Government webpage for every citizen in the race to create a paperless society

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk>
> Date: March 20, 2010 2:08:15 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Government webpage for every citizen in the race to create  
> a paperless society

> Hi Dave:
>
> From today's (UK) Times newspaper - for IP if you wish.
>
> Cheers
>
> Brian
>
> ---
>
> Government webpage for every citizen in the race to create a  
> paperless society
>
> All public services could be delivered online within four years  
> under an ambitious pledge by Gordon Brown to create a paperless  
> state and save billions of pounds, The Times has learnt.
>
> Tens of thousands of public sector jobs could go in Jobcentres,  
> benefit offices, passport centres and town halls if face-to-face  
> transactions are scrapped in favour of cheaper and more efficient  
> online form-filling.
>
> On Monday the Prime Minister will announce plans that he claims  
> could save billions of pounds over four years by making dealing with  
> the State as easy as internet banking or shopping on Amazon. Cash  
> will also be saved on postage stamps, telephone calls and government  
> buildings as the switch to the internet leads to the phasing out of  
> call centres and benefit offices.
>
> The aim is that within a year, everybody in the country should have  
> a personalised website through which they would be able to find out  
> about local services and do business with the Government. A unique  
> identifier will allow citizens to apply for a place for their child  
> at school, book a doctor's appointment, claim benefits, get a new  
> passport, pay council tax or register a car from their computer at  
> home.
>
> Over the next three years, the secure site will be expanded to allow  
> people to interact with their children's teachers or ask medical  
> advice from their doctor through a government version of Facebook.  
> But union leaders and privacy experts immediately warned that the  
> Government's record on IT projects was already catastrophic and  
> there would be key concerns about privacy, data protection and  
> fraud. In addition many elderly, disabled and undereducated people  
> find it difficult to carry out transactions online.
>
> . . .
>
> Full story at:
>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7069240.ece
>
>
> Some early cynical commentary on this by Toby Young can be found in  
> a (UK) Daily Telegraph blog:
>
> Broon's latest announcement could cost the taxpayer billions
>
> Oh dear. Here we go again. Gordon Brown is due to announce on Monday  
> that he wants every citizen to have their own personal webpage  
> within three years of Labour being re-elected. According to the  
> Prime Minister, this will enable them to access a range of public  
> services online, allowing them to apply for school places, book GP  
> appointments, claim benefits, get a new passport, pay council tax or  
> register a car.
>
> Sounds like a good idea until you pause to think how much it's going  
> to cost. When it comes to delivering cost-effective, large-scale IT  
> programmes, New Labour's track record is lamentable. To take just  
> one example, the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), established  
> in 2002, was originally supposed to cost £2.3 billion over three yea 
> rs. In 2006, with the Programme far from complete, the National Audi 
> t Office estimated the total cost over 10 years would be £12.4 billi 
> on. Officials involved in the Programme now think its cost will be c 
> loser to £20 billion and it won't be complete until 2014-15, though  
> even this target - some nine years later than originally planned - i 
> s regarded as wildly unrealistic by most seasoned observers. Needles 
> s to say, those bits of the Programme that have come on stream so fa 
> r are largely out of date and unworkable. According to Edward Leigh, 
>  the Chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, "Th 
> is is the biggest IT project in the world and it is turning into the 
>  biggest disaster."
>
> . . .
>
> http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100030731/broons-latest-announcement-could-cost-the-taxpayer-billions/
>
>
> --
> School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon  
> Tyne,
> NE1 7RU, UK
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
> FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell



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