Page Created 5th Oct 2009 Labour Dragons call for co-operation not
legislation.
The EURIM “Dragons Den” fringe event
at Labour Party Conference in Brighton showed a real willingness from both politicians and industry professionals to work
together to solve some of the problems associated with ICT in the UK. Bob Gilbert, Chair of Nominet, David Butler of Atkins and Philip
Virgo of Eurim were grilled by Motorsport Team Principal John Cowan (Labour candidate
for South East Cambridgeshire), IT
Test Consultant Julian Ware-Lane (Castle Point) and Chairdragon,
Hamish Sandison (Monmouth). Hamish (on the Council of EURIM and active in the National Computing Centre and Intellect the
ICT trade association) , invited the MP for Torchwood (alias Cardiff South and Penarth), the Rt Hon Alun Michael
MP, one of the Directors of EURIM to join in the grilling. Speaking first, David Butler
said that government and the public service may be critically dependent on on-line systems, but delivery reputation is
lamentable. Whether or not that is justified we need to ensure past mistakes are not repeated. The key
was to ask the right questions at the appropriate time and not be afraid to stop a project. Bob Gilbert described how we are reliant on the Internet but fail to consider how it is governed.
Politicians need to be much more involved in that process. The Nominet best practice awards are one of the means of encouraging
good governance. Winners include the Internet Watch Foundation, the Business Crime Reduction Centre and Barclays Bank. Philip Virgo was concerned that ill-considered regulation could drive away the wealth creating
jobs of the future leaving us poor relations to the Asian technology powerhouses. He cited global Internet
Service providers moving functions from the UK to Switzerland to avoid EU regulation while others move databases abroad to
avoid surveillance legislation. The parliamentary candidates took turns to quiz the panel. John Cowan, Labour’s Candidate for South East Cambridgeshire asked some tough questions
on public procurement, saying; “I’m concerned about future-proofing the UK’s
digital infrastructure. We have to ensure long-term functionality balanced against the cost of implementation. I want assurances
from the ICT industry that the public will get value for money out of project commissioning. It is vital to cut waste in public
procurement while delivering an efficient service for local people.” Julian Ware-Lane, candidate for Castle Point asked about Internet regulation: “Internet
governance is vital – the industry needs to work with government and do more to protect children, pensioners and vulnerable
adults from scams, spams, grooming and other forms of online crime. We also need a means of distinguishing trusted sources
and data from inaccurate sites without stifling creativity or introducing internet censorship. I hope the industry will consider
a scheme of certification in order to ensure that people get the maximum benefit from this fantastic resource while remaining
protected.” Alun Michael MP commented on the need to progress the vision for cooperation between
industry and government to create Internet Governance protocols that would avoid the need for legislation that would quickly
become outdated. We may have been first but others, such as the five nations of the East African Internet Governance
Forum are catching up fast and may soon overtake us “they know that it is impractical to wait for a top-down treaty
on internet governance from an international body like the UN. There is no logic to it.” Bob Gilbert, Chair of Nominet also
spoke passionately about this issue: “Together with government we can make the internet a better, safer space. The Internet doesn’t recognise
national boundaries and it can be very hard to know who is in control. Regulation must be very light-touch but initiatives
are beginning to spring up to combat many of the problems associated with the internet – for instance, the success of the Internet Watch Foundation in virtually eradicating the hosting
of child abuse images in the UK” There was a discussion on the need for candidates to become
involved in local exercises to bring broadband to their constituencies because the best means of doing so varies according
to whether the area is flat or hilly, urban or rural. Hamish Sandison, candidate for Monmouth and chairdragon,
summarised the discussion as flagging up the need for more candidates to show an interest in ICT matters so as to
ensure that they better understand the role of ICT in government. Equally important, he said, was
for the ICT industry to spend more time with constituency MPs and candidates - busting jargon and explaining how
ICT could be used to put public policy into practice. After the formal Den, the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister
for Digital Britain joined the speakers and candidates for a brief discussion on some of the issues raised earlier and to
emphasis the need for more MPs with a good understanding of the technology and the issues to be addressed.
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