Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Chairman and Co-Founder, Open Data Institute (ODI)delivered the opening special address, which focused on the importance of open data globally in an increasingly virtualised environment. Examples used to highlight the importance of open data focused upon the relationship between open data and transport, local government, public health, governance and crime. This was followed by a presentation on the future of open source and its ability to increase organisational agility by Bryan Cheung, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Liferay.
Agility and open source remained a theme for the rest of the day and
was also discussed by James
Stewart, Head of Technology, Government Digital Service (GDS). James focused his
presentation on how the GDS team utilised open source technology and how
central government departments are using open source in the Digital by Default 25
exemplar services. The Digital by Default Service Standards included:
- Assemble a multidisciplinary team that can design, build and operate the service, led by a suitably skilled and senior service manager with full authority and decision making responsibility.
- Make sure that you have the capacity and technical flexibility to update and improve the service on a very frequent basis.
- Use open standards and common government platforms (eg identity assurance) where available.
- Make all new source code open and reusable, and publish it under appropriate licences (or provide a convincing explanation as to why this cannot be done for specific subsets of the source code).
Adrian
Keward, Strategist & Senior Solution Architect, Red Hat UK then discussed
the importance of open source in the enterprise and the importance of
reliability and supportability provided by open source solutions. Next on stage
was Mark Taylor, UK Director, Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) who
stressed the estimated UK spending on government IT is about 1% of GDP
"more than we spend on Wales". Mark highlighted the opportunity to
Government to change the way it operates in the ‘Age of Open’.
Open Source software and technology was demonstrated as a great money
saving, agility increasing alternative by the morning speakers but many public
sector bodies are hesitant to move towards open source – with this in mind David Munn, Head of Information Technology, Greater London Authority
asked ‘What is holding back adoption?’. The final
speaker of the morning, Andres Kütt, Information System Architect Advisor, Estonian Information System
Authority, told of the Estonian open source experience and highlighted ‘closed
source used to be chosen for its superior functionality... this is no longer
the case’.
The afternoon session was kicked off with a fantastic presentation from
Mark
Dearnley, Chief Digital & Information Officer, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) who
offered insights in to HMRC’s open source strategy. Open Source should ‘create
a level playing field’ and was an important development for Britain’s third largest publisher - HMRC.
Francois
Mounier, Head of Development Services, London Borough of Camden was unexpectedly
joined by John Jackson, CIO, London
Borough of Camden who announced the Open Systems Alliance, a local authority
initiative to drive an open approach to ICT. An initiative that was supported by many in the room including Bristol Council.
The final
speaker of the day joined the audience from CESG - Chris Ulliott,
Technical Director and Member of the Open Standards Board who ended the day
with a discussion on the perceived insecurity of FOSS and open source security concerns.
The Open Source, Open Standards speakers demonstrated the importance of open source software and technology in the future fo public sector ICT. The possibility of an 'Open Future' is an exciting one and we look forward to discussing this further and in greater detail in 2015!
The Open Source, Open Standards speakers demonstrated the importance of open source software and technology in the future fo public sector ICT. The possibility of an 'Open Future' is an exciting one and we look forward to discussing this further and in greater detail in 2015!
