Back to the past with government identity

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has a generous £400m budget to develop “One Login”, a single sign-on and digital identity system for government services. But it comes

UK Government Platforms | Revisited

The UK Government was a platform pioneer. It was amongst the first to understand the potential of platforms in the design and delivery of public

What can politicians learn from Universal Credit?

The unfortunate saga of Universal Credit is a powerful reminder of the repeated failure to successfully integrate policy making with technology. A failure that comes

Digital Government — stuck in a groove?

For the past ~27 years, UK digital government efforts have largely focused on the left column of this table, occasionally drifting into ‘Rationalisation’ — and

social media, free speech and abuse

Social media is back in the news for all the usual negative reasons: hateful, racist, sexist, fraudulent and otherwise abusive users. None of which is

International Standards and Digital Identity

So-called ‘digital transformation’ can often involve little more than moving things from paper onto a screen or automating the way things are already done, aiming

policy making in the digital age

UK Authority have published my article Rethinking policy making in the digital age. It explores the need for a national digital infrastructure that provides open,

Maggots, rats and a fork in the road

So what’s it going to be then, hey? Will the outcome of the Brexit negotiations see the UK forced to adhere to the EU’s “level

Online Public Services in the UK — 23 years of federated identity

Here’s my paper providing an overview of Federated Identity for Access to UK Public Services: 1997-2020 (PDF): As its catchy title suggests, it provides an

‘Blueshift’ and the evergreen promise of the ‘future’ of work

15 years ago at Microsoft, I proposed a programme called ‘Blueshift’. It was a deliberate provocation, an attempt to move away from rusty soundbites about

tortoise banks and uneven playing fields

Perhaps we had a lucky escape when banks declined to become online ‘identity providers’. After all, their track record in online security has some peculiar

the elusive pursuit of outsourced digital identity

Remember when UK banks were innovative, leading the world and always at the top of the polls for brilliant customer service? No, me neither. Actually,