The Ministry of Justice has added an extra policy covering total cost of ownership to its Open Source Adoption Paper, a paper described by New Zealand Open Source society President Don Christie as “groundbreaking”.
The government’s digital strategy is embarking on the next step of its broadband map development, aimed at assisting the evaluation of supply and demand for broadband communications around the country.
The State Services Commission’s championing of open source software in government helped its ICT branch pick up an award in the government category of the inaugural New Zealand Open Source Awards, held in Wellington this month.
Experts are being called for by The State Services Commission to help government agencies assess the risks of major ICT projects.
Cabinet has mandated that government departments must get Cabinet-level approval before investing in identity-verification technologies.
New Zealand’s move to e-government is the main reason behind a surge in spending over the past five years by the lead public sector agency, the State Services Commission.
Government agencies got the green light for numerous IT projects in the 2007 budget, including some at the core of the State Services Commission’s e-government initiative.
Democratic rights and obligations could be imperilled when Trusted Computing technologies and digital rights management arrive on new systems, says the manager of the State Service Commission’s e-government strategy and policy team, Hugh McPhail.
The State Services Commission has released version 1.0 of the Government Web Standards aiming “to make the criteria more clearly defined and comprehensible and compliance more objectively measurable”.
ICT suppliers appear ready to take on work to further the government’s digital and e-government strategies, but representatives at a State Services Commission networking breakfast last week were still sceptical.
The government is looking at digital broadcasting as an alternative way of offering e-government services to people without internet access.
The State Services Commission is considering introducing a more interactive way of receiving suggested changes to government website standards by setting up a wiki.
New Zealand could set an example to other governments, with its “principles and policies” on digital rights management (DRM) and managing trusted computing (TC) within government.
Colin Wallis, from the State Services Commission, is to chair a new e-government group called the Liberty Alliance eGovernment Group.
The Government Logon Service, a major element of the e-government authentication function, has passed its tests with a “reference agency” and has moved into its production phase.