> I’ve been looking at the Ideal Government site and as a complete non-
expert in this area my initial thoughts are:

If you were to ask a member of the public (the man on the Clapham Omnibus) what they wanted from Government IT, my guess is that they would draw a blank.

As a starting point, I would be interested in finding out what the public think ‘Govt. IT’ is?’ Have they encountered it, were they aware of the encounter and if yes, what was their experience of the service?

I may be missing something here and I apologize if I am, this is less a question about IT and more to do with the service design and the role Government IT plays in delivering that service. ‘Mypublicservices’ is great as it demonstrates the difference that individuals can make through their own personal efforts.

I also think that Government IT should be about empowering citizens, if this leads to incentives and improved feelings about community, less quantifiable metrics, then this can only be good.

My only fear is that ultimately Central Government is very much driven by measurements that rely on quantitative feedback and mechanisms that are very different from the user experience goals that define a good service. How does one go about converting them, possibly through interesting case studies and prototyping and demonstrating new methods?

This area is very interesting and challenging with lots of opportunities.