Simon blogs about e-government, online news and politics.
Some important people read it. Here's his latest stuff.
Power of Info chairman joins Facebook
Slightly more exciting than the headline might suggest... Richard Allan, the former LibDem MP who chaired the Power Of Information Taskforce has been hired by Facebook. The Guardian reports that he left his job as Cisco's head of European regulatory affairs 'to lead [Facebook's] efforts in lobbying EU governments.' Allan hasn't had a lot to [...] read on »
Cameron pledges to free our data
David Cameron has taken the Conservatives' promises on availability of public data a few steps further, in principle at least, in a speech at Imperial College on taking 'broken politics' into the 'post-bureaucratic age'. 'In Britain today, there are over 100,000 public bodies producing a huge amount of information,' he said; 'Most of this information is [...] read on »
Telegraph moves its blogs to WordPress
It's a sign of how far WordPress has come, that I find myself noting the Telegraph's transfer of its blogging platform to WordPress purely because I feel I should... and not because it's especially exciting. I mean, if you were going to set up a large-scale public blogging community, why on earth wouldn't you use [...] read on »
Will COI publish its raw! data! now!?
I've seen a few ripples of excitement at the news that ABCe is to act 'as a sole third party to independently validate the figures generated by an audit of government websites, in the largest project of its kind to date', with 'COI [to] publish comprehensive figures on the cost quality and use of government [...] read on »
Innovative & skilful: it’s The Business
On reflection, if you're going to put two of the most forward-thinking people in e-government into the same department, great things are probably to be expected. BERR (as was)'s Neil and DIUS (as was)'s Steph put their heads together on Monday afternoon, and on Wednesday, they launched a new corporate website for the newly-created Department [...] read on »
Tim Berners-Lee: the celebrity we need?
When Andrew Stott was appointed Director of Digital Engagement, I commented that it wasn't the 'rock star' appointment many of us had been led to expect. Well, the 'rock star' appointment came through yesterday, with the news that Sir Tim Berners-Lee as the government's 'expert advisor on public information delivery'. The Director position required evidence [...] read on »
Making bbPress speak proper English
Today's focus has been mostly on bbPress, the discussion forum cousin of WordPress. I've played with it a few times in the past, but never yet had cause to use it properly or professionally. But when a call came from a client last week, asking to forum up an existing WordPress-based site, I ignored the [...] read on »
Visual aids in Parliament?
I wrote last year about the insanity of the annual Budget speech(es), in which the Chancellor stands up and reads off a list of numbers. In business, you'd never contemplate doing that without some kind of visual aid. But come on, visual aids in Parliament? Let me take you to Canberra, where there's been an outbreak [...] read on »
i can has ur vote?
It took me a while to spot it... but now I'm totally convinced our local Lib Dems are taking their design cues from icanhascheezburger. read on »
Cameron’s online promises
The explicit references to the internet in David Cameron's big speech on 'fixing broken politics' this morning don't come until the end. All MPs' expenses to be published online; the same will go for 'all other public servants earning over £150,000'. An Obama-esque pledge to put all national spending over £25,000 online. A commitment to [...] read on »
Sites and projects we've worked on:
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Wales Office
They started with the ugliest website in Whitehall, and no hands-on control of content. We gave them a little gem of a site, with full control in the press officers' hands, and features most Whitehall departments still can't match.
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DFID Bloggers
Perhaps our finest hour so far: a platform for staff of the Department for International Development to tell their stories from the front line. Lots of cool functionality, much of it behind the scenes, but it's the stories it features which make this site so great.
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10 Downing Street
We helped the Prime Minister's Office in their landmark move to WordPress; and we're happy to offer occasional advice on various aspects of digital comms.
PM's travel blogs: US, Brussels, Japan
Progressive Governance summit » -
NHS / Dept of Health
We've designed and built a number of sites in the health arena, including 'Our NHS, Our Future' for Lord Darzi's top-to-bottom review of the NHS - which, with integration with Flickr, YouTube and so on, became a model for similar sites.
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WordCamp UK
In the summer of 2008, we were proud to sponsor the first gathering of UK WordPress developers and devotees; we were even more proud to get some glowing praise for our contribution.
About
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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.
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The mission
Small, fast, innovative, cheap. Having seen both sides, we believe it's the only way to make good things happen in government.
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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.