The only really new thing in the chancellor's speech was the recruitment of Beth Noveck, the woman who's been running the Obama administration's open data initiative.

BBC: Open government - in tune with the Zeitgeist?

If Beth Noveck did such fabulous work on opening up the processes of the world's most powerful government, why did she leave the Obama administration before the job was done?

BBC: Open government - in tune with the Zeitgeist?

Beth Noveck, former deputy chief technology officer in the Obama administration, called for an open-source approach to rethinking government, making its operating system as accessible to everyone as the code that powers the Arduino device.

CNN: What if you could make anything you wanted?