Archive for July 2009
RSS usage on Whitehall's websites
How many central government websites offer RSS feeds these days? The good news is that of the 20 departments represented in the Cabinet, I could only find one that didn't. But it was a bit of a surprise to see how few offered 'full text' feeds, as opposed to 'summary only'. I visited each of [...] read on »
Twitter strategies: the boring bit
Anyone who finds Neil Williams's 20-page Twitter strategy especially newsworthy clearly hasn't spent much time inside Whitehall. Then again, with Parliament having just closed for its summer holiday, I guess the Westminster hacks had to find something to keep themselves busy. So anyway, a week ago, Neil published a template for a departmental Twitter strategy [...] read on »
Who exactly owns 'Building Britain's Future'?
If you take any interest whatsoever in stuff the government puts out, you'll have seen the Building Britain's Future logo a lot lately - it's even replaced the big 10 on the Number10 website's header. It's a cross-department brand intended to show the government has a positive programme of work in these negative times. It's a [...] read on »
WordCamp UK 2009: seriously good
I can't underline enough how enjoyable, educational and thought-provoking this weekend's second WordCampUK was: over 100 people, including a large local contingent, gathering in Cardiff Bay for two packed days of WordPress talk, a bit of food, quite a lot to drink, and nowhere near enough sleep. Last year in Birmingham, it felt amateur - [...] read on »
Congratulations @downingstreet
It doesn't matter how they got there, and it doesn't matter if a significant proportion are spammy. The @downingstreet Twitter account hit one million followers on Sunday afternoon - making it surely the biggest e-government hit in a couple of years at least. At zero setup cost. And zero marketing spend. The question is - [...] read on »
Puffbox builds RSA's Bloggers' Circle
Some of the most fun projects come out of the blue. I've been following RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor's blog for some time, and noted with interest his idea back in May to start some kind of 'bloggers' circle'. 'There are too many bloggers and not enough readers so genuinely good posts can fall between [...] read on »
Free our data, says Lords info committee
I blogged previously about the House of Lords Information Committee's inquiry into 'People and Parliament': their final report came out this week, and couldn't really have been more in favour of the 'free our bills' agenda. Among its recommendations, as listed in the press release: information and documentation related to the core work of the [...] read on »
Govt depts in no rush to upgrade from IE6
Former e-government minister Tom Watson has tabled a string of Parliamentary Questions, asking various government departments what plans they have to upgrade their default web browser from Internet Explorer v6. The answers are starting to come in, and they aren't pretty. ... no plans to change ... ... in the process of reviewing the options... [...] read on »
'Cash for your old phone': it works!
It turns out that not all bankers are greedy b*%@!#s. Having gathered quite enough dust in an upstairs drawer, I finally decided it was time to get shot of a couple of old mobile phones I've had lying around for (literally) years. Coincidentally, both were Windows Mobile smartphones: an Orange C500 and a T-Mobile MDA [...] read on »
Breaking news: minister tweets
It's just a small thing; but for the first time this morning, I noticed a Twitter message prompting a 'BREAKING NEWS' 'strap' on Sky News TV. Specifically, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw's tweet about the Andy Coulson phone tapping thing (sent, I notice, from 'mobile web'). Now I don't know if Sky were tipped off via [...] read on »