Government Open Standards Moves Just The Start

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The government has announced the first steps in a new initiative to enable state-run bodies to access a wider range of suppliers of technology, which will include data storage providers.

Chief technology officer Liam Maxwell has backed the first recommendations for the first Open Standards for Government Technology initiative by the Open Standards Board (OSB), which is aimed at enabling a wider range of open source and proprietary software suppliers to get contracts with public sector organisations.

Describing the move as a "landmark" development, cabinet office minister Francis Maude said: "We owe it to hard-working taxpayers to build and procure the technology we need in the smartest and most cost-effective way possible.

"Open standards will give us interoperable software, information and data in government and will reduce costs by encouraging competition, avoiding lock-in to suppliers or products and providing more efficient services."

The first two agreed initiatives concern persistent resolvable identification – which enables things to remain identifiable as the entities that they are over time – and cross-platform character encoding, which enables encrypted data to be read on different platforms by authorised users.

Next on the list is a third challenge described as "describing and sharing our information", which will be considered further by the OSB before it looks to make any recommendations.

This approach could mean that a wider array of data storage and security providers are able to get government contracts in the years ahead and private sector firms may see this as proof of the benefits of such services.

The moves have been taken under Mr Maude's remit as part of the Cabinet Office and Efficiency and Reform Group, which aims at continuous improvement, greater value for money and better services to the public. It is part of the government's digital strategy, which was published in November last year.

One initiative that could have huge benefits for Whitehall is a shift to paperless offices, the think tank Policy Exchange has said. In a recent report, it said this move could save the government £70 billion by 2020.

It singled out the Crown Prosecution Service and Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority as bodies who produce vast quantities of paper every day at considerable expense, which it believes could be cut down.

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. Government Open Standards Moves Just The Start. September 30, 2013. Storetec.