A vision for a different way of working for the policy and HQ function of the british public sector. Blackhall is a metonym for Whitehall transformed by knowledge based working. Presented to IA09 a conference of information security professionals QEII centre London UK

1. Following the customer:
what new public sector
knowledge workers might want
- a personal view
William Perrin
IA09
6 July 2009
QEII Centre London

4. Team Obama move to the
Whitehouse:
‘"It is kind of like going from an
Xbox to an Atari,"
Obama spokesman Bill Burton
said of his new digs.’
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

5. Follow the customer
• Traditional customer
changing very fast as
web working becomes
pervasive outside the
public sector office
• Can information
assurance and human
resource policies keep
up?
‘Deliver for the customer, and you will
survive.’
Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco

6. 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

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

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

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

10. 154 years – little progress
Processes still paper driven, in lock step with
Parliament, publication in big lumps at long intervals

11. Compartmentalisation

12. 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

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

14. Whitehall to Blackhall

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

16. 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

17. 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

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

19. 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

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

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