From: Dan Jellinek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 February 2009 17:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: E-Government Bulletin, 09 February 2009 - Open source government; Digital literacy in Europe; Web 2.0 tips.
+++E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN
- ISSUE 281, 09 February 2009.
- A Headstar Publication
http://www.headstar.com .
IN THIS ISSUE: Open source government; Digital literacy in Europe; Web 2.0 tips.
Please forward this free service to others so they can subscribe - full details at the end. We never pass on email addresses.
++E-Access '09: Technology For All
- Access To All Technologies By People With Disabilities
- Fifth Annual Conference And Exhibition http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess09/
In an ageing population, and in tough economic times, ensuring all your service users and staff are included in everything you do is more vital than ever, from your externally-facing websites to internal IT systems.
E-Access Bulletin's fifth annual conference and exhibition on access to technology by people with disabilities is taking place on 23 April 2009 in London. Our keynote speaker is Bill Thompson, technology critic and broadcaster, who will explore the day's key themes.
Other speakers include Graeme Whippy, Senior Manager, Lloyds TSB IT Accessibility Group; Shadi Abou-Zahra, of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, on the new international web access guidelines WCAG 2.0; Julie Howell, Chair of the committee developing a new British Standard for web accessibility BS8878; and Damon Rose, Editor of the award-winning BBC disability website 'Ouch', on the future of accessibility.
Places cost just £195 +VAT for public sector delegates; £295 +VAT for private sector; and £165 + VAT for small charities and non-profits (turnover less than £150k a year). To find out more and sign up today,
visit:
http://www.headstar-events.com/eaccess09/
[Special notice ends].
++Issue 281 Contents.
01: Public Bodies 'Should Consider Shift To Open Source'
- Gradual migration could save money and improve efficiency.
02: European Study Finds Universal Internet Boosts Digital Literacy
- Forthcoming report to unravel digital inclusion factors.
03: Cardiff Aims To Become UK Digital Leader
- City's plans chime with national Digital Britain policy.
News in Brief: 04: European Challenge - biennial prize set for November; 05: Sourcing Savings: open source in German Ministry; 06:
IT Awards - public services shortlist.
Section Two: Opinion - Web 2.0 in Local Government.
07: Are We Ready To Lose Control? Councils can be nervous of embracing the new interactive, citizen-focused online services known as 'Web 2.0. But a willingness to innovate and take a few risks can work wonders, says Stephen Hilton.
[Contents ends]
++Special Notice: Headstar Training Presents:
- Public Sector Websites - the task management approach
- A Gerry McGovern Masterclass
- Thursday 02 April, Central London
http://www.headstar-events.com/citizen/
- Book By 20 February for 20% Discount
"By far the best website course I have been on."
James Steele, Web Manager, Nottingham City Council.
People visit public sector websites because they have a task to complete. So the best public service websites in the world are
changing: they are not managing content or technology, they are managing tasks.
Our exclusive one-day Masterclass with internationally acclaimed web usability expert Gerry McGovern is packed with practical advice, useful tips and real-world examples that will help you bring your website to the next level of success. Places normally cost £395 plus VAT, but if you book before 20 February you will receive a 20% reduction. To find out more and book your place today, visit:
http://www.headstar-events.com/citizen/
[Special notice ends]
++Section One: News.
+01: Public Bodies 'Should Consider Shift To Open Source'.
Public sector bodies should be considering how to shift gradually towards the use of more open source software to save costs and boost their IT efficiency, a leading open source analyst told last week's Headstar training course on the topic.
Nick Mailer, founder of Positive Internet http://www.positive-internet.com, told trainees from central and local government that a switch to open source should not usually be planned as a major upheaval, but a gradual transition.
"You can start by migrating some software layers, or small projects one by one, still accessing them through their usual environment to start with so they do not look unfamiliar. For example you could start using the Firefox browser. Then you could migrate further as time and inclination allows, and it will be easy to back out of each stage or continue.
"You should have an environment where you can at least look at alternatives to proprietary software."
The most frequent objections to considering greater use of open source solutions were red herrings, Mailer said. People who ask 'who can we sue' if software fails, or raise potential security issues, are missing the point that these issues are also often problematic with proprietary solutions, he said.
"We are not living in a Utopia now. With companies selling proprietary solutions there is often a strain between their technical, financial and marketing agendas - upgrade cycles will be driven by the need to make more profits, and not technical need. They control the upgrade path, and there is often a pressure to release new versions too early."
While initial costs of switching to open source may be similar due to the need to purchase packages including installation, training and maintenance, in the long term open source should be cheaper because of its lower maintenance costs, he said.
On the other hand public bodies need to understand the philosophies behind using open source packages and support the communities that maintain them to gain maximum value, he said. "You have to work to leverage the unique benefits of open source, it is not just magic dust to sprinkle - if you don't respect the communities behind it, the move will be tokenistic."
NOTE: For news of further open source training events please email [log in to unmask] .
And you can comment on this story now, on EGB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=192
+02: European Study Finds Universal Internet Boosts Digital Literacy
The universal availability of internet access can override social factors in improving levels of technology use, according to a forthcoming European Commission study, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
The study, 'Supporting digital literacy: public policies and stakeholder initiatives', is being carried out for the commission by an international team led by the Danish Technological Institute (http://www.dti.dk), and is due to be published this spring.
It examines internet access, take-up and social data across all 27 member states plus Norway and Iceland, alongside figures from Canada, the US and India.
Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen, a policy consultant at the institute, told EGB that many of the report's findings were unsurprising, and confirmed predictable trends, for example that there is a geographical divide in digital literacy between richer and poorer countries in europe; that countries with more citizens living in remote rural areas had lower internet take-up; and average educational attainment was also a factor.
"But what is quite interesting is that in countries with early roll-out of full [internet] coverage, even among unemployed people and older people and people with lower educational achievement, more of them use the internet at home."
As well as analysing access statistics, the report will include 30 case studies of best practice in improving digital literacy among marginalised groups with EU societies including ethnic minority groups, Meyerhoff Nielsen said. When published it will be available online at:
http://www.digital-literacy.eu
Comment on this story now on EGB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=193
+03: Cardiff Aims To Become UK Digital Leader.
Cardiff City Council aims to cement the city's place as a leader of the UK's high-tech economy with a 'digital city' plan published to coincide with the government's new policy on 'Digital Britain'.
The 'Cardiff Digital City' plan aims to support ongoing investment from private sector technology companies with a range of high-tech partnerships and projects. These include the development of a 'Citizen Hub', using ICT to improve council services and encourage residents to participate in deciding how the city is run; a possible move to support the establishment of a top-level internet domain for Wales (.cym); and the implementation of intelligent transport systems.
Overall the Cardiff plans aim to boost the city's economic growth by building its image as a "digitally advanced location," the council says.
Cardiff already has a strong track record on broadband (in 2008 it was chosen as one of two exchanges in the UK to pilot fibre-based
technology) and the council is currently in discussions with BT and Virgin Media to explore how to promote fibre-based broadband across the city.
The move coincides with the government's publication of its interim report on 'Digital Britain', which pledges to secure 2Mbps broadband internet access for all UK homes by 2012, and to "enhance the digital delivery of public services":
http://fastlink.headstar.com/dig2 .
Comment on this story now on EGB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=194
++News in Brief:
+04: European Challenge: The latest European Commission-backed
biennial European E-Government Awards are to be held in Malmö, Sweden around 20 November, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
Previous events were held in Como, Italy (2003); Manchester (2005) and Lisbon (2007) - information on past winners can be found at the following link, where entry details for this year's event, once finalised, will also appear:
http://www.epractice.eu/awards .
+05: Sourcing Savings: The use of open source software has reduced
the IT budget of Germany's Foreign Ministry to about a quarter of the United Nations, a comparable organisation of a similar size, according to Austrian open source provider Linbit. Since 2003, the ministry has been migrating all of its 11,000 desktops to the GNU/Linux operating
system:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/oss6 .
+06: IT Awards: Transport for London, City of London Corporation,
and Network Rail are the three finalists shortlisted in the Government and Public Services category of the Best Places to Work in IT '09 Awards, hosted by Computer Weekly magazine. The awards will take place on 22 May in London and a full list of finalists can be seen
online:
http://www.computerweeklyawards.com/
[Section One ends].
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++Section Two: Opinion
- Web 2.0 in Local Government.
+07: Are We Ready To Lose Control?
by Stephen Hilton.
Before considering the possibilities of 'Web 2.0' - the new interactive breed of peer-to-peer social networking and user-generated content - for councils and other public sector bodies, we need to understand why many in local government see it as a threat.
Web 2.0 demands a nimble, creative, rapid, iterative and community- centred approach. Arguably, this is the antithesis of the project and programme management culture that has dominated government and council ICT over the past decade. When it comes to Web 2.0, by the time the council has established a programme board, hired a management consultant, logged the issues, mitigated the risks and approved the Project Initiation Document, users will have got bored and moved elsewhere. Speed and flexibility are of the essence.
Understandably, it is far easier for councils to bury their heads in the sand, but they need to understand that Web 2.0 can help re-invigorate tired e-government programmes. Involving the community can only increase local ownership and stimulate take-up.
Councils regularly cite the same old excuses to justify their non-use of Web 2.0. These include: "we don't have the bandwidth", "the security of our systems will be compromised"; "council customers aren't interested in this sort of thing" and "we need to focus on the real work". While such justifications may contain a grain of truth, none are insurmountable. The public sector's greatest fear of Web 2.0 is really loss of control.
Web 2.0 is essentially a democratic medium, whereas e-government isn't. Communities and networks lie at the heart of Web 2.0. They create and share content and increasingly build open source applications, widgets and plug-ins for the benefit of the community as a whole. But who is at the heart of e-government? Is it the Department of Communities and Local Government, the elected members, the council's CIO or the web manager? Whoever it is, it certainly isn't the community.
So at a deep level, resistance to Web 2.0 is about retaining control of online public services. It is about who decides how services are delivered and how they are presented and accessed. Most authorities are understandably very comfortable with the status quo as they determine priorities and allocate resources (i.e. do the "real work") but longer-term transformation requires a radical change in thinking.
Can we contemplate a scenario where the community is allowed or even encouraged to collectively author a plug-in for a council website; take away council information, mash-it up and re-present it back to us, or provide their own citizen-journalist accounts of council meetings?
Can we imagine a scenario where there is a community that is willing and able to work with us to do this?
In many authorities, e-democracy is the closest thing we have to Web 2.0. E-democracy creates online civic spaces where citizens can engage with the authority, with members and with each other. In some instances, authorities are choosing to use Web 2.0 spaces, MySpace, YouTube and so on, rather than creating anything separate.
Bristol City Council's e-democracy programme has grown organically over the past decade. Its development has mirrored wider transformations in the web generally.
Bristol's starting point was Consultation Finder, which effectively co- ordinates consultation information across the authority. The council soon learned that consultation Finder also offered a significant democratic opportunity. Simply by placing consultation information in one place on the web, it become far easier for citizens and interested parties to find out what was going on. This first step demonstrated the power of information.
Officers were encouraged to be bold, experimental and innovative, and the council became the first in the UK to offer e-petitions. When a petition is transferred online it changes in nature. If a citizen disagrees with the cause or issue on which the e-petitioner is seeking support, they can say so in an online discussion forum. They can also seek points of clarification before deciding whether or not to sign.
Campaign Creator is another 'empowering Bristol' e-Democracy project. It developed a suite of easy to use on and off-line resources to help communities run professional local campaigns. The Scarman Trust, a voluntary sector partner, trained twenty Campaign Coaches who worked in the community. During the nine-month pilot more than 500 would-be campaigners registered to use Campaign Creator, both from Bristol and from around the world.
Most recently, the council has introduced multimedia and webcasting.
A central feature is the Ask Bristol portal, a place where citizens can share their views by adding text, audio or video comments. Discussion of climate change issues is providing an important focus for Bristol's e-democracy programme, acting as a catalyst for greater online engagement.
However, while we are proud of what has been achieved in Bristol, there is still more to do if e-democracy is to fully benefit from the opportunity provided by Web 2.0. For example, having created an Ask Bristol e-democracy portal, we now need to find a way to disaggregate it, responding to citizen and neighbourhood demand to download and use democratic content locally. We can no longer pretend that the council has the monopoly on local web communications. As more and more citizens and community groups start to use the Web to blog, campaign, discuss and debate, we have a choice. We can either find a way to join in, or watch dismayed as fewer and fewer citizens choose to visit the 'official' civic online spaces that we have created.
I suggest three simple ways to help frame the change in e-government
thinking:
- Think 'feeds', rather than 'hits';
. Value experience, not just expertise; and . Engage communities, not just committees.
Being: outward-focused; concerned about who is taking and using public service content rather than where it sits; appreciative of the community's creativity and experience and willing to work outside of traditional organisational boundaries - these are qualities that will help organisations make use of Web 2.0. And of course, the willingness to take a few risks.
NOTE: Stephen Hilton is Programme Lead, Connecting Bristol (Bristol City Council), part of the DC10plus network:
http://www.connectingbristol.org
http://www.dc10plus.net .
Comment on this story now on EGB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/egblive/?p=195
[Section Two ends].
++Special Notice: PEP-NET
- The Pan-European Network on E-Participation
The Pan European eParticipation Network (PEP-NET), the most dynamic network in Europe focused on e-participation by citizens and e-democracy, is seeking new members.
Launched in May 2008 to build up an active network of solution providers, public administrations, citizen organisations and researchers in the field of e-participation, the network has since grown to 34 member organisations.
Potential new members and innovative thinkers in the field of e- participation are now being sought to broaden our activity and deliver more value to our members. If you think your organisation could benefit from being involved - currently, at no cost - please contact us via the details at:
http://pep-net.eu/wordpress/?page_id=8 .
[Special Notice ends].
++END NOTES.
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ISSN 1476-6310
+PERSONNEL
Editor: Dan Jellinek.
Reporter: Tristan Parker.
Associate Editors - Derek Parkinson, Mel Poluck.
[Issue 281 ends].
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