Today is my last working for Newham and so, for now at least, after well over 300 entries since starting at the beginning of 2007, it’s time to retire my Blog.
Many thanks for the many warm wishes and compliments that I’ve received, and thanks, also, to those who’ve shared their less than complimentary views in various ways (‘though I personally think that name-calling, febrile comments and anonymity from some, diminish their value!)
I was again reminded of the need to keep things in perspective, when I heard the sad news, this week, that Socitm’s Auditor, Christine Peacock, lost her fight with cancer last weekend, and I’m more than ever looking forward to redressing my own work-life balance for a bit.
So I guess that the value of my views may also be diminished, as I take the money and run, but I really do think that the current economic environment and the drive for Government efficiency and savings create the best opportunity that there will ever be for ICT to show how truly transformative it can be. My greatest disappointment, as Socitm President, was in the realisation that a few of my peers prefer to criticise and obstruct rather than get involved, find solutions and make a difference, but there are many who truly inspire and whose influence, now, is increasingly holding sway.
May you continue to live in interesting times!
Friday, 31 July 2009
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Under A Cloud
Wednesday started with a self-inflicted headache after I attended, on Tuesday evening, 2e2’s annual reception hosted by Lord St. John of Bletso on the House of Lords Terrace. I’d decided to leave the car behind – bad move – and clearly I overdid the vino tinto!
Socitm’s Board meeting was held at Camden Town Hall. I’m glad to say we agreed a contract for non-Executive Directors, setting-out responsibilities and commitments, and a code of conduct.
We were rightly taken to task by the NAC for having requested it to change the date of its meeting to facilitate board representation, and then failed to ensure adequate representation. This clearly was unintended, and happened because of the shifting requirements of, and commitments to, Directors’ employers. In fact, our calendar has become rather a mess; I’ve struggled to keep-up. We’ve resolved therefore to reset a logically ordered calendar of meetings, and then stick with it – accepting that sometimes key individuals may need to miss the occasional meeting.
The decision to recruit of Heads of Membership Services and of Business Development was confirmed. These are two crucial appointments to continue to build capacity and expand our membership. The appointments will require some investment of reserves in the short to medium term, but ultimately should be self-financing. Finances are continuing to hold-up well, although we of course recognised the need to continue to monitor the position closely in the adverse economic environment that we’ll all continue to face for some time into the future.
Neil Harvey, from the NAC, did a really great job on reworking our draft Value Proposition, and this should now provide the basis for marketing/public relations collateral going forward. Frances Kettleday also provided us with seminal advice on how to make our briefings and reports work better for us - by including information about who we are and how to get in-touch, for example!
Conference bookings are down a little, at this stage. Edinburgh is traditionally our most popular venue, and we have a great programme – reinventing local public services – radical thinking, practical solutions – so, if you haven’t already, book-up quickly before the early bird discount runs-out!
I had to leave the Board Meeting before lunch to go across to a Public Sector Infrastructure Team Executive Board meeting at the DWP’s offices in the former Adelphi Hotel, in the Strand, where I was both representing Martin Ferguson, who’s on holiday in Turkey, and feeding-back from the Unified Communications sub-group meeting that I recently hosted at Newham Dockside.
At the UC meeting we had first defined what we mean by “Unified Communications” – fixed and mobile, covering voice, e-mail, messaging, and video, encompassing desktop and advanced business applications and, crucially, presence – and then proposed a vision statement… “This transformation agenda requires that services, processes and information are extended across the traditional ‘machinery of government’ silos, integrating service delivery around customer needs and cross-government policies, whilst also exploiting economies of scale and commonality in key areas”, backed-up by a list of key requirements.
The PSIT Executive Board will incorporate other key considerations, such as Information Assurance, and “secure telephony” (which is surely missing the point… unified communications obviously mean that all communications are now just bits and bytes, and must be managed accordingly). The vision, when ratified, will be published in due course but, in the meantime, my presentation is in the Socitm Futures GovX space, for those who have access, and the detailed paper is available in the Cabinet Office Government e-Room for those who have access to that.
The main business of the meeting was a presentation by Martin Bellamy, from the Cabinet Office, on “Government Data Centres, the G-Cloud and the Apps. Store”, followed by discussion and feedback from us all. This is mooted as a new programme responding to drivers such as the Operational Efficiency Programme, the Green Agenda and Digital Britain. It’s likely to become a major strand of the new Government IT Strategy (see John Suffolk’s new Blog) and to launch early next year.
I wonder whether this might provide an alternative to G-Cloud?
At the PSIT Executive Board we again alluded to the need for pan-Government security vision, supporting role-based access, ID management, authentication etc etc. I’ve always felt that identity should be federated so individuals don’t have to cope with different systems for different sectors and suppliers, and this story therefore caught my interest.
I read in Municipal Journal that “the Internet giant has launched a website in partnership with DirectGov and Socitm… http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/localgov/
Socitm’s Board meeting was held at Camden Town Hall. I’m glad to say we agreed a contract for non-Executive Directors, setting-out responsibilities and commitments, and a code of conduct.
We were rightly taken to task by the NAC for having requested it to change the date of its meeting to facilitate board representation, and then failed to ensure adequate representation. This clearly was unintended, and happened because of the shifting requirements of, and commitments to, Directors’ employers. In fact, our calendar has become rather a mess; I’ve struggled to keep-up. We’ve resolved therefore to reset a logically ordered calendar of meetings, and then stick with it – accepting that sometimes key individuals may need to miss the occasional meeting.
The decision to recruit of Heads of Membership Services and of Business Development was confirmed. These are two crucial appointments to continue to build capacity and expand our membership. The appointments will require some investment of reserves in the short to medium term, but ultimately should be self-financing. Finances are continuing to hold-up well, although we of course recognised the need to continue to monitor the position closely in the adverse economic environment that we’ll all continue to face for some time into the future.
Neil Harvey, from the NAC, did a really great job on reworking our draft Value Proposition, and this should now provide the basis for marketing/public relations collateral going forward. Frances Kettleday also provided us with seminal advice on how to make our briefings and reports work better for us - by including information about who we are and how to get in-touch, for example!
Conference bookings are down a little, at this stage. Edinburgh is traditionally our most popular venue, and we have a great programme – reinventing local public services – radical thinking, practical solutions – so, if you haven’t already, book-up quickly before the early bird discount runs-out!
I had to leave the Board Meeting before lunch to go across to a Public Sector Infrastructure Team Executive Board meeting at the DWP’s offices in the former Adelphi Hotel, in the Strand, where I was both representing Martin Ferguson, who’s on holiday in Turkey, and feeding-back from the Unified Communications sub-group meeting that I recently hosted at Newham Dockside.
At the UC meeting we had first defined what we mean by “Unified Communications” – fixed and mobile, covering voice, e-mail, messaging, and video, encompassing desktop and advanced business applications and, crucially, presence – and then proposed a vision statement… “This transformation agenda requires that services, processes and information are extended across the traditional ‘machinery of government’ silos, integrating service delivery around customer needs and cross-government policies, whilst also exploiting economies of scale and commonality in key areas”, backed-up by a list of key requirements.
The PSIT Executive Board will incorporate other key considerations, such as Information Assurance, and “secure telephony” (which is surely missing the point… unified communications obviously mean that all communications are now just bits and bytes, and must be managed accordingly). The vision, when ratified, will be published in due course but, in the meantime, my presentation is in the Socitm Futures GovX space, for those who have access, and the detailed paper is available in the Cabinet Office Government e-Room for those who have access to that.
The main business of the meeting was a presentation by Martin Bellamy, from the Cabinet Office, on “Government Data Centres, the G-Cloud and the Apps. Store”, followed by discussion and feedback from us all. This is mooted as a new programme responding to drivers such as the Operational Efficiency Programme, the Green Agenda and Digital Britain. It’s likely to become a major strand of the new Government IT Strategy (see John Suffolk’s new Blog) and to launch early next year.
I wonder whether this might provide an alternative to G-Cloud?
At the PSIT Executive Board we again alluded to the need for pan-Government security vision, supporting role-based access, ID management, authentication etc etc. I’ve always felt that identity should be federated so individuals don’t have to cope with different systems for different sectors and suppliers, and this story therefore caught my interest.
I read in Municipal Journal that “the Internet giant has launched a website in partnership with DirectGov and Socitm… http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/localgov/
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Continuing my Swan-Song...
Geoff asked me to review ICT pay and allowances in the light of the present economic environment, so that’s what I’ve been doing, this week, and have arranged to discuss the prognosis and recommendations with managers next week.
Socitm’s Events Group met, on Friday, at David Wilde’s new offices in St. John’s Wood. Andrew Unsworth, from Edinburgh City Council, joined us to help in planning for the annual conference (being held in Edinburgh) which provided most of our agenda. Elaine Davis joined us by video-conference from her motor-home, now in Oregon, where it was 2.00 am as we started our meeting. She informed us that sponsorship and exhibition bookings are holding up very well, despite the recession.
We discussed final agenda items to enable an updated flyer to be published during August. Scottish content will include the national citizen card (later, the London Regional Committee discussed a new feasibility study for London) approaches to the Cloud in Scotland and an Edinburgh contribution to different approaches to/ perspectives on outsourcing.
Prospective innovations for this year include the facility to provide conference feedback via an IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) system provided by Oni – one of the confirmed sponsors – online meeting facilitation from “MustMeet” and a simultaneous virtual conference through HBL.
We also discussed a spring event, next year, with the NEC, or Motorcycle Museum, as possible venues. I am to get a steer on this and other issues from next week’s Board Meeting.
After lunch, David gave me a lift to the Socitm London Committee meeting at 59 ½ Southwark Street, which, as a storm broke, I was most grateful for. We dropped Andrew Unsworth and Martin Fuggles at their stations on the way.
Damian Acklam, of Cidway UK, was invited to address the start of our meeting. Cidway have produced software enabling two-factor authentication on any Java-enabled Cell ‘Phone. There was a lot of interest from Committee members – no doubt, hastened by the imperative to facilitate self-service for Council services as part of the efficiency drive.
As mentioned above, Steve Pennant advised as that Capital Ambition is tendering a feasibility study for a London Citizen/ Smart Card, hopefully capitalising on developments such as Hillingdon’s, and the earlier efforts from Newham and South-East London.
The next Socitm London Branch meeting will be on 17th September. That should provide the opportunity to feedback from the special CIO Event being held on Public Sector Network earlier in the week, and considerations for the London PSN development. Digital telephony convergence/ security will also be on the agenda.
Some of the stories that caught my attention in the last week are…
Telecare offers crucial opportunity to help save health and social care systems which refers to Professor Sue Yeandle’s report at http://www.bowgroup.org/harriercollectionitems/telecare%20final.doc
Also, Too late for CIOs to get lean and agile? And…
(Global CIOs:) Why CIOs without Customer Engagement Will Fail. I liked this CEO/CIO conversational scenario, but didn’t see why it referred just to “global” CIOs.
Socitm’s Events Group met, on Friday, at David Wilde’s new offices in St. John’s Wood. Andrew Unsworth, from Edinburgh City Council, joined us to help in planning for the annual conference (being held in Edinburgh) which provided most of our agenda. Elaine Davis joined us by video-conference from her motor-home, now in Oregon, where it was 2.00 am as we started our meeting. She informed us that sponsorship and exhibition bookings are holding up very well, despite the recession.
We discussed final agenda items to enable an updated flyer to be published during August. Scottish content will include the national citizen card (later, the London Regional Committee discussed a new feasibility study for London) approaches to the Cloud in Scotland and an Edinburgh contribution to different approaches to/ perspectives on outsourcing.
Prospective innovations for this year include the facility to provide conference feedback via an IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) system provided by Oni – one of the confirmed sponsors – online meeting facilitation from “MustMeet” and a simultaneous virtual conference through HBL.
We also discussed a spring event, next year, with the NEC, or Motorcycle Museum, as possible venues. I am to get a steer on this and other issues from next week’s Board Meeting.
After lunch, David gave me a lift to the Socitm London Committee meeting at 59 ½ Southwark Street, which, as a storm broke, I was most grateful for. We dropped Andrew Unsworth and Martin Fuggles at their stations on the way.
Damian Acklam, of Cidway UK, was invited to address the start of our meeting. Cidway have produced software enabling two-factor authentication on any Java-enabled Cell ‘Phone. There was a lot of interest from Committee members – no doubt, hastened by the imperative to facilitate self-service for Council services as part of the efficiency drive.
As mentioned above, Steve Pennant advised as that Capital Ambition is tendering a feasibility study for a London Citizen/ Smart Card, hopefully capitalising on developments such as Hillingdon’s, and the earlier efforts from Newham and South-East London.
The next Socitm London Branch meeting will be on 17th September. That should provide the opportunity to feedback from the special CIO Event being held on Public Sector Network earlier in the week, and considerations for the London PSN development. Digital telephony convergence/ security will also be on the agenda.
Some of the stories that caught my attention in the last week are…
Telecare offers crucial opportunity to help save health and social care systems which refers to Professor Sue Yeandle’s report at http://www.bowgroup.org/harriercollectionitems/telecare%20final.doc
Also, Too late for CIOs to get lean and agile? And…
(Global CIOs:) Why CIOs without Customer Engagement Will Fail. I liked this CEO/CIO conversational scenario, but didn’t see why it referred just to “global” CIOs.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Too much flexibility!
On Monday Glyn Moody wrote in Linux Journal of his having agreed with Microsoft to cancel the planned discussion of the OXML ISO standardisation process. He says this was because the meeting was only being held for my benefit. Actually, I neither sought nor expected to gain any benefit from the meeting. I invited the two parties to discuss the process out of interest, and because I thought it quite likely that many others would also be interested, but expected any benefit to accrue to one or both of them.
I rather liked the recent ZDNet article by Glyn’s mate, Mark Taylor. His analogy with the US Car-Makers is similar to others, like the US Railroads losing out to airlines because they thought they were in the rail business rather than the travel business, and could be configured to apply to other potential pitfalls for our profession; CIO’s thinking they are in a technology business rather than the creation of value through knowledge management, perhaps? I don’t, however, think there’s much evidence that major IT vendors (like Google and Microsoft) have any intention of holding on to inflexible business models. This article in Information Week, and this, on the BBC News Website, are among many that discuss how they are reacting.
The Socitm Futures Group met at Siemens’ offices, in Old Bailey, on Monday. There was discussion of our recent response to the Digital Britain report, and whether this was sufficiently radical. Views were mixed; my own being that it said all that it needed to in a measured and dispassionate way, but the Group would be pleased to hear other Socitm members’ thoughts. Andrew Stott, the new Digital “Czar” was attending, in the afternoon, to discuss his new role, and how the Society can support his work, but I was unable to stay for that.
Some of the discussion, led by the Chair, Glyn Evans, which I thought most useful, was of ICT service typology – supporting regeneration and developing SME capacity, for example – not just personalisation of Council services etc.
We also discussed a draft response to the Operational Efficiency Programme. The report considers short, medium and long term actions, urges avoidance of knee-jerk reactions that could damage services, and effective use of benchmarking to substantiate best value. We resolved to add a checklist of the all things we recommend that all organisations should be doing.
We received updates on information assurance/ resilience work and pan-Government security vision. Mark Brett has so far responded to over 400 queries related to the Government Connect CoCo from local public sector colleagues. Overall, ‘though, we think we’re rather more compliant than central government, having achieved all the “should”, as well as the “musts”. Mark advised that we should now be thinking about how to label e-mails in accordance with security classification requirements. We agreed that the next Socitm Futures meeting would include a session on secure e-mail. Mark has also made great progress with regional engagement with security matters through “WARP”s (Warning, Advice & Reporting Point). Only the NW now does not have one.
On Wednesday, following rescheduling of the Socitm National Advisory Council, I was double-booked, and was therefore not able to attend that meeting, which would have been my last.
The other meeting, which I attended, was the Commercial Board, held at Camden Town Hall. Initial discussion among the select group, of the Chair, David Bryant, David Houston and Suzanne, taking notes, and myself was of the need to sort-out the scheduling of Socitm meetings, which has gone awry, and is adversely affecting attendance.
Considering the economic climate, the performance of our Consulting and Insight services is holding-up very well, and both are on target to achieve budgeted returns to the Society.
A major concern was that progress on the Software Supplier/ e-Governmment Index merger had stalled, and we asked for this to be urgently addressed by the main board.
The other major discussion was of Adrian’s report recommending the recruitment of a Commercial Manager; (he joined us at lunchtime, from the NAC, which was meeting at Euston Square, and which had already endorsed the report). We also agreed that this is now a priority.
Finally, I thought it worth flagging-up an ICT good news story from Britvic, which has a factory and Depot in Newham, and also Cliff Saran’s report of Easyjet’s planned use of Windows Azure.
I rather liked the recent ZDNet article by Glyn’s mate, Mark Taylor. His analogy with the US Car-Makers is similar to others, like the US Railroads losing out to airlines because they thought they were in the rail business rather than the travel business, and could be configured to apply to other potential pitfalls for our profession; CIO’s thinking they are in a technology business rather than the creation of value through knowledge management, perhaps? I don’t, however, think there’s much evidence that major IT vendors (like Google and Microsoft) have any intention of holding on to inflexible business models. This article in Information Week, and this, on the BBC News Website, are among many that discuss how they are reacting.
The Socitm Futures Group met at Siemens’ offices, in Old Bailey, on Monday. There was discussion of our recent response to the Digital Britain report, and whether this was sufficiently radical. Views were mixed; my own being that it said all that it needed to in a measured and dispassionate way, but the Group would be pleased to hear other Socitm members’ thoughts. Andrew Stott, the new Digital “Czar” was attending, in the afternoon, to discuss his new role, and how the Society can support his work, but I was unable to stay for that.
Some of the discussion, led by the Chair, Glyn Evans, which I thought most useful, was of ICT service typology – supporting regeneration and developing SME capacity, for example – not just personalisation of Council services etc.
We also discussed a draft response to the Operational Efficiency Programme. The report considers short, medium and long term actions, urges avoidance of knee-jerk reactions that could damage services, and effective use of benchmarking to substantiate best value. We resolved to add a checklist of the all things we recommend that all organisations should be doing.
We received updates on information assurance/ resilience work and pan-Government security vision. Mark Brett has so far responded to over 400 queries related to the Government Connect CoCo from local public sector colleagues. Overall, ‘though, we think we’re rather more compliant than central government, having achieved all the “should”, as well as the “musts”. Mark advised that we should now be thinking about how to label e-mails in accordance with security classification requirements. We agreed that the next Socitm Futures meeting would include a session on secure e-mail. Mark has also made great progress with regional engagement with security matters through “WARP”s (Warning, Advice & Reporting Point). Only the NW now does not have one.
On Wednesday, following rescheduling of the Socitm National Advisory Council, I was double-booked, and was therefore not able to attend that meeting, which would have been my last.
The other meeting, which I attended, was the Commercial Board, held at Camden Town Hall. Initial discussion among the select group, of the Chair, David Bryant, David Houston and Suzanne, taking notes, and myself was of the need to sort-out the scheduling of Socitm meetings, which has gone awry, and is adversely affecting attendance.
Considering the economic climate, the performance of our Consulting and Insight services is holding-up very well, and both are on target to achieve budgeted returns to the Society.
A major concern was that progress on the Software Supplier/ e-Governmment Index merger had stalled, and we asked for this to be urgently addressed by the main board.
The other major discussion was of Adrian’s report recommending the recruitment of a Commercial Manager; (he joined us at lunchtime, from the NAC, which was meeting at Euston Square, and which had already endorsed the report). We also agreed that this is now a priority.
Finally, I thought it worth flagging-up an ICT good news story from Britvic, which has a factory and Depot in Newham, and also Cliff Saran’s report of Easyjet’s planned use of Windows Azure.
Friday, 10 July 2009
Reinvigorating PSUC
There’s been a lot in the computer press, this week, about Google’s announcement that it will launch its “Chrome Operating System”. E.g. “Google OS a worry for Linux”. Whilst there’s an interesting debate around who’s threatened more – Microsoft or other Open Source product vendors – I think the real interest is in “Chrome may eventually become a dominant Linux distribution but it will take time for Google to iron out the kinks”, and “creating a cool software product is a good thing, but enabling it on a hardware platform is another thing”. It seems to me that a shared challenge for both Microsoft and Google is creating reliable and effective products for generic hardware from a multitude of suppliers - unlike Apple, whose Mac hardware and software are made for one another.
London’s shared DR procurement process has been completed with the disappointing result that no tender met the quality threshold. However, the boroughs involved are still keen to work together to find a means of achieving the requirements. They decided to separate data backup from application server provision within the original specification. In the short term they will look at using a more dedicated Buying Solutions Framework to procure data backup individually, and in the longer term at designing a possible shared application server solution. There were valuable lessons learned, and these will be compiled and sent to Buying Solutions. All existing documentation, including the shared DR specification is available on the LPSN GovX space.
London’s shared DR procurement process has been completed with the disappointing result that no tender met the quality threshold. However, the boroughs involved are still keen to work together to find a means of achieving the requirements. They decided to separate data backup from application server provision within the original specification. In the short term they will look at using a more dedicated Buying Solutions Framework to procure data backup individually, and in the longer term at designing a possible shared application server solution. There were valuable lessons learned, and these will be compiled and sent to Buying Solutions. All existing documentation, including the shared DR specification is available on the LPSN GovX space.
Oops – I misremembered the new PSMP branding. It’s “MyLoMo” (not “MyLoBo”). This is the logo…
On Friday I hosted a meeting at Newham Dockside to “Reinvigorate Cross Government Unified Communications Strategy” as part of the Public Sector Network. The HMRC’s Jim Boyle organised the meeting, and we were joined by representatives from the CESG and NHS, with input from Andy Williamson related to unified communications network procurement in Wales. We reviewed and updated a vision paper circulated by Jim in advance of the meeting, which I’m to present at the next Public Sector Infrastructure Team Executive Group on 29th July. I’m attending as Martin Ferguson will be on holiday, so this will be part of my “Swan Song”.
We agreed we should focus on the long-term UC requirements, covering all infrastructure – fixed and wireless - flagging practical considerations, many of which related to the need to accommodate multiple devices and presence states, but not allow these to compromise the vision. Mobile operators haven’t yet been represented in the consultative groups, which we resolved to address.
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Mobile Media Is Key
Capital Ambition’s “London Mobile Portal Event” at Prospero House (241 Borough High Street), on Tuesday, was a “sell-out”. There were excellent presentations from Geoff Connell on the PSMP (which I understand is to be rebranded “MyLoBo”), Gill Elderfield on Mobile DirectGov, Gary McFarlane on “Blue Badge Finder” and accessibility, Hans Grefte on ReportIT, and Vince Tooke on TfL’s perspective on the future of mobile information services.
The presentations, except for Gary’s (which I believe is to be added) are on the London Councils site at http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/capitalambition/events/event.htm?pk=62 There is an excellent short video about the “BlueBadge Finder” and “BlueWatch” applications at http://www.bluebadgefinder.com/ These will shortly be featured on the PSMP. Gary highlighted the overwhelming advantage of mobile portals for people with disabilities. Whereas 32% use a PC, 85% use mobile ‘phones.
In her presentation, Gill demonstrated that mobile media is key. Over 30% of the UK population are using mobile media every month, and the latest year-on-year growth of mobile search is 36%, compared with just 8% for PCs.
Following coffee, discussion groups were formed to consider the general mobile portal requirements of Londoners, and collaborative opportunities and next steps. Each group presented its feedback, which is providing the initial content for a new GovX Collaboration Space (membership required) to continue to discuss and develop ideas.
The Identity & Passport Service published its Safeguarding Identity Strategy two weeks ago. This is an important and overdue contribution to the Information Assurance and Security agenda, which I urge IT professionals to familiarise themselves with; not least, because it’s among the tools we have to better inform the public about what identity is and why it’s important to protect it. There’s a useful timetable of next steps on pages 26/ 27.
Ian Cooper helpfully summarised, among other things, the “key selling points” in the Socitm Futures GovX Space; I hope he doesn’t mind my plagiarising his summary:-
In future, everyone should expect to be able to:
• register their identity once and use it many times to make access to public services safe, easy and convenient;
• know that public services will only ask them for the minimum necessary information and will do whatever is necessary to keep their identity information safe;
• see the personal identity information held about them – and correct it if it is wrong;
• give informed consent to public services using their personal identity information to provide services tailored to their needs; and
• know that there is effective oversight of how their personal identity information is used."
“Northgate passes public sector 'late payments' on to own suppliers.” No (further) comment.
I forgot to mention that, at last week’s Local CIO Council, I resigned and nominated Geoff Connell as my successor, which was agreed.
On Monday, I wrote to Glyn Moody & Charles Eales with regard to the debate that was to have happened on Tuesday night, saying “in the circumstances (of my impending retirement) I would prefer that you continue with the planned debate in private. I will not be in a position, or think it right to, influence any decisions in Newham going forward... Obviously, you must deal with any reporting from the meeting in whatever ways you think fit”. Glyn replied to let me know that he was just drafting an e-mail to Charles about how to take things forward, and Charles later replied to say Glyn had cancelled the meeting, but still planned to write a piece on Open XML and the ISO process, but offered sight of the article before publication, and to include a Microsoft response – which seems very fair.
The presentations, except for Gary’s (which I believe is to be added) are on the London Councils site at http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/capitalambition/events/event.htm?pk=62 There is an excellent short video about the “BlueBadge Finder” and “BlueWatch” applications at http://www.bluebadgefinder.com/ These will shortly be featured on the PSMP. Gary highlighted the overwhelming advantage of mobile portals for people with disabilities. Whereas 32% use a PC, 85% use mobile ‘phones.
In her presentation, Gill demonstrated that mobile media is key. Over 30% of the UK population are using mobile media every month, and the latest year-on-year growth of mobile search is 36%, compared with just 8% for PCs.
Following coffee, discussion groups were formed to consider the general mobile portal requirements of Londoners, and collaborative opportunities and next steps. Each group presented its feedback, which is providing the initial content for a new GovX Collaboration Space (membership required) to continue to discuss and develop ideas.
The Identity & Passport Service published its Safeguarding Identity Strategy two weeks ago. This is an important and overdue contribution to the Information Assurance and Security agenda, which I urge IT professionals to familiarise themselves with; not least, because it’s among the tools we have to better inform the public about what identity is and why it’s important to protect it. There’s a useful timetable of next steps on pages 26/ 27.
Ian Cooper helpfully summarised, among other things, the “key selling points” in the Socitm Futures GovX Space; I hope he doesn’t mind my plagiarising his summary:-
In future, everyone should expect to be able to:
• register their identity once and use it many times to make access to public services safe, easy and convenient;
• know that public services will only ask them for the minimum necessary information and will do whatever is necessary to keep their identity information safe;
• see the personal identity information held about them – and correct it if it is wrong;
• give informed consent to public services using their personal identity information to provide services tailored to their needs; and
• know that there is effective oversight of how their personal identity information is used."
“Northgate passes public sector 'late payments' on to own suppliers.” No (further) comment.
I forgot to mention that, at last week’s Local CIO Council, I resigned and nominated Geoff Connell as my successor, which was agreed.
On Monday, I wrote to Glyn Moody & Charles Eales with regard to the debate that was to have happened on Tuesday night, saying “in the circumstances (of my impending retirement) I would prefer that you continue with the planned debate in private. I will not be in a position, or think it right to, influence any decisions in Newham going forward... Obviously, you must deal with any reporting from the meeting in whatever ways you think fit”. Glyn replied to let me know that he was just drafting an e-mail to Charles about how to take things forward, and Charles later replied to say Glyn had cancelled the meeting, but still planned to write a piece on Open XML and the ISO process, but offered sight of the article before publication, and to include a Microsoft response – which seems very fair.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Moving On
Friday’s combined Central & Local CIO & CTO Councils meeting was mainly about ICT and the Operational Efficiency Programme. How can we cut 20% from all Government ICT spending? In a series of mini workshops we considered the decisions we could make immediately, those that may need a little more (a few weeks’) consideration and what strategic actions we could take in the medium term (ahead of an election). We came-up, I thought, with an impressive list of actions, and John Suffolk rounded the day off with the positive message “our time has come”. I really do agree with that, provided, of course, we won’t be into the crude top-slicing of budgets that too often happens in these circumstances - punishing the prudent, and rewarding the profligate.
The OEP puts ICT Centre Stage; it is a great opportunity, and I’m already having slight misgivings, therefore, about my announcement, today, that I’ll be retiring early from Newham.
When I started on the Socitm secondment, many colleagues expressed the view that I wouldn’t go back to the “day job”, although I had every intention of doing so, at that stage!
Still, a lot can change in a year. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of working with Socitm colleagues to turn-around the Society and, although there’s a lot still to do am proud of what we achieved. I’ve also enjoyed working with Central Government, and believe we’ve come a long way in the last year, after years of inertia. But, earlier this year, I really felt I needed a rest, and I’ve also been saddened by the premature loss of former colleagues. Life, as they say, is not a rehearsal.
I’ve loved my time with Newham, and been very proud of its ICT Service. As Socitm’s President I got to see, or hear about, all sorts of Council organisations, but few could match Newham’s ICT accomplishments – especially now we finally have our shiny new offices. Even so, it was going to be difficult returning to local government bureaucracy after such a different year, and with such a talented team in Newham demonstrating that they can do very well without me, thanks very much, it somehow seemed unfair, in any case, to return and cramp their style. Many congratulations to Geoff and the Team on doing such a great job.
I’m now looking forward to taking two or three months off to spend some time with Chris catching-up with all the things we’ve let or go or meant to do, and to take time to reflect on what to do next; despite the economic woes, there are a lot of opportunities out there, and I’ve had some interesting offers.
I’ll be working until the end of July, when I’ll also be signing-off this Blog.
Here’s that Socitm Digital Britain response that I mentioned last week.
The OEP puts ICT Centre Stage; it is a great opportunity, and I’m already having slight misgivings, therefore, about my announcement, today, that I’ll be retiring early from Newham.
When I started on the Socitm secondment, many colleagues expressed the view that I wouldn’t go back to the “day job”, although I had every intention of doing so, at that stage!
Still, a lot can change in a year. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of working with Socitm colleagues to turn-around the Society and, although there’s a lot still to do am proud of what we achieved. I’ve also enjoyed working with Central Government, and believe we’ve come a long way in the last year, after years of inertia. But, earlier this year, I really felt I needed a rest, and I’ve also been saddened by the premature loss of former colleagues. Life, as they say, is not a rehearsal.
I’ve loved my time with Newham, and been very proud of its ICT Service. As Socitm’s President I got to see, or hear about, all sorts of Council organisations, but few could match Newham’s ICT accomplishments – especially now we finally have our shiny new offices. Even so, it was going to be difficult returning to local government bureaucracy after such a different year, and with such a talented team in Newham demonstrating that they can do very well without me, thanks very much, it somehow seemed unfair, in any case, to return and cramp their style. Many congratulations to Geoff and the Team on doing such a great job.
I’m now looking forward to taking two or three months off to spend some time with Chris catching-up with all the things we’ve let or go or meant to do, and to take time to reflect on what to do next; despite the economic woes, there are a lot of opportunities out there, and I’ve had some interesting offers.
I’ll be working until the end of July, when I’ll also be signing-off this Blog.
Here’s that Socitm Digital Britain response that I mentioned last week.
Friday, 3 July 2009
Dining with the Father of the Web
Over the last week, I’ve had one or two conversations with Microsoft and Buying Solutions colleagues about what was to happen to the PSA09 licensing deal. The introductory offer was initially available until15th June, which was always going to prove challenging for some to take advantage of, especially considering the compressed window of opportunity resulting in slippage in getting the contract agreed and signed. Several colleagues contacted me to say that, although they would benefit from the deal, they had insufficient time to get purchasing authority agreed by the deadline. A colleague from Buying Solutions ‘phoned me yesterday evening to let me know, “hot off the press”, that it had been agreed to extend the deadline to 15th December, which is great news. He was at today’s meeting to report on progress, and also to get LCIO Council input to the terms of reference for negotiation of an Oracle Public Sector Licensing Agreement, and representation on its Governance Board.
Today’s Local CIO Council meeting reconfirmed its commitment to openness – publishing its minutes publicly, and not just in Socitm members’ pages, so I’m not going to say anything about it here.
However, I intended, last night, to mention the mind-blowing statistic reported by Christine Connelly – that the NHS has amassed 10 petabytes (that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of images in the 18 months since it switched to digital imaging for X-rays – (but forgot until now).
This (Thursday) evening there was a joint dinner for the Government CIO & CTO Council communities. Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt were guests; John Suffolk introduced Tim, who made a pre-dinner speech in connection with his new role as an adviser to UK Government on public information, in which we were all challenged to identify data that we could liberate to facilitate mash-ups, research and reuse. Andrew Stott, in his new role of Director of Digital Engagement, seems to have planted his people on tables to collect our deliberations.
As a senior local government officer I cannot comment on political aspects of “Opposition to the philosophy and practical implementation of Transformational Government is emerging as a key element in Conservative Party policy as the Tories gear up for the next election”, but I will say that, whatever your views about national ID cards and a”database state”, joined-up public sector infrastructure remains a key service enabler and a critical efficiency objective.
Actually, one of the things we did discuss at today’s LCIO Council meeting, was consideration of party policies and a future item to discuss how we’d effectively engage with Government of whatever persuasion, after next year’s election (but we had to send Roy Marshall out of the room because he’s not even allowed to think such thoughts!)
Today’s Local CIO Council meeting reconfirmed its commitment to openness – publishing its minutes publicly, and not just in Socitm members’ pages, so I’m not going to say anything about it here.
However, I intended, last night, to mention the mind-blowing statistic reported by Christine Connelly – that the NHS has amassed 10 petabytes (that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of images in the 18 months since it switched to digital imaging for X-rays – (but forgot until now).
This (Thursday) evening there was a joint dinner for the Government CIO & CTO Council communities. Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt were guests; John Suffolk introduced Tim, who made a pre-dinner speech in connection with his new role as an adviser to UK Government on public information, in which we were all challenged to identify data that we could liberate to facilitate mash-ups, research and reuse. Andrew Stott, in his new role of Director of Digital Engagement, seems to have planted his people on tables to collect our deliberations.
As a senior local government officer I cannot comment on political aspects of “Opposition to the philosophy and practical implementation of Transformational Government is emerging as a key element in Conservative Party policy as the Tories gear up for the next election”, but I will say that, whatever your views about national ID cards and a”database state”, joined-up public sector infrastructure remains a key service enabler and a critical efficiency objective.
Actually, one of the things we did discuss at today’s LCIO Council meeting, was consideration of party policies and a future item to discuss how we’d effectively engage with Government of whatever persuasion, after next year’s election (but we had to send Roy Marshall out of the room because he’s not even allowed to think such thoughts!)
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Help beat this Microsoftie!
Here’s an interview with Phil Pavitt, who will shortly be moving to the HMRC, which I’m expecting will be one of the most transformative events in Government IT this year, if not decade!
The Local CIO Council is meeting at the School of Government on Thursday, and there is a joint meeting of the Local and Central CIO Councils here on Friday.
Christine Connelly, the NHS CIO, was our after dinner speaker on Wednesday evening. We were impressed with her candour and refreshingly open approach. All the questions were about how the local public sector can engage effectively with what’s generally seen as an immovable public sector silo, and she convinced us that change is afoot. If she’ll at least participate in the CIO Council, unlike her predecessor, that will be a step in the right direction.
In the bar, afterwards, Jos Creese, Glyn Evans, Martin Ferguson and I chatted about how to challenge (many of) our peers to engage more proactively in driving Government transformation, and how to encourage the next generation of leaders – fired up and ready to take-on and change the world – to take-over from our generation, and those of us who persist in seeing ourselves as technologists, rather than business leaders. I observed that, unlike many who seem to prefer to sit on the sidelines criticising and throwing brickbats, some of us find the time to get involved, are prepared to stick our heads above the parapet and work for change, but someone else observed that we all are becoming weary, which I think is possibly true!
I see that Glyn Moody is calling-on his colleagues for back-up to counter the not inconsiderable resources that this “Microsoftie” can bring to bear next week’s debate!
Speaking of Microsoft, this article is about its Data Centre developments to support Azure and Cloud services, I guess, but not the Government Cloud?
The Local CIO Council is meeting at the School of Government on Thursday, and there is a joint meeting of the Local and Central CIO Councils here on Friday.
Christine Connelly, the NHS CIO, was our after dinner speaker on Wednesday evening. We were impressed with her candour and refreshingly open approach. All the questions were about how the local public sector can engage effectively with what’s generally seen as an immovable public sector silo, and she convinced us that change is afoot. If she’ll at least participate in the CIO Council, unlike her predecessor, that will be a step in the right direction.
In the bar, afterwards, Jos Creese, Glyn Evans, Martin Ferguson and I chatted about how to challenge (many of) our peers to engage more proactively in driving Government transformation, and how to encourage the next generation of leaders – fired up and ready to take-on and change the world – to take-over from our generation, and those of us who persist in seeing ourselves as technologists, rather than business leaders. I observed that, unlike many who seem to prefer to sit on the sidelines criticising and throwing brickbats, some of us find the time to get involved, are prepared to stick our heads above the parapet and work for change, but someone else observed that we all are becoming weary, which I think is possibly true!
I see that Glyn Moody is calling-on his colleagues for back-up to counter the not inconsiderable resources that this “Microsoftie” can bring to bear next week’s debate!
Speaking of Microsoft, this article is about its Data Centre developments to support Azure and Cloud services, I guess, but not the Government Cloud?
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