Modern knowledge working at
the heart of a better
democracy
William Perrin
CSLive09
8 July 2009
Olympia London

Team Obama move to Whitehouse
‘"It is kind of like going from an Xbox
to an Atari,"
Obama spokesman Bill Burton
Washington Post 22/01//09
‘What does that mean in 21st-century
terms? No Facebook to communicate with
supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No
instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a
staff that helped sweep Obama to power
through, among other things, relentless
online social networking…. security
regulations forbidding outside e-mail
accounts.’
Washington Post 22/01//09

Follow the customer
• Traditional customer
dying out as web
working becomes
pervasive outside the
public sector office
‘Deliver for the customer, and you will
survive.’
Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco

Minister for the Civil Service
‘the policy process is a bit like building
a Morgan in Malvern: a handful of
people taking years to create a
beautiful, hand-crafted model…but
surely the future is to be more like a
Toyota made in Derby, modern tools,
modern processes, high-speed
development and delivery.’
Tom Watson MP
(Minister for the Civil Service)
IPPR, 2007

George Osborne MP Adam Afriyie MP
‘David Cameron and I meet…..the (transparency through technology)
founders of Google and two of the most
creative people I've come across. "will make the man in Whitehall
redundant".
‘We talk about the contrast between
their world and the world of ..He said a Conservative government was
government, stuck as too much of it is committed to using technology to give
in a bygone bureaucratic age’. people more power over their lives and to
scrutinise and choose public services.....
Observer 25th May 2008 Do we embrace the new culture of
openness, transparency and interactivity?
Do we respond as if we, too, were 'born
digital'? Or do we stick with the same
clumsy, controlling tactics of a tired
political system
Conservative Shadow Minister for Innovation, Universities and Skills
Guardian Activate09
Reported in Guardian

Publishing 154 years ago….
Northcote-Trevelyan
report – foundation of
modern civil service
Command Paper
Crest
Generally un-engaging, huge
process behind the scenes

Publishing today…..
Crest reassuringly prominent
Still hard to get excited
Command paper
Report about radically new
ways of publishing
information………..

154 years – little progress
Processes still paper driven, in lock step with
Parliament, publication in big lumps at long intervals

Compartmentalisation

Email culture’s tangled web
• Contained networks that die
silently as originators move
on
• Tangled information flows -
duplication and waste
• Self fulfilling and
perpetuating
• Practice embeds ‘knowledge
is power’
• Artificially increases price of
information, inhibiting its use
• Audit difficult

Blackhall – metonym for modern
ways of working in Whitehall
http://tinyurl.com/r4f8dr
http://wperrin.blogspot.com

Whitehall to Blackhall

Power of Information project
and Command Paper
Done in Basecamp
$24 a month
Unlimited users, 15 projects,
3GB storage

Ministers blog publishing policy
in real time…..
Meeting blogged before I got
back to my desk
Consultation in demotic,
online language
43 responses in 24 hours

Willperrin
@tomwatson that will be
government 2.0 then – possibly
a first for minister-civil servant
communication via twitter
Tom_watson
@willperrin Shh. Don’t tell
anyone. Otherwise someone
will commission a guidance
note

Can we routinely publish our
work internally and externally?
Civilpages a good start
Needs wider management
incentives

www.rightsnet.co.uk
3rd sector site discussing live
benefit client cases responsibly
and pseudonymously
Over 30,000 posts
This post - 5 replies, 383 views

Google HMT Files Google Home Office files Google Birmingham City Council files

Open up our space
Pervasive ‘secure enough’ wifi in
Large green zones in every
SW1 and other government
building for collaboration with all
clusters
comers
Tiny red zones for security
Eg The Hub Kings
Cross – heritage
building – modern
flexible working

‘I’m very out of office…….’
“Fleet Street”
“The City”
“Whitehall” ?

Questions and Discussion
Blackhall – metonym for modern ways of working in Whitehall
http://tinyurl.com/r4f8dr
http://wperrin.blogspot.com