UK Government Urges Civil Servants To Use Twitter

The British government has released a 20 page document encouraging civil servants to take up Twitter as a means of getting their messages out regarding "issues of relevance or upcoming events".

Neil Williams, of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), published the strategy saying "I was surprised by just how much there is to say - and quite how worth saying it is."

Check out this BBC discussion regarding government Tweets...

Canadian Government To Auction Surplus And Seized Goods Online

The Public Works Department of the Canadian government is busy building an online auction site, similar to e-bay, that will offer every Canadian the chance to bid on surplus and seized goods such as vehicles, office furniture, boats, computers, tools and hundreds of other items.

“The addition of a real-time online bidding system would reach a broader range of buyers, open up the bidding process which could result in higher sale prices and returns for clients,” said the report.

“We found that a system where the bid amounts are visible and not sealed, and that enabled potential purchasers to bid as the amount changed during the bidding, could generate increased sale prices and more revenue.”

According to an internal study obtained by The Canadian Press, under the federal Access to Information Act.

Source: The Globe And Mail

Quebec Government Being Sued By Open-Source Association

The CBC is reporting that the government of Quebec is being sued by the province's open-source software association - Facil. The association says the government of Quebec refuses to entertain competing bids from software providers, choosing instead to purchase products from proprietary vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle. The CBC says "Government buyers are using an exception in provincial law that allows them to buy directly from a proprietary vendor when there are no options available, but Facil said that loophole is being abused and goes against other legal requirements to buy locally." Facil president Mathieu Lutfy told the CBC that "It goes against the public markets policy of the government, which requires them to stimulate competition and look for local alternatives. It's really an absurdity." Facil estimates that the government is spending over $80 million a year on licences for Windows Vista alone!

Paperless Government

The Town of Stratford Prince Edward Island, which is about a 15 minute drive from my home here in Charlottetown, has decided to go paperless. Town council approved a motion on Wednesday night to move all of its documents to electronic format. The town has commissioned a British Columbia based company to provide the software to enable them to archive and retrieve all of its letters, reports, agendas, budgets, etc. through a secure internet portal. The system will cost the town $6000 to install and another $6000 annually to operate and maintain. Stratford's Finance Chair, Emile Gallant points out "If I want to go on and do a search for a letter that we got eight months ago, I don't have to call staff or go looking for it." I don't know about you, but I don't think the paperless thing would work entirely for me as I tend to print and read the large documents! It would be interesting to get councils feedback on the system in 6 months time. CBC Story here.

Canada to tighten identity theft laws

The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Canadian government is tightening up it's laws regarding identity theft. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced that Ottawa will introduce legislation targeting the gathering and trafficking of personal data for the purposes of using it deceptively. Fraudulent use of identity is already a criminal act in Canada, but the gathering and selling of credit card, banking, and other information is not, yet. “Our government will be giving police the tools to better protect Canadians by stopping identity theft activity before the damage is done,” the Minister said in a statement.