Govt consultation on e-commerce, e-gov and smart cards

[Peter Tomlinson]

The Office of the e-Envoy last year started a process to re-develop one (or
perhaps more) policies in the field of e-commerce and e-gov, particularly in
relation to security and general methodology where digital signatures (a
digital ID) and/or tokens in the form of smart cards are to be used. I
cannot be much more specific than that, because, although a good number of
people knew that consultants were to be used to revise existing guideline
documents and attempt to draw them together, the ITTs for the consultancy
were not generally available, and so we could not see the exact scope of
work.

In the event, contracts were let to Logica (generally on smart cards) and, I
think, Actica (security). What happened to the security work, I do not know,
but the smart card work has been characterised by nothing having been
published yet for consultation. Latest information about timing, as passed
on in off-the-record form, was received in January, suggested a March date
for a consultation document, but has been interpreted as 'April at the
earliest'. Rumours have spanned the whole spectrum from 'compulsory ID card
deployment starting within 2 years' to 'just a review grouping existing
guideline documents together and updating them'.

The background to this started with 'joined up government', and went on to
establish an inter-departmental working group known as the 'Information Age
in Government Champions'. They spawned the development of a whole range of
guideline documents, with several govt central service depts involved,
basically centred around the Cabinet Office (CITU, CCTA, the emerging
e-Envoy dept were the groups known to me). More recently, it seems to me
that this whole area of technology support has gradually merged into the
e-Envoy's dept.

Logica has held consultancy sessions with invited individuals, and
individual govt spending depts have organised both internal consultations
and their own sessions with invited individuals. Conspicuously absent from
the Logica consultations have been those industry and joint public-private
groups who are actively involved in the definition of smart card standards
and specs, participating in the various attempts to make some progress on
solving the problems of interoperability in e-commerce and with smart cards,
and in European and global initiatives and standards work - or, to put it
another way, none of the several groups that I am involved with, or have
been monitoring, has shown any sign of having been invited to participate at
the top level of consultation. Thankfully, some govt depts have consulted a
little more widely, but there has been no sign of any working papers to
which the wider expert community can contribute.

On one occasion, I arrived at a govt dept for a joint industry and public
sector technical working group (for which that dept had kindly provided a
room and a buffet lunch), and discovered that in the room that we had booked
there was in progress a consultation related to the e-Envoy work. The people
involved in that meeting were largely practitioners in schemes that use, or
soon wish to use, smart card technology; conspicuously absent were those
with in-depth expert knowledge of the practicabalities of smart card
technology, and with the ability to design and develop ways through the
quagmire so that the required quality and quantity of services can be
delivered in a timely manner.

Practitioners in the deployment of smart card schemes I have found are very
often not well informed about the technology and, particularly in the public
sector, not well informed in the skills and knowledge required to handle the
procurement process properly. They may read the guideline documents, but
generally find it very difficult to understand them. Education and
task-specific training is not provided to them, and procurement is generally
not managed according to formal quality guidelines.

So, can any of us in the group say what the scope of the e-Envoy work is? Is
it addressing the problem areas outlined above and any others that
contributors in this group can identify? When will the consultation document
appear? Is European policy (design for all, transparency, interoperability)
included? Is there a commitment to skills and knowledge training in the
public sector (and support for it in the private sector)? Is there a
commitment to formal quality management of the process of procurement?

Peter

Peter Tomlinson, 34 Strathmore Road, Horfield, Bristol BS7 9QJ, UK
phone & fax +44 (0)117 951 4755, mobile +44 (0)7968 947021
email pwt@iosis.co.uk, web www.iosis.co.uk