Government can't ignore open source any longer
Published: 08 Mar 2007 14:17 GMT
...a similar system here in the UK. It would enable British taxpayers to find out how much is spent in their local school or how much is spent by their local GP's surgery.
The legislation is about to complete all its stages in the Lords and come to the Commons. I know from private conversations that while there are some in government who like the idea, the Treasury is almost certain to kill off the bill in the Commons.
Of course the government has created some new websites and many of the forms you need to fill in are now available for download. You can even fill in some forms over the net too.
But that's the most basic reaction to new technology: doing the old thing a new way. Instead, just as successful companies are harnessing this new technology to do things in a new way, so we need to rethink the way public services work.
What's needed in government is as much a cultural shift as a technological change. A shift to a culture that welcomes criticism and comment — then reacts to it. A shift to a culture that seeks customers' views and ideas at every stage of developing a service. And a shift to a culture where every service can be improved, and no service is ever fully developed. That means more than constantly tinkering with public services for the sake of it. It means being open to fresh thinking and input from both users and deliverers.
This approach is at the heart of our social responsibility agenda. The democratisation of information is changing the relationship between government and the citizen for good — and it is the first pillar of that new political settlement I talked about.
The second pillar of a new political settlement will be founded on new social networks. I've asked this question before, but let me ask it again. How many people here are friends with Tom Anderson? You must know Tom. I went all the way to Los Angeles last year to meet him. He's 31 years old. His interests are music, movies and the history of Communism. His favourite bands include Superdrag and the Sex Pistols. Tom also has 125 million friends. That's right, 125 million friends. Because Tom is the co-founder of MySpace and when you join MySpace, as 125 million people have, Tom is your first friend. MySpace is an online social network and each week another 250,000 people join it.
Think about it. Every week, roughly the same number of people who are members of the Labour or Conservative Party are joining just one of the new online social networks. These people are not brought together by a common geography or experience. What they share is a common interest. We are used to people living in a particular place, or being employees of a particular company, or members of a trade union or political party. We are used to being organised by others and having others speak on our behalf.
These online networks are different. People are organising themselves and speaking for themselves. And they are mobilising politically. Ever since Howard Dean raised $30m through donations from internet activists, mainstream American politicians have woken up to the vast potential of social networking.
The presidential elections in 2008 will push the envelope still further. Barack Obama already has 300,000 "friends" on Facebook alone. He's even set up his own social-networking site — MyBarackObama.com.
Online political networks are springing up in the UK, too — and interestingly they are almost all Conservative ones. There are those networks actively set up by the Conservative Party. Each week on WebCameron, for example, not only does David Cameron post his thoughts in short video clips but the public is invited to submit questions they think he should answer. Each week the question asked the most — no matter how awkward — gets an answer.
I do look forward to seeing WebGordon. But it is not the official...
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