e-Government Unit

1. e-Government Unit UK Government interoperability policy and standards Maewyn Cumming Assistant Director, Technology Policy Ankara, March 2005

2. e-Government Unit Agenda • e-Government Unit • e-GIF objectives and scope • e-GIF policies • Implementation and compliance issues • Content - architecture • Governance, management • XML

3. e-Government Unit e-Government Unit Mission: “To support the business transformation of government so we can provide better more efficient public services” Prime Minister, May 2004

4. e-Government Unit The e-Government Unit • Works with departments to deliver efficiency savings while improving the delivery of public services by joining up electronic government services. • Provides sponsorship of Information Assurance.

5. e-Government Unit The CIO Agenda • Stimulate joined-up, business-led IT strategies and policies • Support citizen-centred public service reform • Enable corporate services transformation • Become IT change agent • Sponsor cost-effective IT security • Increase IT-enabled change capability / capacity • Build partnerships with IT suppliers • Improve external IT image and confidence

6. e-Government Unit The CIO Agenda – key elements • Enable corporate services transformation: • Support HR and finance change agents in • “process <-----> IT platform” design • Drive consistent HR / Finance IT platform configurations • Become IT change agent: • GSI • Benchmarks • Interoperability Standards • Supplier intelligence • “Public, private” best practice

7. 50-100 People CIO Organisation

8. e-Government Unit e-Government – Business Drivers • People want to interact with government on their own terms. • They want high quality services which are accessible, convenient and secure. • They do not want to understand how government is organised, which department or agency does what, or whether a function is exercised by central or local government. • Governments worldwide are now developing and implementing strategies to: • deliver services on-line to citizens and businesses support the modernisation of government • automate the exchange of data between governments

9. e-Government Unit e-Government – Technical Drivers • IT provides a real opportunityto create fundamental improvement in the efficiency, convenience and quality of services. • Technical policies and specifications are essential for achieving interoperability and information systems coherence across the public sector. • Most governments now plan to adopt the Internet and World Wide Web specifications for all their systems, and to use XML and XSL as the core standards for data integration and the presentation of data.

10. e-Government Unit Why e-GIF? • Joined-up Government needs joined-up information systems • e-GIF sets out the government’s policy and standards for interoperability across the public sector • Focuses on 5 aspects: • Interconnectivity • Data integration • Access • Content management • Business Domains

11. e-Government Unit e-GIF scope • The entire UK public sector • Central government • NHS • Police and Courts • Local authorities

12. e-Government Unit e-GIF scope • The exchange of information between government systems, and the interactions between: • UK Government and citizens • UK Government and intermediaries • UK Government and businesses (worldwide) • UK Government organisations • UK Government and other governments (UK/EC, UK/US, etc.).

13. e-Government Unit e-GIF – Headline Decisions • Use Internet and World Wide Web standards for all public sector systems • Use XML as the key standard for data interchange • Make the browser the key interface for access and manipulation of all information • Assign metadata to government information resources • Adopts open, international standards that are well supported by the market • Internet based implementation strategy through GovTalk website

14. e-Government Unit e-GIF - Implementation • e-GIF is mandated for all UK public sector systems • e-GIF Compliance Assessment Service • Operated by NCC on behalf of eGU • e-GIF Skills Accreditation • Accreditation scheme to ensure the right people are in place

15. e-Government Unit e-GIF certification and accreditation • Reduces risk to public sector by ensuring contractors or employees have understanding of e-GIF issues and policy • Certification for individuals • Accreditation for organisations or teams • Foundation or expert level • Self financing

16. e-Government Unit Compliance scheme • Members only £350+ • Provides interactive questionnaire to assess level of compliance of each system • http://www.egifcompliance.org/ • Includes list of suppliers

17. e-Government Unit Agenda • E-Government Unit • e-GIF objectives and scope • E-GIF policies • Implementation, compliance • Content - architecture • Governance, management • XML

18. e-Government Unit

19. e-Government Unit Also on Govtalk • Supporting documentation • Interactive versions – TSC and GCL • Change control procedures • Meetings, working groups docs • Discussion forum • RFC and RFP • Other ICT frameworks and policies • Archive • www.govtalk.gov.uk

20. e-Government Unit e-GIF Governance CIO Council Senior IT Forum (Industry & Government) Interoperability Working Group Metadata Working Group Smart Cards Working Group Gov’t Schemas Working Group External Working Groups

21. e-Government Unit Metadata Working Group Technical Working Group GCL Working Group Taxonomies Working Group

22. e-Government Unit Interoperability - European Dimension • European Interoperability Framework • Published November 2004 • To support pan-European services • Considers; • business, • technical • semantic interoperability • http://europa.eu.int

23. e-Government Unit What is XML? • A way of making data; • portable & reusable • structured & unambiguous • long lasting & valuable • W3C specification based on SGML (itself an ISO Standard) to describe rules for enforcing document structure • separates structure from presentation • language for defining application-specific vocabularies

24. e-Government Unit Information can consist of 3 things • Data • information elements & values • the “content" • Structure • relationship / location of information • the “markup" • Presentation • formatting for easy consumption • the “style"

25. e-Government Unit XML tells us “what" not “how" • XML describes what data "is" not what you want done to it • Separates "structure & naming" from "processing & format"

26. e-Government Unit Major benefits of XML • Information is described in a way understood by different types of systems • Documents & messages can be exchanged regardless of different environments • Leverages investment in legacy systems • Data easily reorganized & transformed into different delivery formats • Metadata can be included with content • Re-keying effort & errors are reduced • Business process changes enabled with less impact

27. e-Government Unit Adopting XML schemas for service delivery • Alternatives: • Use international e-business schemas, eg ebXML, XBRL, where appropriate. • -those adopted are listed in e-GIF • Write own schemas for specific government services, eg tax return filing, passport applications • -using data standard fragments • -those we’ve written are available on GovTalk

29. e-Government Unit Finally… • UK’s e-government strategy is about harnessing the information revolution to improve the lives of our citizens and the performance of UK’s economy. • Delivering e-government, building the knowledge economy and delivering pervasive access is going to require pervasive technologies – that’s the Internet and XML. • The delivery requires the involvement of, acceptance by and partnership with the public and private sectors, in the development and implementation of the e-GIF.

30. e-Government Unit Thank You! Any Questions? Maewyn.cumming@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.ukTel no. 020 7276 3101