Change we can believe in

17 examples of social media and goverment inovation

An interesting new report – ‘Better for Less: How to make Government IT deliver savings’ - has just been released by The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age (a research group supported by activists and volunteers in the public and private sectors).

The report seeks to investigate the quagmire of government IT.  Better for Less

 Concentration of Power  

UK Government IT has failed to meet political and public aspirations and has followed a policy of demand aggregation, an approach that has concentrated the IT marketplace in the hands of a small group of overly influential “System Integrator” companies who themselves find the profligate waste and lack of capability deeply troubling.

Effective checks and controls over IT contracts have been dismantled with a move instead to selectively placed, very large, high value and long-term contracts going to ‘the big 9’. Transparency is routinely refused, often for ‘Commercial Confidentiality’ reasons.

More fundamentally, by turning away from the IT mainstream (based on open platforms, open competition and rapid innovation) and instead pursuing a closed, centralised IT model, government has effectively backed the wrong model - it has chosen Betamax over VHS.

Trapped in an evolutionary cul-de-sac and with little competitive leverage, it has paid ever larger amounts to persuade suppliers to prop up its suite of disconnected, unsustainable platforms.

Potential solutions

The report suggests 5 principles that should form the basis of all IT in government:

1) Openness

• Open Data – government data must be transparent

• Open Source works – its concepts should be applied to processes as much as to IT 

• Open Standards will drive interoperability, save money and prevent vendor lock-in

• Open Markets – competition creates efficient market-based solutions 

2) Localism – the centre may set the standards, but local deployment is best

3) Ownership and Privacy

• It’s our data, government can have access but not control over personal data 

• Government should be accountable for data protection and proper use

4) Outcomes matter more than targets

5) Government must be in control of its programmes, not led by them. 

The report goes on to suggest 4 workstreams to embed these principles. These workstreams include

1: Audit – Get and understand the numbers

2: Identity – the pre-requisite for online delivery

3: Capability – build in the skills we will need for the long term

4 - Delivering change through open markets

For more analysis on the report check:

• A facelift for the pig
• Opening Up Government IT: Better for Less

Mike Bradshaw, Director of Google Federal, testified on to the benefits of cloud computing at a recent House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on federal IT.

According to Google, the primary benefits of cloud computing for government can be summed up as:

• Improving Security - Under legacy computing models, data is stored on local computers – this is the equivalent of keeping cash under your mattress. Storing data securely in the cloud is like keeping cash in a bank.
• Saving Money - Research has  found that government agencies that switched to some form of cloud computing saw up to 50 percent savings. To put that in context, the federal government is currently spending $76 billion per year on IT, with $20 billion of that devoted to hardware, software and file servers.
• Improving efficiency and collaboration - Federal employees can collaborate more easily and effectively because information and applications run in a shared, secure space online, making it easy for people to work together on documents. Millions of individuals, businesses, and governments are already enjoying these benefits.

Bradshaw outlined how many departments are already involved in cloud computing pilots and initiatives, and outlined how these could result in greater innovation and cost savings:

Though the federal government is adopting at a slower rate compared to industry, we are beginning to see government cloud initiatives and pilot programs. The public sector is already adopting cloud at all levels of government to better serve citizens, reduce costs, lower energy consumption and make more effective use of taxpayer dollars overall. Federal entities currently using the cloud include the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Department of the Interior, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Security and Exchange Commission, and the General Services Administration.

Simply put, cloud computing is already here and being used every day by individuals, business, and government. But we believe that the federal government could move more quickly, and by doing so it could reap benefits similar to those enjoyed by the private sector. The opportunity to switch to the cloud means that the approximately $80 billion per year market for federal government IT will see more innovation and competition – along with cost and energy savings, which are critical in today’s environment.

See full details of his testimony below:

Testimony Bradshaw

For more on cloud computing in government, check GovFresh's Top 7 'Minds in the Cloud' videos.

(Via Google Public Policy Blog)

OMB Director Peter Orzag also announced a plan for cutting waste by reforming IT. He explains how one source of ineffective and inefficient government is the technology gap between the public and private sectors:

While a productivity boom has transformed private sector performance over the past two decades, the federal government has almost entirely missed this transformation and now lags far behind on efficiency and service quality.

As part of this he explains three specific actions the Government is taking to advance IT reform.

1. I am directing all executive departments and agencies to stop issuing new task orders or procurements for all financial system modernization projects – an area of persistent problems – pending review and approval by OMB of new, more streamlined project plans. 
2. The Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra will undertake detailed reviews of the highest risk IT projects across the federal government.  Agencies will be required to present improvement plans to the CIO for projects that are behind schedule or over budget.
3. Third, OMB’s Deputy Director for Management Jeff Zients will develop recommendations, within 120 days, for improving the federal government’s overall IT procurement and management practices. 

For more on the Government's efforts to Reform IT check the memo sent by Director Orzag to all heads of Executive Departments and Agencies.Reforming the Federal Govt Efforts to Manage IT Projects

Vivek Kundra envisioning a federal IT enterprise that's fast, effective and responsive to the demands of its users.

(via http://mindsinthecloud.org)