[Hi folks, Happy new year to all CSL members; CSL is now open again so
please send any messages you wish to see on the list. Best wishes to all,
John & Joanne.]
===================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 January 2004 15:25
To: egb-html
Subject: E-Government Bulletin - 09 January 2004
+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 152, 09 JANUARY 2004.
http://www.headstar.com/egb .
Please forward this free service to colleagues
so they can subscribe - full details at the end.
We never pass on email addresses.
++ISSUE 152 CONTENTS.
01: E-government head 'should be mergers expert'
- former policy director outlines ideal applicant.
02: Treasury boost for small business project
- technology project to encourage economic growth.
03: World summit agrees goals but not funds
- lofty ideals but where will the money come from?
04: Digital inclusion panel set to launch
- industry-led body aims to connect all homes by 2008.
News in brief: 05: freedom plan - information law compliance; 06:
decision map - technology procurement; 07: go-betweens -
intermediary guidance; 08: common language - metadata trials.
Section two: Focus - Public libraries.
09: The future of culture: Public libraries across the UK are pioneering
online community projects on everything from local history to folk
music, alongside high-tech educational services such as
videoconferencing. Fiona Leslie reports.
Section three: Conference report - eQUALITY Festival.
10: Digital outreach: will new technologies help combat social
exclusion, or will they worsen it? Derek Parkinson monitored the
debate at the first digital inclusion conference from the Institute of
Public Policy Research.
[Contents ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: EGB NEW YEAR SEMINARS
- BOOSTING SERVICE TAKE-UP AND CRM.
This month, E-Government Bulletin presents two one-day seminars on
key e-government issues at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, central
London.
'Practical ways to boost take-up of e-government services' is on 20
January, sponsored by BEA Systems. Speakers include Ian Kearns,
Institute of Public Policy Research; Kevin Carey, Director, HumanITy;
Paul Foley, de Montfort University; Charles Lowe, e-Forum; and
Rosalind Hardie Ejiohuo, Head of Equalities, Croydon Borough
Council.
As government policy shifts beyond putting all services online to
ensuring that as many citizens as possible actually use these services,
this event is a timely and valuable source of ideas, tips and strategies.
Places cost 295 pounds plus VAT for public sector and 395 for private
sector delegates. Additional delegates booking at the same time receive
a 100 pound discount. For more information and to register see:
http://www.electronic-government.com/takeup.htm
or email Mel Poluck on [log in to unmask] .
'Secrets of successful CRM in the public sector' on 27 January,
sponsored by Toucan Interactive, will present case studies, tips and
strategies on Customer/Citizen Relationship Management - found by
Socitm's new 'IT Trends' survey to be a key area of current interest
among UK councils.
Speakers include Ian Dell, National CRM Programme for local
government; Nicola Millard, Principal CRM Consultant, BT; and
Martin Tipper, Head of ICT, Basildon District Council. For more
information and to register see:
http://www.electronic-government.com/crm.htm .
[Special notice ends].
++SECTION ONE: NEWS.
01: E-GOVERNMENT HEAD 'SHOULD BE MERGERS EXPERT'.
The UK's new Office of e-Government, due to replace the current
Office of the e-Envoy (OeE - http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk) this Spring,
should be headed by a big-hitter from the private sector with
experience of managing large-scale mergers and acquisitions,
according to one previous director of the OeE.
Richard Barrington, OeE director of industry during a period of
secondment from Sun Microsystems between 2000 and 2003, told E-
Government Bulletin this week: "The ideal candidate would come
from a company like Shell, BP or Barclays Bank. Success in mergers
and acquisitions would be useful because there are still many internal
changes that need to be made".
"Government is still overspending because of internal inefficiency, and
still tends to develop IT projects in isolation," Barrington said.
The Office of e-Government will be responsible for leading
government to and beyond the 2005 target for all services to be
available online. It will be a more focused, implementation-led agency
than the OeE, which was set up as a broad-based unit embracing e-
government and e-commerce to evangelise about the use of new
technologies and stimulate activity across all sectors. The e-commerce
and some of the digital inclusion activities of the old office will be
redistributed to the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department
for Education and Skills and other bodies.
Like the OeE, the office will be based in the Cabinet Office and its
head will report to Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull and
Minister for the Cabinet Office Douglas Alexander. The office's head
will be responsible for driving a government-wide information strategy
to support public sector reform, defining the architecture and standards
of common government infrastructure and services, and providing
leadership for the e-government community.
According to Barrington, the new office will work best if it is able to
strike a closer working relationship with the Office of Government
Commerce (OGC) than its predecessor. "In the past, the e-Envoy had
patronage without power, able to raise awareness and encourage
people but without making them work a certain way. But OGC holds
the purse-strings and under Peter Gershon has developed effective
vetting processes [for major IT contracts]," he said.
Barrington ruled himself out as a candidate for head of e-government,
but E-Government Bulletin understands that at least one other current
senior industry secondee to the OeE is considering whether to apply for
the post.
+02: TREASURY BOOST FOR SMALL BUSINESS PROJECT.
A project to develop new technologies to help councils work with
small businesses in their areas, enhancing their local economies, has
been given a boost by new Treasury plans to allow them to share in
any growth in business rates revenue.
The Working with Business National Project is one of the 20 or so
projects for local e-government (http://fastlink.headstar.com/egov2)
funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM -
http://www.odpm.gov.uk).
By the end of March it aims to develop a model web site for local
authority interactions with businesses; a 'CRM' (customer relationship
management) solution to facilitate closer relationships and to enable
local authorities to intervene to support business growth; research
findings; and best practice models.
The project was boosted by the Chancellor Gordon Brown's
announcement in his December Pre-Budget Statement that councils are
to be allowed to keep part of any increase in business rate revenues that
result from local business creation and economic growth. "Gordon
Brown's statement complements what we are trying to achieve," says
Gary Simpson, programme manager at the project's lead council
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (http://www.barnsley.gov.uk).
"It will drive local authorities to take up our products and they will
receive a payback for their efforts."
Simpson says the business intelligence aspect of the project is crucial.
"By accessing data about businesses from a CRM system, economic
development officers in local authorities can be more active in their
approach and provide businesses with vital information and advice."
The project has conducted research among businesses into how they
interact with local authorities and has identified 254 potential
interactions. It is now examining how these processes might be
electronically enabled either through a self-service web site or through
a CRM system with telephone support.
Currently, local authority economic development efforts are mainly
focused on attracting new businesses to an area. However, the project
aims to foster deeper and more supportive relationships between local
authorities and businesses - with the aim of encouraging businesses to
stay in an area for the long term.
+03: WORLD SUMMIT AGREES GOALS BUT NOT FUNDS.
The first UN World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS -
http://www.itu.int/wsis), designed to bridge the technology gap
between rich and poor nations, agreed the common goal of bringing
access to information and communication technologies to more than
half the world's population by 2015.
The summit, held in Geneva from 10 to 12 December 2003, brought
together around 11,000 representatives from government, business,
academia and civil society to explore the role of technology as a tool
for development and poverty reduction.
The commitment to widen technology access was part of an action plan
agreed by delegates, along with a declaration of principles which
enshrined the ideals of the summit and the tenets on which an
information society should be based
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/wsis3). However, the document contains
little practical guidance on how these targets should be achieved and
crucially, the summit failed to produce agreement on the controversial
issue of funding.
African countries such as Mali, Senegal and Mozambique had called
for the creation of a special fund to pay for technology-related projects
in the developing world. However, European, Japanese and US
governments opposed the idea, with the result that a task force has
been set up to review the issue and report back to the second stage of
WSIS to be held in Tunis in 2005.
"The lack of agreement on funding is disappointing," says Sarbuland
Khan, director of the economic and social council of the UN
(ECOSOC) and the UN's ICT Taskforce. "However, an opening has
been made on this issue. One of the successes of the summit was the
significant attendance of business representatives. If the UN can
inspire the business community with projects in health, education and
e-government that open up new markets, the funding issue can be
overcome."
Before the Tunis summit the UN taskforce will establish benchmarks
to measure how new technologies are contributing towards education,
healthcare and government. "Countries will have to show that they
have made progress towards the goals enshrined in the action plan in
the next two years," says Khan.
+04: DIGITAL INCLUSION PANEL SET TO LAUNCH.
The Cabinet Office has announced the establishment of a private-
sector-led Digital Inclusion Panel which will aim to ensure all UK
homes have connection to digital services by 2008 (see
http://fastlink.headstar.com/panel1).
The move, announced by Trade and Industry Secretary and e-minister
Patricia Hewitt, aims to ensure no-one is excluded from accessing
public services on the web or through other channels such as digital
television or mobile phones.
Some 96 per cent of the UK population are now within easy access of
the internet according to new research by the Oxford Internet Institute
unveiled by Hewitt within the latest annual report of the government's
'UK Online' programme for wiring up the nation
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/uko1).
However, the report finds there is still a need to address motivational
barriers which are keeping some segments of society away from
internet use such as the elderly; encouraging more sophisticated
patterns of use for those who are already online; and increasing user
confidence and trust in the internet by allaying fears about privacy.
The panel's duties will include pinpointing which groups are at risk of
exclusion from IT, encouraging them to use online services and
making recommendations to industry and government on how to
combat digital exclusion.
According to the Cabinet Office, a high profile industry leader and
members of the panel are due to be appointed shortly. An initial report
and recommendations will be published this April.
++NEWS IN BRIEF:
+05: FREEDOM PLAN: A set of recommendations and best practice
examples for public bodies preparing to implement the Freedom of
Information Act has been published by the Department for
Constitutional Affairs. The 'model action plan' covers leadership and
policy; training and awareness; and information and records
management:
http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/map/modactplan.htm .
+06: DECISION MAP: A 'decision map' to help public bodies
improve their technology procurement strategies has been published
for consultation by the Office of Government Commerce. Comments
are invited by 31 May:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/ogc9 .
+07: GO-BETWEENS: Guidelines on the use of private sector and
voluntary bodies as intermediaries in the delivery of e-government
services have been published by the Office of the e-Envoy, following a
consultation process last year. They include a questionnaire, case
studies and a "readiness checklist":
http://fastlink.headstar.com/oee5 .
+08: COMMON LANGUAGE: A group of government bodies and
technology suppliers is to test the use of XML metadata standards to
streamline e-procurement processes. It is hoped that the initiative, run
by the Office of Government Commerce, the Office of the e-Envoy
and the Business Applications Software Developers Association, will
encourage more suppliers to adopt e-business:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/xml1 .
[Section one 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].
++SECTION TWO: FOCUS
- PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
09: THE FUTURE OF CULTURE
by Fiona Leslie [log in to unmask] .
Digital services form a key part of the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport's 'Framework for the future' strategic vision for public
libraries, published in February last year
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/resource1).
Resource (http://www.resource.gov.uk), the Council for Museums,
Archives and Libraries, was tasked with drawing up an action plan to
implement the framework including a strand headed 'digital
citizenship', helping libraries to deliver e-government initiatives.
Many libraries have already taken up the challenge, and a seminar
hosted by library technology specialist Talis at the University of
Birmingham before Christmas heard details of a variety of rich and
fascinating community projects which are already online.
Digital Handsworth (http://www.digitalhandsworth.org.uk) is a project
funded from the national lottery New Opportunities Fund (NOF -
http://www.nof.org.uk) providing a multimedia history of the
Birmingham parish to its local community.
The project's key aim was to record and digitise existing material from
libraries, museums, archives and the community, particularly
ephemeral resources such as photographs, personal documents and film
along with oral history, charting the development of the area from a
rural village into today's multicultural suburb.
Richard Albutt, project manager at the Birmingham Library Service,
said some 75 local groups and individuals have been involved with the
project to date. When the lottery funding ends, the hope is that the site
will be sustained by the community with the help of a library
moderator.
Enthusiasm for the project is reflected in the fact that the site received
more than 180,000 hits in September, Albutt said, and several local
photographers have granted permission to display their work. Digital
Handsworth's interactive learning journeys and online learning role
plays for school and adult learners have also been well received.
However, it has not all been plain sailing: Albutt said his team's
original project goals had been overoptimistic and that they are
currently negotiating with NOF to agree new, more realistic targets and
resource levels.
Another UK library pioneer is 'iKnow' (http://www.asaplive.com), a
new web service from Gateshead Libraries. Features include 'Live
Help', a real time enquiry service currently in pilot phase which is the
first of its kind in the UK to use this kind of technology to offer
reference enquiry information to users in the library, at home or
outside the Gateshead area. The service is currently receiving around
four to six enquiries a day, even though it has not yet been formally
launched.
Rachel Peacock, reference and information manager for Gateshead,
said that if there is a virtual queue for Live Help, library members
receive priority over non-members by entering their library ticket
numbers on the enquiry form. The pilot has been running since June
2002 and the enquiries generally fall into three groups: council-related,
tourism-related or what librarians have long-sufferingly termed
'obscure.'
In order to reply to the questions in real time, librarians use power
search tools such as Copernic (http://www.copernic.com), as well as
more traditional methods such as the telephone and of course, books.
The scheme has been very well received, with 100 per cent user
satisfaction reported.
The council is also pioneering a new breed of interactive library web
site. Live since 1 September 2003, it offers information about library
services, access to catalogues, online discussions (for reading groups,
for example), events listings, FAQs, glossaries, and outputs to mobile
and hand-held devices. Peacock describes the site as the "public face of
the library service," with members of staff updating and developing
their own sections.
Gateshead has also started the UK's first library weblog
(http://www.libraryweblog.com), where recent items range from a
description of shaving a cat's nose to news of the government's action
plan for public libraries.
The service has close links with the NOF digitisation project FARNE,
home of Northumbrian music online (http://www.folknortheast.com).
An associated weblog (http://www.farneweblog.com) gives the service
a live, community feel and the library service plans to create further
weblogs focusing on other community groups and specialist websites.
These and other library pioneers are being given an even wider
audience through the Department for Education and Skills' regional
broadband initiative for educational institutions, which is also linking
up other cultural institutions such as libraries and museums.
For example the East Midlands Broadband Consortium
(http://www.embc.org.uk), one of 10 regional networks in England, has
already established a region-wide 'managed learning' network for
schools, adult learning centres, libraries and museums.
The network features an e-learning platform allowing the posting of
content by teachers, using animation technologies such as Flash to
enhance the learning experience.
The scheme also makes available to all schools content that was
previously difficult to obtain such as streamed video-based learning
and teaching content, and is set to launch a regional web-based
videoconferencing facility. Videoconferencing can be used for
example to hold live masterclasses, so if a visiting US professor gives a
lecture at a local university this can be broadcast to schools. The
lecture can also be recorded and the video clip made available to all
schools on demand.
The links with libraries and adult learning centres expand these
facilities to just about everyone in the region. Schools and museum
visitors will be able to view web-based library catalogues; videos;
CDs; books or journals. A mobile learning project makes available free
laptops with wireless connections to its member organisations such as
local education authority lifelong learning teams, voluntary
organisations and libraries, so that organisations can reach people who
don't want to or can't go to adult learning colleges or libraries.
In all these ways, the UK's public library service is slowly but surely
reinventing itself as a hugely valuable resource for the modern digital
age.
NOTE: Fiona Leslie is product manager at Talis. Presentations from
the October seminar can be found in the 'Events' section of the Talis
web site (http://www.talis.com).
[Section two ends].
++SPECIAL NOTICE: 'ELECTRONIC SAFETY NETS'
- TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS TO SAFEGUARD CHILDREN
This special report from E-Government Bulletin is a unique
information resource for practitioners and policy-makers to track and
anticipate developments in this complex field.
Against the backdrop of the Climbii Inquiry and the green paper on
children's services, the publication draws on progress reports and
opinion from over 50 leaders from social services, health, police and
education.
Along with new analysis and background from the report's
independent, specialist team, it also presents and analyses the results of
an exclusive poll of social services directors.
To order this report at 105 pounds (95 pounds for a pdf version), email
Mel Poluck on [log in to unmask] or see:
http://www.headstar.com/esn .
[Special notice ends]
++SECTION THREE: CONFERENCE REPORT
- eQUALITY FESTIVAL
+10: DIGITAL OUTREACH
by Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask] .
Unless online services are widely used, they will fail to deliver
significant gains in efficiency, since they will not be able to replace
traditional services. Yet research has shown that those sections of the
population in greatest need of services are less likely to be comfortable
with the new technology.
"Socially excluded groups are potentially the least able to gain benefit
from an increasingly digital society," the junior education minister Ivan
Lewis told delegates at December's eQUALITY Festival, the first in
what is intended to be an annual series of events hosted by the left-
leaning Institute of Public Policy Research (http://www.ippr.org.uk).
Lewis is the minister with responsibility for the UK Online Centres
(http://www.dfes.gov.uk/ukonlinecentres), the national network of
public access internet centres formed as a partnership between public,
private and voluntary sector bodies. He said the centres had been
successful in reaching groups of people who had previously been
excluded. "Of an estimated 430,000 users since January 2001, three
quarters had previously not used the internet due to lack of access or
skills. And over 60 per cent were from socially excluded groups," he
said.
Technology suppliers also have a stake in closing the digital divide.
Mark Wakefield, corporate community relations manager at IBM, told
delegates that support by his company of access to technology for all
could be thought of as enlightened self-interest. "IBM supports
education initiatives because people educated in the use of new
technology are not only future customers, but also future employees,"
he said.
Oversight of UK Online centres was last year handed over from the
Department for Education and Skills to the University for Industry (Ufi
- http://www.ufiltd.co.uk), a public-private partnership in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland which is already responsible for the
Learndirect distance learning service (http://www.learndirect.co.uk).
Almost all Learndirect courses - some 80 per cent - can be taken over
the internet.
"The intention is for ICT access and skills to become more fully
integrated with other means of online provision and learning, including
Learndirect to enable smoother, more flexible progression into and
through learning," said Lewis.
Ufi aims to extend the reach of UK Online centres, through
partnerships with bodies such as the charity Age Concern. "The aim is
to focus on online services useful to pensioners and the
over-50s, such as pension guides and NHS Direct," said Angela
Richards, head of UK Online development at the Ufi. Pilot projects
have already been run in the midlands, and in the first quarter of this
year, Ufi plans to run pilots in other regions. It will partner with the
Home Office to deliver services to asylum seekers in the North East,
and to farmers and farmworkers in the south west of England in
partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs.
Partnerships with voluntary groups such as Age Concern or Abilitynet
(http://www.abilitynet.org.uk), a charity championing access to
technology by people with disabilities, are emerging as a key way of
tackling exclusion. However Geoff Durrant of Cambridgeshire County
Council told the conference that there were often concerns about the
long-term sustainability of partnerships with smaller organisations. "If
a church hall is being used as a location for a centre, but then the
church discovers that it can't afford to keep paying for heating, the
centre may have to close or move because there is little funding set
aside for these costs," he said. In addition, heightened concerns about
the safety of children means that most councils are unwilling to allow
wider public access to school buildings, for example.
Problems such as these mean there are still significant parts of the
population that have no voice, even through such groups. Another
concern is reaching out to people who may move around the country a
lot. "In our area there are many people who are transient, such as
travellers attracted by the casual jobs available," Durrant said. "It's
difficult to make contact with them, and even harder to sustain it."
But for all the problems, there are success stories which show that the
internet and its power to help groups of people connect with each other
can be a liberating force, and one which can fight exclusion.
One example is the online forum for mothers, Netmums
(http://www.netmums.com), set up by a group of women in Harrow in
2002 to provide local information and discussion groups about local
childcare issues. The service has blazed an impressive trail, attracting
sponsorship from nappy giant Huggies and BT and spreading across
the country with local groups of mothers starting up their own linked
sites for their areas.
The group has grown to such a size that it now holds meetings with
industry bodies and has held meetings with MPs about issues such as
labelling of foods. It has attracted the patronage of famous names like
businesswoman Anita Roddick and John Bird, founder of the magazine
for homeless people Big Issue. "The online community means that we
are now taken seriously," said co-founder Sally Russell.
[Section three ends].
++END NOTES.
+HOW TO RECEIVE E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN.
To subscribe to this free fortnightly bulletin as an HTML attachment
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particular address is subscribed, see:
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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
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about article reproduction, syndication or other copyright issues please
email [log in to unmask] .
ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek [log in to unmask]
Deputy editor - Derek Parkinson [log in to unmask]
Reporter - Mel Poluck [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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