05 Jul 2008

The closed book called OpenTech

Sir Bonar writes

At Tom Watson’s insistence I reluctantly consented to attend something called Open Tech at London University this weekend. It was something of a rush to squeeze it in before Wimbledon, to which Raytheon had kindly invited me, and I must confess I’m in some doubt as to whether I even found the event in question or not.

There were none of the familiar Lockheed Martin or Fujitsu logos to be seen anywhere in the Senate House, and no sign of the sort of hospitality to which one is accustomed. I was even asked to pay £5 to go into the Student’s Union where I found an Irish priest called O’Brien. He at least assured me I was in the right place and went on to quiz me at length about how it is that we in government come to be so well-informed about the needs of digital rights holders, the benefits of data sharing and so forth. I was just explaining to Fr O’Brien my own modest role in these matters when to my horror I spotted a junior colleague wearing what can only be described as shorts. I tore myself away and gave pursuit but before I could remonstrate I found myself in a curious presentation where Tom’s information task force was arguing that while technology was turning us from cavemen to spacemen politicians appeared to be dragging us back in the opposite direction. We will need to keep a closer eye on them.

All in all a curious affair. I made it to the final just in time, and I never did locate the exhibition or the VIP suite. I saw none of our friends from Accenture or AT Kearney. I rather fail to see the relevance of it all to our work on Identity Management, childrens’ databases, or our cherished Intercept Refresh project. Indeed I shall report to the Minister that such gatherings do nothing to support our progress on Transformational Government or the personalised services which lie at its heart.

Let us admit frankly that taking time out for such affairs is not quite how I am accustomed to spending my weekend. Such, however, is the mantle one takes on as Technology Outreach Czar.

 

03 Jul 2008

Protected site under section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005: my ass

When things get difficult, the climate goes weird or we’re all in a desperate scramble for scarce resources what will matter immensely is how we treat each other. And I think Downing Street has an especial responsibility for setting the tone. It should be a real treat to go there.

That’s why I feel a bit weird about this evening.

I was delighted to get invited to a reception at #11, in excellent company, with fab refreshments and pastoral scenes of the PM having a hour’s peaceful chat in the garden with someone I didnt recognise. It was quite short notice, but that’s cool - kinda spontaneous. (I wasnt B-listed - everyone got about 30 hours notice).

I picked up the invitation that morning, and what was weird was this. It was on two thick cards - almost bullet-proof, with a gold rim that nearly set off the metal detectors. The first one said

For security reasons please bring this invitation, and photo id (e.g. driving licence or passport). Please note that for security reasons the use of mobile phones and cameras are prohibited in No 11 Downing Street

The second card of an identical format was an “admit William Heath” card to be presented at the door. It said

No. 11 Downing Street is a protected site under Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. Trespass at this site is a criminal offence. You must remain within the public area at all times. Failure to do so may make you liable to prosecution.

An accompanying letter said

If you do not bring additional identification you will not be able to gain entry to the event.

Then there was stuff about searches, metal detectors, x-rays and the prohibition of cameras and mobile phones.

Is it just me, or does that feel a bit weird? Don’t get me wrong - I was delighted to be invited, and it was a lovely evening, and I would not want anything untoward to happen in No 11 Downing Street any more than I would wish it on anywhere else.

The ID thing was awkward, as I hadn’t been home in five days and don’t carry photo ID. Bill Thompson pretty much bet me I therefore could not get in. But I did, because the kind staff organising the event made special efforts on my behalf. So the system has edges which can be subverted.

I just find it odd. If you invite people to something, you presumably know who they are. I wonder how many episodes there have been in the last decade of impersonation of named guests plus theft of their invitations. Coupled with all the fortifications around Downing Street and da House it gives the impression of a govermment that believes it is loathed by the people who give it legitimacy, and scared of them. This is far from ideal.

I don’t think this sort of gun-waving scariness is the right way to treat generally law-abiding taxpayers, especially when trying to create a feelgood factor.

I think Downing Street should be setting an example of how we treat each other. But I don’t think I’ll be copying these phrases on to invitations I issue in future.

So:

THANK YOU to those who conceived and organised the event, and sorry to be a non-confirmist pain
Wibbi we practised a security that was more respectful of people, less intrusive and frankly less bossy.
Wibbi the visits of largely law-abiding taxpayers to public places that are symbolic of our servant, government, were seen to be cherished

 

Personal Democracy Forum 2008, NYC

In this video interview, Prof. Lawrence Lessig covers many relevant topics including the interplay between technology, democracy and government. He was speaking at the recent Personal Democracy Forum in NYC.

The USA has a very different political system but we do need more discussion about the role & potential of technology in restoring UK democracy.

 

02 Jul 2008

Hurrah! Health data latest: the lunatics have taken over the asylum

On closer inspection, the Power of Information work is gathering pace and getting quite exciting.

Nine years ago UpMyStreet founder Stef Magdalinski berated a baffled audience of civil servants at the GC99 Expo, telling them to “Give us your data” (Tom recalls him saying give us your f*cking data, but I don’t).

Now Richard Allan and others are getting to grips with the Power of Information work for Tom Watson, and finally meaningful amounts of data are coming available - see the Showusabetterway list here

Several exciting new datasets are being make widely available for the first time, including Neighbourhood Statistics from the ONS, Health care information, from NHS Choices, a list of all schools in England and Wales from the DCSF and the Official Notices from the London Gazette.

. Hang on. Healthy Choices data freely available on an API? Dr Foster, who are being lavishly paid to produce this and no doubt hoped to profit further from our NHS data, aren’t going to be best pleased. But then, it’s crown copyright, isnt it (which we always argued would be its downfall)?

So I guess the Cabinet Office can do what it wants, even up to and including doing the right thing (rather depending on the Dr Foster contract to which I’m not privy).

This raises the intriguing idea that Patient Opinion could hoover up as much Healthy Choices data as they want, and use their exemplary moderation skills and respect for patients and health workers to produce a more valuable service. Oh, and plus Patient Opinion won a New Statesman new media award this evening. Not a bad day at all for two of my favourite social entrepreneurs. And well deserved, after they’ve been hard at it for four years.

 

Power of info data mashups competition

Hurrah! Three years after we launched the IdealGov government data mashups competition (it was Tom F’s idea) the government has launched a government data mashups competition (Beeb). What an excellent idea. I’m awash with nostalgia.

It’s called Showusabetterway. And the better news is the Power of Information task force has put up a £20,000 prize (we offered an OS map and a Google lava lamp).

Wouldn’t it be great if one of our winners from 2005 won the official 2008 compeition? Funny, yes, but unlikely. The world has moved on. Also, our competition was maps only - this is for everything.

This does underline the point that the Power of Info posse DOES NOT address personal data. Nor (see below) does the recent public services white paper address personal data. This potato is too hot to handle. Just decentralise it, Sir Bonar. Give it back to everyone.

 

01 Jul 2008

CACI sued for torture by former Abu Graib inmates

One of the big UK public-sector suppliers, CACI, is in the news for the wrong reasons again....

 

27 Jun 2008

Excellence and choice public services paper

This new paper Excellence and fairness makes quite a lot of sense. It picks up some of the more contempory service and technology themes we like at IdealGov, like user involvement, feedback mechanisms using the Internet, and problem-solving communities for professionals. That’s cool.

Unless I’m missing something (and I haven’t printed it out and read it properly) there’s not much new or specific. There are general principles which are quite good, against an insistent background protestation that there is a role for central government in all this (the quote “Don’t just do something, stand there” springs to mind, but perhaps they’re not Ronnie Reagan fans).

The glaring omission is any attempt to sort out the role of personal data in the delivery of services. The assumption that it is for government to deliver services that are personalised carries with it the dangerous and intrusive fallacy that government therefore needs to know everything about people, and to share that data - recklessly, as is already clear - across its own organisational boundaries.

But who owns that personal data? Who cares most, and who is best equipped to keep it up to date? The outsourced agents of some distant branch of the Whitehall tribe? No. We do, obviously. If we’re to have person-centric services we need person-centric data. Not centralised childrens’ databases, health records and ID management.

It’s the whole decade-old CRM fallacy all over again. The problem is ego. The remedy is empathy and an openness to the emerging, more person-centric ways of doing things.

Some quotes from the paper below…

 

What’s the legal basis for criticising govenment documents in the contempory UK?

My friends in Cab-in-a-Toffice have kindly invited me to a discussion about personalised services on Monday. The email warns me

The Cabinet Office computer systems may be monitored and communications carried on them recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes.

and that

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.

That’s all a bit unfriendly. But I suppose I record their emails too. And so does Google for that matter. So we’re all being lawful together.

The attached paper seems innocuous enough - mostly sensible, a bit annoying, with some gaps. But there’s a dark warning at the end along with the © Crown copyright notice:

The text in this document may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission.  This is subject to the material not being used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context.

Well, it’s not that easy to reproduce a double-columned pdf in other formats. It needs patience rather than permission.

But.....but....but what’s this about only being able to quote it for free if we desist from pointing it out if parts of it are rubbish? Do I get sent an invoice if I alert you that paragraph 127 is the most frightful drivel, or that the intro attributed to Gordon Brown is not worth reading?

I’d better tread carefully. Looking forward to Monday, anyway. I wish there was a route to London which didn’t involve going past so many expensive, anonymous and unaccountable cameras.

 

26 Jun 2008

The Idiots of Working Families’ Tax Credit

Sir Bonar writes

Sometimes I feel there has never been a more exciting time to be a Civil Servant. Potential new ideas are everywhere. Really, the Global Interweb 2.0 has lit a fire under some of the, let us admit it, sometimes staid practices of our craft.

And the great advantage of being in the position one is, is that one can act, as it were, quick as a flash.

Take something like The idiots of Garry’s mod, for example. Euphorbia and I were curled up enjoying its improbable creativity over a refreshing pot of Mate di coca when suddenly an idea struck me. What if we used such techniques to send out important government messages to young people? We could do something similar on vegetable consumption, the dangers of Class 1 drugs, or the tax credits system.

We’re already revolutionised the world of expert tax advice with our award-winning podcasts. I’ve not listened to them myself, but I’m led to believe by our communications people that they are quite state of the art, and have been very well received among the online cognoscenti.

Well, would you believe we’ve swung into action already? Patricia has scheduled an interdepartmental meeting for early next month. I believe the momentum is now unstoppable, and before Gus can say “Pride and Passion” we shall all be enjoying The Idiots of Working Families’ Tax Credit on OurTube.

 

25 Jun 2008

Information Cards Foundation: what a good idea

This looks far more useful than Smith-Clarke-Blunquettry. Look what the intellectual pygmies have come up with: an Information Cards Foundation. This development will have several advantages over the Benighted System of the clunking great fist.

- it works online and goes with the flow of the contempory Internet, which is handy in our increasingly peaceful and interconnected era
- it is done at no direct cost to the UK taxpayer
- it is not compulsory
- it solves a substantial and defined problem in a useful way
- it’s cross-industry and not-for-profit
- it’s respectful of how people wish to behave and to be treated

Watch and learn, oh mighty egos of Whitehall.

 

24 Jun 2008

Power of Info blog fleshes out the vision

I’ve been remiss in not flagging up the Power of Information blog which Richard Allan and Tom Watson have started up. Richard is in his element in the place where politics and public services meet data architecture - see for example his explanation of how Public Whip opens up Hansard data. I never understood that. And Public Whip, which I hadn’t looked at in years, is still full of fun surprises.


A “Power of information” architecture would mean having an access layer

Anyway, more Googlejuice to their arm. I’m sure we’ll get on their blogroll eventually. Let the Wibbies accumulate

 

Privacy? Consent? that’s not my BAG, baby

One criticism we’ve long made of the creepy business of turning Britain into a Kafkaesque surveillance society is the extent to which it takes place in a state of groupthink and scientific denial. Another straw in the wind that this might be changing is the report of the Biometrics Advisory Group on its work with IPS and others.

BAG seems to have got off to an OK start despite the change in chief scientific adviser (who chairs it ex officio) and loss of three members owing to perceived conflicts of interest. The BAG rump seems capable of making quite robust and eminently sensible recommendations to those who seek to confiscate and own our identities, fingerprints and facial images, to charge us for using them and as far as possible to deny us travel, basic fredoms, state services and entitlements if we decline to play along with their miserable controllist game (IPS for short).

For example:

BAG recommended that proper attention be paid to the privacy/consent issue across the National Identity Scheme. BAG considered that the issue was not fully addressed by the publication of the Strategic Action Plan and that the public needed to be better informed over this, and that a consent diagram should be built into the architecture...BAG recommended that care should be taken to ensure data is handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act...BAG recommended that the current rules on data sharing and the Identity Cards Act should be referenced in the requirements

Perhaps we should remind all parts of government to obey the la and treat people with dignity and respect.

Good science will help us out of making bad mistakes, I have no doubt. Especially coupled with empathy and good design. For now it seems to be BAG’s bag to riff on Sir Humphrey’s theme “If you must do this damn silly thing, don’t do it in this damn silly way.”

But what will the world look like when the Tories get in, the Noxious Scheme contracts are cancelled despite whingeing protests from Intellect, and they’ve given us our fingerprints back? How will we prove we’re entitled to a fishing licence then?

Wibbi life were less complicated?

 

21 Jun 2008

Oh well. I wasn’t using my civil liberties anyway…

The Economist and YouGov report on the current state of public opinion on some of our favourite issues:

Full article here.

 

19 Jun 2008

DIUS and EDT pinch brand name of only half-decent gov Web 2.0 project “to encourage innovation”

I thought The Key was the name of the one and only piece of successful social networking inside govermment - the problem-solving community for head teachers created by TEN for the Teacher Development Agency.

But noooooooo no no, it seems it’s now to be the brand for some form of innovation project based in Warrington Cheshire by some people who do the Government Gateway. I’m so confused.... 

 

A few words on Sir John Gieve

Sir Bonar writes

I’m saddened by the news that Sir John Gieve is being cast aside by the Bank of England. John is a dear friend. I thought he performed splendidly at the highest levels of the Civil Service. “Fit for purpose” are the words that spring to mind. I was particularly impressed with his crisp dealing with those LSE troublemakers and their smug campaign against our ID System. Quick as a flash, John dashed off a sharp letter to Howard Davies at the LSE. That largely shut them up, as I recall. The steady progress of our original plans, of course, continues to prove that we were right and their politically-motivated “research” was quite wrong.

I thought the NAO criticism of the Home Office’s financial management under John’s tenure was unwarranted. Poor old John Bourn was rather past it by then of course, and not without his own peccadilloes (as our leaks to Private Eye were able to tell the world). People simply do not realise quite what a complex organisation the Home Office is. It has terribly important work to do. To require it to spend all its time bean-counting would be indefensible. And why, in John’s immortal phrase, should be try to defend the indefensible?

All in all, a sad day for high-flying generalists. Our value is all too often underestimated, not just in the outside world but increasingly, I’m sorry to say, in Whitehall itself.

 
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