The UK hosted the first summit of the 'D5' group of countries in December. The D5 Charter claims that the group, whose founding members are Estonia, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and the UK,
The UK hosted the first summit of the 'D5' group of countries in December. The D5 Charter claims that the group, whose founding members are Estonia, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and the UK, comprises the most digitally advanced governments in the world.
The D5 group has been created to encourage collaboration between the founding members in the field of digital services. The D5 members have committed to working towards nine key principles of digital development.
One of the key principles of the D5 group is to make more and more of the systems, tradecraft, manuals and standards created by the D5 members 'open source' and shared between the members. The D5 group recognises that adhering to the group's Charter will encourage innovation and growth in the digital economies of the D5 members and potentially lead to cost savings.
In his opening speech, Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude spoke about transforming public services and delivering them in a more cost effective way by taking more services online. In particular he cited the Government Digital Service's work in replacing over 1700 government websites with 'GOV.UK' as an example of the importance of digital services which has saved the government £60 million.
The UK government has already taken steps to show its commitment to the D5 Charter. The code for GOV.UK is open source and the government has pledged to share it with the government of New Zealand.
The D5 members have committed themselves to opening up markets to competition, in particular to small and medium sized enterprises. The D5's commitment will be welcome news for start-ups in particular who may already be benefiting from the UK Government's 'Small business: GREAT ambition' initiative to help small businesses grow.
The D5 group has been created to encourage collaboration between the founding members in the field of digital services. The D5 members have committed to working towards nine key principles of digital development.
One of the key principles of the D5 group is to make more and more of the systems, tradecraft, manuals and standards created by the D5 members 'open source' and shared between the members. The D5 group recognises that adhering to the group's Charter will encourage innovation and growth in the digital economies of the D5 members and potentially lead to cost savings.
In his opening speech, Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude spoke about transforming public services and delivering them in a more cost effective way by taking more services online. In particular he cited the Government Digital Service's work in replacing over 1700 government websites with 'GOV.UK' as an example of the importance of digital services which has saved the government £60 million.
The UK government has already taken steps to show its commitment to the D5 Charter. The code for GOV.UK is open source and the government has pledged to share it with the government of New Zealand.
The D5 members have committed themselves to opening up markets to competition, in particular to small and medium sized enterprises. The D5's commitment will be welcome news for start-ups in particular who may already be benefiting from the UK Government's 'Small business: GREAT ambition' initiative to help small businesses grow.