http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_ ... p?id=19727Data sharing - government should take lessons from Tesco02 May 2012
By Max Wind-Cowie and Bernard Baker
If the public is happy to hand personal data to Tesco in return for special offers, then they will hand it to government in return for public service improvements. Data security concerns should not stand in the way, write two analysts
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Amazon. Google. The UK public sector. Not three organisations you would necessarily associate with each other? That might be about to change.
Attendees of the recent Digital London Summit heard how the Government Digital Service (GDS) – launched last year to increase efficiency by driving more services online– is being built in the mould of these internet giants. GDS deputy director, Tom Loosemore, explained the basic tenets of this approach: doing things digital by default, being agile and user centric, and by using and promoting Open Data.
Our recent paper, The Data Dividend, takes the notion further, highlighting the benefits of better collection, sharing and analysis of public data. Like the GDS, we looked to the private sector for role models, and recommended the government take a "Tesco Clubcard" approach to data collection and use.
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Max Wind-Cowie is head of the progressive conservatism project at Demos and Bernard Baker is director, public sector at SAS UK
