Video conversation with John Suffolk, CIO of UK government, on social media and data mashups

At the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Mumbai, I had an opportunity to sit down with John Suffolk, Chief Information Officer of Her Majesty's Government.

In this six minute video we discussed the role of Web-based information for citizens to have self-service access to government services, social media including guidelines, and the availability of over 3,000 data sets that anyone can use to create mashups. This is a fascinating interview. The UK Government is a leader in these areas, and everyone – companies, nonprofits, and governments can learn from John.

My favorite quote about social media:
“We’re saying these tools are available. We’re not saying you must use every single tool. What we’re saying is use tools that appropriate for you to help you engage with citizens to understand what their needs are because that helps you design better policy.”

Direct link to video here.

In case you want to jump ahead, here are some timeouts:

:00 – 1:10
A little about John’s role as CIO.

1:10 – 2:16
Delivering Web-based services to citizens to do everything from apply for patents to renew a fishing license using self-service online services.

2:16 – 5:00
How the UK government worked with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, to launch data.gov.uk, a new British government website offering free access to a huge amount of public-sector data (over 3,000 individual databases) for private or commercial reuse including mashups.

5:00 – 6:50
Discussing social media guidelines and open source policies for UK Government employees.

Note to music fans:
In his John Suffolk - Government CIO blog, John throws in the odd music reference, just like I do. For example a slightly wild and crazy recent post starring "inky, pinky and stinky" had a reference to a Madness song. John has excellent taste in music (I saw Madness in New York City in the mid-1980s so I was right there with this reference).

Comments

[Jamie Mordaunt]

As a UK citizen (or 'subject'?) I am pleased that some of this stuff is going on and that Government data is going online.

But these are small steps thus far, and there's always the nagging suspicion that the data being selected for publication is - well - selective.

So information that portrays Government policy/activity in a good light is thrust forwards, but information that does the opposite is kept under wraps.

Perhaps I'm just too cynical!

Also, I follow various councillors/MPs on Twitter and it's mostly partisan/party political stuff - not terribly enlightening use of social media.

But the data.gov.uk site is definitely important and will be a really important tool for holding our politicians to account.

[Kevin Boon]

Great interview David.

The quote you reference "not having to use every tool" is so important. Organizations and companies should learn to engage using social media, but people need to find the tools they are most comfortable with.

[David Meerman Scott]

I found this discussion fascinating. John was so open and willing to share.

[Mary Wiseman]

Very interesting interview, thanks for sharing.

Does the United States Government have any equivalent database?

If so, do you know a link?

[ilya]

Thanks so much for this post – I just found a ton of valuable demographic info for a start-up I’m thinking about doing.

very cool!

ilya

[LaKotipelto]

How refreshing to hear this much passion from someone in a government post =)

The site seemed like a handy tool; definitely worth studying a bit. Thanks for sharing, David!

[Jordan Spizike]

Thanks so much for this post – I just found a ton of valuable demographic info for a start-up I’m thinking about doing.There are some functions, such as Internet hosting, that in many cases are easier and far less expensive to do with an external service provider than to build from scratch internally. now link my name to see something.