New official to lead effort to build community of practice for government software projects
The effort to promote the use of open standards in government IT has received a push with a new effort to build a community of people working on software projects.
The Government Digital Service (GDS) has hired Dan Appelquist (pictured) as technical standards lead, and says in a blogpost that he will lead the work in developing the community. It will be aimed at spreading the understanding of open standards, and build on the earlier establishment of Open Standards Principles and the Open Standards Board.
This will involve a series of workshops for developers and technical designers next year, with an emphasis on standards for application program interfaces, and possibly the creation of a technical standards group to resolve any relevant issues. In addition, GDS wants to look at influencing standards and ensuring they adhere to the principles.
It says it will use an open GitHub repository to organise the work, making as much as possible public.
Appelquist has previously worked in web roles for Telefonica and Vodafone, been active in the World Wide Web Consortium and been a member of the government’s Open Standards Board since 2014.
Image Paul Downey through GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
