IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The government needs to overhaul knowledge management practices across the public sector and appoint a minister to be given explicit responsibility for the subject, according to an official advisory body.

Information and knowledge across the public sector is still "barely managed and under exploited", says the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (PSI) in its annual report. It says that the government has failed to take a systematic approach to the capturing and re-use of "intellectual capital" of public sector workers.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has invited bids from councils to take over the £4.25 million Customer Relationship Management National Project.

The search is on for a new owner after the London Borough of Newham turned down the opportunity to remain as lead local authority for the project.

O2 launched the site on its O2 Active portal for WAP (wireless application protocol) phones on 19 April 2005 in anticipation of the general and local elections on 5 May. The Electoral Commission has supported it as part of its strategy to promote involvement in the democratic process.

Whitehall's internal sanity check of IT projects is failing to cover all major initiatives, according to a report by parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on 5 July 2005.

The Gateway Review process, run by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in order to tackle IT failure at critical stages of a project is not taken seriously by departments, says the report. As a result, the same problems and shortcomings are repeatedly highlighted in reviews. Even worse, some departments skip gateway review processes altogether.

The government has a target of getting all services online by 2005, with a growing proportion able to allow citizens to deal directly with government to pay taxes and fines, claim benefits, fill in forms and undertake other transactions.

A report from the Auditor General said services were meant to be designed around the needs of the public, not the convenience of government structures.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has approved the creation of nine regional IT security information sharing networks to cover all English councils, officials said on 29 September 2005.

Architects and surveyors who are accredited under the Fast Track scheme can have their clients’ planning applications pushed through quickly to a planning officer for decision, so that the result comes through in five weeks rather than the usual 8 weeks.

Air Quality Management magazine examined all 428 local authority websites across the country to judge their air quality web pages. They assessed each site on two key factors, awarding marks out of five for quality of information and ease of use. In particular they looked at whether the air quality pages of the site are welcoming and logical, how much information is carried and whether this is kept up to date. They also judged the site on how easy it would be for a casual 'surfer' to find the air quality pages.

I've grown a few more grey hairs since writing my last column, in part due to finding myself sitting on a police working party on economic crime. Tony Blair has this week been extolling the virtues of identity cards and I'm typing this on a train as I head towards a meeting at the European parliament offices to discuss this and other security matters.

Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way government operates and interacts with the public worldwide. They present an opportunity for government CIOs to slash IT costs and transform internal collaboration using social technologies, a new report has found.

However, moves to use Web 2.0 capabilities to radically overhaul the government’s relationship with the electorate will need to overcome resistance, as it will have to address concerns over security of information, current commercial arrangements and the breakdown of hierarchies, if they are to succeed.