Does this InfoCards press release qualify PR person Kersti as a possible IdealGov author?

What do you do if an email appears in your intray from someone called Kersti Klami? I should add the subject line is perfectly repeatable in polite company. Anyway, I opened it and had a look. It turns out that she is a PR person working for some company called Racehorse or Fusion or something. Here’s what she has to say:

In light of recent information security breaches in the public sector, I though that the readers of Ideal Government would be interested to hear that ten local authorities across the UK are part of a pioneering pilot to share confidential information more securely. Instead of discs or login systems, they will be using Microsoft CardSpace online IDs to access sensitive documents. Eduserv (a not-for-profit organisation whose Athens access and identity management system is used by 98% of UK universities to access different online learning resources), will provide the local authorities with online IDs and manage the authentication system.

A few key points:

Recent security breaches in the public sector have highlighted the need to enhance IT security in the public sector: BBC just revealed that 13 local authorities in London alone have lost or misplaced confidential data in the last year
Using online IDs - or information cards - makes it easier for local authorities to share information in a secure manner
The local authorities use their online IDs to share internal documents relating to the Shared Learning Group that collaborates on innovative IT solutions in line with the Transformational Government strategy
There are plans to extend the project, providing all employees, residents and businesses their own online IDs. This will enable people to deal more easily and securely with their local authority, and to use their information cards for other web-services as well, e.g. online banking and shopping

Please note that this announcement is under embargo until tomorrow.

Many thanks,

Kersti
________________________________________________

EMBARGOED UNTIL 17th APRIL 08

Ten Local Authorities Collaborate in a Pioneering Project to Share Sensitive Information More Easily and Securely

‘World’s First Large-Scale Use of Information Cards in the Public Sector’[1]

Eduserv to Streamline Access and Identity Management

Future Plans to Provide All Councils and Residents with Information Cards

Bath, 17th April 2008 – Eduserv, the not-for-profit IT services group, today announces the launch of a pioneering project to enable ten local authorities[2] to easily and securely access confidential information using Microsoft Windows CardSpace information cards.

The ten local authorities form part of the Shared Learning Group, which helps to share best practice and collaborate on innovative IT solutions in line with the aims set out in the Transformational Government strategy[3]. In the first instance, these local authorities will use their online IDs to share internal documents relating to the Shared Learning Group.

Eduserv, the developer of the widely-used Athens and OpenAthens access and identity management (AIM) systems, will provide project members with CardSpace information cards and manage the authentication system. The Shared Learning Group will be able to access and share documents securely, as well as take part in discussions relating to the group on a dedicated portal.

As the authentication process occurs in a secure local environment rather than in the Web browser, information cards offer greater security than traditional log-in systems. By employing CardSpace, users are less likely to fall victim of a phishing attack, whereby an unauthorised entity attempts to acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy website.

Geoff Connell, CIO, London Borough of Newham and Chairman of the Shared Learning Group, comments: “To our knowledge, this is the world’s first information card implementation in the public sector. However, recent security breaches have highlighted the need to enhance IT security in governmental organisations. Using information cards makes it easier for the group to share information in a secure manner. In addition to extra security, Eduserv’s technology saves us valuable time and administrative resources.”

Ed Zedlewski, CIO and deputy CEO of Eduserv, says: “Local authorities hold ever increasing volumes of electronic data, which need to be accessed in a timely and secure manner. Eduserv‘s expertise in integrating technologies and in service delivery has demonstrated that combining information cards with OpenAthens can deliver the efficiencies that allow organisations to safely collaborate and share important information. Combining these technologies will provide a convenient way for users to manage their online identity in their own environment, enabling the individual to control where they store and how they release the credentials by which they are recognised.”

Geoff Connell adds: “We decided to work with Eduserv on this pioneering project because of the organisation’s expertise in creating and managing large scale AIM solutions. Over 4 million students and researchers in UK colleges and universities, the NHS and organisations worldwide use Athens and OpenAthens, Eduserv’s AIM systems, to access online information resources. The goal of the Shared Learning Group is to help UK local authorities to improve the efficiency and security of their AIM processes – we’re confident that with Eduserv we’ll achieve this.”

In addition to access and identity management, the Shared Learning Group focuses on employee productivity, flexible and collaborative working, business integration, child protection solutions, performance management, and maximising ICT support for council members.

###

_____

[1] Geoff Connell, CIO, London Borough of Newham
[2] London Borough of Newham, London Borough of Bromley, Derby City Council, the Isle of Man, Kent County Council, London Borough of Lewisham, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Sunderland City Council, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and Warwick District Council

[3] http://www.cio.gov.uk/transformational_government/index.asp

Notes to Editors
About Eduserv

Eduserv is a not-for-profit, professional IT services group with the mission to realise the benefits of IT for learners, researchers and the institutions that serve them. Eduserv achieves its charitable mission through the provision of sustainable services and funding research and development. Services include:

Secure access to online resources (Athens and OpenAthens)
Licence Negotiation & Management – (Chest)
Managed web hosting
Content management (CMS) and web development.
Trading surpluses are used to support work across the education sector.

For more information about Eduserv please visit www.eduserv.org.uk or contact:

Katy Askew / Kersti Klami Racepoint Group, formerly Fuse PR
Email: katy.askew [at] racepointgroup.com / kersti.klami [at] racepointgroup.com

Is this the Microsoft PR machine in overdrive? They can be pretty full-on (I have examples, believe me). No, I take it at face value as an Eduserv press release, and a milestone in public-sector identity practice. Anyway, the inventor of the product in question was round to dinner just last night with two Microsoft colleagues. It was a delight to see them and they were all too polite to mention deployments.

Kersti: I commend you. This is the first press release published on Idealgov becauase it is pertinent and interesting (we’ve posted many that are worthy of ridicule). So I’m glad I didn’t delete it thinking it was spam. If you are able to take the Cluetrain Manifesto medicine and speak in a normal voice - not a voice of PR - you’re welcome to have author rights here and keep us in touch with how this is going.

John Harrison always said education would be the sector that starts to get this right first.

Published by William Heath on 17/04/08 at 7:24am

Comments

Thanks William. Would be happy to keep you posted on how the project develops in the coming months. If we can do it via author rights, that would be great.

Reply by on 04/17/08 at 1:43 pm
Dear Kersti

Let’s do it. I shall issue you with author access to IdealGov. Please feel welcome to keep us up to date with developments about user-centric identity in the public sector, or other commentary on what we want in an information age.

You’re definitely the first professional PR person invited to be an IdealGov contributor. I have to tell you my more experienced editor friends have told me this will not work. But we’ve invited you partly because the press release you sent was pertinent and interesting, and partly because we like your name.

There is now a sort of Turing test. We invite you to write in a “natural” voice. We’re not up for the relentlessly positive PR-speak of people who do too much jogging. We learn as much when we confront with frankness the things that go wrong as well as rejoicing in what goes right. If you write breathless naive Eduserv/Microsoft promos then I’ll have to learn how to terminate an author account (which will be a first).

So please introduce yourself, and tell us how the information cards pilot is proceeding.

Welcome. Let’s see how it goes.

Reply by on 04/18/08 at 5:01 pm
Hi William,

You ask if this is MS’s PR departmet in overdrive? Well, not quite overdrive but it is still PR. Reading between the lines, I see the solution as an MS SharePoint site, accessible via the Internet, using MS’s CardSpace as the authentication mechanism. This is hardly different to the gazillion document sharing solutions that businesses have been using for a few years now, but with a different authentication mechanism - SecureID tokens, for example.

What is more interesting to me is the quote “Future Plans to Provide All Councils and *Residents* with Information Cards” (my emphasis). Perhaps Kersti would provide us with an explanation of how this planned expansion fits in with the Government Gateway which, I thought, was the preferred way of authenticating citizens to local authorities.

Reply by on 04/19/08 at 11:02 pm
So what does this mean for those of us not using Microsoft software ?

Access to government should not involve proprietary software and vendor lock in.

Reply by on 05/02/08 at 3:17 pm
Note to systems admin :

If a user enters a comment, and then selects preview, they are directed to a form that allows them to edit their post ... but it does not show the captcha word or a text box to enter it.

If they try to post the comment from the preview form, it fails because they haven’t entered the captcha word.

Reply by on 05/02/08 at 3:21 pm
"So what does this mean for those of us not using Microsoft software ?”

Actually, I use cardspace on my Mac. Google “DigitalMe”.

Reply by Dave Birch on 05/03/08 at 9:34 pm
BruceH, I’ve spoken to Eduserv and Microsoft about how this project ties in with the Government Gateway, and they’ve confirmed that a proof of concept to show how information cards could work as part of the Government Gateway was completed last year. A video about how the Gateway and information cards could help solve usability challenges and protect citizens against online fraud can be found here: http://www.localgov.tv/cgi-bin/details.pl?action=prog&id=298

Reply by on 05/06/08 at 8:36 am

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