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From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 November 2006 15:56
To: egb-html
Subject: E-Government Bulletin, 13 November 2006 - video over IP; web
accessibility; geospatial mash-ups; Webcameron.
Hello all,
Here is the latest issue of E-Government Bulletin, attached as an HTML file.
For a plain text version of the same issue, see below.
Best regards, Dan Jellinek, Editor.
+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 226, 13 November 2006.
- Incorporating Future Democracy Bulletin.
IN THIS ISSUE: video over IP; web accessibility; geospatial mash- ups;
Webcameron; public sector style 'YouTube.'
Please forward this free service to others so they can subscribe - full
details at the end.
We never pass on email addresses.
++Special Notice: Mobile and Flexible Working in the Public Sector
- 25 January 2007, RIBA, London
- Early Bird Discount until 30 November
http://www.headstar-events.com/mobile/ .
Flexible working practices can help attain the goals of the Transformational
Government Agenda: mobile working helps staff work in the community, closer
to the citizen; and flexible working practices ensure that services can be
delivered 24-7.
Come along and hear how you can instil flexible working practices in your
organisation, help your management and service improvement goals and hear
tips from speakers who have implemented flexible working programmes.
Attendance normally costs just 295 pounds plus VAT for public sector and 395
plus VAT for private sector delegates. But book before 30 November 2006 and
receive a 100 pound discount by typing 'eb-offer'
after your name. To register see:
http://www.headstar-events.com/mobile/ .
And if your organisation might be interested in exhibiting at the event or
sponsoring it, please contact Claire Clinton on:
[log in to unmask] .
[Special Notice ends].
++Contents: E-Government Bulletin Issue 226.
Section One: News.
01: Public Sector Needs Better Guidance On Web Accessibility
- policies fail people with disabilities, say experts.
02: Staffordshire Police To Roll Out Videoconferencing
- forces across county turn to online briefings.
03: Public Sector Version Of YouTube Goes Live This Month
- website for video clips prepares for launch.
04: Lack Of Cohesion In NHS Halts Progress With RFID
- experts identify benefits, but see little implementation.
News In Brief: 05: Open Future - open source hub launches; 06: Spy Chips -
consultation on pervasive technologies.
Section Two: Q and A - Conservative Party Web Campaigner Sam Roake.
07: Talking Pictures. Webcameron, David Cameron's much-publicised and
much-mocked online video diary recently made history as the first online
video diary by a UK party leader. Mel Poluck spoke to the Conservative web
campaigner and ex-Google employee behind the initiative.
Section Three: Focus - Geographic Information.
08: Mash-Ups: A Journey From The Street To The Map. "Mash-ups,"
applications combining data from multiple services to create something new,
are growing in popularity, especially those that use geospatial information.
Roy Newell writes on the outcomes of a recent meeting of experts and
outlines the potential of the mash-up.
[Contents ends].
- 'Hacking Democracy': Exclusive Screening at 'e-Democracy '06'
- Keynote speaker Matthew Taylor, PM's Strategy Advisor
- 16 November, CBI Conference Centre, Centre Point, London
http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy06/
A private screening of 'Hacking Democracy,' a documentary on the controversy
surrounding the security of electronic voting machines now routinely used in
US mid-term and presidential elections, is to take place at this year's
e-Democracy '06 Conference. This first London screening will be followed by
a Q and A with the film's Co- Director and Co-Producer.
Speakers at the conference and exhibition - the UK's largest on e-democracy
- include Matthew Taylor, Prime Minister's Strategy Unit; Sam Roake,
Conservative web campaigner; Tom Steinberg, Director, MySociety; and Liz
Barclay, Presenter, You and Yours, BBC Radio 4.
Topics to be covered include e-voting; e-campaigning; citizen-
representative dialogue; grassroots movements; and webcasting.
Attendance costs just 145 pounds for public, voluntary and charitable sector
and 195 pounds for private sector delegates.
http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy06/ .
[Special Notice ends]
++Section One: News.
+01: Public Sector Needs Better Guidance On Web Accessibility.
A group of leaders in the field of accessibility, including representation
from the government's Central Office of Information (COI -
http://www.coi.gov.uk/ ) are to call on the public sector to rethink policy
and guidelines on accessibility of the web to people with a disability.
Some 19 experts from higher education, the private and non-profit sectors
and central government, who met last week at the Accessibility Summit II in
York, agreed the global Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the
World Wide Web Consortium do not satisfactorily meet the needs of disabled
users.
"At the moment the government is following highly specific [WCAG] points.
Some work, some don't," said Kevin Carey, Vice-Chair of the Royal National
Institute of the Blind and director of digital inclusion charity HumanITy.
The group is to call for change in the way web accessibility is advocated
particularly in local and central government, education and the museum and
cultural sectors. "What we're trying to do is address what we collectively
felt are weaknesses in the way web accessibility is currently promoted,
portrayed, supported and implemented in the public sector," said David
Sloan, Research Assistant at the School of Computing at the University of
Dundee and co-founder of the summit.
He told E-Government Bulletin the meeting unanimously agreed the WCAG were
inadequate.
"This situation [affects] formulation, implementation and monitoring of
policy and law relating to accessible online information and services, but
it also leaves web authors uncertain about what they can and can't do."
Initially, a manifesto will be published by the end of this year outlining
both the shared vision of Summit delegates and how best to implement
improvements. And a "roadmap" is to be drafted which could include a call
for greater web accessibility testing and to open channels to share research
in the area according to Summit co-founder Brian Kelly of the University of
Bath.
The group is soon to reconvene to further discuss how each person can convey
these messages to the communities they have most influence over.
+02: Staffordshire Police To Roll Out Videoconferencing.
Staffordshire Police Force is to implement videoconferencing over
their exiting IP network for staff across the county to have meetings,
briefings and to share data such as crime and arrest statistics.
Videoconferencing will be used from mid-November for monthly and
bi-monthly meetings as well as daily morning briefings for police
officers to discuss matters including performance and crime and arrest
statistics across Staffordshire. Briefings can be recorded allowing them
to be shown to officers working later shifts.
"We're a mixed rural and urban force," Communications and Network
Services Manager at Staffordshire Police, Chris Bowen, told
E-Government Bulletin. "So we're quite spread out." Bowen added
that the use of video over IP will make save police time by cutting out
the need to travel to meetings and will make significant cost savings,
although the exact amount is yet to be calculated, he said. "Police are
expensive time-wise."
Videoconferencing will be used in conjunction with desktop sharing
software which will allow users to simultaneously show diagrams such
as interactive maps and graphs to other stations on "smart screens."
Some 80, 000 pounds has been allocated to install the core technology,
although individual departments and divisions will be responsible for
providing their own end user technology which costs between 1, 500
and 7, 000 pounds.
In future, Bowen said Staffordshire Police may use videoconferencing
for remotely training officers.
+03: Public Sector Version Of YouTube Goes Live This Month.
The public sector is to have its own version of 'YouTube' when
Public.tv, a new website that acts as a single point for searching and
viewing video clips from across the UK public sector, is unveiled at the
end of November.
To help kick-start the Public.tv service
( http://www.public.tv/ ),
videos have been commissioned that will provide background
information about the public sector, offer some insights into life as a
public sector employee, explain the impact of new technologies on
public services, and illustrate the potential of video on the internet.
The Public.tv service is to be hosted and run by Ten Alps
( http://www.tenalps.com/ ),
the digital media group responsible for Teachers' TV
( http://www.teachers.tv/node ),
a service for the teaching profession delivered over digital TV
networks and the internet. At present, there are no plans to broadcast
the content on Public.tv in this way, and the content will be available
online only.
"The service that launches at the end of the month will be a test site.
The full launch should happen around next February," Nigel Dacre,
Director of Ten Alps Digital, told E-Government Bulletin. "Public.tv
will be an aggregation service, hosting its own content, but also
pointing to other video clips on the web," he said.
+04: Lack Of Cohesion In NHS Halts Progress With RFID.
Patient safety could be improved by use of Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) in hospitals, possibly saving lives, but a lack of
"joined-up" thinking in the health service is a barrier to widespread
adoption of the technology, an online summit of experts heard last
month.
The one-week RFID Networking Forum debate, the 'RFID Online
Summit'
( http://www.rfidforum.com/online-summit/ ),
co-hosted by E-Government Bulletin, drew an international group of
experts from private and public sectors to discuss the potential of the
technology.
Chris Ranger, Head of Safer Practice at the National Patient Safety
Agency in the UK said that around 572,000 patient safety errors occur
each year in England and Wales, and that some 840 deaths occur as a
result. While other parts of the public sector have seen a steady take-up
of RFID, such as library services for example, progress in the health
service has been slow, she said.
To date, the only use of the technology to match patients with records
in the operating theatre is in the Birmingham Heartlands hospital,
where RFID is a personal interest of Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon
David Morgan. "Why isn't there more interest in the potential use of
RFID in patient safety from RFID developers and suppliers?" asked
Ranger.
Part of the problem is a lack of cohesion and direction in the NHS,
suggested James Naylor, Supply Chain Project Manager, Healthcare
Purchasing Consortium
( http://www.hpc.nhs.uk/ ).
In particular, it is not clear which part of the NHS should drive
adoption, he suggested. "It's hard to determine where the driver should
come with so many influential stakeholders involved who, in many
cases, are duplicating effort in proving such new technologies are
viable through poorly integrated, closed-loop and department-specific
pilots," said Naylor.
News In Brief:
+05: Open Future: A national policy institute on open source software
has launched in Birmingham, aiming to serve as a forum for strategy
and information sharing about open source software. Founders of the
National Open Centre include the National Computing Centre and
Birmingham City Council:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/oss7 .
+06: Spy Chips: Schools will introduce smartcards to allow parents to
monitor attendance, achievement records, and even what their children
eat for lunch, according to a report exploring future uses of technology
by the public sector. 'A Surveillance Society,' coincides with a public
debate launched by the Information Commissioner's Office:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/ico1 .
[Section One ends.]
++Section Two - Q and A
- Conservative Party Web Campaigner Sam Roake.
+07: Talking Pictures
by Mel Poluck.
As part of its modernisation strategy, the Conservative Party is looking
at new ways of communicating with the public, particularly online.
Formerly with search engine giant Google, Sam Roake was recently
recruited to run the Party's web campaigns. His first project was to
develop the controversial 'Webcameron'
( http://www.webcameron.org.uk/ )
video diary and blog, for party leader David Cameron which went live
at the beginning of October.
- Whose idea was Webcameron?
[David Cameron's adviser] Steve Hilton had the original idea of a site
whose aim was to open lines of communication between David
Cameron and the public; I took this idea and developed it, resulting in
Webcameron.
- Why did you choose the medium of video?
It's important to note that although the site has a video focus, users
can add audio files and images, as well as standard blog posts. That
said, video is much more personal than text; the visual medium is
great for direct, personal communication.
- How many visitors have do you have daily or weekly?
Since the site went live we have had an average of 4,000 visitors per
day.
- Are you satisfied with levels of interaction so far?
This site is in its infancy and while we're pleased that so many
people have visited, signed up and interacted with it, we feel that
we're only at the beginning of what we would like to achieve in terms
of user interaction.
- What have been the biggest hurdles to overcome in creating the site?
I only joined the Conservative Party this summer so the biggest hurdle
we faced was time: it's a fairly innovative, ambitious site, which was
built from the bottom up and required significant groundwork before
the build started. We set the Party Conference as the launch deadline
and we were always racing against the clock to achieve this.
- In one part of the online video diary, you have a conversation with
David Cameron about his difficulty in replying to large volumes of
blog responses - how have you overcome this?
It's a nice problem to have, but it's a problem nonetheless. We have a
solution: it's in the queue of additional features we're going to roll
out and it will be live in the not-too-distant future.
- What has proved the most popular aspect of David Cameron's site?
So far David's blog has been the most popular part of the site, although
the 'Open blog'
( http://fastlink.headstar.com/cam1 )
has also been very popular.
- Were you annoyed by the spoof videos Webcameron has sparked off?
Some of the spoofs were funny, some less so. We have been quite
relaxed about them - they have given us a lot of free publicity and
showed to people that we are the ones setting the online agenda.
- By how much did traffic increase after the spoofs went online?
The Sion Simon spoof was most helpful in terms of driving traffic to
Webcameron - we had a tenfold increase around lunchtime on 12
October compared to the same time period one week before.
- Could you tell us a bit about the features you plan to introduce. The
site mentions widgets and podcasting: how will these help to achieve
your aims?
Generally speaking, the widgets are designed to allow people to add
the Webcameron functionality to their own websites, blogs and
'Myspace' pages. The 'tag cloud' widget, for example, will allow
people to monitor what's going on on Webcameron from their own
space on the web; they will then be able to access particular pieces of
content on a subject of interest to them, directly from their own site.
We want to allow the user as much choice as possible in how they
engage with Webcameron, and make it easier for them to do so.
Podcasting is slightly different; we want to keep some surprises for our
users so I can't say too much about this, but the thinking here is that
we provide content that isn't available on Webcameron. If people
subscribe to our podcasts we want to make it worth their while.
- Are there any other changes taking place at 'Conservatives.com?'
Yes, changes are taking place at Conservatives.com. We are committed
to constantly improving all our sites and people can expect some
significant changes to our homepage over the coming year.
[Section Two ends]
++Sponsored Notice: Wireless Cities Congress
- Cannes, France
- 29 November - 1 December 2006
Wireless Cities is the pan-European congress for municipal authorities
planning, evaluating or deploying wireless networks. Featuring
keynotes from BT, Intel and Motorola, and case studies from 12
countries including the cities of Barcelona, Belfast, Birmingham,
Chicago, Gdansk, Paris, Philadelphia, Siena and Westminster, the
event is aimed at mayors, policymakers, heads of department, Chief
Information Officers and wireless service providers.
For more details visit www.wirelesscitiescongress.eu/gov
Email: [log in to unmask]
or call: 00 44 (0)1932 268488.
[Sponsored notice ends].
++Section Three - Focus
- Geographic Information.
+08: Mash-Ups: A Journey From The Street To The Map
by Roy Newell.
Over the last few years, we have seen an explosion of Geographic
Information (GI) data, and applications for accessing and processing it.
Many of these resources enable new and innovative ways for people to
share information, and collaborate, often with substantial involvement
from the end user.
In addition to single-service applications, developers have begun to
build "mash-ups", applications that combine data from multiple
services to create something new. Named after the Hip Hop technique
which mixes two or more audio tracks, geospatial mash-ups apply this
approach to GI data and services. Where is this leading us? Perhaps to
the ultimate mash-up, an application that not only stores data from
different mash-ups but uses semantic technology to enable users to
create their own mash-ups by swapping services, or by picking and
choosing data.
A major new complementary initiative to mash-ups is the use of
Virtual Globes or Geo-Browsers to assist with data and visualisation.
These are attractive self-contained environments that enable users to
"fly" around 3D terrains with satellite or aerial imagery overlaid and
are key elements in the emerging systems. Leading examples are:
Google Earth
( http://earth.google.com/ ),
ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer
( http://www.esri.com/explorer/ ),
NASA's World Wind
( http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/features.html ),
TerrainView Globe
( http://fastlink.headstar.com/gsi1 ),
Leica Virtual Explorer
( http://fastlink.headstar.com/gsi2 ),
and NatureView
( http://3dnature.com/nv.html ).
On 20 October, the main bodies of the UK Geospatial Community
such as the Association for Geographic Information (AGI), the British
Computer Society Geospatial Specialist Group and Ordnance Survey
(OS), joined with the non-profit US-based Open GIS Consortium to
stage the first UK Geospatial Mash-Up
( http://fastlink.headstar.com/gsi3 ).
More than a hundred geospatial professionals interactively explored
new modes of identifying and addressing global spatial issues at the
Southampton headquarters of OS.
The Southampton event was facilitated and moderated by the well-
known futurologist Peter Cochrane. He was one of 10 presenters of
wide-ranging modern geospatial techniques and technologies.
Highlights included Chris Lightfoot, who talked about the data
mashing activities of mySociety in building simple websites based on
the extensive use of GI. The websites aim to give people simple,
tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives.
Doug Ricket of Google Maps spoke about the development of a free
toolkit that will enable developers to interact directly with the Google
Maps system. He showed some popular Google Maps mash-ups and
demonstrated how to create personal geospatial mash-ups using the
new Google interface. OS has also developed an interface for mash-
ups, and the event gave Andy Radburn an opportunity to show how it
can be used to access OS products.
Ian Forrester, the recently appointed head of BBC Backstage, an arm
of the Corporation focused on supporting lone innovators of web-based
products, said that the mash-up landscape fits perfectly with BBC
values. All agreed that it was a thoroughly worthwhile day with lots of
valuable potential outcomes.
In the near future, GI will break free of its old constraints, typically a
silo of obscure, specialised and complex practices hidden away in an
organisation. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) practitioners
will have many new opportunities to enhance the formulation of
policies and will provide one of the means of monitoring their effects.
The future for GI also has democratic appeal. Ordinary intelligent
users, equipped with a reasonably powerful PC will undertake some of
the specialised searches and queries and analyses formerly the preserve
of dedicated GIS professionals and systems. They can navigate from
space to street-level anywhere on the planet and render data in image,
vector, raster, city or digital terrain models in a seamless experience.
A challenge for managers in the public sector will be deciding how
much freedom and flexibility can be allowed to developers and end
users. Their involvement should on the one hand comply with
organisational policies but at the same time promote delegated powers
for the creation of new, imaginative, appropriate initiatives in the new
environment.
NOTE: Roy Newell is the Congress Representative and Universities
Liaison at the Sussex branch committee of the British Computer
Society.
[Section Three ends].
++Sponsored notice: SustainIT
- National eWell-Being Awards: call for entries.
E-Government Bulletin is working in partnership with national charity
SustainIT on the 2006/07 National eWell-Being Awards, the only
awards in the UK that recognise uses of ICT that deliver social and
environmental benefits. The six categories and three special awards for
2006/07 include 'Improving Public Services', co-sponsored by
E-Government Bulletin, 'Digital Inclusion', 'Age and Disability' and
'Better Ways of Working'.
Simon Hills, Head of SustainIT, says that "the National eWell-Being
Awards are all about rewarding organisations which use technology in
an innovative way to benefit the environment and peoples' lives.
Winning an award can really help put an organisation on the map and
can encourage others to follow examples of good practice."
The deadline for entries is 30 November 2006. Please register your
interest at:
http://www.sustainit.org/ewell-being-awards/index.php .
[Sponsored Notice ends]
++Special Notice: Place Your Advertisement Here
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To find out more about advertising and sponsorship opportunities,
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[Special Notice ends].
++END NOTES.
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ISSN 1476-6310
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- EDITORIAL.
Editor - Dan Jellinek
Deputy Editor and E-Democracy Editor - Derek Parkinson
Senior Reporter - Mel Poluck
Technical Advisor - Nick Apostolidis
- SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISING.
Marketing Executive - Claire Clinton
Marketing Assistant - Jo Knell
A searchable archive of our back-issues can be found on our website:
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[Issue ends].
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