The last session titled ‘No Citizen Left Behind’ focused on the complex issues of exclusion from e-services, a feature of all EU states. Kevin Cullen, of the Work Research Centre, summarised the usual solutions to bridge the digital divide from possible policy measures like universal service through to targeting excluded groups (indeed there is a service for older web users in my local inner city community centre which maybe I should take a look at).

On the important issue of accessibility Barry McMullin of  Dublin City University launched the eAccessibility of public sector services in the European Union report. A long title for a study which found that 70% of the 436 sites (around 305 sites) surveyed failed to meet the basic Level ‘A’ standard. Not surprisingly it also found that there was a significant correlation between states with strong policies supporting website accessibility and accessibility of those sites. I was hoping the worst offending EU websites would be revealed by Barry but of course for the purposes of the study this information was anonomised. However, Barry did tell me that the detailed data has been provided in confidence to each of the members states so they can locally do whatever further they think is appropriate. So look out public sector web managers if your’s is one of the 70%!

Now that I’m sort of recovered from last night’s footie and post-match drinks, I’m here to distill some highlights from the E-gov conference. So far liked the mention of ‘co-creation’ as an engine of change from William Heath from Kable. Also enjoyed Sean Smile from Accenture pinpointing the value of customer group directors who will take charge of customer groups as part of the new IT strategy.

Of course there are plenty of familiar themes, in particular the stress of the benefits and risks of sharing vs protecting individual’s information for example. This was highlighted by the chair of the Soham Enquiry Sir Michael Blancard, who also emphasised the need for cultural change within organisations to go alongside new technology to effect the glittering prize of ‘transformation’. Specifically that staff need to feel they occupy an environment in which they feel confident they are be able to pass on ‘bad news’ without needing to go into further detail.UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas added that unpublished research from the ESRC had picked up on substantial public uncertainty about data sharing.