WRITTEN ON Monday, March 30th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Transformational Government, We told you so..., What do we want?

Personal data is valuable. Government has twigged that, which is why it’s trying to grab so much: it’s the oil of the new economy. But just how much personal data does government hold?
The JRRT Database State report mapped out the top 46 or so government databases. But I had no idea hom much data lies [...]

WRITTEN ON Sunday, March 29th, 2009 BY David Moss AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Spy chiefs fear Chinese cyber attack.
Do they?

WRITTEN ON Saturday, March 28th, 2009 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Design: user-oriented, Save Time and Money, What do we want?

Oh dear, what a disappointment: This online service provided via a PFI, for filing irrelevant but compulsory company data online, doesn’t work with ordinary PCs.
Disclaimer: There’s no-one “at home” on the “help” desk, outside office hours. So I may have got this wrong.

WRITTEN ON Thursday, March 26th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Pertinent Art

The Onion’s evocation of “Franz Kafka Airport” is, I feel, a vital contribution to understanding what non-ideal transformational government might be like
The security guard asked me for about 90 minutes ‘Are you who you say you are? Are you who you say you are?’ and then he wrote “liar” on the back of my hand…
The [...]

WRITTEN ON Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Pertinent Art, What do we want?

The Met Police’s anti-terrorism posters can be remixed to be quite pleasant:

Hurrah! (from boing boing).

WRITTEN ON Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Official fibbing/bad stats, What do we want?

The database state can be a bit heartless with bereaved parents. This poignant example from the Beeb is far from Ideal:
The parents of a girl who died suddenly have received a school letter demanding she improves her attendance. The letter, dated 16 March, said “students must have at least 92% attendance and Megan’s is currently [...]

WRITTEN ON Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, We told you so..., What do we want?

Well, did the caring Department of Health receive the ministry of our JRRT report in a tender and creative spirit, and consider it might be mistaken? Not exactly, according to Smart Healthcare:
“It is simply wrong to claim that the Summary Care Record and other aspects of the National Programme for IT are unlawful,” said a [...]

WRITTEN ON Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 BY David Moss AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

In six days time, on 30 March, the Identity Cards Act (ICA) will be three years old.
In any normal family, that would be an occasion for joy.
But the Identity & Passport Service (IPS) is not a normal family. The social workers have been sniffing around, the schools aren’t happy with the child’s progress, many medical [...]

WRITTEN ON Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Transformational Government, We told you so..., What do we want?

We’ve started a new category called “We told you so”. The Times on ContactPoint:
Security flaws have halted work on the internet database designed to hold the details of 11 million children and teenagers. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) admitted last night that it had uncovered problems in the system for shielding details [...]

WRITTEN ON Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Transformational Government, What do we want?

Amid all the coverage of the