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17 Aug 2007

Lost in Translation

The enormous cultural, language, and status divide between those who understand policy and see themselves as the business leaders in Whitehall, and those who understand anything about technology has always bothered me. It has had profound implications for the design of optimal policies which harness technology’s potential, and for the design of crap policies that don’t work or don’t meet real people’s needs. But seriously influential policy folks still just DON’T GET IT. Take this, a conversation overheard between the lead official on a Treasury Spending Team which will set the CSR budget for a major department of domestic policy:

(Other Official Who Understands Technology): Have you actually worked out whether any of these policies are deliverable? What are the technology implications? How do they link to the IT frameworks and plans of other departments?
(HMT Spending Team Leader): Oh, none of these policies have anything to do with technology or have any IT implications.
OOWUT: Errr, please reconsider that statement. Please name one major domestic (xxxxxx) policy that does not have an element of technology behind it.
HMTSTL: (after a wee gap) Oh, I suppose I see what you mean…

And these are the people setting the priorities, determining departmental budgets, and agreeing the PSAs for the next spending period.

• Posted by Ruth Kennedy on 17/08/07 at 10:44am
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