Applications Strategy Projects On The Go

There have been many terrible excuses in history, examples including the unlikely:  ”I thought a duck island would fall well within the allowable rules”, the desperate: “The reason I was there because I was badger spotting” and even the inspired: “We got comprehensively beaten because our shirts were the wrong colour“.

I have no such excuses for why I haven’t updated the blog lately, I just haven’t got round to it. However there has been a burst of applications strategy related work so I will try to make sure of a couple of updates each week from now on.

In terms of the work that we are doing at the moment here are the highlights:

Mobile Application: Following on from the success of the Warwickshire iphone application we are creating a new cross-platform version that will take advantage of the maturing standards that allow an app-like experience delivered via web technologies. This means that we will have a basis for delivering information and services across the major mobile platforms using one technique rather than building different versions for different technology platforms. NOTE: We will also be rolling out a minor update to the iphone app in the near future.

EDRMS Repository: We have a number of projects and services in the organisation whose success will require an element of electronic document or record management. This is becoming more relevant as the need for flexible working arrangements and potential property rationalisation grows stronger. Rather than build individual solutions for each requirement we want to build a generic repository based on open standards and the principles of service orientation to create something that can be re-used to satisfy the bulk of our EDRMS needs.

HRMS – Web service enablement: One of the key data sets involved in a large proportion of business processes is our staff and HR information. The main store for this information is an Oracle HRMS implementation that has been historically difficult to interact with, unless a blank cheque has been handy. We have now completed some proof of concept work to show that we can build and use open web services to access the HR information without incurring large costs. The ongoing potential of this R&D work is huge, we plan to expand on it with some further developments (involving the generation of dynamic structure charts from the HR data) before working on how we integrate such services into our wider applications architecture and business processes.

Open Source DBMS research: We are acutely aware of the need to use open source technology efficiently and appropriately over the coming years. To this end we are running a research project with a focus on the DBMS sector to both understand how open source offerings compare with their commercial counterparts as well as gaining an understanding of how open-source, leading edge products could indicate the future roadmap for handling structured data.

Re-use of open data and applying the same idea within WCC

It has been a bit quiet around here while I have been concentrating on the Warwickshire Open Data intiative. This is now up and running and starting to show our strategic vision in action as well as paving the way for the new wave applications approach within the authority.

For the uninitiated, our open data site provides a one stop shop for public data held by Warwickshire county council. The key point is that the data is held in open, machine readable formats that can be re-used and re-purposed by any number of different web-sites and applications.

Currently the info is mostly static data but where possible we will be providing dynamic web services for developers and applications to take advantage of.

An early example of how this approach can provide real benefits in terms of scaleability and re-usability (not  a real word I am sure) can be seen through the web service that provides details of our recycling centres.

The data is provided via our Open Data catalogue at: http://opendata.warwickshire.gov.uk/datasets/recycling-centres

The raw data of which can be found at: http://ws.warwickshire.gov.uk/recycling_centres.xml

That same feed of data is feeding the wcc iphone application: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/warwickshire/id345904759?mt=8

…Which can also be used on the new iPad:

The data has also been used by this excellent entry to our Hack Warwickshire competition: http://www.pezholio.co.uk/warwickshire/

The demonstrable success of the open data approach has now led to a project to set up a similar catalogue and repository of internally facing data sources and web services.

The solution being piloted is the CKAN repository (also driving data.gov.uk)which we eventually hope will provide the foundation for both our internal and external open data sources – leading to the beginning of a universal API for the organisation.

How ICT Strategy is changing the way that WCC works – with mentions for Twitter, YouTube, Ning, Facebook and the iPhone

It has been a fairly hectic (ie plenty of shouting and throwing things around) couple of months for James and I.

We have started to use the evidence we gained from the applications conceptual R&D work to further our ideas about building a service based architecture for the council, to help deliver all of the clever and futuristic technologies that our citizens will want and need in the coming years.

We’ve also got around to finally making a sign for the office door.

The momentum that the strategic approach has gathered has been helped in no small part by the increasing number of news stories and press releases detailing how the major IT suppliers are now trying to flog us all a Utopian cloud-based approach to personal and enterprise computing.

Added to this there are more examples everyday of how organisations are starting to take advantage of new ways of working via the cloud, web based applications, social networking tools and web services.

Our approach is still to do further R&D to define our architecture and then identify the technologies that we want to employ. However this is going to take us a little while. So in order to keep things moving along we have begun working with interested parties in the council to develop some new and innovative services using the concepts, methods and technologies which we want to introduce.

As these services develop and expand we will be producing more updates, our intent is that these pieces of work will provide us with experience and information to help construct the architecture. However we would also expect that if successful these examples will introduce some major changes in how WCC works, both with the public and internally.

Making use of Twitter

After quite a lot of discussion we will be looking at making use of Twitter in  a couple of ways – firstly as an additional channel for distributing WCC news. We will be interested in whether this is an effective idea and if so how to make best use of it. Also in exciting and breaking news it seems we will be starting to get our Councillors providing twitter updates. More news soon.

WCC on YouTube

Our news and media staff have launched a YouTube channel for the WCC. Strategically we believe that there is no point re-inventing the wheel for the distribution of content such as video – although there may be interesting challenges in terms of how we integrate content in such external stores as part of our overall content estate.

iPhone Application

The near-legendary WCC iPhone application is nearing completion. This is a project that will combine a number of the concepts we want to demonstrate while also providing a foundation for developing similar applications for other popular mobile platforms such as Android and Blackberry

The Future of Warwickshire Libraries

We have started to work with the forward thinking management of our libraries service to understand how they can best make use of emerging standards and technologies to provide innovative methods of delivering both traditional library services and also take advantage of social media to explore new types of services for their members. Platforms such as Facebook, Netvibes and Twitter will all be under consideration.

Social Networking and WCC communications

In addition to testing out twitter our news team has also set up a Netvibes page collating Warwickshire related news and information, you can check it out at: http://www.netvibes.com/wccmedia – this helps to show that there is already a wealth of information available via web service feeds.

Collaborative  working for local communities

In order to rapidly provide a platform to enable the work of WCC’s community forums we have adopted the use of the Ning platform to create a social networking platform specifically for this purpose. This was set up by our e-communications team and is now live for all citizens to get involved with. You can visit it here and set up an ID if you want to contribute: http://warwickshirelocalities.ning.com/.

An API for WCC

As part of the iPhone project we are starting to develop an Application Programming Interface for WCC information – so that developers have open and standard methods for interacting with the organisation’s information and services. This is an absolutely key strut of our strategic approach, although the information that will be available initially will be very simple we will no doubt learn some valuable lessons in how such an interface should be constructed, maintained and governed.

Exploiting Cloud/Utility Computing

We are starting to investigate the usage of cloud services for providing live services – in particular the Amazon products for rapidly providing flexible and scalable computing power and electronic storage. More news on this soon.

First R&D Phase Completed

The first part of our planned R&D work concluded yesterday. After doing some sterling work over the last six weeks, the team: Chris, Richard, Tanisha and Terry have returned to their respective teams in triumph although the planned ticker-tape parade around Warwick town square was abandoned due to health and safety concerns.

As hoped, the work carried out has built some concrete proof and much needed practical experience upon the concepts within our strategic vision. The work has been such a success that, prior to moving ahead with the architecture stage purely for applications, we will also be running conceptual R&D phases for two other key areas.

Identity: Understanding how we can will build a unified model for identity in order to provide targeted services and information to individuals – all while simplifying the user experience, integrating with other forms of web identity and ensuring complete security. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

Service Oriented Infrastructure: A terrifyingly technical sounding phrase. In the same way that we are looking to standardise and rationalise applications services to provide a series of building blocks to the organisation, we want to do the same with the elements of ICT that support application delivery. Example areas could include the storage of data, network connectivity and disaster recovery.

The second phase of R&D where we plan to specify the architecture that will be required to realise the benefits of the concepts will now cover all of these areas rather than just focussing on applications. Allowing us to begin building the new ICT architecture more quickly and bring forward all the exciting benefits that this will provide.