<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 12:21 PM, Oleg Goldshmidt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pub@goldshmidt.org" target="_blank">pub@goldshmidt.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
We have elections on the horizon and a bunch of NGO members, from<br>
Hamakor down, up, and sideways, on this list. And we often see - and<br>
complained about - cluelessness in government IT, software, websites,<br>
etc.<br>
<br>
So, it looks like the UK government is trying to do something that<br>
sounds on the face of it, vaguely intelligent about IT projects, cf.<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/02/cabinet_office_open_principles/" target="_blank">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/02/cabinet_office_open_principles/</a><br>
<br>
I am not trying to say this is going to be brilliant or workable or<br>
not prone to subversion by "Sir Humphreys"[*], but given how <a href="http://gov.il" target="_blank">gov.il</a> is<br>
always keen to look abroad to justify doing or not doing stuff, maybe<br>
someone should point it out to some politicians looking for votes in<br>
January?<br>
<br>
If ths generates any heated or prolonged discussions may I suggest<br>
conducting them on the appropriate NGO lists and forums? I am not a<br>
member of any, so it was easier for me to post here in the belief that<br>
it is on topic. How to best influence the politicians, however,<br>
probably isn't, unless someone hacks up a Linux-based AI to run the<br>
country.<br>
<br>
[*] Some of the younger list members may need, e.g.,<br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister</a> to understand who "Sir<br>
Humphrey" was. The rest of us may well be reminded that the<br>
fictional Minister whose efforts to reform things were so often<br>
thwarted by Sir Humphrey was called Jim Hacker.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Oleg Goldshmidt | <a href="mailto:pub@goldshmidt.org">pub@goldshmidt.org</a><br>
<br></font></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>The people behind <a href="http://gov.il">gov.il</a> think that .doc is an open standard since after all it can be opened by every computer they know of.</div><div><br></div>
<div>-- </div><div>Ori Idan</div><div><br></div></div></div>