The Cloud, governance, and the OASIS “Transformational Government Framework” Chris Parker, Managing Partner CS Transform Limited 10 October 2011

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary US author & satirist ( )

New technology, new opportunities…. but old challenges

About CS Transform A global consulting business, specialised in citizen-centric transformation of public services Led by the senior management team from the Cabinet Office responsible for e-government strategy between 1999 and 2004 Our consultants are senior ex-government people from around the world Our team has supported over 35 governments around the world since 2004 We have published a series of white papers on Transformational Government, which we have contributed to the OASIS TGF process

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Cloud Computing and Government n New opportunities: l Economies of scale; computing as a utility l Challenging government’s reliance on the big system integrators l Window to a global market-place for your country’s ICT sector

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Cloud Computing and Government n Old challenges: n Most governments are in the business of delivering more for less, so the challenges remain fundamentally the same: l How to join-up business processes across public sector organisations? l How to move from fragmented and supplier-centric models of service provision to integrated, citizen-centric models? l How to build effective business models and trust models for shared services? n Currently working for the World Bank, reviewing business models for a potential “Development App Store”: l Talking to Government Cloud users and policy makers in both leading e-governments and developing countries l One overwhelmingly clear message…..

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Cloud Computing and Government n But the challenges remain fundamentally the old ones: l How to join-up business processes across public sector organisations? l How to move from fragmented and supplier-centric models of service provision to integrated, citizen-centric models? l How to build effective business models and trust models for shared services? n Currently working for the World Bank, reviewing business models for a potential “Development App Store”: l Talking to Government Cloud users and policy makers in leading developed e-governments and in developing countries l One overwhelmingly clear message….. The Cloud is a business problem not a technology problem …. which means moving towards commonality, standards and interoperability at the business level if we are to take maximum advantage of the opportunities opened up by cloud computing

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” The Transformational Government Framework n Draws upon practical and policy development experience and knowledge gained in the last decade or so of e- government programmes around the world n Covers all aspects of a programme for delivering ICT- enabled business change in the public sector n Uses a standard process to deliver a tailored implementation roadmap focused upon benefits realisation, and addressing all the key governance issues. n Is not prescriptive about technologies – so not Cloud- specific but highly Cloud-relevant

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Current status n December 2010: public consultation on the TGF kicked off at a joint OASIS / World Bank workshop in Washington DC n March 2011: OASIS published the first version of the TGF n July 2011: OASIS publishes the business case for TGF implementation n September 2011: OASIS publishes a new version of the TGF for public review l The new version is now expressed now as a “pattern language”: a formalization of the Framework that is both human-readable and machine-tractable. (That is, while it remains readable end-to-end as a piece of prose, it is now structured also in a way that lends itself to being quoted and used pattern by pattern and to being encapsulated in machine-processable forms including RDF and OWL.)

“There is nothing new under the sun…. … but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Governing the governance n New CS Transform White Paper, launched today, benchmarks the way in which governments manage their technology standards and policies. n Key conclusion: there remains significant scope for all governments to strengthen their technology governance regimes through adoption of best practices which are already being deployed by other governments. Stakeholder inclusiveness & openness Principle-based criteria Process Transparency Take-up and use Lifecycle Review

Conclusion n As we go through this week’s conference, and as we work towards Cloud-enabled government, let us not get so focused on the new technology and the new opportunities, that we forget to address the old problems of governance and business change that still need to be grappled with n The TGF helps pulls together global best practices and lessons learned on how to do this effectively