WRITTEN ON August 28th, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized
What are the two or three points we’d most like to make to the world’s government CIOs? It’s meant to be a Bank Holiday weekend and I’m meant to be enjoying some late summer weather, but that’s what’s on my mind, because of this talk in 10 days’ time.
Just reviewing Ideal Gov (including Europe) to steady the ship. Some definite supporting evidence is:
- Matt Poelmans’ work on the e-Citizen Charter
- Cameron’s identity laws, of course, and the implications of Microsoft’s corporate change of heart on ID
- Brands on ID generally, and on the Austrian model, Liberty Alliance, Belgium and the UK
- Jeff Jonas’ proof that you can get hold of the excpetions you need without systematic mass data retention, also his compelling argument that global data sharing is a nonsense
- the Prime project (maybe also Fidis and Gudie, but I think Prime is the one)
and, frankly, the NCC Playlist for Public Services. It’s that good.
Also the original Ideal Gov lessons like
- quick wins (RSS, search, Directionless Gov, YouTube)
- co-creation: Google maps, wikiworld, flickr
- what it takes to have a foundation of trust
…and the possibilities of feedback (MySoc projects, Hungary, Patient Opinion etc)
It would be nice to play them Claire’s Notional Identoty and Swizz of the Crads Flash animations but I dont think I’d get away with it. But some Pertinent Art, surely.
To be fair, it’s not all the world’s CIOs – it’s probably CIOs or nominees from a couple of dozen countries. But still, what they do has a pretty fundamental effect on the lives of several hundred million people.
2 Responses to ““Wobbly Thursday” before Guadalajara”
I can suggest only the usual platitudes:
- Design with users in mind and if possible involved.
- Learn from the commercial services which people actually use and like.
- Ensure that decision makers have experience of actually using real IT and on-line services. (eg. How many govt. decision makers in UK have actually tried filing their tax return on-line, or filing a tax benefit form on-line?)
- Remember that many real people live messy, complicated lives; probably more messy and more complicated than those of the design staff.
- Try to persuade politicians to use IT to make citizens’ interactions with government more convenient, more effective and less expensive; rather than using IT to extend intrusive control over people’s lives.
- Remember that any data collected will quickly become a juicy target for criminals.
I think your lack of comments is because no-one can think of any better/additional ideas that woudl fit into a short presentation. You have listed ‘em all!