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back to article Facebook wonk among 'digital' advisers to Cabinet Office

Facebook's head Brussels' policy wonk Richard Allan is among the names joining a digital advisory group created by the Cabinet Office. Francis Maude's department confirmed that the collective would unsurprisingly be chaired by digerati darling Martha Lane Fox, who carried out a review of the government's online services in …

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  1. Spud2go
    Devil

    Strategic

    Nothing like having an inside man.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So, uhm.

    Basically that's a bunch of bloggers and similar twodotoh illuminati who are supposed to show the prattling heads of whitehall the way forward over the digital divide? Sounds like something of a do, eh.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Government hates user privacy

    Facbook hates user privacy

    sounds like a match made in (their) heaven.

    When the government appoints some EFF / privacy activists to counterbalance every big corp appointee they choose then I will be impressed.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Government hates user privacy

      As part of its transparency policy, Government ministers must publish their tax details through the most efficient means of widely disseminating them (ie by adding them to their Facebook profile and marking them as 'private')

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  4. Dazed and Confused

    Can't have anyone from Google

    Not after yesterday,

    The Daily Fail's headline was that Google wouldn't back the Fail and Government's plan for a magic pixy dust firewall to stop kiddies seeing porn. Apparently Google pointed out that magic pixy dust doesn't exist and that parents should be responsible for their children.

    So we can't have that now can we.

    Google :

    a) clearly won't tow the party line

    b) don't understand kids

    c) don't understand parents

    but mostly

    d) clearly won't tow the party line

    On the subject of Farcebook and the magic pixy dust, a mate's daughter was being somewhat out of order recently so the selected punishment was to ban her from FB for a period. He prompty added FB to the block list on his home firewall. Less than 30 minutes later she's back on FB. Oh I just used a proxy since you wouldn't let me get their directly. Said daughter is 11, and clearly has a much better understanding of the Internet than either the government or the Daily Fail.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can't have anyone from Google

      Letting an 11 year old get lose on Facebook, that's some fine parenting right there!

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can't have anyone from Google

      How far do you expect Google to be able to pull a party line?

      Or did you mean "toe" rather than "tow"

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A "revolutionary approach in the way government interacts with citizens"

    Beats water-cannon, I suppose.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A "revolutionary approach in the way government interacts with citizens"

      Errm, Frankie, it's not revolutionary. It's a website. Frank, me old china, if you want to see revolutionary, go to Estonia. That's proper digital government in action. Still, I applaud your master plan to reset the Government's web presence to a 1998-style mega-site.

      (note - I was aiming to sound patronising, but I can't beat Francis Maude at that game. He's a master)

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Perhaps more surprisingly, there's no one on the board from Google or Microsoft, nor for that matter any of the big four telcos: BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and BSkyB."

    The Cock Up Countdown has started.

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  7. John I'm only dancing

    Francis Maude

    Will probably tell everyone to stockpile gigabytes due to a forthcoming strike by silicon miners. That's just about how much he knows about everything

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  8. wibble001

    Erm....

    should an adivosry board not be made up of "impartial" technology experts rather than corporates with a vested commercial interest? Or, if they have to be corporates, how about some from, oh i don't know, maybe some British owned companies.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Erm....

      Looking at the laundry being washed at the Leveson inquiry, vested commercial interest is clearly how policy is formed and decisions are taken and of course there's sack loads of similar evidence for non-media sectors - the evil lobbyists of the banking sector, the plonkers pushing for HS2, the continued hosing of cash at BPO and consultancy companies, the perpetual till-dipping by BAe....

      Why change a successful model?

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Friends

    Dear Francis Maude,

    I understand that the new Government policy will be that no one can obtain Government services online unless they have 'friended' someone on Facebook. Please will you 'friend' me? I know you don't know who I am, but once you have 'friended' me then you will.

    Thanks awfully,

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