Information, Innovation & Improvement

The problem with e-Government was always that Government somehow created the impression that this was the opportunity for a supplier "feeding frenzy" whereas, as I commented on many occasions, the reality should be quite the opposite; it always had to be about rationalisation. I assumed that the quandary that Government found itself in was the need to encourage efficient public sector services while at the same time maintaining a buoyant economy for IT suppliers.

In this recession, however, it appears that any pretence that service transformation through ICT can be achieved without rationalisation of supply has been abandoned. Whilst, as many commentators have observed, the economic climate is creating opportunities for CIOs to step up to the plate, seize the initiative and require services to use corporate ICT infrastructure effectively, the outlook for suppliers who are unable to innovate to keep market share in a less diverse, and much more competitive, market are bleak. John Suffolk's post about a "Government App Store" is just the latest in a series of pronouncements that no longer equivocate, but finally make clear some of the potentially less positive realities of e-Government.

The banks, not unreasonably, have come in for a lot of stick recently, but well done First Direct for its "Social Media Newsroom".


Socitm has been deliberating branding revisions to reflect the way that it has evolved in the last 18 months, and announced the changes on Friday. The announcement includes a link to downloadable versions of how the new branding will be used, which includes the following, which incorporates a new tagline emphasising our focus on the "I" for information.


Apologies to anyone who has tried to use the Newham ICT Byte Night Team's JustGiving site and had difficulties. It was "upgraded" early on Saturday, which seems to have caused all sorts of problems. The performance was very slow, my Blog widget wasn't being updated, and I couldn't log-in. A lesson in how not to do it! Using Twitter was the only way to find-out what was going on, until JustGiving e-mailed me early this evening. The site now seems to be accepting donations, but other difficulties remain. All in all –this is a pretty poor service to the many charities that increasingly rely on this business.