Every week we get far more letters for publication and blog mentions than we can put in print. So here's the selection from which we chose...
TANGLED WEB OF GOVERNMENT Having worked on user experience projects for online government transactions I am not surprised with Michael Cross's conclusion that the e-national project has added a 'digital interface to that mess' (The tangled web of government, November 2). Ambitious targets for e-enabling transactions make great headlines but do not guarantee that the public would jump on the e-wagon and never look back. The key to successful e-government services is to ensure that the way the transactions are e-realised is aligned with users' needs and requirements. Simply providing an electronic version of a badly designed form does not make the process simpler or more bearable. An IT-centred process is not the solution to what clearly demands a user-centred approach. Throwing the latest IT solutions at the problem and making sure all the 'relevant offices [are] connected electronically' is certainly a challenge but one that still misses the point: it is the users' experience that all e-government solutions need to support and improve. This is the only way we can ensure that IT does not operate for the benefit of the institution but that of the citizen. Nikos Karaoulanis, Amberlight Partners, London
>> I think Cross is missing something in his analysis: while Britons CAN do all these things it doesn't mean that they ARE all doing them. Last week we posted on the digital divide becoming more entrenched. Less than half of Britons have home access to the internet. E-government policy needs to address these issues instead of just improving the technology. They are starting to do this with the NHS electronic care records program road show but as we wrote last week it seems to be too little, too late. I'm not convinced that the citizens believe in the governments e-government program and more should be done on the engagement front. http://www.informationpolitics.com/archives/the-history-of-uk-e-government-policy/
REVIVING THE DOCTOR Terrific article but I'm amazed Guy Clapperton , a Who fan I'm sure , got the date wrong. The story was transmitted in 1968 ( November & December ) not 1969. Michael McNamee, BBC
That was a nicely informative piece about restoring old TV programmes (Regenerating an original Doctor Who, The Guardian, 2 November) but the transmission year given for The Invasion was, sadly, wrong. It was actually shown in 1968 (2 November - 21 December, to be precise). Anorakly yours, John Bowman, Portsmouth
[Indeed, it was 1968 - Technology Ed]
POSTCODES For users of Google Earth, there is a free network overlay available, that dynamically marks nearby postcodes for anywhere in the UK down to the fist character of the second group (e.g. SK8 6). Download it from http://www.nearby.org.uk/google.html#7 Jean Rosenfeld, Bryn-y-Baal
GOOGLE'S OPEN SOURCE MAN Thanks for the interview with Google's Chris DiBona. It was so refreshing to see a substantial mention of open source and Linux! A few years ago I would wait impatiently for Thursday and IT items in The Guardian. Unfortunately this stopped a while ago now. It was approximately since I have been using only Linux on my various PCs at home. Ironically, this week I did not even bother to read the T section, so uninteresting has it become. For my interests that is. There is lot happening with Linux etc and my guess is that many of your T readers would find the 'open' landscape interesting, if not to their future advantage. Alan Cocks, Bracknell, Berkshire
>> It looks like Google has joined the chorus of commercial open source developers with serious concerns about the current draft of the GPL Version 3. http://www.theactblog.org/article/63/google-joins-the-anti-gplv3-chorus
NOTHING's IMPOSSIBLE, EXCEPT JOINING A WINDOWS NETWORK >> I never knew this stuff existed, but it looks like just the solution for networking up Tosh Towers which - despite its jauntily sloping walls and floors - appears to be solidly-enough built not to allow wifi waves to pass through happily from one end to the other. http://www.completetosh.com/weblog/2006/11/a_home_networki.html
TECHNOBILE (BEING THE IT BOD) Brought back many memories of when I too was the de facto first-line PC support guy for most of my friends and family. As time went on, I realised that my time or expertise did not appear to be valued particularly highly amongst my associates. My accountant was notorious for calling me up with all sorts or IT-related problems that he felt that HE was too busy to be bothered with. Although I was expected to provide my expertise for free, there was no way that he would have reciprocated with a few hours of complimentary accountancy. Another friend who is an interior decorator was another regular 'customer'. God forbid that I would ever dared to have asked him to paint a door for me for free. Once I had seen the light, I let it be known that my services would be strictly provided on a barter system. The calls have all but dried up and I like to think that I've done my bit to empower my formerly computer-illiterate social circle. Kevin Barry, no post town given
For years I have taught beginners' IT classes for trade unionists. At the end of week one, I ask every student to find out the hardware, software and personware they use. Personware? That's the person they go to when things go wrong. Everybody has to have one. Michael Pollitt (Technobile, 2 November 2006) knows this. It's interesting that, more often than not, Personware is not the person people aree told to go to, either at work or at home. Another illustration of how mad the world we live in is. Geoff Brown, Prestwich
>> I don't work in IT, but I know my way around a computer. After just had my Firkin Friday lunch spoilt by my Mum asking me how open a word file without Microsoft Office (it was own fault, I told her to download NeoOffice - she hasn't installed an app in her life. She doesn't even know what the 'desktop' is!) http://macbore.blogspot.com/2006/11/i-dont-work-in-it-but-i-know-my-way.html
LETTERS AND BLOGS (RECURSIVELY) OctOpus (Letters & Blogs, Nov 2) is the sad get - he/she may like to eat MacDonald's, drink instant coffee and read Dan Brown alongside "most people" who "couldn't care less about the quality" of what they consume, but the minority who are passionate about quality should not be fobbed off with low standards of broadcast sound on DAB just because "the majority" aren't bothered, and Jack Schofield is absolutely right to make an issue of it. Martyn Cornell, Teddington
>> Bizarrely, the first paragraph of my most recent rant about audio quality has appeared on the letters page of the Technology Guardian. Obviously a blog track-back as I didn't send it to them or anything. But hey - that makes me a tech blogger... ho hum. http://0ct0pus.livejournal.com/71616.html
