“Whitehall is arguably Britain’s most important knowledge factory,”

What a sad indictment of this once great nation!!

Utter bollocks too.

We have a 'Minister for Transformational Government'? Not even Orwell could've come up with that.

Can anyone believe that ministers or Whitehall mandarins will become adoit with any aspect of technology newer than a sliderule (no, make that an abacus)?

As it has proved time and again, the UK government has the clumsy knack of turning any and every aspect of IT that it touches into a pile of poo.

"Watson argued. “Whitehall is arguably Britain’s most important knowledge factory,” he said,"

Read it again.

You're having a fucking laugh, right???

Paris would know better than he does!

' freeing up data “will allow us to unlock the talent of British entrepreneurs” '

So, how about letting us have the ordnance survey data then ? No ? Thought so... nothing to see here apart from spin, move along...

Government-sponsored astroturfing

"Which is funny, as we’d never thought organising spontaneous demonstrations was part of the government’s remit."

Not only is it outside of their remit, they've gone to great lengths to discourage and outlaw it whenever possible.

Poor old Tom has swallowed the Web 2.0 hype hook, line and sinker. I'd rather see all the money these ideas will potentially swallow used for something that has some relevance to the majority; hospitals, public transport, education, etc.

If people want maps how about just publishing OS maps as PDFs that people can download and print out? Paper tends to work without batteries and is never out of range of a signal. No need for some super expensive site that will fall over when demand outstrips the available bandwidth during the holidays and other busy periods

If Tom really wants to make a difference he may care to reflect on his voting record on ID cards, transparent government and other matters of personal liberty:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/tom_watson/west_bromwich_east

Perhaps the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Alex Allen, has shared with the Plagiarists of Labour....... "A Step Forward into IntelAIgents Fields ...... Red Hot XXXX Zones ..... for Natural Controls." ... Sent Sun 10/02/2008 09:07 ...... and IT has put the Wind up them/Wound them up.

It says all of what the article says and a hell of a lot more besides. And not a lot of people know that.

That's probably why he put the word "arguably" in there. I can think of a few people who might want to take that argument on!

Who knows? Paris might be one of them!

Brown: The colour of shit.

From the report:

"To share social media best practice in the public, private and third sectors, the government supported a ‘BarCamp’ BarcampUKGovweb initiated by the Ministry of Justice. The BarCamp discussed how to equip web experts across government to work with social media. Over 100 people attended the event, hosted at Google UK."

What a nice racket Web 2.0 is turning out to be for Tom Steinberg and his webtard friends.

In the Interim Progress Report one can read ....

"The first six months of implementing the Review's recommendations have revealed several generic obstacles:

* Organisations have had difficulty getting the right people into the right roles for social media.

* The effect of social media is at an early stage in the development of the economy as a whole. Skills are difficult to find and develop at this stage.

* In social media, moderators and leaders tend to emerge as a result of building reputations by social networking rather than being appointed. This is a challenge to hierarchical government organisations. " ...... and those few words highlight the Establishment/Status Quo/Government dilemma.

IT does Challenge Fundamentally their hierarchical government organisations and finds them to be Unfit for Future Purpose and thus Renders them ITs Servant rather than Master. As you can imagine, the Realisation is unpalatable to them [and especially so if they are also Perpetrating a Fraud/Living a Lie].

What you will discover though is that the right people into the right roles for social media will simply ignore their difficulties, and present Solutions which allow them the Services which they Both Need ....... and if they are not heeded then the Failing will be simply further, more deeply highlighted, to crash the lead tender vehicles Unfit for Future Service.

Just in case you've forgotten, this it the same Tom Watson with the "in touch wid da y00f" blogging style:

"The BBC politics for kids/teens site is, like, totally wacked! Ditto for the Parliament education site, which even has a section for younger yoof. Fanta-stick!"

See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07/05/meet_tom_watson_mp_blogger/ for more.

I had the dubious pleasure of meeting this man on a regular basis for a while before he was an MP. He was a pillock then too.

from the outside, the UK Labor gov appears to be the insane leading the blind...so just like the US, then. if a social networking project seems likely to save one's "bacon", it is too late - one is well and truly doomed.

coat, because it's time to get the fsck out of here, before they turn off all the lights, and another Dark Age descends upon the land.

Just in case the concept of 'public ownership' in the case of ordinance survey data isn't oxymoronic enough for you, be delighted to know (if you didn't already), that HM Govt. believes it somehow has copyright to the tide data around Britain's shores.

The tide comes in, the tide goes out, the tide comes in again... Anyone with a calculator/slide-rule/pencil & paper plus requisite brain cells and time on their hands can sit down and work out the future tide times for their bit of coast, even the whole country if they are really keen, but woe betide them if they should have the temerity to make that information public. Not even charging for it, but make it public gratis and for nothing.

Yes, the full weight of the Govt. will duly come crashing down on you---even reaching out to grab you beyond these shores---to cast your miserable self into outer darkness---well, quite a stiff fine or even a spot of porridge actually (assuming the local law allows it).

Personally I somehow can't get past the idea that the tides are 'public domain' in the truest sense of the word, but then what do I know; well it's low tide here at 2200 and high tide next at 0416, but don't tell anyone I said so.

They've had the appalling 'Ask Frank' site up for ages. A relic from the days of trying to attract the Yoof it just went (and still does) "Drugs are bad, m'kay" without much advice on the stuff you can buy legally other than that they can be bad for you. Plenty of stuff about drugs dealers but nothing about revenue from cigs and booze.

Anyway I thought Web 2.0 was a bit turn of the century stuff, we're almost in 2010. By the time they got anything sorted they wouldn't be able to use it as the kit wouldn't be energy efficient.

Think I'll stick to reading Private Eye and such other mighty organs as the Reg for what's going on with HM Gov(inc.)

Strong hint of Nathan Barley there!

The sad thing isn't that he believes all this crap, or that he can spout endless reams of it, or that he somehow manages to make a living off this, but that judging from the comments on his blog there seem to be plenty more out there just like him.

It would be tempting to organise some sort of Web 2.0 event just to gather these people into one place where they could be dealt with appropriately. A thorough education with the clue stick would be a good start, but I suspect more drastic actions would be required.

An interim measure of some sort of stitch-up might be an option, after all if they believe this bollocks they'll believe anything!

In the meantime I'm off to try and purge my brain of the crap that leaked in when I looked at Tom Watson's blog.