Puffbox is online specialist Simon Dickson and a network of hand-picked colleagues and contacts from around the UK. We specialise in central government and political engagement work, almost always based on the WordPress platform.

Simon blogs about e-government, online news and politics.
Some important people read it. Here's his latest stuff.

From my presentation to new civil servants

Today, 12:09 pm0

On Tuesday this week, I gave a presentation at the Government Communication Network's foundation course for new entrants - talking about the current online and social media landscape, and highlighting a few specific implications for those working in government. I haven't received the feedback questionnaire summary yet; but the initial signals look encouraging. (Thanks Sue.) For [...] read on »

BIS website grows up

Yesterday, 10:05 pm0

There's a new website for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - aka BIS - this weekend; and as I reported here back in November (sniff!), they're waving farewell to WordPress as their core publishing platform. The new site is built on Sitecore, and is appearing bang on the published schedule. Visually it's really nice: [...] read on »

Tories promise IT skunkworks

Thursday 11 Mar 102

If there's one commitment in the Conservatives' Technology Manifesto, billed as 'the most ambitious technology agenda ever proposed by a British political party', which makes my heart leap with joy, it's this: We will also create a small IT development team in government – a 'government skunkworks' – that can develop low cost IT applications in-house [...] read on »

Defra’s new WordPress comment platform

Monday 8 Mar 100

Over the last few months we've been doing a few little projects with Defra: first came the UK Location (micro)site, and I mentioned there was 'at least one more' in the pipeline. The second project emerged a few days back: a 'commentable page' platform, in the style (as Steph rightly observed) of the now-legendary Commentariat theme. [...] read on »

Tories: always big City fans

Monday 8 Mar 100

Hot on the heels of the BNP apparently (?) taking design cues from Obama, here's the new homepage for the Conservatives' website... and the Manchester City FC homepage, with which - you'd have to say - there is a remarkable similarity. For the avoidance of any confusion: one is returning to prominence after a long period [...] read on »

Our modest microsite for UKTI

Friday 26 Feb 102

Monday saw a gathering of 250 leading figures from the world of business at London's Saatchi Gallery; and organisers UK Trade & Investment asked Puffbox to put together a microsite for the event. With minimal advance publicity, few official post-conference outputs, and no particular involvement for the general public, we felt the best approach was [...] read on »

Cabinet Office’s open source fail

Thursday 25 Feb 100

A PQ from Conservative shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what her policy is in respect of the installation and use of (a) Internet Explorer, (b) Firefox and (c) Opera website browsers by Government departments. To which Angela Smith replies: Government policy regarding installation and use of web [...] read on »

The great WordPress / MU merge

Wednesday 24 Feb 104

A subject which keeps coming up in conversation just now is the planned merger of 'normal' WordPress with WordPress MU, the 'multi user' version. There's been both excitement and concern at what it might mean: but the latest report from Jane at WP HQ should be enough to calm anyone's worst fears. It was announced at [...] read on »

Flogging a dead horse. Again.

Monday 22 Feb 101

I feel obliged to note that LabourSpace, Labour's attempt to build a social network around policy discussion and campaigns, has relaunched. Again. It's less appalling - downplaying, quite dramatically, the voting up and down of campaign ideas which has failed over a two year period now to spark into any kind of life. But I'm genuinely [...] read on »

BBC sounds death-knell for left-hand nav

Wednesday 17 Feb 100

There's a fascinating (and lengthy) post on the BBC's internet blog, setting the scene for a forthcoming 'post-2.0' redesign of its web presence. It's a design geek's paradise - global visual languages, grid systems, typography and colour palettes. Intriguingly, they start their potted history of the BBC website with a screenshot from December 1997. My own [...] read on »

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  • Meet Simon
    Simon Dickson was the UK civil service's first web specialist, and has won several national and international awards for his work in government and media circles.
  • The mission
    Small, fast, innovative, cheap. Having seen both sides, we believe it's the only way to make good things happen in government.
  • We ♥ WordPress
    We didn't start out with the intention of being a WordPress specialist; but it's such a perfect fit for almost everything we do. Here's our 10-point guide as to why.