The Wardman Wire

The Power of Information Review was a study into how government information could be better used, done by Tom Steinberg and Ed Mayo back in 2007. It sounds tedious, but it is worth studying because these two know what they are talking about and are highly focused on breaking information out of government to make it easier to use for the public. The review group is known (tediously!) as the Power of Information Task Force.

The group is reporting back to Tom Watson MP, the Civil Service Minister, on the recommendations from that review. Tom Watson proved himself able to listen to the public when his “Blogging Code” for Civil Servants turned out to be less than 80 words long.

Power of Information Task Force

These were the terms of reference of the Taskforce:

‘To advise and assist the government on delivering benefit to the public from new developments in digital media and the use of citizen- and state-generated information in the UK, including those identified in the Power of Information Review.

The Taskforce will consider the following sub questions:

How can government further catalyse more beneficial creation and sharing of knowledge, and mutual support, between citizens?

What more can and should be done to improve the way government and its agencies publish and share non personal information?

Are there any further notable information opportunities or shortfalls in sectors outside government that those sectors could work to rectify?’

The original Power of Information Report is available as a 250k PDF http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/20090201-ed-mayo-tom-steinberg-the-power-of-information.pdf.

I haven’t followed the entire process in detail, so I’ll quote Tom Watson’s post:

I’m very grateful to the Power of Information Task Force members who have worked hard to produce their report. They’ve already helped shape action across government; whether it be the re-use of data agenda, public servants and their use of social networks or how the tools can be used to innovate.

Being digital natives, they’ve decide to publish the report in beta format on a platform that allows you to comment on all sections. They’ll scoop up any insight from your comments and try and incorporate them in the final report that will be formally presented to government in a couple of weeks.

I do hope you find the report of interest and please feel free to share your views in the comments section of the site.

What to do

1 – Skim the original report linked above.

2 – Go to the Power of Information Task Force site here, and dive in.

You have a couple of weeks.