e-Summit promises joined-up government

It was billed as 'The e-Summit'. The largest conference held this year to discuss the Government's strategy on 'joined-up-Government', the 'e-citizen', ecommerce and other ewords.

It was certainly big around as 300 people gathered for the day at the QEII Conference Centre, and it was important. Important enough for Tony Blair to step away from the firemen and the growing crisis in Iraq for a moment and deliver his first major speech on technology in two years.

In his speech, Blair re-stated the Government's commitment to get Britain online, gave us a progress report so far (good - second in the world - but could do better) and spelled out major financial commitments to IT spending by the Government.

At Computing we have consistently argued for Government to grasp the key issues that would help this country sit at the top of the wired up tree. This it has now done.

I chaired a couple of sessions at the e-Summit and had the chance to sample first hand the thoughts of those who, in various ways, are charged with implementing e-Government.

Most welcomed what Blair had to say but some believe that financing infrastructure, content and delivery is one thing but that there is much more that need to be done on the structure of Government.

While Government departments sit in stove-pipes and Government organisations have to deal with too much legislation and bureaucracies that move too slowly, nothing fundamental will change.

But, Blair's strategy is a good first step.