So, it’s official, we’re at a critical point in the Open Government hype cycle, you know the spot, it’s the bit where we have to take a leap of faith from all the hyperbole of our anticipated outcomes and try and land on the reality of what we can now deliver.  I thought this blog from Gartner was really insightful of the challenge we’re now facing.

The easy bit is now almost done – people more or less understand what this is all about, (I know it’s taken a lot of effort from many of you to get us even this far). The next phase is likely going to be the hardest as we have to both prove the value of appropriate Open Government applications, build them and most importantly, find a political “home” for them inside the government organisations.

Think about the challenge faced by data.gov.uk – superb solution, but who actually _owns_ it?  Who’s responsible for its up keep, more importantly, who is charged with prising the open data from the various departments, agencies and authorities on an on-going basis?  Those my friends, are the real challenges we face over the coming months as we try and bridge the gap between our strategic intent for Open Government and our capability to act.