Tories back more collaborative approach on IT

Shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has said that the government needs to start taking advantage of the ‘collaborative forums that are emerging on the internet’, citing the Patient Opinion website as an example.

“The Patient Opinion website, a social enterprise set up by a Sheffield GP, is already demonstrating what can be achieved,” Osborne told a Royal Society of Arts conference in London.

“Patients are using the website to post accounts of their experiences of the NHS – both positive and negative. These are then forwarded to the relevant hospital or clinic, which can respond, triggering ‘microconversations’ about the quality of care and service that often result in changes being made.

“The effect is to create a real-time exchange of qualitative data on public experience, from seemingly trivial issues like the lack of clear signs to bigger issues, like poor quality outpatient care. The direction of travel is clear. The government needs to get onboard.”

He told the conference that there was a need for the government to use the internet to help its become ‘more accountable, more transparent and more accessible – and so bridge the gap between government and governed.’

The shadow chancellor also revealed Conservative plans to create a level playing field for open source software in the UK public sector which they claim could result in savings of more than £600m a year.

He said: "Open source politics means rejecting the old monolithic top-down approach to decision making. It means throwing open the doors and listening to new ideas and new contributors. It means harnessing the power of mass collaboration and rather than relying on the input of a few trusted experts, it means drawing on the skills and expertise of millions."

He added that government IT systems are all too often incompatible with other types of software, ‘which stifles competition and hampers innovation.’

Osborne said: “Looking at the litany of IT projects that have collapsed or spiralled over budget, it’s clear too that this has meant billions of pounds wasted and public service reform being hampered. The government’s entire approach needs to be overhauled. The open source savings would come not just from reduced licensing costs, but importantly by freeing government bodies from long-term, monopoly supply situations.

“I recognise that achieving these savings will not be easy but it can be done…it will mean introducing best practice benchmarks, ensuring public sector managers have the resources and support to meet them, building public sector capability so that civil servants can generate real commercial leverage from open source.”

In order to be able to implement such a plan, Osborne also announced that he has asked Mark Thompson of the Judge Business School at Cambridge University to advise the party on how they can make Britain the open source leader in Europe.