WRITTEN ON January 9th, 2010 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Ideal government IT strategy

Wingham Rowan prompts the CTPR/Ideal Government IT strategy to think bigger. In a splendid contribution to the #idealgits wiki he raises the deep, wide question of to what extent we can now rethink public services altogether in the light of what the net makes possible.

In 1995 the music business struggled with the question: “how do we use the Internet to sell CD’s more efficiently?” As we now know, the Internet spawned MP3 downloads which sent CD sales spiralling into decline. But music became more accessible and portable than ever. A better question in 1995 might have been: “how could delivery of recorded entertainment be impacted by new technologies?”

So, it might be worth pausing before asking “how do we improve public services with IT?” Is it possible the whole concept of public services could become unrecognisable because of IT developments?

His own work on slivers of time is a wonderful example. It’s an ambitious solution to a problem so endemic and huge that no-one really dares frame it.

I suspect there may be others: buyer-centric markets or VRM for starters; sustainableliving issues. I’d love to see more of this kind of stuff. Keep raising the bar! #idealgits home age is here. Thanks Wingham.

This IdealGovernment IT Strategy #idealgits project is part of the new Courteous and Mutually Respectful Dialogue #CMRD. Any trading of insults (for example calling people “intellectual pygmies”) will be moderated.