E-envoy: evangelist or just a troubleshooter?

Speaking on silicon.com's Behind the Headlines programme, Rene Carayol, CEO of Voodoo.com, lamented the lack of an evangelical role for the government's new cyber-czar, Andrew Pinder.

Carayol said: "When I saw the brief for the e-envoy's office, one of my major concerns was the whole emphasis on fixing the well-publicised travails of the government's IT departments."

Carayol, who was himself touted as a potential candidate for the e-envoy post, denied that he was disappointed to be passed over. "I'm a patriot about UK plc and ebusiness. I think the two should be synonymous going forward. I want to see UK plc right at the forefront of that. I don't want to be fixing failed IT delivery, exciting as that job is," he said.

David Taylor, president of Certus, disagreed that the e-envoy should only be a troubleshooter. "There is a second role for the e-envoy, going out there and flying the flag for UK plc. Not just in Europe but in the rest of the world. This is a great place to start new businesses and ebusinesses and that's the role that I see for the e-envoy," he claimed.

However, Martin Brampton, research director at Bloor Research, felt that Pinder would be better off devoting his energy to getting government IT projects back on track. "I'm deeply sceptical about the role of governments in deciding what people should do in commercial life. They can enable in all sorts of ways, in terms of education, infrastructure and so on, but to attempt to direct seems to me entirely wrong."

According to Brampton, the best way the government could promote the UK as an ebusiness entrepot, and improve IT standards, would be to sort out its own dismal IT record.

He added: "They've done the right thing, in a way, in turning the job into someone who is going to troubleshoot the government's very poor record on major IT projects. If government can demonstrate by example what can be achieved, I think that would be an excellent thing."