Comments on: Britain 2.5 http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2009/06/britain2.php From Semantic Web to Web of Data Mon, 23 May 2011 13:28:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: tmurphy http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2009/06/britain2.php/comment-page-1#comment-8084 tmurphy Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:22:59 +0000 http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/?p=2381#comment-8084 Digital Report page 213 item 33 "The establishment of a G-Cloud will however require investment in technical development and physical facilities, and the CIO Council and the Intellect Public Sector Council are now developing the strategic business case to justify funding the G-Cloud. Provided that this business case can be properly developed, the adoption of the G-Cloud will be a priority for Government investment to secure efficiencies, even within the very constrained framework for public expenditure, over the next 3 years. 34. In the meantime, all those Government bodies likely to procure ICT services should look to do so on a scaleable, cloud basis such that other public bodies can benefit from the new capability. " It is clear that progress for the short to medium term is going to be ad hoc in nature. Earlier on page 24 in item 78 "the “G-Cloud”, has come an important step closer with the publication of the Government’s CIO Council/ Intellect strategy, augmenting the current development of the business case for investment in technical development and physical facilities. These major developments require a single-minded focus to oversee Whitehall-wide standards and systems. " In English this means "we haven't worked out what g-cloud is for yet but it sounds nice and once we have done that we have to still got to make the rules for its introduction. It is easy to be cynical but it the quotes from the Digital Report hardly inspire confidence that there will be rapid progress. I have picked out the cloud extracts because the technology promises the best return on money as a means of handling data. In a sense, it doesn't matter that much as the pace of change in technology is so rapid that it is impossible for any government to legislate or plan to any great depth for what is coming down the road. The authors statements, despite a tendency to hyperbole (politicians, remember) have been wisely cautious in that respect. Sir Tim Berners-Lee was offered the post a little less than two weeks ago and there is still no way of knowing how many Civil Servants (and to what grade) have been assigned to him. But I sincerely hope he has not caught up in the gesture politics of a dying government. The key is in how much power or influence he will have. I suggest to be patient and keep all eyes on his office. See if the lights are on late at night and so on. Digital Report page 213 item 33 “The establishment of a G-Cloud will however require investment in
technical development and physical facilities, and the CIO Council and the
Intellect Public Sector Council are now developing the strategic business
case to justify funding the G-Cloud. Provided that this business case can be
properly developed, the adoption of the G-Cloud will be a priority for
Government investment to secure efficiencies, even within the very
constrained framework for public expenditure, over the next 3 years.

34. In the meantime, all those Government bodies likely to procure ICT services
should look to do so on a scaleable, cloud basis such that other public
bodies can benefit from the new capability. ”

It is clear that progress for the short to medium term is going to be ad hoc in nature. Earlier on page 24 in item 78 “the “G-Cloud”, has come an important step closer with the publication of the Government’s CIO Council/ Intellect strategy, augmenting the current development of the business case for investment in technical development and physical facilities. These major developments require a single-minded focus to oversee Whitehall-wide standards and systems. ”

In English this means “we haven’t worked out what g-cloud is for yet but it sounds nice and once we have done that we have to still got to make the rules for its introduction.

It is easy to be cynical but it the quotes from the Digital Report hardly inspire confidence that there will be rapid progress. I have picked out the cloud extracts because the technology promises the best return on money as a means of handling data.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter that much as the pace of change in technology is so rapid that it is impossible for any government to legislate or plan to any great depth for what is coming down the road. The authors statements, despite a tendency to hyperbole (politicians, remember) have been wisely cautious in that respect.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee was offered the post a little less than two weeks ago and there is still no way of knowing how many Civil Servants (and to what grade) have been assigned to him. But I sincerely hope he has not caught up in the gesture politics of a dying government.

The key is in how much power or influence he will have. I suggest to be patient and keep all eyes on his office. See if the lights are on late at night and so on.

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