IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Technologies that enable new service models for digital government must be at the top of the list for government organisations as they prioritise technology investments, reports Gartner

Technologies that enable new service models for digital government must be at the top of the list for government organisations as they prioritise technology investments, reports Gartner.

The analyst firm lists 10 most important technology trends for government in 2015 in order to help CIOs and IT leaders assess critical strategic technologies and plan their enterprises' or agencies' IT roadmaps.

To experience a privacy failure in government ICT, when more and more government processes and transactions are being consigned to digital channels is to strike powerfully at public confidence. In recent months we have had two accidental releases of public data, from the Earthquake Commission and the Accident Compensation Corporation and one deliberate penetration of a core government agency – the Ministry of Social Development - albeit only for the purpose of demonstrating the vulnerability.

That’s the message from Josh Comrie, managing director of ICT recruitment firm Potentia, who says his business has been focusing more and more on global markets, even hiring a specialist ‘global associate’ to establish and grow international talent channels for the company.

"The market only has two feeders: graduates and immigrants,” Comrie says, "and graduates have dropped from 2005 to 2010 by around 45%.”

And they are pushing for a region-wide referendum to allow local people to have their say – and to give councils and the government a clear indication of the region’s wishes.

Mayors have now received the Colmar Brunton results and it appears, given the wide divergence of views across the region, a clear choice of two options have to be put to the public.

This week's case in point comes in a New Zealand government report following the leakage of public data from customer "kiosks" placed in the offices of Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ), the Kiwi equivalent of Australia's Centrelink.

At the time the story broke, junior staff within WINZ were blamed, with the head of the Ministry of Social Development accusing WINZ of having "slack and sloppy" processes.

“What if we, as government, got out of the way and gave consumers full access to their own personalised health data and full control over how they choose to use it?” Health Minister Sussan Ley asked in her recent speech to the National Press Club.

Ley sketched out a new health landscape populated by consumers who shared their personal e-health records with app developers, dietitians and retailers in return for products and services tailored to their particular health needs.

Since January 2011, approximately 440 people have been checked by INZ using this system. Of these checks, 101 matches were received including people who were matched by more than one country.

Thirty-seven matches were able to provide vital identity fraud information, concealed criminal history or immigration fraud intelligence to Immigration New Zealand.

Speaking at a Health Infor­matics New Zealand seminar on health IT innovation in Canterbury last month, Dr Garrett said people on the coast are "unique and have their own strong character" and often don't make demands on the health system.

"They don't have the same expectations for health services as people everywhere else, but I think we should be aiming to give them the same healthcare they would get if they were anywhere else in the country," he says.

Tim Williams, who was a special adviser to former British Cabinet minister David Milliband and has also advised London Mayor Boris Johnson, said that could go hand-in-hand with raising the retirement age, recognising that people would soon need to be working into their 70s.

Community-owned fibre broadband provider, Enable, and the Christchurch City Council are building a new Christchurch Free Wi-Fi service in central Christchurch as part of a shared smart city vision for making the central city a great place to visit.

Christchurch Free Wi-Fi is built on gigabit Enable fibre broadband and will deliver a truly exceptional Wi-Fi experience for locals and visitors to Christchurch. This ultra-fast, super reliable and easy to use service is set to launch by 30 June 2002.

The cart, which costs about $50,000, will initially be used for pediatric and neonatal care at Grey Base Hospital.

It is part of a wider telemedicine initiative by the West Coast and Canterbury district health boards, in which hospitals and health clinics have been fitted out with video conferencing equipment so health professionals can conduct virtual clinics and consult with colleagues in the South Island.

Cloud computing will enable government agencies to pay per-use for ICT products and services delivered through networks, rather than maintain their own ICT infrastructure.

Case studies conducted by industry analyst Ovum into cloud computing implementations “illustrate that benefits were greater than expected, while risks and difficulties were lower than typically experienced by traditional ICT projects”, says Ovum’s Steve Hodgkinson.

The Commerce Commission has today released the first of three issues papers relating to the uptake of high speed broadband ahead of a public conference in February 2012. The paper examines the technical issues that the Commission has identified as being relevant to the uptake of high speed broadband services.

The Commission does not expect the technical issues dealt with in this paper to be discussed in detail at the conference. However, these technical issues will be referred to in the Commission’s draft report to be issued after the conference, which will be subject to a formal consultation process.

The Telecommunications Interception Capability and Security (TICS) Bill would, with a warrant, force telecommunications companies and online service providers like Google and Apple to give the GCSB access to users' private information.

Telcos would also have to consult with the GCSB when developing new products and services.

At its community and financial planning committee meeting yesterday, the council took the first step towards co-operation and shared services by approving a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman councils.

Mr Besley said the council had been looking at opportunities with the Nelson and Tasman councils for a while now. "Over the years, we have had various shared services of various types with them - insurance being the most important in recent times."

"Relative to the country's size and population, I think we use telemedicine infrequently. The Canterbury and West Coast DHBs (district health boards) are two that have the most activity in telemedicine in the country," says Dr John Garrett, liaison paediatrician for Canterbury and West Coast DHBs.

The Public Service Association is urging District Health Boards to ensure that workers affected by a new shared services plan can be retained or redeployed within their own DHBs.

A final proposal from Health Benefits Limited has been released which will see all DHBs moving to a single centralised system to run their operational finances, purchasing and goods supply.

With the unemployment rate nudging 7 per cent for three years now, many employers can pick and choose from scores of job seekers.

But not in the world of information and communications technology (ICT). A chronic shortage of ICT skills is forcing software companies to carry out development overseas because they can't find local programmers to do the work.

A future where a health check-up could take just a few taps of your smartphone has moved a step closer.

AUT University has launched its Centre for eHealth, bringing together researchers with health sector partners to share developments in innovation.