Stephen Dale's Posterous - Passionate about the social web, collaboration, learning, sharing and trying to make sense of an increasingly complex world.
I came across this artcle on the BBC website today. For those who remember my involvement with the early design and business requirements for the Knowledge Hub, the Khub App store was one of the main features of the new platform. Regretably it got lost in the budget cuts (or was de-priotised?), and hence an opportunity lost. As can be seen from the announcement, this could have been a net revenue stream for LGA as opposed to being perceived as adding to bottom line costs. See this earlier blog post.
To quote from the BBC article:
“It is hoped the service will allow organisations to purchase services on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, rather than be locked into lengthy contracts. They typically include services such as email, word processing, system hosting, enterprise resource planning and electronic records management.
The Cloudstore would help contribute to overall planned savings of £180m by 2015, the government said, although a spokesman admitted it was “difficult to anticipate total saving with the constant changes in technology”.
Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “Simply stated, purchasing services from Cloudstore will be quicker, easier, cheaper and more transparent for the public sector and suppliers alike.This bold move has potential to showcase the UK as a global leader in online service delivery, providing the procurement culture in government evolves to take advantage.”
And the following could almost have been lifted word for word from my original business case:
“Cloudstore (read Khub Appstore) represents a revolution in how the public sector buys (procures) software and services,” Chief executive Suraj Kika said. My additions in brackets.
However, whilst feeling (perhaps understandably?) frustrated that the App Store never got implemented for KHub, I am encouraged that UK Gov have seen the benefits of using an app store as a cost-effective way of procuring and delivering business software, at a time when more and more users are getting familiar with this way of accessing and using new functionality. As I mentioned in my original article, the benefits of this distribution model are:
Easy to use and trusted conduit of software.
Download model is widely understood by both consumers and developers of software.
‘Mashup’ tools will make it easy for apps to be built and shared by anyone.
Provides centralised control and value-add including commercial, security, access controls, digital rights.
Stimulates ideas for compelling new business scenarios and service innovation.
And of course users have the advantage of discarding or updating their apps if they no longer serve their immediate business requirements.
So, presumably local councils seeking to make cost savings in the procurement and distribution of new business applications will make the most of this new Cloudstore. I think the business case is pretty compelling.
The promised axe is coming down hard today on 192 quangos that will be abolished, with another 289 being radically overhauled. 380 quangos are staying.
As one insightful blogger noted:
The regular hoeing to keep the soil clean has rather been neglected these last few years. Hence the need now for the Round-up and flame-thrower approach. It’s brutal, but it’s cleansing. With the rubbish cleared, the productive can be nurtured.
Any bets on when the first new quango of this coalition will be created?
Much has been written about ‘Lean‘, and what a ‘lean’ organisation looks like. ‘Lean’ quite simply means creating more value with fewer resources. A popular misconception is that ‘lean’ only applies to manufacturing industries, but in fact it can be applied to any business process, including within service industries. Clearly it it is a concept that should be concentrating the minds of Government and Local Government in these austere times, though whether an intelligent and disciplined approach is being made to the cost cutting we’re now seeing, or whether its more of a ‘slash and burn’ approach I’m not too sure. Perhaps this will become clearer when the spending review is completed this Autumn.
While we wait for this, and for anyone still confused as to what ‘Lean’ actually means, I can recommend this presentation from Claudio Perrone. The best I’ve seen in explaining a simple concept in simple terms.
Just picked up from Nick Milton’s blog, the Kuwait Petroleum Company have published a series of case studies from the communities of practice his company helped them to launch and build over the last year. Some of thee case studies include early-stage estimates of value generated. All of them are interesting studies of young communities, in the Middle Eastern culture, beginning to deliver value through new ways of working.
The IDeA Communities of Practice platform (CoPs) won first prize in its category at the National e-Government Awards in the prestigious setting of at the Guildhall, London on Tuesday 20th January. The e-Government awards are supported by the Cabinet Office, SOCITM and SOLACE, and recognise excellence in public sector IT and transformational e-Govt projects.
See also John’s IDeA Blog for photos of John Hayes, Michael Norton, Lawrence Hall and me picking up the award.
CoPs was short-listed as finalist in two categories, and won under ‘e-Government Excellence: Professionalism & Leadership’ (Leading e-Government strategies and professional development which contribute to achieving positive transformation).
There were 588 entrants to the e-government awards, with CoPs being one of only 11 winners receiving the UK’s highest level commendation for the best e-government and technology-driven services. It was also pleasing to hear Gordon Brown, in his recorded speech for the evening, reference the good work that online communities had been achieving for government over the previous year.
This is some recognition (at last!) for the work I’ve been engaged on at the IDeA for these past 3 year’s, ably supported by the Knowledge Management team, and not forgetting all of the many excellent community managers and facilitators who keep the communities buzzing.
The CoP platform currently supports over 26,000 registered users across the UK public sector, and more than 600 individual CoPs, collaborating on policy initiatives, developing good/next practice for public sector service improvement or just sharing knowledge and ideas.
There was a brief mention in Gordon Brown’s videolink speech about on-line communities. I’d like to thik he had the CoP platform in mind when he said it!
I thought I would post a couple of examples of how communities of practice (CoPs) are becoming increasingly mainstream in developing policy and seeding innovation in the public sector – an area of work I continue to support through my involvement with the Improvement and Develpment Agency.
News from the Cabinet Office on how the Social Exclusion Task Force has set up a Socially Excluded Adults Community of Practice as a spin off from work that the IDeA have been doing to support councils to help people with learning disabilities into employment. The CoP was announced by Kevin Brennan, Minister for Social Exclusion at the Children and Adults conference last week.
And as an example of how to bring fresh and dynamic perspectives into a CoP, Paul Barber will be holding a live ‘hotseat’ forum  session in the Beacon Scheme CoP on 12 November 2008 11am – 12noon. Paul may be better known for his appearances in TV series such as Only Fools and Horses, and the film The Full Monty. Paul has recently launched the paper back version of his book, ‘Foster Kid‘, and will be in the forum to discuss the book and issues it raises about children and young people in care.
These are just two of the 550+ CoPs that are currently being supported on the IDeA’s CoP platform.
A number or reports and one consultation document on the topic of Digital Inclusion were published on Friday 24th October 2008 by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).
There is also a discussion forum to discuss the main themes of the Digital Inclusion Action Plan.
Links are on the CLG website but replicated here for convenience:
The Civil Service have published a set of guidelines for on-line participation by civil servants (blogging etc.). As Whitehall Webby Jeremy Gould notes, this is a much slimmed-down version of a weightier tome that has been in production behind the scenes, and which may appear as a set of more detailed operational guidelines for using social media/Web 2.0 tools.
The initiative is to be applauded, and I particularly like the succinctness of the guidelines, which is most un-civil service-like, but in keeping with the overall concept of agility and flexibility that one associates with the brave new world of Web 2.0.
The Power Of Information Task Force are seeking feedback on the guidelines. Have your say!
Paul Canning writes about the changing and shifting priorities of central government in relation to ‘eDemocracy’, and specifically the possible demise of the International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy (ICELE), which is – or was – a government funded ‘National Project‘. I believe Paul’s point is that this is not so much a case of government being particularly capricious in this instance as being devoid of any real understanding of what is happening in the egov world. I’d agree with all this, and the execellent summary of why IT projects fail that Paul writes about in a separate blog.
But while government blunders about in ever-decreasing circles, with huge monolithic ‘e-projects’ that will take years to deliver any benefits, (and more likely be canned when costs get out of hand), there are surely some opportunities for the small/entrepenurial consultancies and individuals in the Web 2.0 space to fill the gaps with what may start out as tactical solutions but could ultimatley be part of core strategy. I admire MySociety for taking this approach, and maybe this is an example for other practitioners in this space.
I just wish that Government would realise they don’t need to create enormously complex governance structures for what should be agile e-gov projects. But perhaps ‘agility’ and ‘government’ is after all an oxymoron!
See also comments on this debate from Dave Briggs .
For any twitter users that were not already aware, a press release advising that Gordon Brown (No10 Downing St) now has a twitter account. Not sure if I should worry but I’m one of the 472 people mentioned as being followed. I’m sure he’ll lose interest in me very soon!
Also of interest, the announcement by Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson about the creation of a “Power of Information Task Force”, which will drive forward the Government’s pledge to meet the rising aspirations of modern communications practice and improve engagement with citizens through social media. Lets just hope this initiative doesn’t get bogged down by the usual bureaucracy at the heart of Government. We live in hope!
