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From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 January 2008 12:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: E-Government Bulletin, 08 January 2008: Data security and public trust; IT excellence award winners; Are councillors clueless about local e-democracy?
+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 254, 08 January 2008.
- A Headstar Publication
http://www.headstar.com .
IN THIS ISSUE: Data security and public trust; IT excellence award winners; Are councillors clueless about local e-democracy?
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++Special notice: Mobile and Flexible Working in the Public Sector
- 23 January 2008, RIBA, London
http://www.headstar-events.com/flexible08/ .
Mobile and flexible working practices can help public sector bodies'
staff work closer to the citizen and reduce the carbon footprint of your organisation. And flexible working practices ensure that services can be delivered 24-7.
Headstar is pleased to announce the third annual conference on Mobile and Flexible Working in the Public Sector will take place on 23 January 2008, at RIBA, central London. A superb speaker line-up features Stephen Regan, Head of Management and Technologies Programmes at Cranfield University; and Colin Rowland of Cheshire County Council. For the full programme and to register online, see:
http://www.headstar-events.com/flexible08/ .
And for information about sponsoring or exhibiting at the event please email Claire Clinton on:
[log in to unmask]
or call her on 01273 231291.
[Special notice ends].
++Issue 254 Contents.
01: Minister Urges Open Debate on Data Security Risks
- Gillian Merron of Cabinet Office says confidence can be rebuilt.
02: Councils 'No Longer Attractive Place to Work' for IT Staff
- Rise in employee turnover could signal new recruitment crisis.
03: English Heritage Launches 'Facebook for Cultural Sector'
- Social networking site to encourage shared learning.
News in Brief: 04: Take-Up Burst - e-government advertising review;
05: BCS Winners - public sector IT excellence; 06: E-Democracy Ceremony - international awards from UK body.
Section Two: Parliamentary IT Committee (PITCOM) - Transformational Government Meeting Report.
07: Transformational Government 'Must Raise Public Aspirations':
Cabinet Office Minister Gillian Merron says the government must be ambitious in its interpretation of service improvement through the use of new technologies. Standing still is not an option.
Section Three: Focus - Local E-democracy.
08: Clueless Online? At Headstar's recent e-democracy conference Matthew Ellis, county councillor and chair of the International Centre of Excellence for Local E-Democracy, said his own blog had dramatically improved links with his constituents, but most local politicians remain clueless about new technologies. The conference also heard from US grassroots e-democracy activist Tim Erickson, reports Dan Jellinek.
[Contents ends].
++Special Notice: e-Access 08: Technology for All
- 50 pound Early Bird Discount until 8 February
- 23 April 2008, Church House Conference Centre, London http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess08/ .
Headstar's fourth annual conference and exhibition on access to technology by people with disabilities is on 23 April 2008 in central London.
The information revolution and new technologies can change the lives of people with disabilities, but all parts of society must ensure their access, marketing and IT strategies are in line with best practice. It's not just about the web, but about e-learning, digital TV, mobile phones, and other portable devices. E-Access 08 is the place to find out more about how to comply with the law; what elements to include in your access policies and strategies; and find out about the latest in access technology. Supported by E-Access Bulletin, E-Government Bulletin, RNIB and Ability Magazine our spring event is a must for every modern organisation.
Places normally cost 195 pounds for public sector delegates or 295 pounds for private sector delegates, including all sessions, exhibition, lunch and refreshments.
However, if you register
on or before 8 February you will receive a 50 pound discount. For more information see:
http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess08/ .
[Special notice ends].
++Section One: News.
+01: Minister Urges Open Debate on Data Security Risks.
The government has to respond to the crisis in public confidence over the missing child benefit data disks by consulting openly with citizens on what data needs to be shared to improve services, Cabinet Office Minister Gillian Merron told a recent Parliamentary IT Committee
(PITCOM) meeting. Ministers need to spell out what risks data sharing will inevitably entail, and what risks are acceptable, she said.
The affair of the missing disks - apparently lost in the post after being sent from HM Revenue and Customs to the National Audit Office - was extremely regrettable, Merron said, as the Prime Minister had made clear in apologising for what had happened. But she said that public services could not be delivered at all if departments did not talk to each other, and there were many exemplars of data sharing helping citizens, for example in the health service where patient data is shared.
"But it is important we do give confidence to the public. We need to have an open debate, to ask people - what is it you want? How do you want services delivered? Do you want them to be easier to access? If so, this is how it could happen, these are the safeguards, and this is what it means - how do you feel about that?"
Merron was responding to a comment from a PITCOM delegate who urged the government not to underestimate the damage to public trust in official information systems wrought by the HMRC disk "debacle,"
and the potential undermining of the transformational government agenda that could result if the government was seen not to have taken information security seriously enough.
The meeting was convened to assess progress with the government's 'Transformational government' agenda. Modern public services should use technology not simply to keep up with people's aspirations, or even to meet aspirations, but to raise those aspirations higher, Merron said.
NOTE: For a full report of PITCOM's November meeting see Section Two, this issue.
+02: Councils 'No Longer Attractive Place to Work' for IT Staff.
Local government IT staff turnover almost doubled last year, rising from 14% to 23% across the UK, according to the latest 'IT Trends'
report from the local government Society for ITR Management (Socitm).
The findings suggest "local government is no longer seen as an attractive place to work", Socitm says. It says that recent improvements in the ease of recruitment and retention in local government, as the government put money into public sector IT and the private sector downsized, could be set to be reversed.
The use of consultants and contract staff in council IT departments has increased over the same period, the report finds. However, it says: "the long-term use of such resources is rarely a cost-effective approach".
Overall, spending on IT in UK local government has returned to levels set at the height of the centrally funded 'Implementing Electronic Government' (IEG) initiative in 2005, the report finds. Total overall spending by councils on IT reached 3 billion pounds in 2007 following a predicted post-IEG dip last year to £2.7bn, it finds. In 2005 spending reached £3.2bn.
Staff costs were by far the largest single cost, at 43 per cent of spending in 2007. The remainder breaks down as software, 14 per cent; external services 12 per cent; hardware 11 per cent; data and voice communications 10 per cent; consultancy and interim management 2 per cent; and 'other', 8 per cent .
Other findings of the survey include a shift towards the use of more mobile devices. The report was based on responses from more than 250 heads of ICT in councils, police and fire authorities, housing associations, passenger transport associations and other publicly funded local bodies. It can be purchased at:
http://www.socitm.gov.uk .
+03: English Heritage Launches 'Facebook for Cultural Sector'.
A social networking site for arts and culture workers has been launched by English Heritage, in a project which the agency has dubbed 'Facebook for the cultural sector'.
'Our Place' ( http://www.ourplacenetwork.org.uk ) allows its users to share project information, ideas, contacts and resources. It caters for people working in community engagement, education, access and development throughout the cultural sector from archaeology to education, theatres and museums.
Users will have access to news from the sector and can provide information about themselves and their work in a searchable database.
Members can publicise events; initiate and participate in groups and discussions; and offer or acquire services through the site's noticeboard.
The site was launched on 12 December, and in its first month has seen low levels of activity. At the time of writing 17 projects had been added to the site and six discussion groups created, four of which had received responses.
++News In Brief:
+04: Take-Up Burst: A series of three advertising 'bursts' to raise
awareness of online local government services has proved effective, though levels of web service usage do subsequently decline without further advertising, according to a new report from the Department for Communities and Local Government. Overall more than five million pounds was spent on the advertising, much of it focused on specific services in specific areas. The department is continuing its 'Connect to your council' campaign until March this year:
http://fastlink.headstar.comn/dclg1 .
+05: BCS Winners: The public sector provided many of the winners
and medallists for the 2007 British Computer Society IT industry awards, announced in December. In the individual excellence categories, IT trainer of the year was won by Rebecca Keen, City of York Council; and systems architect of the year by Mark Orford of Liverpool Direct, a joint venture partnership between Liverpool City Council and BT. Jenny Nicholson of Lincolnshire Police was a service manager medallist. The public sector organisational excellence award went to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, with Leeds City Council and National Assembly for Wales as medallists. Project excellence awards went to the British Library for web-based technology with Turning the Pages 2.0 from Microsoft and Armadillo Systems; to the University of Hull and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust for Virtual Environment Radiotherapy Training (VERT), which also won a social contribution medal; to the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR), implemented by McKesson UK, for information security. A further medal in this category was won by Lincolnshire Police's Remote Transmission of Fingerprints project, for mobile technology. Finally, Lincolnshire Police won its third prize with a professional development award. For details see:
http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.9784 .
+06: E-Democracy Ceremony: A series of international awards for
local e-democracy projects has been launched by the UK-based International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy, ICELE. The 'Making a difference online' awards will be presented in three
categories: organisational e-participation, for effective work in communities; a politicians' award; and a special ministerial award for the best project overall. Applications are invited by 23 January at:
http://www.icele.org .
[Section One ends].
++Section Two: Parliamentary IT Committee (PITCOM)
- Transformational Government Meeting Report.
+07: Transformational Government 'Must Raise Public Aspirations'.
Accessing a government service online should be as easy as buying home goods from a department store website, Cabinet Office Minister Gillian Merron told the Parliamentary IT Committee (PITCOM) November meeting. The session, on progress with transformational government, was convened at the House of Commons.
"People now expect more, and they expect a different type of service,"
Merron said. "Our challenge is not for public services to attempt to keep up with people's aspirations, or even to meet aspirations, but to raise those aspirations higher."
The 'Transformational government' policy agenda has three main elements, Merron said. These were that the customer should always come first; that public bodies must act in a joined-up way; and there should be the right skills in place for public servants to deliver modern services.
A Service Transformation Agreement was published in October alongside the new departmental public service agreements drawn up by the Treasury alongside the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review plans, to run from 2008 to 2011, Merron said. This committed departments to striving to reduce 'avoidable contact' between citizens and government by half by the end of this period, largely by getting it right first time when people contact government, making repeat contacts unnecessary.
"In essence it's about driving down the number of contacts people have with government," she said.
Merron cited two international examples of transformational government as approaches the UK would do well to emulate.
The first was a "tremendous example of shared services" - a major 'one-stop shop' that she had visited in Lisbon, where all public services were gathered under one roof in a light, airy, welcoming three- story building. "People were coming and going, carrying out any service from applying for a passport to claiming a benefit, and there was no stigma attached, it was well-used and well-loved."
The second was the Dutch administration's 'Bothered by government?'
initiative [see link to English version at http://www.lastvandeoverheid.nl].
This was an exemplary attempt to plot 'customer journeys' for citizen's interactions with government, and hold an open discussion with people as to what they find annoying and what red tape can be cut, Merron said.
"The whole point is to ask, where do we make it too difficult? We need to keep having this discussion with the public. After the events of last week, with the HMRC disks going missing, it's clear that the public need to be with you."
Staying on the topic of the missing data disks, Merron responded to a comment from the floor urging the government not to underestimate the damage to public trust in official information systems wrought by this "debacle," and the potential undermining of the transformational government agenda that could result if the government was seen not to have taken information security seriously enough.
The HMRC affair was extremely regrettable, she said, as the Prime Minister had made clear in apologising for what had happened. Rules are in place to prevent such incidents and had they been followed the HMRC problem would not have happened. But she said that public services could not be delivered at all if departments did not talk to each other, and there were many exemplars of data sharing helping citizens, for example in the health service where patient data is shared.
"But it is important we do give confidence to the public. We need to have an open debate, to ask people - what is it you want? How do you want services delivered? Do you want them to be easier to access? If so, this is how it could happen, these are the safeguards, and this is what it means - how do you feel about that?"
NOTE: E-Government Bulletin publisher Headstar is the official writer and publisher of PITCOM meeting reports and technology briefings for Parliamentarians. To download further meeting reports and briefings free of charge, see:
http://www.pitcom.org.uk .
[Section Two ends].
++Sponsored Notice: EDem2008 Conference
- 29-30 September 2008
- Danube University Krems, Austria
Questions to be asked by the annual EDem2008 conference in Krems, Austria - organised by the Danube University Krems with the Vienna University of Economics - will include:
- To what extent can e-democracy support and enrich our democracy?
- How can e-participation be integrated into current political and public administration processes?
- How can we ensure that the greatest number of people are reached?
- What are the limitations and the risks of e-democracy?
The attendance fee will be 95 euros. Papers can now be submitted for consideration in either of the event's two parallel languages, English or German, by 15 April 2008. For more information please visit:
http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/egov
[Sponsored notice ends].
++Section Three: Focus
- Local E-democracy.
+08: Clueless Online?
by Dan Jellinek.
Most councillors still fail to understand the potential value to their constituents and their own work of using online tools such as blogs, Matthew Ellis, Chair of the International Centre of Excellence for Local E-Democracy and a member of Staffordshire County Council, told Headstar's e-Democracy '07 conference before Christmas.
His own blog had made a "dramatic" difference to his relationship with his local electorate, and had just received its 200,000th visitor, Ellis said.
However, his case was still the exception. "So many elected members probably wouldn't know what a blog is, wouldn't have a clue what Facebook is. But if we as local and national politicians do not embrace the modern technology, we will suffer electorally."
Ellis offered another example of an effective local online campaign.
The leader of Essex County Council, Lord Hanningfield, is using an online petition website to campaign against post office closure, using technology to try and engage with an audience with which they wouldn't normally have been able to interact, he said.
Young people aged between 18 to 21 are far more likely to spend time on Facebook than they are in the traditional media areas where politicians campaign, Ellis said. "We've got to start to visit their areas, rather than expecting them to come to us."
There were already a range of online tools that can be used in all areas of the UK to boost local democracy, Ellis said. They included:
- VoteWise (www.votewise.co.uk), which allows all electoral candidates to put policies, ideas and manifesto pledges in one place at election time. "And then people can give a thumbs up or thumbs down.
It's a great interaction source."
- Election Alarm Clock ( http://www.electionalarmclock.com ), which reminds people to register to vote, and alerts them when there is an election on.
- MyElection, which was used in 2007 in Swindon ( http://www.myelection.co.uk/swindon ), is an election site which gives information on candidates, where to vote, and other electoral information.
- VOICE, a piece of software developed by ICELE which allows local authorities to offer community groups and communities of interest a free website.
All these tools are useful, but the problem overall is that the pattern of local e-democracy implementation is "bitty", Ellis said.
"It's lots of good stuff in Europe, lots of good stuff in the UK, but it's not embedded, it's still in these small communities of expertise. What ICELE was set up to do by CLG just over 12 months ago is to try and bring this focus together."
Tim Erickson, Local Email Issues Forum Manager at the US-based international charity E-Democracy.org, said his perspective on e- democracy was also from the grassroots.
The current US Presidential campaign means that nationally, candidates are looking to use online tools such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook to present their messages, he said. "[But] my own excitement is at the opposite end of that, and that's about how citizens are using those same media to send messages to their candidates and to the public at large.
"In St Paul, we're seeing a lot of citizens going out and grabbing video cameras, and we've got volunteers who go down to our local library every Monday night and offer workshops on how to use these tools, on how to use sites like Flickr and YouTube and Facebook to engage with your elected officials or to engage with community members.
"We've got a guy in our town who's showing up at all kinds of public meetings with his video camera and videotaping the meetings and putting segments up on YouTube. In particular his issue is light rail, he's against it, but I've seen folks who support light rail going around and making their own videos, and we end up with a kind of dialogue.
That's all organic, it's not something that any government project has initiated, but I think it's having a small impact on our debate."
One of the things that e-democracy.org has been trying to do is to bring these tools to local candidates in elections being held in the Minneapolis city of St Paul, Erickson's home town. "St Paul has just had an election, and very early on in that process we invited any candidate to come down and we would videotape a statement for them and show them how to put it up on YouTube. The Presidential candidates all have people who are out there doing that, but when you get down to the local races where there's the most lack of information, where most people go to the polls not knowing what their local candidates or school board members look like, to actually give them a chance to get their message and their face up on YouTube is a pretty big deal.
"For me it was also a really powerful experience to sit in a room and one by one deal with the variety, the diversity and the passion of those candidates."
NOTE: For links to further coverage of e-Democracy '07 see:
http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy07 .
[Section Three ends].
++END NOTES.
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ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
Editor - Dan Jellinek.
Additional reporting: Majeed Saleh.
Associate Editors - Derek Parkinson, Mel Poluck.
Marketing and Sales Team - Claire Clinton, Jo Knell, Will Knox.
[Issue 254 ends].
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