Criticism on the plan from Mats Odell

In an article in Computer Sweden and here.

Swedish IT and Telecom Industries (IT och Telekomföretagen) say the minister is still too careful, and for example have no measurable goals. A statement I agree with, but Mikael von Otter should know the Swedish Government will never issue such statements. On the other hand, I should know one should never stop asking for measurable goals :-)

Some criticism I do not agree with though comes from Dataföreningen i Sverige (no information in English) that say the government have forgot the end user, that education etc is extremely important. I think the government in the plan have concentrated on the end user, force agencies to deploy e-services end users can use. Services that work. If an end user need to upgrade their Internet connection, buy special things, or go a training course before paying bills, then the service has a fault. It is not a fault of the end user.

As long as people continue push for more education, more support and more help, they have missed the target. They make people that can not understand and use faulty services feel it is a problem with them. It is not. It is the system, software and computer that is crap, and should be replaced. The government focuses on information to the consumer so that they know when buying broadband what kind of connection is optimised for them. They also talk about the need for agencies that are responsible for robustness of their services, and that they use (open) standards (so that for example everyone can use a web based service, and not only users of Windows and Internet Explorer). That is thinking of consumers needs in the correct way my dear Dataförening (that I am a member of, but only to get Computer Sweden on paper in a cheaper way than just subscribing).

What is worrying though is that although this report was released Thursday, ministers do still say weird things that are not in sync with the report. I wish the people that now have to implement this report in the government (and in the agencies that now have to change) good luck.