Wayne Horkan's weblog - eclectic

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Articles: 1, 2, 3

UK G2G revisited
2007-07-16 14:11:00
Some advice from Ian Dunmore over at Public Sector Forums regarding the article I produced looking at UK G2G systems and there possible evolution. He's noted that there is some confusion about what I'm saying with these articles, with readers commenting that I'm suggesting that it is a way forward for the co-ordination of UK G2G systems. Unfortunately I feel that would be too progressive, and that actually we need some mature discussion about the G2G systems in the UK, which are carrying a variety of data (including 'Citizen' data), before we start looking at what we should do about the co-ordination of these systems. The message that I'm trying to get over is that: There are common usages of identity across the UK Government ("Identity Ontologies"). Around these common usages of identity G2G systems have 'sprung up'. Given the projects known to be delivering in the near future, what will this 'eco-system' of UK G2G systems look like in the short term. Given wh...

iPhone 'Media Orgy' - I'm with this guy...
2007-07-07 14:44:00
Given the complete and utter 'Media Orgy' over the iPhone, I'm with this guy over at the Register... Which is kind of a shame, 'cause up until now I'd been looking forward to it coming out. Seriously though: although the post itself is amusing - it's the comments which have been more telling about the general feelings about the iPhone, amongst the general technical community in the UK (and I use 'technical' in the loosest sense hear as the Register has a lot of readers outside the 'technical' arena, and outside of the UK). The most telling theme is that much of the iPhone functionality has been available in Europe for a fair few years now - in fact with most handsets having 3G - most of them still have a higher level of functionality already. There's quite a level of surprise of just how functionally limited the iPhone is. Another good point is that, due to being touch screen, you probably need to use both hands: one to hold the phone and the other to use it. A standa...
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UK G2G at the Public Sector Forums
2007-07-06 13:40:00
Just to announce that we will be posting some recommendations regarding the evolution and strategic management of the UK G2G systems documented on this site over that last week or so. When I say we - well read on't... The extremely nice people over at Public Sector Forums (Hi Ian D. !) have been very kind about the overview of UK Government G2G Messaging Sub-Systems that I posted recently. Public Sector Forums (PSF) is the leading online information service of it's type focusing on all things 'e-Gov' and 'e-Gov' related in the UK - and I've been a fan for a number of years - ever since a friend of mine had an article posted with them (Alan Mather's article 'Ten Years of 'e-Gov''). Robin Wilton - one of Sun's global Corporate Architect's (with a particular focus on 'Federated Identity') and a co-chair of the Liberty Alliance's Public Policy Expert Group (as well as being a participant in the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Identity Theft) said this about the PSF r...

Evolution of UK Government Messaging Systems
2007-06-29 13:56:00
This is the third part of a three part overview of UK Government G2G Mess aging Sub-Systems . Specifically this post is looking at the "Evolution of Messaging Sub-Systems used by the UK Government" - given the current, and the near-future, state of UK G2G systems, how might we expect them to mature and evolve. At a minimum I would recommend reading part one of this series of articles, "Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government". Most Likely Shared Services Model Shows which organisations are most likely to share "information" and function across the emerging UK G2G infrastructure. So... What Next ? It is only a matter of time before these Ontologies start to share information in a more controlled and planned manner. In fact data traffic between a number of these G2G systems is already being planned out. It's not hard to see that an "Evolution of the UK Government G2G eco-system" is taking place, specifically around two primary models: "Mesh" or "Hub". ...
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Comparison of Major Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government
2007-06-27 11:00:00
This is the second part of a three part overview of UK Government G2G Messaging Sub-Systems . Specifically this post is a "Comparison of Major Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government", looking in more detail at three of the largest UK G2G systems and contrasting them with each other. I've split it into two parts: Firstly a comparison of the major Identity Ontologies Secondly a comparison of three of the largest G2G systems in place Comparison of the major Identity Ontologies I've found that for any of these systems to truly deliver significant value they need to support four basic components. In fact this is no different of any large integration system found in any other sector. The four basic building block are: Internal (Back-End) Integration - preferably "Service" focused, there has to be a way to unlock the functionality and processing capability within the individual departments, organisations and authorities. Whether this is via a "Service Oriented Architecture" (SOA)...
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Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government
2007-06-25 16:00:00
This is the first part of a three part overview of UK Government G2G Mess aging Sub-Systems . Specifically this post looks at "Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government" and is an overview of what's in place, what's not, and how I've classified them. If you've been involved with Government, Education, and Health (GEH) IT implementations over the last few years, you will no doubt have come across some of the major G2G systems that have been developed, and are continuing to mature. Since just before Tony Blair announced UK Online in September, 2000, with a pledge to provide all government services online by 2005, there have been movements towards greater co-operation and joint working across the UK Government. In the UK we've been hearing about "Joined-Up Government" and "Shared Services" for a number of years. Reports such as the Gershon Review, the Transformational Government Strategy and the Varney Report all call for government departments and organisations to work togeth...
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Using Alternate Style Sheets to switch design
2007-06-25 00:27:00
Due to the large number of images and diagrams that will be accompany the articles on "UK Government G2G Messaging Sub-Systems" to follow over the next week, I've implemented an "Image Resize" function, to allow you to alter the image size of all diagrams in the main body of this site. You should be able to see a section heading on the right hand side bar called "Body Image Size", the choices are "Small" (thumbnail) , "Medium" (default) and "Large" (body width). It's implemented using alternate CSS Style Sheets, and was inspired by Tim Bray's site 'Ongoing', where Tim uses it as a technique to switch between the 'Serif' and 'Sans-Serif' font types. I got assistance from this article "Alter native Style: Working With Alternate Style Sheets" by Paul Sowden, hosted over at 'A List Apart'. Thanks to Justin Hibbard, Lead Engagement Architect and Systems Engineer (SE) for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) at Sun in the UK, who's comment on the issue of "illegible ...
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UK Government G2G Messaging Sub-Systems
2007-06-22 20:55:00
Just to say that over the next weeks posting's I will be looking at UK Government Mess aging Sub-Systems . These are the major G2G systems in the UK. I did this analysis and the associated diagrams a couple of years ago, when I was Chief Technologist (CT) for the Public Sector business unit in the UK at Sun. Firstly to educate our guys internally, and secondly to understand what some of our strategic objectives might be. As such they are a little out of date - but it's the only overview on the topic that I'm aware of, and so still extremely valid (if UK Government G2G systems "float your boat" of course). To ensure that the post is not voluminous I've separated it into three parts: Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government - an overview of what's in place, what's not, and how I've classified them. Comparison of Major Messaging Sub-Systems in the UK Government - looking in more detail at three of the largest UK G2G systems, and contrasting them with each other. Evolution of...
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Father's Day Klaxons
2007-06-17 20:30:00
Father's Day this year brings the new Klaxons album ("Myths of the Near Future"), a box of chocs and a mouse mat - I was well chuffed. The Klaxons album is great - I'm not so clear on the "New Rave" tag (it doesn't sound like the early Rave music I'm familiar with, but that's no great shakes, there was a lot of variation - the covers of Rave songs are an obvious starting point and the connections to clubbing and DJing are fair enough) - the music is "sick" (to quote Joey, 7) and I think the literary references are ace too. Name checking the works of at least two of my favourite writers (Thomas Pynchon and Willian S. Burroughs II) always helps, with a name derived from a quotation in the "Futurist Manifesto" all works for me - it's not exactly subtle, but at least it's accessible. They're due to play the Carling Academy (the old "Hummingbird" club) in Birmingham on Tuesday the Fourth of December, 2007 (you can find more tour dates over here). The last band Donna and I s...
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Vote Saxon !
2007-06-16 17:41:00
ON SATURDAY 23RD JUNE 2007 - VOTE SAXON. WATCH THE ELECTION RESULTS FROM 7:00PM ON BBC ONE.
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Sun and the EU Data Retention Directive - announcing the Sun Secure Data Re
2007-06-12 13:01:00
Many EU member states have been working with Communication Service Providers (CSPs) for some time to help law enforcement agencies by providing telephony records, both for mobile and fixed line. The EU Data Retention Directive however (coming into force later this year) provides harmony across not only current member states, but ascending countries such as Bulgaria and Romania. In the UK, this sees both Telephony companies and Internet providers needing to keep customers call and transaction records for between six and twelve months in a format that not only enables timely retrieval but ensure secure storage to prevent inappropriate access, interpretation and use. Whilst the UK government are helping providers by offering monetary assistance, via the Home Office, it's important to note that this is a distraction from their core business ? that of maintaining revenue and retaining customers, especially with additional pressures from such items as roaming charges. Therefore, to p...
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Open Source in the Enterprise
2007-06-07 23:38:00
About a year ago today I was invited to present at the IT Directors Forum, an informal bi-monthly meeting held by IT Directors, CIOs & CTOs of Finance companies based in Scotland. Hosting the event was John Carey, the charismatic CIO & IT Director for Scottish Widows, and it was organised by Paul Atkinson (CEO of Head Resourcing). We were lucky enough to hold the meeting in the boardroom of Scottish Widows offices, in Edinburgh, overlooking Edinburgh Castle - an absolutely stunning view in the early evening twilight. As I recall there was representation from National Australia Group (NAG), Aoen Investments, JPMC, Standard Life, RBoS and HSBC, as well as Scottish Widows. I had been asked to present upon the topic of "Open Source in the Enter prise". After consultation with Sun's newly appointed Chief Open Source Officer, Simon Phipps, I took a copy of his Open Source golden pitch slides and modified them, including some content based around my own experiences of the use o...
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Wayne Horkan - Fellow of the British Computer Society
2007-05-29 14:00:00
Had a call this morning from Brenda at the British Computer Society (BCS) that I have been accepted as a Fellow of the BCS. Immensely proud moment for me as I'm a big supporter of the BCS - especially as it represents my profession into the UK Government. I'm also very vocal about the BCS's 'Professionalism in IT Agenda' - initially put forward by ex-President Charles Hughes. It also makes me one of the youngest Fellows of the BCS at 36 (I'm trying to get confirmation that I'm the second youngest ever). I often get questions that go - 'OK but what does the BCS do for me' and frankly apart from representing the industry, and workers in that industry, it provides the SFIA Plus skills framework - ratified by the UK e-Skills council (and the UK Government) as the basis for how technology skills are interpreted in the UK. They also hold regular 'chapter' meetings in most of the large cities in the UK (such as the Birmingham meetings I try and get to), regular specialist...
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Attacked by Ravens - update
2007-05-29 11:30:00
I've just been assured by Mike Lee (the UK & Ireland Chief Technologist for the Commercial business unit) that what attacked Chester and I was probably Rooks or Crows. However I must disagree in that the birds involved were at least twice the size of a Crow (they were easily twenty inches in height), nor did they have the distinctive grey-white skin between the beak and eyes of a Rook. So, as far as I'm concerned, they were Raven s. However Mike believed that the "body" in question was likely to be "lunch".
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Attacked by Ravens
2007-05-28 14:35:00
Yes - today I was attacked by Raven s, or rather, Chester, the family Labrador, was. I'd taken Chester to the local green (Seven Acre Green in Castle Bromwich), and having let him off his leash, was enjoying watching him chase the sticks I was occasionally throwing for him. As we passed under a low hanging cherry blossom tree, he took a great deal of interest in the corpse of a Raven at the base of the tree. After shooing him off from picking the body up, we continued around the green. I noticed that a pair of Ravens had started flying towards him and, in turn, straight down, legs outstretched, as though they meant to strike him. The larger of the pair appeared to actually hit him, but he had no mark upon him when I quickly checked he was all right. I've never seen a bird, even one as formidable as a Raven, go after such a large target. Chester is only eleven months old - but he's already quite big, and is almost fully "fleshed" out. I wondered what the Ravens story w...
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Updating PRINCE2
2007-05-27 11:25:00
Recently I was talking with Andy Murray about the evolution and update of PRINCE2 - he's been appointed the Lead Author for the "PRINCE2? Refresh Project" by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the owners of the PRINCE2 copyright and standard, and The Stationery Office (TSO), the publishers. PRINCE2, by the way, is a project management methodology, and stands for "PRojects IN Controlled Environments (version 2)" - it covers the management, control and organisation of a project. I, and Sun, have worked with Andy, both on individual engagements and regarding the use of PRINCE2 at Sun in the UK, for a number of years, and he's easily the best person to perform this role - I wish him the best of luck. Andy?s first task as Lead Author is to produce a Consultation Report summarising all the feedback received from a review that's just taken place. I was asked to contribute, and this is the data that Andy has been collecting: 3 things you like about PRINCE2 3 things you...
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Stabilising Look and Feel
2007-05-24 22:23:00
Since my first post I've been working on getting the look and feel that I want, and although I haven't quite finished here's an update. I started with the Sun Pacifico Theme, which at the time I liked a lot. However the more I looked at my blog, the more I wanted something that was, if not unique, at least "mine" - and not just in terms of the content. Look and feel / web design was the most obvious area to change, but, to an extent I had held back a little, because I knew that it would likely mean delving into a host of technologies - only some of which I was up to date & familiar with. Wanting something that was very minimal, similar to the Blogger Template Style "Minima" by Douglas Bowman (here) of Stopdesign (here), and as used by my friend Alan Mather on his blog (here). I feel that the content needs to stand for itself without too many distractions calling the eye's attention. I find that very busy websites, with lots of "eye candy", lose detail amongst t...
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Happy Mondays on Channel 4's Transmission
2007-05-19 01:31:00
The Mondays have just played a blinding version of Kinky Afro on Channel 4's Transmission music show. It's great to see the lads doing some gigs together again. I'm looking forward to getting to see them live - they're playing at JB's Dudley on Friday the 1st of June - so hopefully I'll see them there. Obligatory links and more info... Channel 4's Transmission site: http://www.channel4.com/music/transmissio n/index.html Stuff on the Happy Mondays. Home site: http://www.happymondaysonline.com MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/happymondaysonline Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Monday s JB's Dudley site: http://www.jbsdudley.co.uk/
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Why I work for Sun Microsystems - I
2007-05-17 17:45:00
I aspired to join Sun Microsystems - in part because of Scott (you know, McNealy). So here's my "Why I work at Sun" Scott McNealy story... Many years ago as a humble coder (OK - probably one of the best C programmers in the UK - I've always been modest) I had achieved an "at oneness" with the language, it's syntax & it's complexities - furthermore I understood the machine environment within which it ran to the nth degree too. One day having been sent a copy of "Computing" I read with interest Scott's famous "The Network is the Computer" quotation (I realise now, fourteen-ish years later, that he didn't actually make it up himself - and that the quote is from John Gage - but I hope you can kindly forgive a idealistic young man for his naiveté). It made me think - a lot. At the time I would go to bed and the last thing I would think of before drifting off to sleep was this concept and it's ramifications - attempting to allow my sub-conscious mind to figure it out and ...
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Weblog language translator - beta
2007-05-04 18:47:00
I've just implemented a weblog language translator, based on Google Tran slator . It's very rough and ready, deserving of the title "beta", and very simple, but it appears to do quite a nice job of translating into the majority of the World's most used languages. I had just been reading The Aquarium (over here), and I was very impressed with it's multi-lingual support.  I don't know how the guys are doing this, but I'm presuming that they are actually translating the text manually (i.e. with human editors), after searching on the topic of blog translation. The languages that I've included are: Mandarin (Simplified Chinese), Chinese (Traditional Chinese), English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, Korean, French and Italian.  I wanted to do the fifteen or so most used languages - however the sources I found disagreed slightly on actual numbers and rankings.  The sources I used to understand the breakdown of percentage of languages ...
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Tim Bray in the UK
2007-05-04 11:33:00
Yesterday (Thursday the 3rd of May) we were lucky enough to have Tim Bray - Sun's Director for Web Technologies - in the London City office. Tim's been over to the UK to make some customer visits, mainly amongst the Finance Sector in the City, where the rapid development of applications to reduce time to market for systems is a principal topic. Lucky for us he had a free afternoon to present, at very short notice, to a number of the Sun UK Customer Engineering team (UK Field Operations). Tim's famous for a whole host of web related innovations and notable contributions to the Internet Age, not least being a co-inventor of XML (along with Jon Bosak, the "Father of XML", Sun "Contrarian Minds" entry here). You can find Tim's blog here, his Sun Bio. here, some more from Sun here, and his Wikipedia entry over here. Tim gave a great talk on his views on Web 2.0, the state of of Dynamic Languages, Atom (Tim's Chairman of the IETF working group - link to the Atom Standard ...
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May Day, 2007
2007-05-02 00:52:00
So Happy Beltaine to those of you of a Celtic persuasion, and Happy May Day to everyone ! May Day's always been very dear to me - I really enjoy Mythology, and the Celtic Mythology is one of my favourites - especially the Táin Bó Cúailnge (or the "The Cattle Raid of Cooley" to give a rough english translation). The Táin makes up the the majority of the Ulster Cycle, or Red Branch Cycle as it's also known (it's one of the four Irish Mythological Cycles, along with the Mythological Cycle, the Fenian Cycle and the Historical Cycle), and at the heart of the story is the Irish hero, Cúchulainn. For those of you who enjoy the Comic Book Sláine (initially appearing in 200AD), it's based heavily on Cúchulainn, and the description of his feats in the Tain. I have a couple of versions, but my favourite is the Thomas Kinsella (more here) translation, which my Mom and Dad brought me back from a visit to our family in Ireland just over 20 years ago. It's in hardback (black cloth cov...

Another profitable quarter of growth at Sun Microsystems
2007-04-25 15:26:00
Nice to see that Sun have achieved another profitable quarter of growth. It's not as good as last quarter, but in comparison to the the same time last year it's great. The results are posted over here. The Sun Senior Corporate Management Team, led by Jonathan Schwartz (blog here), with Field Operations being led by Don Grantham (short bio here), have all been working really hard to deliver these results. That hard work isn't just States based, it's replicated across the world: so a little bit closer to home, the management teams in the EMEA operation, led by Peter Ryan, VP for EMEA (bio here), and in the UK and Ireland, my own MD, leader of the UK & Ireland operation, Trudy Norris-Grey (VP for the UK & Ireland - bio here), have all been getting busy helping to deliver these results. One of the best things about Sun is it's "team spirit" and very inclusive community: so it's excellent to see that community delivering quarter on quarter, with an increased focus on custo...
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Just back from speaking at the Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Confer
2007-04-25 00:02:00
Just got back from the Enter prise Architecture Practitioners Conference, 2007. What an absolutely great day, I'll get a better update out tomorrow now, along with my slides. I got my best reception ever today, everybody clapped for what seemed to be a good while, with over half the room standing in ovation. It felt brilliant that they all appreciated my retelling of Sun's experiences in Enterprise Architecture. Have to type the speaker notes up to go with the slides though - this year I went with a very minimal slide set, but twenty-six A5 pages of speaking notes (just making the 30 minute slot), whereas last year I went for very busy slides with less speaking content. I met some lovely people, and especially my hosts from the Open Group, spending some time with Allen Brown, the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Open Group (short bio here), and briefly with Mike Lambert, the ex-CTO of the Open Group. Then as I was just coming home I bumped into Chris Loughran,...
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Goodbye President Yeltsin
2007-04-24 00:53:00
President Yeltsin passed away today - Monday, the 23rd of April, also known as Saint George's Day, 2007. He died from heart failure at the age of 76. Few people will be remembered as much as Boris Yeltsin, not only for the momentous place he held in modern history, but also for the mistakes and errors of judgement that were laid at his door. Whether it was seeing him standing on a tank outside of the Russian "White House" resisting the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, or shouting down Mikhail Gorbachev (his old rival and Russia's last Soviet president) after the same said coup attempt. His part in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the creation of the Russian Federation and it's taking of the Soviet Union's seat in the United Nations. His leading the conversion of the world's largest socialist planned economy into a market-oriented capitalist one - followed painfully by the rise of the Russian "Oligarchs". Or his subsequent errors of judgement regarding nepotism, and also, ...
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Presenting at the Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference, 2007
2007-04-22 00:13:00
Pleased to say that I'm due to speak next Tuesday (the 24th of April) at the Enter prise Architecture Practitioners Conference, 2007. John Spencer, the recently retired Director of The Open Group's Architecture Forum, kindly asked me if I'd like to present, and I was very happy to be able to accept. I'm presenting on the topic of "Enterprise Architecture @ Sun Microsystems" and will be covering Sun's work in the Enterprise Architecture field - both internally in helping to manage our own IT / IS estate (utilising EA derived from DoDAF*) and externally with customers and partners, using a variety of EA Frameworks (from Zachman & ZFEA*, to the Open Group & TOGAF*). The topics I'll be discussing include the use of EA internally at Sun to help drive down cost & complexity, the work that Sun's Consultancy team has done externally with major customers, including successes, best practises & lessons learnt, and the resulting innovative use of lightweight EA techniques in the pr...
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And finally...
2007-04-03 10:29:00
...after much comment - from workmates, colleagues, friends and acquaintances (but not, I might add, from family members) - as to the lack of a blog of any sort, and as the peak of the blogging phenomenon apparently arrives on the collective horizon, I've decided to go and start one. According to Gartner (here), and reported by a number of my favourite news sites (here, at the Register, and here, at the Inquirer, for example) the growth of blogging will finally peak at around 100 million blogs by 2007. This is part of "the Gartner top ten predictions for 2007 and beyond" - and so where better to start than at a short review of these predictions. I have to admit that I've been asked to report on technology trends, make market predictions and even, occasionally, present on futurology - and find the subject of trying to second guess the future as fascinating as it is frustrating. When it comes to predictions such as this it's important to bring your own views and opinions to ...
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