IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Overall, the report is very cautious, and is a long way from championing open source as the best possible option for education. It argues that schools should consider individually if migrating to OSS is their best option. The potential cost benefits and savings clearly make it an option worth serious consideration, the report says, but cost is not the only factor Becta considers important. The culture within the school also needs to be taken into account.

Midlothian Council’s employees should see benefits from the teleworking solution enabling people to work at home and have the same corporate voice and data connectivity as they do in the office. This will extend and improve communications, give employees a flexible work/life balance and improve customer service by extending office opening hours.

Run by a council-owned business called ConnectMK, the service offers local residents and businesses a wireless alternative to the relatively expensive symmetrical DSL (SDSL) connections. The connectivity is provided by Freedom4 — until recently known as Pipex Wireless — which has been trialling fixed WiMax in Milton Keynes since last year.

Likely to be the most complex single IT project in the UK, the project aims to replace the MOD's outdated IT infrastructure with a single system.

GIS is a key enabler for added-value e-Government, so it's good to see Hope take a stand.

Speaking at the fourth European Ministerial e-Government Conference in Lisbon, the minister called on the UK Chief Information Officer Council to reduce the carbon footprint of government computers and improve the sustainability of public sector IT.

Jim Fitzpatrick, minister at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, provided details of the next stage of the programme at the e-Innovations conference in London on 14 July 2005. He said they reflect the key issues of efficiency and social inclusion.

Use of barcoding and radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging could save the NHS millions of pounds a year, according to health minister Lord Hunt.

Automatic identification of patients using microchipped wristbands is already up and running in a Birmingham ear, nose and throat department (see Computing, 23 February 2006).

Home office minister Tony McNulty said that the technology would be sufficiently developed to begin implementation of the cards and a national identity register in 2008. He was speaking at a conference on the subject organised by IT industry association Intellect on 6 June 2005.

His comment follows the publication of a report on pilot biometric enrolment, run by the UK Passport Service (UKPS) last year. The report indicates problems such as significant failure rates for verification with all the main biometrics, and in iris enrolment for black and disabled people. McNulty suggested that these problems could be overcome.

Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate, Cabinet Office minister Jim Murphy said he was "deadly serious" about encouraging the use of IT.

He told MPs there were four challenges for government: the scale of Whitehall's "IT estate"; improving efficiency in the government's £14bn IT budget; the delivery of easy-to-use services; and the relevancy of services to users.

Hope made the announcement as he declared that English local authorities expect to meet Tony Blair's target to be able to deliver 100% of services online by the end of this year.