Information is Power... (Francis Bacon)

Richard Quarrell and I met, as planned, to discuss “Psiphon”. I think this project could be very important, but we need to do some testing and assessment to establish that’s the case. The idea is to automate the creation of organisations’ Information Asset Registers, facilitating reuse of information and supporting the creation of a market for public information. If this can be got off the ground now, it will be very timely since, as previously reported, the “Power of Information” Taskforce report is being published in the spring, and Richard Allan will be speaking on this at the Socitm National Conference on 23rd April.

I agreed that Socitm would help to recruit volunteers to form a Reference Group, which Newham is prepared to Chair, to help refine the design and testing requirements.


On Tuesday, I spoke in the “Transformation & the Role of Technology” stream, chaired by Steve Palmer, at Osney Media’s Public Sector Transformation Summit at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park. Glyn Evans followed me, and we both joined a panel with other speakers to round off the morning programme.

Unfortunately, the three of us missed the Plenary sessions because we were meeting, in the Hotel Lobby, with Adrian Hancock and John Serle, to ensure we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet concerning the ways in which the National Advisory Council (chaired by John) and Socitm Futures (chaired by Glyn) work together, and their respective remits. I’ll say a little more about this in the President’s Report that I’m currently working on. However, it has been agreed that the March 9th Socitm Futures meeting will be a Workshop to review the top two Policy Priorities – Information Management / Assurance/ Resilience, and pan-Government Security Vision – with the aim of agreeing objectives, methodology, outputs/ products and the delivery plan for each. Martin Ferguson has agreed to facilitate.


Mike Simons, the Editor of ComputerWorldUK, sent me a note containing this link, which he thought I’d be interested in. I have to confess that this story about the proposed “Coroners and Justice Bill” had passed me by, but I am now not only interested, but quite alarmed at what seems to be being proposed. The BCS seems to have done a good job in producing an emphatic response, which I believe Socitm would want to support.

There is a commentary on the bill, which proposes major amendments to the Data Protection Act, and may override any other existing legislation that impedes its intention, at http://www.amberhawk.com/uploads/datasharing%20explain_website.pdf Of course, there will be other views and perspectives that I’ll gladly reflect here, but this does seem a subject that deserves our attention.