David Chan - Clockwork Systems

The Government Gateway and Linux

The Government Gateway is the server through which UK citizens communicate electronically with the Govermnent. It is the technological lynchpin of the Government's stated aim for all departments to be online by 2005. Developed by Microsoft, this site uses open, XML-based standards and will interoperate easily with independent client software written in in any language on any operating system. At least, in theory.

This talk looks at how well the Gateway actually meets these ideals of openness and interoperability. It explains Clockwork Software's experiences in developing Free, Open-Source software to talk to the Government Gateway, and will discuss:

• The chosen Public Key Infrastructure
• What specifications are available
• What reference software is available: source code availability, portability and documentation
• How well the Government's Open Source policy is being heeded