Last March we reported on the government's reply to an MP's question on Open Source Software and Open Standards.

As we said then:

• it all hinges on what you mean by "wherever possible"

and also that

• "wherever possible" includes "nowhere"

so how are they doing?.

One of the roles any government professing liberal democratic values takes upon itself is to implement measures it considers will lead to a thriving market economy. While there are areas of modern life that some/many will consider cannot be met by relying on the market there does not appear to be a significant movement calling for a return to a planned economy.

Except, it would seem to the casual observer, when we are discussing the knowledge or information economy in which it is necessary to consider “thought-through market mechanics”.

In an interesting piece of newspeak we are told that new versions of Microsoft Outlook won't allow access to older format documents:

As much as we love adding new features to Outlook, for the maintainability of our product we sometimes need to remove those that are out of date and aren't utilized by a large number of users. This allows us to focus on improving the Outlook features that most of you, our customers, rely on.

Since 1996 which saw the publication of the Green Paper "Government Direct" the Government has published a new digital strategy almost annually, often supplemented.

“Government Direct” not easy to find now but a contemporaneous analysis explains that the three purposes of the strategy were:

• provide better and more efficient services to business and citizens
• improve the efficiency and openness of government administration
• secure substantial cost savings for taxpayers

Sounds familiar? It should do.