UK.gov taps up DWP's IT boss for all of Whitehall

Joe Harley has been appointed as UK.gov's new IT boss, the Cabinet Office confirmed today. He replaces John Suffolk, who resigned from his £207,000 Chief Information Officer post at the end of last year. Harley is the current Department for Work and Pensions CIO. From today, the government beefed up his portfolio - while …

[Semaj]

Job description

Wow that job description in the last paragraph isn't really adequate. It needs MORE buzzwords!

[amanfromMars 1]

Novel Work.

""This role will be responsible for implementing new ways of designing and developing systems using agile methods and skunkworks environments; increasing the drive towards open standards and open source software; change the terrain for SMEs to enter the government marketplace; and maintain a horizon scan of future technologies and methods," it said. "

Hmmm? I thought there was supposed to be all this new super duper technology and really virtually smart algorithms which could sniff out/phish information and intelligence from traffic flashing over the web, and thus would one have expected the Cabinet Office to be sounding out prospective bods and likely boffins for the ICT Futures and Derivatives post .

And you do understand that should things get "technical" in interview discussions, is the likely most suitable driver going to be leaving the Cabinet Office somewhat dumfounded with what will be revealed as being so easily possible.

Kelly, you omitted to provide a point of contact email address for anyone interested in sussing out whether the Cabinet Office is a fit and proper place for a director of "ICT futures", and there is fierce competition in such lucrative fields for I hear that MI6 are having a clearout and golden handshake party for old hands, wishing to spend more time with their families/well past their sell by dates, and they are definitely in dire straits need of such skunkworks skillsets as dabble in the future and present derivatives of it for IT to hedge all their bets and make a killing on the markets, although maybe that is what the Tory Cabinet Office Toffs are planning too, and thus their lookout for .... well it would need to be quite exceptionally sparkling talent and practically invisible in real life too.

Oh, and have you any idea of the international market opportunities for such stars. They are the stuff of bankers' wet dreams.

[OSC]

weblink tells all you need to know

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice/need.asp

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, yet another Microsoft-sponsored idiot

"http://www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice/need.asp"

Like earlier posters say, it tells that you are required to use Windows and IE. Nothing else will do and is not only not supported, but banned outright.

"Everyone must pay the criminal overlords, ie. Microsoft"

"The service is not currently available using Macs or other Unix based systems even though you may be able to input information."

But not get any benefits. And this situation will change as soon as Microsoft permits, i.e. never.

These idiots are getting paid by people (=tax payers) to serve only people who have paid MS-tax. Why?

Because MS pays for this privilege to Cabinet Office?

[Anonymous Coward]

"agile methods and skunkworks environments"

and some IT people wonder why much of the industry has little credibility... you couldn't make it up (and yes I do know what they mean, but when skunkworks goes corporate...)

[Oninoshiko]

In fairness,

maybe they got a really good deal on land downwind from a plastics factory?

(you dont want to know what that's burning over there.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Buzzword bonanza

seems to suggest he doesn't REALLY know a lot about some aspects of tech.

I say that, because only bullshitters bullshit to that degree. (or, perhaps I'm mistaken; maybe he's a genius)

Being a Civil Servant, I would guess his minions write briefings (prep notes) for enagagements.

Maybe all the skills required for a job like this are:

1. Bullshitting

2. Delegating

[amanfromMars 1]

The World's in a Bit of a Tale Spin at Present. May the Best and Richest of New Vein Trains, Win

Err .... Talking about high degrees of bullshit, is that the same as talking about madness, which in most all severe cases of hubris is akin to burying one's head in the sand, which then offers one's *** for a sustained pounding akin to good rogering?

Here is some of that New Fangled Entangled XSSXXXX Coding for Beta Steganography on Objective Subject Matters ..... Present Targets of Future Interest

[blockquote]Posted by AmanfromMars on 2/1/2011 5:27:36 AM

Talking of madness, there is a lot of it about ..... Is it promiscuously contagious or just something reserved for and delivered to a chosen few, and out of control when there is a lot of it about?

[blockquote]by amanfromMars

on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 05:12

#923085

"However, once Bernanke’s policies bring the US public to a true boil, the puppet masters will discard their Chairman and his misguided theories like an old, broken toy. They’ll make a human sacrifice of him, pinning the blame for the collapse of the US Dollar and the US’s descent into 3rd world status on his slouched academic shoulders right next to the “kick me” sign. For when the public wants blood, it will be Bernanke, not the banks or their bonuses, who will be sacrificed."

I wouldn't be risking any good money on that dodgy bet being confined to the Ben "The Stool Pigeon" Bernanke, folks, for the puppet masters are all too firmly framed and embedded in the picture for flash mob attention, such is the nature of global information and intelligence sharing these days/zerodays. It aint like the ole days, no more, bubba, capiche.

And it is only fair that everyone gets exactly what they richly deserve, and that is the perfectly natural way of things too which you cannot change, no matter how often you would delude yourself with the notion that you can, because you suddenly start thinking that you don't deserve what is coming down the line with your name written all over it. Just ask even an old fool like Lloyd C. Blankfein doing God's work to know the veracity of that inevitability.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-road-madness-paved-100-bills [/blockquote]

http://thedailybell.com/1722/Buy-the-Dow-While-the-US-Wilts.html [/blockquote]

[Anonymous Coward]

buzzwords - a polite way of saying bullshit

It's all Civil Service jargon bullshit!

Pssst. Check out his Tweets; they're fascinating @DWPCIO

[amanfromMars 1]

Mercenaries R Us* ....... for Remote Control in Pitched Dark Matters.

""agile methods and skunkworks environments" ..... and some IT people wonder why much of the industry has little credibility... you couldn't make it up (and yes I do know what they mean, but when skunkworks goes corporate...)" ..... Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 31st January 2011 23:51 GMT

Oh I don't know, AC, for whenever the spooky industry goes rogue and needs IT boffins to provide their feeds and seeds for .... well, let us not frighten the horses with talk of the virtual take over for future make over of countries and governments/incumbent native administrations and the money [flash cash and instant credit] machine .... hearts and minds programming facilities and utilities for successful project implementation and SMART Running, would credibility in the industry be sky high, and the agile methods and skunkworks environments be as out of this worldly lucrative, virtual precious metals and sparkling gem stone mines of unlimited and easily tapped wealth for fabulous prosperity.

Best not to inquire and dig too deeply into whatever industries/businesses/services/personnel you would think and/or even wildly imagine to be leading that surge/purge though, unless you know exactly what you are doing and getting yourself into. Then of course is one made and most welcome.

* Visionaries R Us is the Yin to that Yang and IT is Supplied to All who Enjoy Taking a Walk on the Wild Side of Life for Remote Control in Pitched Dark Matters and Live Operational Virtual Environments.