While we are on the subject of government thinking about IT. I have just spotted this announcement that the government intended to piggy back their ID card scheme on the back of existing databases. They seem to think that this is going to make it cheaper. However I reckon that they have at least just doubled the cost. Given that there is no single database of all the people in the country and their details they are going to need to integrate information from a number of sources. This data won't all match up (any large database is full of 'dirt' - bad records, spelling mistakes, mismatches etc. This cannot be avoided.) so the integration will be complex. There will be far more scope for error (and where there are problems there are a stack of people waiting to exploit those problems).
I have personally stopped worrying about ID cards. The government is just not capable of implementing the schemes they have in mind. It will either all fall to pieces and be scrapped once the costs spiral out of control or we will end up with some half arsed 'passport v2.0' scheme which will be something like making everyone have a passport if they need one or not.
Posted by Mark at December 19, 2006 01:11 PM