Proud sponsors of WordCamp, Birmingham, July 2008

the blog

Simon Dickson, principal consultant at Puffbox, writes stuff about e-government, online news and politics. Some important people read it.

Puffbox is a UK website consultancy with a particular fondness for news and government work, although we make occasional forays into the private sector.

We're different because we know where you're coming from. We've been there too. And having been in the business since it became a business, we're convinced that small and rapid delivery is the only way to get things done.

We're big fans of open source, especially WordPress. And we're having more fun now than we have in ages.

Let's make some good things happen.

meet Simon

Simon Dickson has won national and international awards for his work in the fields of news and e-government.

what we do

We help ministries, newsrooms and large organisations decide what to do online. And sometimes we even do it for them.

instant portfolio

Web 2.0 is just so 2008

Yesterday, 12:59 am | Comments: 1

I've never been one for New Year's resolutions or predictions; I'll leave those to other people. Suffice to say, I'm increasingly of the opinion that web 2.0, as a phase in the web's development, is over. I'm using almost exactly the same tools now that I was this time last year. It's ages since any new [...] read on »

Change 4 Life: govt’s flexible brand

Sunday 11:53 pm | Comments: 1

You'll be seeing a lot of the Change 4 Life brand, and the associated bright Morph-esque characters whose aim in life is to tackle the growing problem of obesity. But whatever you do, don't call it a government campaign, though - it's a 'society-wide movement'. Which essentially means, it'll be everywhere: online and offline. I'm almost [...] read on »

Mandarin blasts UK gov web failure

31 Dec 08 | Comments: 7

A top Whitehall civil servant has sensationally quit in protest at government's failure to take the web seriously. Well, I'm sure someone's going to write it up like that, so it might as well be me. It hasn't exactly been top secret, but 'Whitehall Webby' blogger Jeremy Gould has now formally announced his departure [...] read on »

Reviving a slow XP machine

31 Dec 08 | Comments: 1

Lately, my trusty XP desktop has been grinding to a virtual halt. Things were getting so bad that I'd decided to trash the lot, and do a fresh install. But having made the decision, I got brave enough to do some radical / drastic spring-cleaning - sure, what did it matter if I borked it? [...] read on »

DFID redesigned

19 Dec 08 | Comments: 2

This week saw the next phase in the incremental redesign of the Department For International Development's website. It's a much airier, brighter look than before, and with a YouTube video front and centre, plus all those drop shadows, rounded corners and various JQuery effects, it feels bang up to date. There's a new 'top layer' [...] read on »

Puffbox is a limited company registered in England and Wales.
Our company number is 6210273, and our VAT number is 912 9843 08.

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