Missing the wood for the trees

The Guardian, which is driving a "Free Our Data" campaign, features commentary for Michael Cross discussing the sorry state of information management in the public sector:

there is frustration at the low priority given by ministers to questions of public sector information. Members of the panel "have been disappointed in the past year with our inability to stimulate and secure ministerial interest"

This doesn't just apply to exploitation of the governnments information assets. It's just as true for the IT systems that support government:

The report expresses "surprise" that the transformational government strategy does not deal with the management of information. The advisory panel likens the strategy to that of a plumbing plan which does not consider what liquid will pass through the pipes, how the liquid should remain sanitised, who should be allowed to tap into it and how the liquid might feed into other systems and facilities.

Ultimately, I think that this boils down to the government focussing on the T at the expense of the I in IT. It's concerned about shiny new identity cards, biometrics, scanners etc etc rather than why they exist in the first place: to make effective use of information.

There is, as the article points out, some light at the end of the tunnel:

the report publishes 16 case studies of new information services based on government data. These include the National Land and Property Information Service, ... the Met Office's health forecasting service... a free database of legislation and case law assembled by the British and Irish Legal Information Institute.