Another Sleepless Night, Please!

We’re used to the occasional story of how, after 50 years, a war-time letter eventually finds its way to the intended recipient. Well I think I’ve just experienced the e-equivalent. A Socitm e-mail, sent at 16.07 on 09/06/2002, turned-up in my (junk) mail-box yesterday morning!


Socitm strongly agrees with research by Coleman Parkes and Parity suggesting that lack of awareness of online public services is hampering take-up. As Martin Greenwood commented, “we have lots of evidence to back this up. Council are generally poor at marketing and promotion - although, having said that, we know that up to 30% of the population still visit council websites each month.”


The first British Standard for Data Protection – a specification for a personal information management system – has been produced by the British Standards Institute, and the Information Commissioner’s Office has published new guidance on privacy impact assessments.


On Friday 2 October, The Newham ICT Management Team will be joining hundreds of other professionals in a sponsored sleep out on the streets of London. Byte Night raises money to help Action for Children tackle the root causes of youth homelessness and get thousands of children and young people off the streets and into secure accommodation with education and training opportunities that can change the course of their lives.

Each year, at least 75,000 children and young people experience homelessness. One in 3 attempt suicide and 1 in 7 young runaways are physically or sexually assaulted (this figure rises to almost 1 in 2 after a week).

Byte Night is a unique event that takes place across the UK. In 2008, it raised £470,000. Now in its 11th year, it is one of the single biggest fundraisers for Action for Children. Our support of Byte Night is vital to ensuring it continues to support the thousands of vulnerable young people Action for Children work with each year.

Please help us to have a sleepless night!


I’m on a week’s holiday from today, during which I’ll be attending the World’s greatest motor race.

Recently I was notified that I’d been voted onto the Silicon CIO50 list for the third year running. Alas, I will again be unable to attend the Awards Dinner because it clashes with Le Mans!