This will probably come as a bit of a surprise to many, but after four enjoyable, amazing years as Chief Editor of Public Sector Forums, I've decided to go self-employed.  Though I'll no longer be officially employed by PSF, I'll still be contributing on a regular basis - there's zero animosity involved and I'm still great friends with everyone there.

While it's always sad to leave a job you love, I'm also excited. It means I'll now be able to pursue a whole load of Web 2.0 projects and ventures which I've been itching to do for some time.

So what now? I'll be continuing the Public Sector Data Breach log (soon to be revamped – watch this space) which, I have to admit, surprisingly, far from being a source of embarrassment has actually become something of a huge hit with the public sector readership. I've lost count of the  enquiries I've had from government departments and councils wanting to re-use this to promote information security to staff - the thing even gets circulated around HMRC senior management and 22,000 of their staff, so I want to do this justice.  And it'll be open data.

With PSF's blessing, I'm also taking over and building up the UKGovOSS.org open source government social network I set up in August, and running this as an independent project. Though it's now got around 130 members, I need to reinvigorate this community, bring on more of what you could call stakeholders and ensure it's sustainable for the long-term, both financially and user-wise. The reason I set up UKGovOSS was never commercial - it was to act, basically, as a way to help PSF's public sector members just to talk to each other about using open source and meet those who could help them (though, for the record, it turned a profit from Day One and is a great case study of how social media can be readily monetized).  I feel I still haven't even scratched the surface of what I want to do with UKGovOSS and what it's capable of.

As for the other stuff I'm working on, more on that to come - I'll be calling for beta testers for these babies very soon. If you're interested in working with me, ping me at me@iancuddy.com or @iancuddy. Here goes.

I'm hugely excited by this. Sir David Varney, Gordon Brown's personal advisor on Transformational Government and architect of the Government's approach to data sharing, personalised public services and transformation in general is to face his critics in a public debate next month.

In a rare public appearance, Sir David - a man with a whole agenda and industry named after him - will go head-to-head with, amongst others, none other than arch-nemesis Ian Brown, one of the authors of the Rowntree Database State report.

The discussion, going by the title of Data Sharing or Database State? takes place as part of this year's forthcoming Battle of Ideas festival.

All very timely too, given a whole new public discussion on government data sharing, public privacy and the implications of the 'transformational' agenda now seems to be taking shape. Even to the point where I turned on the TV the other day to see Philip Schofield moderating a debate about the Vetting and Barring Register on the This Morning sofa, as only he can.

Following the Government's point-blank dismissal of the Rowntree report, it's encouraging (if not nothing short of a miracle) to see very senior policy makers, for once, actually being willing to engage in public debate about data sharing, particularly at a forum such as Battle of Ideas.  It brings to mind a memorable moment last year at a Public Sector Forums conference on identity when Meg Hillier, the ID Cards minister at the time, pronounced:

"The debate has already happened, the 2006 [Identity Cards] Act is passed and further opposition is pointless"

– a view apparently not appreciated or endorsed by all those present.

So congrats to Jo Herlihy, organiser and chair of the Database State debate session for securing Sir David's attendance. This should definitely be one to watch. The only thing is, why do I get visions of Sir Bonar Neville-Kingdom addressing Open Tech 2009?

From PSF:

Public Sector Forums are pleased to announce the launch of the PSFBuzz Government Web 2.0 Awards 2009.

Following the intense interest and activity around PSFBuzz, Public Sector Forums have been inspired to celebrate the creativity, innovation and excellence of public sector use of social media and Web 2.0 technologies.

The PSFBuzz Awards will be an opportunity for the government web community to recognise and applaud the success of colleagues in this relatively new space.

The awards ceremony will take place in December 2009 as part of an interactive conference.

Nominations will open shortly, with the awards categories to include:

• Best Blogger
  
• Best Mash Up/Hack
  
• Best Use of YouTube
  
• Best Use of Twitter
  
• Best Use of Facebook
  
• Best Website
  
• Best Digital Team
  
• Best Online Community
  
• Best Mobile App
  
• Best PR/Marcomms Campaign (Internal/External)
  
• PSFBuzzer of the Year.

The panel of judges for the PSFBuzz Awards will be led by none other than LocalGovCamp's Dave Briggs. At the event there will be short presentations from each of the finalists, plus 'People's Choice' awards as voted for by the government web community at large.

And we haven't mentioned yet there'll be a drinks reception/shindig/soirée post-event to celebrate both the success of the winners and the festive season.

More details will follow very soon, so start prepping your acceptance speeches now...