[HLUG] BBC news item on open source

[Steve Horsfield]

There can be few more egregious examples of biting the hand that feeds you,
because Accenture headed up the biggest nulabour IT scam of the lot, the
infamous NHS IT programme. Accenture won several of the regional contracts
and it was Accenture which brought the infamous Isoft into the NHS
programme. When things got difficult Accenture walked out leaving everyone
else saddled with Isoft and Lorenzo. Isoft, famous for booking long term
contracts as current year revenues and claiming astronomical profits as a
consequence. Quite why anyone was daft enough to take responsibility for
Accenture's sub-contractor when things were manifestly not going smoothly,
which was why Accenture was getting out, no one will ever know. My guess is
that the department panicked and rather than scrap the project, threw more
money at it.


Steve Horsfield



On 30 March 2011 23:52, Julian Robbins <joolsr1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi
>
> Currently as the 5th news item on main bbc home page there is a story
> titled
>  Labour ordered IT 'to sound
> sexy'<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12905303>
> .
>
> Whitehall IT chief Ian Watmore attacks Labour's recor
>
> Half way down Bernard Jenkin, from the Commons public administration
> committee, said '
>
> *'Open source'*
>
> *Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin told him: "You come from exactly the
> large corporate culture which has bedevilled IT procurement in government.
> Are you part of the cultural change the minister is looking for, or aren't
> you just part of the problem?"*
>
> *Mr Watmore replied: "I am certainly not part of the problem and I would
> contest that the corporate industry of this country has caused the
> problems."*
>
> *He said the "so-called IT disasters" of recent years were not down to
> technical problems but "over-ambitious projects" that were expected to
> deliver complex changes at a national level on a single day, "the so-called
> 'Big Bang' implementation".*
>
> *Mr Jenkin also questioned the government's commitment to "open source"
> software, asking how many civil servants in charge of making the policy
> work
> had a background in the open source community. He pointed out that the
> previous government's "open source" guru had left to join Microsoft.*
>
> *Mr Watmore, who claims to have already saved £2bn in Whitehall
> efficiencies, said he wants to end the UK government's reliance on
> Microsoft
> products, which are used by about 90% of civil servants.*
>
> *He insisted the government was committed to using more "open source"
> software to save cash - but had to balance this with concerns about how
> easily it could be "hacked".*
>
> *His "personal" view, he added, was that Apple products, which he said he
> used at home, should also be used more in government.*
>
>
> This is the sort of stuff we need ... real good non fud on linux/open
> source
> mentioned high in Govt echelons, and widely publicised ...
>
>
> Julian
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