PublicTechnology.net

The Singapore government has moved to prevent officials from accessing the internet on devices that have access to civilian data. Vishanth Weerakkody, professor of digital governance at Brunel University, says it is not the retrograde step some think it is.

As the UK faces a time of turmoil, never has it been more important to refine the rules governing data sharing to ensure the public trusts government, says James Norman, UK public sector chief information officer at cloud computing company EMC.

Whitehall is granting councils more and more freedom, but David Walker argues that they might be facing more than they have bargained – or budgeted - for.

Kate Craig-Wood, managing director of Memset, one of the original technical leads of the government’s G-Cloud framework, was a strong believer in the initiative, but now says her mind has changed. 

NHS England’s first national whistleblowing policy to help health professionals raise concerns will have knock-on effects across the public sector. Ben Western of Software Europe takes a look at how it will affect IT management.

The government is not providing the digital skills or the infrastructure needed to make their own Universal Credit programme work, says Chi Onwurah.

As IT security evolves, employees must be kept in the loop about how to keep themselves and their organisations secure, says Joel Dolisy, CIO, SolarWinds

Isabel Moritz says the chances of success by an incumbent bidder are uncertain for UK public sector tenders.

There is a still a gap between cloud awareness and cloud-readiness of organisations considering implementing cloud solutions, says Jos Creese.

5G technology will be at the heart of the Internet of Things and a key enabler to Europe's future competitiveness, says Lambert van Nistelrooij.

G-Cloud needs to evolve with the market to arrest a recent slump in sales through the framework, says Bhuwan Kaushik.

Managers need to design and implement solutions that meet the needs of staff as well as the end user, says Jane Roberts.

Smart cities are already starting to become a reality, but the the next challenge is to make the leap to a big open market based on interoperable solutions and common procurement specifications, writes Roberto Viola.

Bringing digital education, research and business together will allow talent, ideas, technologies and investments to bloom, says Willem Jonker.

The Institute for Government's Emily Andrews says that the Government Digital Service needs to help public bodies swim before they can hunt.

Customers must engage with industry to better specify and run major ICT procurements and avoid the pitfalls of poorly specified tenders, says Richard Barnes.

Local authorities  need to automate their back-office processes to increase efficiency and help free-up vital resources, says Debra Maxwell.

Will new regional authorities and other bodies opt for OJEU procurements or create their own frameworks?

Few in government see digital as anything other than a doorway for strengthening public services. But, as Miguel Carrasco explains, the pace of digital evolution means there is always more to do.

Cranfield University expert Dr Monica Rivas Casaldo says drones offer the public sector huge potential to collect vital environmental data that shouldn't be overshadowed by a failure to regulate for their misuse.