be heavily
duplicated while exposing us to greater risk because security is
typically treated as an afterthought, something to added to data rather
than built into it, said Glick. "There is a natural instinct to treat data
like currency," he said. "What the government instead needs to do is
secure the bank note, not the vault."
A recent poll from Computing that found 87 per cent of organisations
feel more vulnerable to hackers than ever before, Glick told the
audience. According to Glick, these fears arise not just from the
possibility that unauthorised persons might gain access to our personal
data, but how information held about us could be used. Yet despite
this, we are increasingly dependent on technology that processes
personal data. "We are mixing fear of technology with increasing
access to it. There is a disparity between what people want to do,
making use of new services, balanced with distrust of them," he said.
These fears can be addressed in three main ways: policy, culture and
technology, Glick said. Broadly, this means what we are allowed to do
within the confines of policy, what our attitudes and preconceptions
make us willing to accept or reject, and what is possible to achieve
through technology.
Authorities must determine where threats to data safety come from,
said Colin Whittaker, head of security at the Association for Payment
Clearing Services (APACS - http://www.apacs.org.uk/). According to
Whittaker, who worked for 30 years in the Ministry of Defence, there
are five main types of breach: leakage; direct attack; indirect attack;
deception; and the most extreme case: denial of service.
Apart from the obvious need for sound, robust technology Whittaker
said it was vital for government agencies committed to sharing data to
"build up trust through shared experience. There is a need to
understand everyone is coming into the club for the same reasons and
the same purposes," he said.
"Technology is changing, but the fundamentals of what technology is
about remain the same," Colin Whittaker said. What is causing fear of
sharing information is a lack of mutual understanding; something that
takes time to build, he says. "In the end it comes down to a level of
trust. If I'm going to give someone some information, how can I assure
they'll give it the same level of trust I would?" he said.
"Compromises will occur and there will be mud hitting the fan when
they do. You need to respect that there may be some information you
are not obliged to share. Understand that those constraints are business
management decisions," said Whittaker. It is also important, he said, to
consider how to resolve disputes and compromises of data security as
an organisation or agency before they have a chance to happen.
When it comes to risk-taking, Calum Steen, technical architect and
security co-ordinator at the Police Information Technology
Organisation (PITO - http://www.pito.org.uk/) urged delegates to
become more adventurous. Risk management not avoidance is the key
message. "It's easy to think you should reduce risk but you shouldn't
be too risk-averse. Be realistic about the threat," he said.
[Section Two ends].
++SPONSORED NOTICE: NEW SPECIALIST
MEDIA MONITORING AND PRESS CUTTING SERVICE.
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Over 75 per cent of councillors and senior officers view
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For more information, visit:
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or email [log in to unmask] .
Quote 'e-government bulletin' for a 10 per cent discount.
[Sponsored notice ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
BLOG.
The Freedom of Information Act Blog: your first port of call for news,
views, information and debate about Freedom of Information
legislation.
Maintained by Steve Wood, Lecturer in Information Management at
Liverpool John Moores University:
http://foia.blogspot.com .
[Special Notice ends].
++SECTION THREE: OPINION
- SERVICE TAKE-UP.
+09: Selling the E-Government Message
by Jason Lever.
A key expectation of the UK Cabinet Office's new e-Government Unit
is that it will drive forward the marketing and hence take-up of
electronic channels in public services. Such a top-down approach,
though, risks neglecting the capacity of local agencies for motivating
their users to embrace the benefits of e-government.
The implementation of new technologies such as Wi-Fi or Customer
Relationship Management systems has to be accompanied by
promoting their benefits to users and citizens. Physical access and
skills training are necessary for bridging digital divides, whether by
income, age, gender, disability, ethnicity, or geography, but they are
not enough on their own. The essential link between content and usage
is motivation, and the key contribution of local professionals can be to
ensure that "content is king".
By understanding how new technology can meet the needs of clients,
professionals and practitioners can be incentivised to embrace it as a
core element of their work, contributing to the information inclusion of
socially excluded groups.
Achieving this requires going back to first principles of information
management: understanding what service users, staff and stakeholders
need to know; differentiating between content and carrier; and linking
individual or departmental and organisational objectives. The
technology strategy of a team or agency must form a part of the whole
information management plan, something that can too easily be
overlooked in rapid e-government roll-out driven by political and
technological imperatives.
Communicating with people is what social workers, doctors or benefits
advisers do every day to help their clients or patients understand
problems and seek solutions. Knowledge workers are not confined to
the ranks of IT managers and consultants in their organisation. Other
professionals qualify as knowledge workers too, by dint of the
gathering, management, retrieval, storage and transmission of
information in a dynamic process that is central to their public services
and social welfare practice.
How, then, can these professionals come to regard providing
information, in itself, as a service and information as one of the most
important aspects of their policy and practice? The building blocks lie
in their people skills and the large amount of information they
routinely hold through professional training and experience, over and
above the more formally structured information residing in their
organisation.
In order to embrace and engage more fully with technology, these
professionals need both formal training and e-learning opportunities
and, crucially, encouragement to act as 'information intermediaries'. In
essence, this involves supporting their clients or users in their access to
and use of technology. Alongside professionals' capacity and
competence to use the technology themselves, they need the
motivation and confidence to extend knowledge of the benefits of
technology to service users and citizens as an intrinsic part of their
day-to-day work.
In these ways, technology can be employed at the public services front-
line as a powerful tool for social engagement, communication,
participation and service delivery. The values of social policy are
matched with the e-government's drivers of improving accessibility
and efficiency of service delivery, and reducing social exclusion. But
"digital choice" must be respected, as well as the "digital divide".
Since many users remain offline even when access is available, internet
communication technologies must be seen as supplementary to, and
not a substitute for, other forms of first contact for public service users.
Rather than relying on a simplistic assumption that technology is a
panacea, the benefits of e-government need to be "sold" by offering
practical guidance to front-line public and voluntary sector managers
and professionals. This paves the way for technology to become an
integral component, and not an 'add-on', to improving citizens' access
to information and services.
This will help to make a stronger case that, deployed effectively,
technology can improve the services provided by the public and
voluntary sector, empower their staff and strengthen the community.
NOTE: Jason Lever is co-author of 'ICT for Social Welfare', May
2004, The Policy Press.
[Section Three ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: TEST YOUR SITE'S ACCESSIBILITY.
The accessibility of public sector web sites - ensuring all can access e-
government services as far as is reasonably possible - is a moral and
legal imperative for UK public bodies. But the area can seem complex
and technical.
Now Headstar, the publishers of E-Government Bulletin and its sister
publication E-Access Bulletin, is offering a range of independent,
expert assessment packages to ensure your web services comply with
best practice and the law. We can provide you with a clear, detailed
report on the current access status of your site, and a list of tasks you
will need to carry out to ensure compliance with government
requirements.
Reports also include results from general quality assurance tests such
as link-checking. Taking accessibility action benefits all users, will
make your site easier to maintain, and can improve your search-engine
rating!
For more information please email:
[log in to unmask] .
[Special notice ends].
++END NOTES.
+HOW TO RECEIVE E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
To subscribe to this free fortnightly bulletin as an HTML attachment
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+TEN STANDARD: This newsletter conforms to the accessible Text
Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard, developed by our sister newsletter
E-Access Bulletin. For details see:
http://www.headstar.com/ten .
+COPYRIGHT NOTICE.
- Copyright 2004 Headstar Ltd.
Regular circulation or reproduction of the bulletin by third parties is
forbidden. Properly accredited articles (always including source
details, bulletin subscription details and web address) or entire single
issues of the bulletin (including this notice) may be forwarded to
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ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask]
Deputy editor - Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask]
Senior Reporter - Mel Poluck [log in to unmask]
News Reporter - Julie Hill [log in to unmask]
Technician - Pete Hall [log in to unmask]
Correspondent - Phil Cain [log in to unmask] .
- ADVERTISING.
[log in to unmask] .
A searchable archive of our back-issues can be found on our web site:
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
[Issue ends].
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