Weeknotes: fin. (So what did I accomplish?)

I hate being introspective. But I'm told it's good for me. A few months ago, I handed in my notice to Cabinet Office. And now I'm no longer a Civil Servant.

It's hard to sum up those 2,462 days. Every day brought new challenges. I saw my work presented to the highest offices in the land, discussed on the nightly news, cancelled due to General Elections, and implemented across the nation. I represented my country across the world, helped protect it from attacks both digital and biological, and tried to speak a little truth to power.

Along the way I met some fascinating and fantastic people. I was challenged technically, intellectually, and emotionally. I leave a little less naïve, but just as enthusiastic about the power of open technology to transform the state.

It would be impossible to list everything that made me proud to be a Civil Servant. And I carry with me the memories of hundreds of brilliant people that I met. Whether the informal explosion of creativity which is GovCamp, to the rather more genteel meetings in the House of Commons, everyone I met was generous with their time and passionate about their work.

Here is an (incomplete) list of my highlights in no particular order.

Obviously, the absolute top of the list was meeting Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, Larry. I know it's a bit "I've danced with a man, who's danced with a girl, who's danced with the Prince of Wales" - but I've scritched a cat who has been scritched by monarchs, emperors, and presidents. That's pretty nifty!

And, yes, I got the obligatory photo of me outside №10. I learned that it's not a brilliant idea to wear a black shirt while standing in front of a black door. So I tarted up my wardrobe for a subsequent visit.

It's sometimes a little heady to think of the audiences I've addressed. I spoke around the world on technology matters in Government. But it was absolutely surreal to address the various security services. Obviously, there's no photo pointing the other way!

I had the immense privilege to represent my country at a number of international events. In the final days of the UK's membership of the EU, I was one of the delegates to an EU committee looking at closer co-operation through technical standards.

I was also the Government's representative to the W3C - which allowed me to become an editor on the HTML5 standard.

While I didn't get to the UN, I was a delegate to ICANN. Which meant I got to enjoy the experience of simultaneous translation.

I've blogged extensively about my time at NHSX - and may blog more once the inquiry has finished. It was... intense. Being asked to help launch a new team, briefing the Secretary of State on tech matters, launching an app which made headlines around the world, and only once getting into trouble with the press!

Some of the highlights are less tangible. If you search the Digital Marketplace you'll see that nearly every project mentions open source, open standards, and open APIs. If you read various announcements by ministers, departments, and directors you'll see them banging on about the need for interoperability. That is, in part, due to my influence.

One of my main reasons for getting into the Civil Service was because, a decade ago, I was appalled at the lack of security on .gov.uk websites.

Alex

@blangry

"Dear The Government, I have found over 500 vulnerable websites. Please fix them?" - @edent pic.x.com/n35wsjbyob

---

I spent the last 18 months helping fix that. The vast majority of .gov.uk sites use HTTPS by default, there are effective policies which stop the worst attacks, and there's continual monitoring in place to detect when things go wrong. The brilliant team at Securing Government Services toil tirelessly to keep everyone in the UK safe. It was a joy and an honour to work with them.

Of course, there are some things which didn't go as planned.

Regrets?

Perhaps I should have agitated harder for there to be an Open Source Program Office. When the Head of Open Source left GDS, there was no one to replace her. I tried getting Government funding for the various OSS projects we use - but there are so many complications around funding non-tangible projects. And, anecdotally, some OSS projects didn't want to receive money from Government. If it had been my full time job, I might have made a dent in it. Alas, it fell by the wayside.

I know it sounds stupid, but I found no adequate way to stem the tide of PDFs being uploaded to GOV.UK. I'd present to people, they'd agree it was a problem, and then nothing would happen. I discussed whether we could just ban departments from uploading them (no), put big warnings on the site discouraging use (maybe), or tell directors that their departments were breaking the rules (yes) - but it didn't make much of a difference. Everyone agrees that PDFs are inaccessible and don't work properly on mobile. But publishers love a fixed layout. So they stay.

It was a similar story with Open Document Format. Over the years, the number of Word Doc and XLSX files diminished. But ODT and ODS uploads never really took off. Partly it was a lack of tooling and partly a lack of native viewers on operating systems. Plain CSV had a resurgence though, which was nice.

I think both of my failures were due to my ideology not accounting for either inertia or fear of change. Sure, I was hampered by Microsoft's defaults and Apple's lack of filetype support - but the major problem was that I never found an adequate way to reassure people that change was necessary and safe.

And the less said about the PAF the better. I tried, I really did!

As I look back, I think the good outweighs the bad. Could I have stormed the Prime Minister's office and screamed at them until they installed Linux on every desktop in Government? No. And even if I had, it wouldn't have made a difference. Civil Servants advise and Ministers decide. That's the maxim. I pushed the agenda of open technology because that's what I was hired to do.

It would have been impossible for me to have internally lobbied for letting people handle salmon suspiciously - or whatever. I got involved in a wide range of discussions where I thought my expertise could help (none salmon related) and did my best.

Why leave?

7 years is a long time. I went from GDS to NHSX to the Data Standards Authority to CDDO. Each was a new adventure. But each was capped with two unfortunate problems.

The first is that there is no promotion available for people who don't want to line manage teams. I was a subject matter expert at Grade 7. If I wanted to move up to G6, I'd have spent a substantial portion of my time working on clerical, pastoral, and managerial duties. I don't enjoy that - and I'm not very good at it. People deserve a line manager who is interested in management. That's not me. Expertise is valued in the CS - but generalists are needed at the higher levels. I get that - but it puts a career limitation on anyone who does want to specialise.

The second is related; pay. I know it isn't the done thing in polite society to complain publicly about money - but that's a taboo which needs breaking. When I started at the Civil Service I knew that the pay wasn't high but the benefits were great. But every year I received a below-inflation pay rise. I asked various managers if exceeding all my targets would get me a pay rise - but the answer was no. Not their fault - the system is inflexible. With the cost of living rising, I just couldn't justify working somewhere which couldn't pay me fairly - no matter how much I enjoyed the team or the mission.

I want to do interesting work. And I need to be paid fairly for it.

And next?

Well, my friends, stay tuned. The next season of The Terence Eden Adventures is going to be... interesting!