This is a work in progress, published in a incomplete state to allow it to be referenced from other places and as a framework for a proposal on how to make the National IT spend more cost effective.
Scope
The proposal focuses primary on spend which has a information aspect, which turns out to be quite broad.
Everything under gov.uk, nhs.uk, police.uk
To buy or to rent.
In most cases, if you can afford it, owning an asset works out better than renting in the long run.
Open Interfaces and protocols
The SMTP mail systems should use the available facilities of Internet standards for email, such as return receipts (rather then tracking technology used by internet marketeers), mailing list unsubscribe headers, either PGP or S/MIME.
Public space Wifi systems should permit IMAP (mail access protocol), MSP (mail submission protocol) through their firewalls so that people using standard mail clients (not just webmail) can communicate.
XMPP
ODF
The Office Document Format is
iCAL
Information relating to appointments and events should use standard calendaring facilities, specifically not asking for an Apple, Google or Microsoft Outlook password so the event can be added into the only 3 possible calendars. Appointments should contain the information needed, not just a link to login to a third party system to read the required information. (drdoctor).
Open Software foundations
There should be a set of preferred implementations for each protocol, where the implementation is produced by some independent foundation. The government should sponsor the foundations at a level which provides influence, but not control, and be prepared to work with, for example the EU in implementation issues.
Government IT Infrastructure.
On shore pool of compute power, storage etc – a Government cloud – using open cloud interfaces. IT projects should be able to buy capacity from AWS, Azure cloud etc if this becomes overstretched, but because they operate at the protocol level should be able to migrate.
Common software repository. This will have the source of all the software being used in one central location. For software based on Foundation based projects government experts will review changes and pull in updates, feeding back any issues
Common issue tracker
– open to the public. Do not need a common Government ID to open an issue, but anonymous issues could be closed by bots and never make it into the system to prevent spam. Not just for software, i.e. potholes, water and sewage leaks, etc.
Geographic Information system
Adopt Openstreetmap or similar as a common Geographic Information System. Use it for bus routes, road closures, planning applications, etc.
Analytics and infrastructure monitoring – for tracking web usage etc, to avoid the reliance on third party tools for this.
Common security resource, identifying untustworthy IP and mail addresses, fed from Phishing reporting and internal detection and openly available.
Common systems across similar use cases
Currently, every police force, NHS trust, Council (County, Parish) contracts their own individual system for their IT needs. Each is developed in isolation and then susceptible to vendor lock in.
Protocols and specification in general
If the Open protocol is not good enough for the needs of the government then the money should be spend on improving the protocol, and or implementations the government uses.
Communications – Instant Messaging
XMPP is a mature, open protocol
Desktop and user facing software
Since the key thing is the open protocols the desktops should be able to run WIndows or Mac with Office or LibreOffice or Linux with LibreOffice – and any new systems which do not work this way should be replaced. Departments would be free to mix and mingle, to simplify migration.
Web sites
All Government web sites should only be running government controlled code. This in particular means pieces of Javascript and tracking script loaded from external sites.
Migrate from hosting public information of third party social media sites and promote government operated ones.
Interoperability problems
Having saved all documents in ODF formats, any issues with how they work should be investigated, and will be either
- a flaw in the way Word implements ODF – which Microsoft should fix
- an ambiguity in the specification – when public resources would be validly spent to fix the spec
- a flaw in the preferred software implementation
Mobile phones
Approved government phones based on core Android (or other open source – e.g. if Apple open IoS) which means any publicly developed software should not depend on features outside that set. Can be build on cross platform APIs to work on Android of iPhone,
Costs
Benefits
Savings on licence costs
Devops
Devops is the application of tools used for software DEVelopment to OPerations. Putting data and its interfaces into standard formats would allow automations. Note that this is not AI – the scripts are open, and subject to change control and review. Examples of possible automations follow.
Route update checks
If a change is proposed to the common map, then bus routes can be checked, and if they have to be diverted the timetables can be adjusted. If a bus timetable is adjusted and it should have had a rendezvous with another service that can be flagged. If, say, St Michael Street is to be partially closed, maintaining pedestrian access, but due to the location of drop kerbs it is now impassable by wheelchair, this can be flagged.
Planning checks
When new developments are proposed the impact on sewage, energy infrastructure, schools, medical services etc can be processed in a more integrated fashion. These are all reviewed under the current planning arrangements, but each facility sees its area in isolation.
Feed the issue system back into the planning review system.
When an unexpected problem occurs, part of the resolution should be a review to see if it could have been prevented. For example when Botley lost its phone and internet services, because its phone lines were cut at the railway bridge work there was a GIS problem, in that the telecoms links were not available to the people doing the work, and a network topology problem, in that cutting one link should not have had as large an effect.
Being open about problems
As an example Patients Know Best – one of many patient systems being paid for by the NHS is still showing, in its Home page, an invitation to participate in the 2023 Kidney Patient Reported Experience Measure survey. I reported this was now out of date over 2 years ago, and it is still not fixed, along with half a dozen other issues or suggestions mostly pretty trivial. An open issue system would allow users to see if they too had this problem, or ones like SPO2 at rest and after activity which can’t be recorded, but was requested by the hospital from patients recovering from Covid.
Risks
Bringing so much data, and code, into the open brings risks, particularly in relation to privacy and security.
Resources
Links to possibly relevant information
- https://x-road.global/ – the core of Estonia national IT Infrastructure – Open Source and Federated.