They say great change can be heralded quietly, so perhaps a speech made by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday this week is a classic example.

Accompanying the announcement of a new Institute of Web Science, to be led by no less a figure than Sir Tim Berners Lee, credited with inventing the internet, was a string of policy statements that went to some really interesting territory.  And in these highly politicised times in the run up to a general election it was remarkable how far in many ways the speech was apolitical.  And although there has been a political war of words over the plans for the technological future of the web, especially the means of providing ever faster access, the social purpose and innovative use of future web technology seems to be territory which is not (currently) being fought over.  And Mr Brown's speech has seen little if any response across the political spectrum.

At Fontis it is the uses of the web which most interest us, especially in relation to its liberating effect on the use of data, and greater connectivity, both of which we see as key driving forces for taking forward the involvement agenda. And insofar as the future of the web has been politicised, in fact both major parties are suggesting a future which improves access to significant tranches of data and to data of many different types.  Fontis sees potential for greater involvement as a tool to change the relationship between public and public services in the utterances of all the major parties.  For us too it would be Dangerous Territory if we stepped into a party political commentary on this issue, especially at this time.

So if this was so quiet a revolution how might we know it was a revolution at all?

Because of the potentials for radical change in how we all perceive our relationship with both data and especially its use by government.  Potentials contained in a speech, not just by a Government Minister, but by the Prime Minister Take for example this analysis:

"Every industry has felt the force of the internet's ability to empower consumers and increase transparency. Now is our opportunity to be one of the world's leading governments addressing these challenges - to oversee an enormous shift from what many have in the past seen as a too paternalistic, closed Whitehall to an open, interactive responsive enabler where citizens personalise shape and ultimately control their services."

And

"We have within our grasp the opportunity to harness new technology to deliver a major step forward in giving the public a greater influence over the Whitehall policy making process."

And

"it requires the policy-making monopoly of ministers and the civil service to be challenged - where practicable - through a step change in the opportunities for people to engage with and interact with government in its policy proposals."

And

"The web and the internet offers us a chance to reinvent "deliberative democracy" for the modern age."

Take away the authorship of Mr Brown's speech writer, and those are words which could have come from almost anywhere on the political spectrum, or not at all, since as the speech also acknowledged "All that is required is the will and willingness of the centre to give up control."

Well, quite.

If that's not Dangerous Territory, what is?