On a budget he jokes is “less than John Prescott’s expense account”, Allan Patterson, director of the Isle of Man’s government information systems division, has delivered an internal cloud-based SOA that could be a showcase in microcosm for what much larger organisations will be doing in future.

“It is what I would call ‘building a virtual house’,” says Patterson.

“The foundations are our twin active virtualised datacentres running on a Windows platform and our IP network across the whole government estate of 250-300 locations – GPs’ surgeries, schools, sub Post Offices, etc.

“On top of that is the equivalent of the pipework and wiring – the common services – which mean we can build something once and use it many times.”

This has drastically reduced the IT organisation’s costs, but also brings wider benefits.

Patterson says, “We have seen a massive take-up of online services such as web payments by the business community and individuals – we now have about 5,500 users for online services, which for the Isle of Man is huge.

“I strongly believe this is how we make government-to-business more effective. We have even got people who no longer maintain tax books because they trust us to do it – so there are efficiencies for end-users as well.”

I had little to do with the dual data-center architecture, but I was responsible for the application architecture that delivers the online services integrating the government website with a variety of back end systems. I’ve been involved in a number of projects over the last few years, from websites selling sexy lingerie (that was Figleaves) to integration between different police systems; but this one is my favourite so far; mostly because I’m not only involved in technical delivery, but also driving change and working at a more strategic level.

(kudos to the girls down at Strive (@sherrilynne, @charlie_h and @lottieb) for putting it together and pointing me in the direction of the article)

The awards ceremony is this Thursday; but I don’t think I can make it because my parents are coming visiting. Pity they don’t organise live event video streaming from the event, but I guess it’s only a big deal locally I’ll let you know if we win!

Allan sent me link to some advice by Dave Briggs recommending how Local Councils can start setting involved in social media. The great thing about it is that you could really apply this to anyone making a start in this environment. Here’s what it says:

First, start listening. Stop relying on Google Alerts and start using RSS. Maybe iGoogle, Pageflakes or Netvibes to start with. Subscribe to searches, but also to feeds for Flickr tags and groups related to your area, to delicious bookmarks that are appropriately tagged, likewise YouTube and other video sites. Start checking the local forums and noting where the Council comes in for criticism or even praise. Look on Facebook to see if there are any groups or pages formed around the area – if they are public then you can see what’s being said without having to join at this stage. Identify the people with an obvious love for the area, with genuine enthusiasm and commitment.

Next, start acknowledging and responding. Respond where appropriate in blog comments and in forums. Make sure that the Council’s message is being heard where people want to hear it, don’t rely on them checking your website for press releases or news items, or reading the local paper cover-to-cover. Make use of creative commons licenced images on flickr on your own website, and make sure you include a crediting link. Link from your site to those containing some good news, related to the local area.

Thirdly, start to engage yourself. Start public blogs for big council projects, so that people can be kept in the know – if they want to be – and can leave comments or ask questions, and then make sure someone responds to them. Maybe senior managers should blog too, to help get messages out that people can read without them first going through the filter of the local press. How about creating a blog to publicise the services that the council provides, by having a different team blog every couple of weeks about what they do. Create video content and make it shareable on YouTube, etc, encouraging others to display council content on their sites. Make the copyright on council content as relaxed as possible so that others can use it however they choose. Put meetings online, even if it isn’t live streamed, make them available as podcasts, put any slides on services like SlideShare

Where should this all be done? Try and use existing services where you can. Don’t try and recreate existing networks where they are already working. If people are happy uploading to a flickr group, let them, don’t try and force them to use an online photo gallery you have just developed. In fact, rather than developing it, spend the money showing folk who don’t know about flickr how to use it. Likewise with blogs – you need a really good argument, in my opinion, not to just use WordPress.com. It’s just so quick and easy – and free.

Who should be doing this? In terms of listening, everyone in the Council. If that’s unrealistic, then at least someone in each team should be monitoring what’s going on, not just communications departments. In terms of acknowledging and responding, then officers with responsibility for what is being discussed should feel empowered to state the council’s position on relevant issues online – again they shouldn’t feel the need to leave it to the communications officer. As for enagaging, then anyone with an enthusiasm for connecting locally online should be provided with the tools to do so. Nobody should be forced into it, but those with a passion to spread the word about the good work they, and other council officers, do should be empowered to do so.

Another important point to make is that social media doesn’t take the place of other forms of communication and enagagement, and really ought to be considered an “as well as”. You’ll still need to do your newsletters and stuff, bu you might be able to integrate the two – maybe by putting links to your online content in your newsletters, for instance. It also mean that you still need to use face to face means of consulting – whilst online social methods can bring great results, it is vital to blend in the offline too, so as to ensure that you are not excluding anyone, and so that as many different voices can be heard.

What is clear is that this stuff is not the responsibility of the web team, nor the comms team. It should be in service teams that the ideas should be produced and the comms and web folk should just provide the means for that idea to flourish. You do need to have the boss onside though, which is where notes from Cabinet Office ministers come into play.

That’s most of it, but you can contribute on the topic here

The first service we have launched is for local farmers to register cattle deaths and births and to enquire on their movements. This is a small scale launch which allows us to test the usability, functionality and scaling features of the technology we are using. Our next releases will involve tax and VAT functionality for businesses, which will no doubt elevate the requirements and profile of what we’re doing. Read all about it: Isle of Man Government delivers first of many Online Services – Isle of Man Government -