Archive for December 2009
The puzzle of political donations
Just over a year ago, we had the startling success of the Atheist Bus Campaign, which raised over £150,000 to put the message 'There's probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life' on the side of London buses. And, given the surplus funds, buses up and down Great Britain. An online-orchestrated grassroots campaign, [...] read on »
Wireframes? Specs? Ha.
I've added a lengthy comment to Stephen Hale's recent blog post about preparations for a much-needed redesign of the FCO's blogs.fco.gov.uk site. Unfortunately, the FCO's platform did horrible things to the formatting, so even if it's only to make it legible, I thought I'd echo one of the more controversial points I made in that [...] read on »
DCSF joins WordPress trend
It's now two years since DCSF published their Children's Plan - I know - and Ed Balls wants to know what impact it has had on you. They've published a progress report, and launched a commentable website... based on, guess what, WordPress. Not the first time they've gone down the open source route: a year [...] read on »
All so familiar in Oslo
If I take one thing home from my trip to Oslo, it's the fact that we're all seeing the same opportunities, and facing the same hurdles. Today's day-long seminar on innovation in and around government kept coming back to freeing up public data - oh, including maps. Sound familiar, anyone? The opening session was Hakon [...] read on »
A Lot Of Orange
Doing a bit of research for my presentation in Oslo tomorrow (of which more later), I came across a somewhat surprising figure in Hansard. Directgov cost us £30.7 million in the year 2008-09 - well over double what it cost us the previous year. Of that £30.7 million, £7.48 million went on 'advertising, public relations, [...] read on »
Did we just win?
We've all learned to be cynical about government announcements - but I'm reading through today's 'Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government' paper, and I can't help smiling. We certainly aren't in a position where the PM can make a policy declaration, and it all falls into place by lunchtime; there are some vicious battles ahead. [...] read on »
Gloves for the iPhone generation
I'm heading off for a couple of days in Oslo next week; and I'm most grateful to Monday's Gadget Show for reminding me of the problem of using a touchscreen phone in freezing conditions - namely, that you can't touch the touchscreen through gloves. Thankfully they also suggested a solution: these North Face e-Tip gloves, [...] read on »
Tories publish leaked Govt IT strategy with WordPress
You might have seen coverage in the last few days of the Government's forthcoming ICT strategy - 'New world, new challenges, new opportunities' - which leaked out last week, and is due to be published next week to coincide with the Pre Budget Report. The first I saw of it was at UKAuthority.com, with follow-up [...] read on »