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Gov.uk Platform as a Service

cloud.service.gov.uk

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Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#81

Post by bertil »

dan_pixelflow wrote: post #21

A bit off-topic, but gov.uk is quickly improving into an actual usable site. The GDS (Government Digital Service [0]) and the GDS (Government Design System [1]) - who run the posted link too - are doing a great job. Want to renew my passport? Easy, same UI/UX for getting a drone license, taxing my car and filing for benefits. Want to renew my driving license? Well, that's yet to move from the old DVLA site, but it's…

Like a lot of users of the services of several government, gov.uk is consistently the best for many reason: simplicity, language clarity, accessibility, very lean design. There’s a certain… brand, i.e. the four aforementionned qualities taken as far as possible, that I really like -- but not everyone enjoys the assertive use of screen space. Just remember: visually impaired people pay taxes too.

But for web developpers, that’s not all: it’s very deliberate, there’s detailed public guidelines, a scrutiny that developpers of the most popular open source project might recogonise. The overall result is that the people working there are very good. They are principled, and typically very complementary of the independent-minded polymath that many of us have worked with. They understand accessibility in detail and many dimensions (think: both rare handicaps and aging web-clients).

I’ve worked with several and I would strongly recommend considering experience at the Government Digital service (GDS) as a very good signal on a CV, akin to senior role at a big tech, or early engineer at a successful start-up.

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#82

Post by rmvt »

dan_pixelflow wrote: post #21

A bit off-topic, but gov.uk is quickly improving into an actual usable site. The GDS (Government Digital Service [0]) and the GDS (Government Design System [1]) - who run the posted link too - are doing a great job. Want to renew my passport? Easy, same UI/UX for getting a drone license, taxing my car and filing for benefits. Want to renew my driving license? Well, that's yet to move from the old DVLA site, but it's…

off-off-topic: i've recently discovered (through a job listing) that the moj has been doing some open-source work around all the software they use to manage prisons and prison-related stuff. surprisingly interesting - e.g. https://github.com/ministryofjustice/prison-api

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#84

Post by blitzar »

was_a_dev wrote: post #61
robertlagrant wrote: post #39

I went for an interview with GDS a few years ago. The interview itself was 5 hours long, which was gruelling, but it looked like a great setup. I'm not surprised they're doing well. (I got an offer, but turned it down in the end.)

Heaven forbid we think you failed the interview

Absolutely aced the interview, they offered me the role of the boss of the boss that I was interviewing for, a massive sign on bonus, a salary so large that it would have affected the debt to GDP ratio of the country and the biggest corner office they had. On my way out through the lobby everyone applauded, it was a great day for all.

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#85

Post by toyg »

Zenst wrote: post #48
toyg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit where credit is due, this is the legacy of the Cameron government (although the conversation started under Brown, iirc, it was the first Cameron cabinet that really pushed it, by basically setting up a skunkworks group that answered directly to the PM). The efficacy and power of GDS has since ebbed and flowed, but clearly they managed to entrench some great practices that continue to this day.

I recall GDS being initiated for internal DOH stuff circa John Major, going into Blair era (yip was there when Blair took over the role). Not that I'd attribute it to any PM, believe it was driven by the government security services (which department/flavor I could not say). That all said, it may of been a different aspect but certainly has a longer story than told. With that, it started as an intranet project iirc.…

What is there now was significantly rehashed under the first Cameron administration. I remember talking to a few insiders at PyconUK, around 2010-11, and they were saying they basically had carte blanche to nuke it all from orbit and rebuild how they saw fit. The government wasn't particularly popular at the time (what with the sweeping cuts to social services), but the people in question were adamant that, on digital services at least, the big guys really wanted to make a difference for good, and that it was a clean break from the past - hence why they were going to places like PyConUK to recruit motivated forward-looking people. That government effectively lasted 5 years, so they did a lot of work in that timeframe. I later heard through the grapevine that the waters got choppier after 2016, and I've not really heard anything after 2019 (beyond the occasional coded grumble on twitter), so I don't know how things are today.

> it would be upon the civil servants and associates that came up with the initiative

From what I understand, the power of this was precisely that it came from people outside the career civil service. Although this narrative came from Conservative quarters (who occasionally indulge in civil-service bashing), I find it credible. Established powers in the system tend to have established friends among deep-pocketed vendors, particularly these days that doors tend to revolve quite furiously. For all the good they did elsewhere, one undoubtedly bad legacy of the Blair-Brown years was eccessive trust on friendly vendors vs in-house.

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#86

Post by toyg »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #78
rswail wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Effectively it was in the PM's department directly, which means it was not subject to cross-department jealousies etc. Watch some series of Yes Minister, even though set in the 1970s and 80s, it's still all true.

The Thick of It is supposedly not far from the reality either.

Armando Iannucci is a national treasure and a credit to the Italian diaspora (and to Scotland).

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#87

Post by toyg »

celticninja wrote: post #74
igormilla wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Balkanization is the fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states, which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization Applying this to a government you will have one where you have a lot of separate agencies that are hostile, uncooperative, and don't want to follow any unified standards.

Which means it is not an accurate description as most agencies are not hostile to one another or uncooperative, its just that they are independent and have (sometimes) competing goals. They have no requirement to work together, but some are realising that there are benefits to doing so.

You can read that sentence in Sir Humphrey Appleby's voice for top comedic effect.

Jim Hacker would have probably replied "So you're telling me they are not playing against each other, except when they are playing against each other...?"

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#88

Post by ColinHayhurst »

Zenst wrote: post #48
toyg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit where credit is due, this is the legacy of the Cameron government (although the conversation started under Brown, iirc, it was the first Cameron cabinet that really pushed it, by basically setting up a skunkworks group that answered directly to the PM). The efficacy and power of GDS has since ebbed and flowed, but clearly they managed to entrench some great practices that continue to this day.

I recall GDS being initiated for internal DOH stuff circa John Major, going into Blair era (yip was there when Blair took over the role). Not that I'd attribute it to any PM, believe it was driven by the government security services (which department/flavor I could not say). That all said, it may of been a different aspect but certainly has a longer story than told. With that, it started as an intranet project iirc.…

Agreed and thank you for the memory jogging link: https://gds.blog.gov.uk/story-2010/

Martha Lane Fox, bless her.

And the brilliant Tom Loosemoore, also behind https://www.theyworkforyou.com/

https://www.writetothem.com/

https://www.fixmystreet.com/

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#89

Post by gm3dmo »

ColinHayhurst wrote: post #55
toyg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit where credit is due, this is the legacy of the Cameron government (although the conversation started under Brown, iirc, it was the first Cameron cabinet that really pushed it, by basically setting up a skunkworks group that answered directly to the PM). The efficacy and power of GDS has since ebbed and flowed, but clearly they managed to entrench some great practices that continue to this day.

Exactly, through recall this was Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government, so Nick Clegg (you might have head of him) may have a claim. Actually the credit should go to the brilliant and dedicated people in GDS doing great work; though I do not know enough to pick out names. The UI/UX and implementation was first class from the get go. As a Brit my life is made remarkably easier as a citizen and startup…

+1 for Francis Maude because he definitely grokked it.

Martha Lane Fox also deserves mention for: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/directgov-2010-an...

They all tore up the rulebook. The rule being: Government can’t do computers. Outsource to favourite big consultancy. Twenty years were wasted on that nonsense approach.

Some of the greatest resistance comes from the big departments who are actively hostile to many of the changes required to work in this way. There’s a lot to be said for a round of golf at The Belfry with the splendid chaps from the IT consultancy your department spends £2bn a year with.

Golf days: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/abfe49d3-f24c-4b93-b8e...

Re: Gov.uk Platform as a Service

#90

Post by teh_klev »

say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #83

Taxpayers of the UK ought to get free hosting with this platform, considering they already paid for it. Cut government spending if it has resources to do this sort of work. Government is not to provide business services.

They're not services any old business can apply for, the service is aimed at other government/public sector organisation.
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