As the only top civil servant known to have played Grateful Dead albums inside Number 10 and to have windsurfed to work down the River Thames during a train strike, Alex Allan is the exception which proves the rule about Whitehall officials. We suspect that they are all faceless men from the ministry. As the webmaster behind the internet's best Grateful Dead lyric finder he shows that they are not.

Once a treasury official, then permanent private secretary to John Major and more recently to Tony Blair (the role held by Bernard Woolley in Yes, Prime Minister) he is now Britain's e-envoy - responsible for "making the UK the best place in the world for e-commerce". He was appointed to the post by Tony Blair and reports directly to him.

As such he is at the heart of debate over issues such as the recent Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, which gives the government powers to spy on your use of the net. Civil servants carry out policy - rather than decide it - so he is not responsible for the government's aims. But he is charged with making sure that Britain does not fall behind in the electronic rat-race.

Among his projects is uk.online, an ambitious web portal for all government services being developed with British Telecom. He is also an enthusiast for e-democracy: a hot topic in the US which is beginning to win notice over here. In a recent speech, he called for governments to use the internet to increase openness.

Whether they do, or whether they continue to see it purely as a commercial opportunity is partly up to the e-envoy.