GOVERNMENT IT projects have become synonymous with failure for the past 20 years. Unwieldy contracts, over-complicated solutions and a failure to deliver any kind of value to the taxpayer has been the order of the day.

However, I sense a real change in the air and it is something we should embrace and celebrate.

I recently attended a developer conference where I was party to the start of a revolution in the way Government online services are being delivered.

Midway through the afternoon session, two developers were invited on stage for a Q&A session about what they'd been working on. The night before, they had released www.gov.uk.

This is to be the new single point of entry for all Government services, bringing together www.direct.gov.uk and www.www.businesslink.gov. uk.

The bringing together of these services is not the exciting bit. The manner in which this is being delivered, however, is.

Firstly, this is being worked on by a small team of developers working for the Cabinet Office under the moniker of GDS, Government Digital Service. No onerous and unwieldy outsourced delivery contracts from IT service organisations, whose sole purpose is to grind profit out of enormous service agreements.

Secondly, the entire software is open-source and anyone can look at how it was built. This should not scare you – this is a really good thing. Your data and private information is definitely not open-source and is properly secured.

Open-source software powers the internet. The internet community decided that certain software was too important to be owned by one company. So, they collaborated on solutions that benefit everyone rather than individual commercial interests. The Government open-sourcing the services they are providing to us provides the ultimate level of accountability.

An open-source approach empowers developers to collaborate and improve the service. Soon after the service was released, someone noticed an error in the way a particular Scottish bank holiday was being calculated. He was able to download the code, fix it and upload it for review by the GDS team. All they had to do was review and accept his changes and it was part of the next release. A small development team supported by a nation!

It doesn't stop there. The GDS team are using a range of best practices that have been driving innovation in the private sector to deliver the most successful internet applications. The realisation that Government IT projects aren't special or different is a key development. It empowers the Government to rapidly deliver solutions using cloud services and open-source technologies in a manner that benefits us all.

This also signals a step change in the approach to Government IT procurement. This opens the field up to smaller organisations which follow these best development practices to build solutions in a manner that is more likely to deliver value to both parties.

I wholeheartedly welcome these changes. I have been delivering software and services for more years than I'd probably like to admit to and this is how the most successful companies in the private sector do it.

My real hope is that local government take this lead from the Cabinet Office and engage with local development teams for their services: local teams made up of local people who have a deep and personal interest in the success of these local services.

Adam Bird is chief technology officer of Nottingham SMS services business Esendex.