EURIM Monthly Newsletter
Summary
Version
The full text for
the newsletter summarised below is at
http://www.eurim.org.uk/activities/newsletter.pdf
Some items link to
material in the members’ area. Please email
admin@eurim.org if you do not
have your password to hand.
1)
Briefing Material for
the Class of 2010
The index to the Information Society Alliance briefing material,
including links to relevant Government, Select Committee and other
Reports, is in the members' area of the website
www.eurim.org.uk/members/
briefingmaterial/index.php. It
is a “working” website, with the current state of drafts that are
being revised and reviewed as well as documents which disappeared
from departmental websites with changes of government or policy.
2)
Securing the Jobs of the Future for Your Constituency
Stephen McPartland, MP for Stevenage, is now parliamentary chairman of the
Knowledge Economy Group. Details by constituency of the populations covered by
the “Universal Service Commitment” and current broadband plans are now on the
website.
The group is looking for MPs who wish to be active
in
supporting local businesses and jobs, to join the steering group and corporate
members interested in working direct with constituency MPs.
3) Delivering More for Less: Improving Delivered Service While
Cutting Costs
The Public Service Delivery Group has agreed a short-order programme to identify
good practice in the procurement of shared networks and of security. The aim is
to help expedite the review of processes, (including of the 50 public buying
organisations paying up to 100% different, identified by the recent
Audit Commission – NAO study that will follow the current moratorium. The
costs of delay include lost public sector savings, damage to potential suppliers
and the UK skills base.
4) Information and Identity Governance not just Garbage Protection
The sub-group on individual voter registration has reviewed experiences
in nearly 20 countries and next meets on 26th July to review content for a
report in the autumn covering methods of voter registration, lessons from other
countries, from previous trials in this country and from the elections this
year. A draft from the sub-group on
identity governance
is on the website for review and a more detailed paper is planned for the
autumn. The core problem is the lack of attention to interoperability and
sharing across the current plethora of fragmented identity schemes with
different objectives, structures and governance. On 8th June the sub-group on
Quality of
Information reviewed a draft covering the main sources of public sector
information and provisional key messages and recommendations. This is
in
the members’ area of the website and a final report is due in the autumn.
5)
Making the Internet a Safe Place to Learn, Relax, Shop and Do
Business
The UK Internet Governance Forum met on 7th July to discuss inputs
to the next world IGF in Vilnius, to which the UK will send a
Parliamentary delegation (two from the government benches, two from
the opposition). Briefing material on the current state of
initiatives with regard to co-operation on e-crime prevention and
awareness programmes for consumers and small firms is on the website
and CEOP (the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency) has
offered one-on-one briefings for MPs.
6)
Putting the Digital Economy Act and Broadband UK into EU Context
On 21st June the Communications Group agreed inputs to a note for the
parliamentary chairman, Malcolm Harbour MEP, to send to the Minister, Ed Vaizey
in advance of his consultation meeting on the Universal Service Commitment on
15th June. The focus was on questions for those bidding for UK public sector
funding as to how they would deliver the open-access, interoperability and
infrastructure sharing necessary to deliver ambitious growth paths at affordable
cost.
The group is also looking at how to bring industry and consumer groups together
to discuss co-operation in ensuring policies that really do protect consumers
from unfair exploitation, at the same time as encouraging investment and
innovation in content and infrastructure.
7)
Ensuring That Your Voters and their
Children have the Skills of the Future
The workforce skills group is looking at how to use University-based short
courses to help address the current crisis (quality as well as quantity) in the
UK supply of electronic security skills (see section 5 above) to lead in to a
wider exercise, with the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing, relevant
professional bodies and trade associations and University constituency MPs and
political alumni, to turn our growing indigenous skills crises (of atrophying
workforce skills) into global opportunities, at affordable cost. Please let me
know if you would like an invitation to participate.
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