Ade Adewunmi from GDS (Government Digital Services) said that early assumptions that universal search would be the best way in changed as they discovered a new user group – those people who need to know how government works.
Open standards were key to getting adoption across the whole federation of government departments. They gives flexibility but also control which stops fragmentation as once a standard has been agree by the standards board that it is what will be used.
We reuse by default. Where they have set standards they are made clear and responsive and then support and enforce them. “It’s important to hold the line.”
The future is the government as a platform and that makes standards even more important, she says.