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Mission Baquiast - Propositions sur les apports d'Internet à la modernisation du fonctionnement de l'Etat. internet intelligence bulletin |
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Mission Baquiast - Propositions sur les apports d'Internet à la modernisation du fonctionnement de l'Etat. internet intelligence bulletin |
Nous publions cet exemplaire d'un Bulletin d'information sur Internet dans l'administration britannique, adressé par abonnement. C'est un bon exemple de communication efficace et bon marché.
Nous proposerons ici de faire quelque chose d'équivalent en français Baquiast
INTERNET INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
'TASTER' VERSION - FEBRUARY 1998
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SECTION ONE: NEWS
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THREE-YEAR PLAN FOR GOVT INTRANET
* * * All departments and agencies to be connected by 2002 * * *
The Cabinet Office will unveil a strategy in the spring to connect every central government department and agency to the Government Secure Intranet within three years, the Bulletin has learned.
A progress report on the GSI project was provided by its policy director, Chris Holmes of the Cabinet Office IT Unit, at last week's Corporate Intranet Forum in London.
Mr Holmes predicted that five major public sector intranets would grow in parallel over the next few years, with interconnections between them: the GSI; a network for local government; an NHS-wide intranet; a national schools and education network; and a military/security services network.
The Prime Minister's office will seek to drive use of the central government network by using it to communicate with departments. The Treasury, which was one of the first bodies to pilot the network, is seeking to switch all public expenditure round negotiations to the network - perhaps hoping that an email denying you cash will be harder to argue with than a human official.
CROWN COPYRIGHT UNDER REVIEW
The Cabinet Office has published its long-delayed green paper on the reform of Crown Copyright, setting out issues surrounding Crown copyright and presenting seven options for reform.
At the heart of the paper is a dilemma. On the one hand Open Government Minister David Clarke says it "takes more open government as its context and reflects the opportunities presented by the electronic information industry". On the other hand, he says the government "is committed to preserving the viability of government publishing without more cost to taxpayers".
Options range from the retention of Crown Copyright in most areas to its total abolition, placing all material from government in the public domain. In-between are a range of compromises.
Submissions are invited by 31 March. See:
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/document/cfuture.htm
WAR ON EXCLUSION
EPITELIO, the European Union project to use communications technology to assist social groups in danger of being marginalised or excluded from mainstream society, has an extensive new web site. It provides a range of online information and networking services, and details of networking initiatives at 20 pilot sites including some in the UK - but you have to persevere with the stilted Euro-English common in many EU sites.
Titles for the pilots include 'Poverty and social exclusion', and 'Immigrants, racism and ethnic communities'. See:
http://www.epitelio.org/
WAI TO GO
The international Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has published its first set of guidelines for web authoring, intended to ensure accessibility to the broadest possible audience.
http://www.w3.org/Press/1998/WAI-Guide
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SECTION TWO: CASE STUDY: PROJECT PLANNING
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STARTING AN IT PROJECT MEANS DOING YOUR HOMEWORK
* * * Thorough planning and preparation are the key to successful
project development * * *
The importance of thoroughly planning any major IT project was stressed by Frank Manson, Chief Executive of the Scottish land registry Registers of Scotland, at the recent Government Solutions conference in London.
"Some 80% of all major IT projects will fail in the long term", he told delegates. "They simply do not deliver what they were made for". Organisations planning major projects must do their homework, he said.
"Select the project team first. This should happen before anyone else is brought on board. It should be as early as possible, even before you select the IT team that will implement it. They need to sit down and work out the project's functional specification - what exactly do you want it for?
"Next, define the need and produce a 'statement of requirement'. This should summarise what the project is expected to do, and how your team want to go about doing it. Putting together the design specifications can be done at this point, but depending on circumstances it may have to wait until you have talked to some suppliers or contractors.
Mr Manson said it was important to undertake precise research to make sure that you have picked the right supplier for the job. One company may do particularly good work, but in a slightly different area to the work that you want done. Organisations should consider calling in consultants to help with this research if they are not fully equipped to make the judgements themselves.
"More information can be gathered by referencing sites on the Internet", he said. "Talk to similar organisations that already have similar projects in place. Read the trade press."
Once you have identified a group of possible suppliers, you should decide on an appropriate selection process, Mr Manson said. In the public sector, there are many ways of going about this. These may include public procurement, long list, short list, competitive tender, single tender or negotiated procedures. You will have to select your method according to the type of project, the time you have available, the finances at hand and the various dictates of your department.
"Before you can select your supplier, you have to select your solution to selecting a supplier. Make sure you understand the details of both the project and the selection process - faith is never enough. It is up to you to select the best value process for your organisation, remembering the cheapest one is not necessarily the best value."
The post-selection process is also very important, he said. Managers must continue to manage the expectations of staff, and avoid letting them add to the project. If people start moving the goal-posts during the post-selection period, they risk getting into trouble with contracts, deadlines and finance.
The project should next be piloted in well-planned stages, to ensure a trouble-free implementation.
Finally, Mr Manson went on to outline some of the tips that make for a successful project:
* time - give yourself enough to make sure that the project can be successfully completed;
* look into partnering, and remember that this is a management issue;
* never assume anything - someone may have misunderstood, so make sure you specify and check details;
* optimum performance requires adaptation. You can't simply replicate a process as it is currently done in your organisation - you may need to alter it;
* your organisation may have to change significantly. Prepare your people and support them throughout the process; and
* make sure you resource your project team. They are the link and if they do not have adequate resources they will have difficulty filling the role expected of them.
Report by Andrea Chee
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SECTION THREE: INTERNET STATISTICAL BULLETIN
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PROBLEMS WITH USING THE WEB
Issue % of users citing as problem
Speed of connection 66.3
Broken links 49.9
Finding known information 30.3
Organising collected information 27.8
Finding pages already visited 12.2
Cost 5.4
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/survey-1997-04/
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SECTION FOUR: NEWS.HOUND
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NEWS.HOUND
The comp.security.* hierarchy of newsgroups is the residence of those people who have a passion for computer security, encryption, firewalls, digital signatures and so on.
The group comp.security.announce is an important notice-board which should be read by anyone with responsibility for IT security. In this group are posted the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) advisories which are issued from time to time in order to update users on critical areas of security.
In particular, the advisories focus on areas where security may have a weakness, often pointing in the direction of downloadable patches or advice to plug any gaps in security.
The comp.security.pgp.* newsgroups deal with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most popular encryption system on the Internet. Used for encrypting mail and documents, and well as for adding digital signatures to mail, PGP is a powerful system which offers good security. It is also discussed extensively on comp.security.pgp.discuss, where all issues relating to PGP get an airing, and where newcomers to PGP can get advice and help.
Comp.security.firewalls is one of the busier groups. Firewall software is complex, and a poorly configured firewall can be pretty much useless, so this group is vital to anyone who has to set up or maintain such technology.
The group comp.security.misc is where those topics end up which don't fit into any of the other groups.
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SECTION FIVE: SECURITY MATTERS
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DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON?
* * * Protecting data from information warfare is a reality, not the stuff of James Bond films * * *
The Infowar web site is a rich source for information about that most alarming and extreme aspect of information security - information warfare. It can be found at:
http://www.infowar.com/
The site has compiled a large archive of articles on international hacking, cyberterrorism, and activity by hostile foreign agents. Much of the information relates to work by the US President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, which is at the forefront of world research into threats posed by electronic attack to the functioning of government and the public sector, financial and commercial infrastructure and utilities. The commission's web site is also worth a visit, at:
http://www.pccip.gov/
One article in the 'electronic civil defense' section of the Infowar site is entitled: 'Government should use caution in responding to foreign threats', by Brock Meek. This suggests that Russia and Cuba have developed computer viruses which they intend to use as offensive weapons.
A document declassified under the US Freedom of Information Act provides evidence on how foreign intelligence services are developing information warfare strategies, Mr Meek says.
On attempts by Cuban Military Intelligence Directive to develop a computer virus to infect US civilian computers, it says: "Efforts continue to be made and could potentially cause irreparable harm to any nation's defense."
The Cuban effort is described as "particularly troublesome because its supposed targets were civilian computers.".
An article by Aaron Pressman detects an inconsistency in the US infrastructure commission's call for keys to all encryption systems. It says a recent report by cryptography experts found that key recovery features added numerous vulnerabilities to computer systems.
"Key recovery is inconsistent with the (commission's) own calls for greater security in our nation's critical infrastructures''.
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COPYRIGHT INTERNET INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN 1997
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