“Leaked” memo reveals government IT strategy
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Draft document describes plans for a common communications infrastructure and cloud-based IT services for the public sector
The government plans to build a common IT and communications infrastructure for the public sector, to use Web 2.0 technology to deliver public services and to offer cloud-based applications to civil servants in a ‘government app store’, according to a draft strategy document that was “leaked” yesterday.
Already, the Conservative party has slammed the strategy as ‘unambitious’ and has set up a website – www.makeitbetter.org.uk – inviting citizens to share their thoughts.
The strategy document, entitled Government ICT Strategy: New world, new challenges, new opportunities, outlines several projects that its Cabinet Office authors argue would serve three overarching goals; improving public service delivery, access and efficiency.
These include the adoption of cloud computing. Building a government cloud – or G-Cloud – would deliver cost savings not only from data centre consolidation but also from “flexible allocation of computer resources to workload”, “further reduction in energy consumption and much greater flexibility”, the document claims.
A government application store, modeled on so-called 'app stores' from Apple and Salesforce.com, would make it easier to reuse previously acquired or developed applications across the public sector. “Re-use is, in principle, already accepted as the preferred delivery approach across the public sector,” the document states. “However in most cases today, it is easier to do a fresh procurement.”
The document also lays out a ‘common desktop’ strategy, in which “80% of central government desktops will be delivered through a shared utility service” by 2015. This would improve both cost and energy efficiency, the document says.
Government 2.0
The adoption of Web 2.0 and social networking technologies by government departments would, it says, “help improve public sector interaction with citizens and businesses, providing opportunity for empowerment and participation, promoting transparency and improving services”.
The Conservative Party’s MakeITBetter site, however, argues that this does not go far enough in its commitment to improving public engagement in government through online technologies.
“Rather than the traditional closed approach to policy making that this report typifies, we want to throw open the process and allow people to contribute their ideas on how policy should be designed,” it reads. “In the post-bureaucratic age, we believe that crowdsourcing and collaborative design can help us to make better policies – and we think this approach should begin now.”
An opinion poll published today found that a hung parliament is a possibility after the next general election. The ComRes poll for the Independent newspaper found that the Conservative Party’s recent lead has fallen to 37 points in last month.
