A government-commissioned report into how the public sector can better grasp the benefits and opportunities offered by the internet and Web 2.0 technologies has concluded that current policy and action are inadequate to meet the challenge.
The report, commissioned by former cabinet office minister Hilary Armstrong , found that government was failing to “grasp the opportunities that are emerging in terms of the creation, consumption and re-use of information”.
It said that user-generated websites such as YouTube and parenting site Netmums , and self-help sites such as those for people with specific health conditions, had revolutionised the way people related to each other, creating online communities and offering new ways of exchanging information.
As well as social benefits, such community sites could generate financial benefits for the state, with the companies behind them willing to pay for public sector information, which in turn would generate further revenue on which tax would be paid.
The UK has more than 100,000 public sector organisations which produce a huge range of information of interest to this growing sector. The the Office of Fair Trading puts the potential market value at an annual £1.1bn.
But the report identified a range of barriers to the flow of information, including risk aversion, lack of knowledge among government officials, and the public sector’s struggle to keep up with the pace of change.
The review makes 15 practical recommendations to address the problems. They include encouraging government bodies to communicate better with user-generated websites and to make government-held information more readily available.
Before leaving office last month, Armstrong committed to 13 of the recommendations, including forming partnerships with online communities rather than trying to replicate them, and advising civil servants on how best to participate in online forums.
“Government cannot afford to overlook this phenomenon,” Armstrong said. “If 30,000 parents were meeting in a park or football stadium to share information, government would take notice. That they are doing it online simply means that we have to find different ways to take their efforts just as seriously.”
A cabinet office spokesman said the new cabinet secretary, Ed Miliband , appointed by new prime minister Gordon Brown, was committed to taking the recommendations forward.
The report’s authors, Ed Mayo, chief executive of the National Consumer Council, and Tom Steinberg, director and founder of MySociety , welcomed the government’s response.
Mayo said it “heralds a more open approach to public information”.
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