Crowdsource proposal selection for public funding

As it is often difficult for government to understand which are the best proposals to fund, Government should open up to citizens input, not for providing the decision itself, but for giving qualitative judgements on the proposals. The idea is to apply the peertopatent approach to public funding. (#20110)

Don't create large scale web 2.0 projects

They are likely to fail and harm the reputation of web 2.0. Instead, partner with existing initiatives (#20116)

Require open source licensing on all software contract work *º

Government should require a GPL or BSD -like license on all custom software purchased from contractors. This would first help avoid vendor lock-in. Later on, governments would only need to purchase enhancements or changes on existing software packages, instead of starting from scratch. (#22312)

Use IT budgets to invest in new social web applicatons *

Instead of letting millions flow out of the door to generic outsourcing companies for IT projects that have a high probability of failure, create investment budgets for promoting innovative solutions in conjunction with people who care about the issues. (#20108)

Invest heavily in usability of online public services

When building online public services, obsessive attention should be devoted to usability of services. Follow the example of MySociety, but also of Ikea and Apple. Design is fundamental and you need to include design thinking in developing IT solutions. (#22319)

Invest in public education, not in tech projects º

Public education—general culture and IT skills—is key to make technology inclusive. Information goes to those who already have it. There is a big risk of increasing digital divide, of having conversations restricted to those who have the critical skills to understand and write well. (#22320)

Review procurement processes *

Procurement should be more flexible and work in partnership with those delivering services to create co-developed solutions, rather than play guesswork games with unspecified budgets and anonymous selection processes that waste everybody's time and money. (#20113)

Pilot cloud computer in the Government º

Cloud means a lot of things, but there are meanings that are closely related to web 2.0. By piloting cloud-based applications, Governments could target new kind of public services and attain very significant savings. (#22325)

Promote prizes for socially useful web applications *

We see many prizes like appsfordemocracy.org which try to promote socially useful web applications. Wikinomics has dedicated an article to it Government should fund this kind of initiatives. (#20117)

Standardize and universalize electronic public procurement

(#22305)

Common causes of failures of IT-enabled projects *´

Findings of the 2004 National Audit Office report: Improving IT Procurement. (#23927)