WRITTEN ON Monday, March 29th, 2010 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Ideal government IT strategy, Identity, Transformational Government, We told you so...

The #idealgits process now has a supportive champion in Jim Knight, DWP Minister charged with all digital aspects of Smarter Government.
Jerry and I had a second meeting (we can’t really say where or with whom) at which it was Jim who led in setting out the case for personal control over personal data. There’s [...]

WRITTEN ON Thursday, March 25th, 2010 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Identity

Ive been contacted by a school governor who doesn’t want to see their school bounced into fingerprinting the kids, and wonders what to do. They’ve prepared this draft briefing for a governor’s meeting this weekend. Looks pretty damn good to me. Is it right? Anything to add?
Reasons For Not Introducing Fingerprinting To [xyz] School
Privacy [...]

WRITTEN ON Friday, December 18th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Across the Board, Design: Co-creation, Design: user-oriented, Foundation of Trust, Government Procurement, Ideal Goverment - project, Ideal government IT strategy, Identity, Pertinent Art, Policies, Political engagement, Power of Information, Save Time and Money, Transformational Government, We told you so...

It’s time to say what we want from government IT.
Let’s do this together. Let’s say “wouldn’t it be better if” about how tech affects transparency, costs and the quality of public services and how they affect our lives.
@ntouk and I have long since been fed up with what one senior Whitehall official yesterday called [...]

WRITTEN ON Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Design: user-oriented, Foundation of Trust, Identity, Uncategorized

At the invitation of IPS and Intellect I gave a Ctrl-Shift talk about the role of the individual in future public services. It’s material that will be familiar to the IdealGov posse, but I was apprehensive because this is a close-knit community very focussed on large contracts and not known for welcoming alternate views.
We [...]

WRITTEN ON Thursday, December 10th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Bad stuff, Data nitwittery, Identity, Official fibbing/bad stats, Pertinent Art, Political engagement, Save Time and Money, Transformational Government, We told you so...

In a speech yesterday Michael Wills (whom I dont know myself, but he’s Labour member of Parliament for Swindon North, and a Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice) called for a new, more courteous and respectful dialogue over government’s use of personal data.
IdealGovernment has wanted this for years. But – as he [...]

WRITTEN ON Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 BY ruthkennedy AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

Paul Clarke writes thoughtfully here about the confusion/agitation/frustration surrounding arrest of an architectural photographer for taking pictures of Merrill Lynch building in London this morning (in the light of recent clarification by ACPO that anti terror laws should not be used to stop photographers in public places). Comments refer to the fuzziness between private security firms [...]

WRITTEN ON Friday, September 25th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, We told you so..., What do we want?

This powerful No2ID ad – much more striking, foreful and truthful than the stupid Home Office smiley-fingerprints ads launched today – was the subject, it seems, of complaint to the Advertising Standards Association by one single reader of the New Statesman.

pdf here
The complaints were:
that the ad: 1. misleadingly exaggerated the information that would be [...]

WRITTEN ON Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, Identity, Transformational Government, What do we want?

My letter to ONS
I’ve been asked (by pacifists and others concerned that the 2011
census is managed by a US defence contractor) what are the legal
options for non-participation. I know it’s not a question you’ll
welcome, [however] I believe I fully understand the arguments about why it’s
safe and a good thing to do, and that Lockheed Martin [...]

WRITTEN ON Saturday, September 12th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

It has been a leitmotiv through years of Government-Idealism that the UK National Identity Scheme offers no perceptible benefit to the ordinary citizen or taxpayer. Ministers have once or twice protested they’re about to tell us what the benefits are (while conceding it will offer no online functionality “in the present phase” ie until 2020 [...]

WRITTEN ON Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, We told you so..., What do we want?

Pleased to be able to report the dogs b*llocks of ID announcements:
Washington, D.C. – September 9, 2009 – Ten industry leaders – Yahoo!, PayPal, Google, Equifax, AOL, VeriSign, Acxiom, Citi, Privo and Wave Systems – announced today they will support the first pilot programs designed for the American public to engage in open government – [...]