Archive for April 2010
Lonely this purdah!
For those of us in the extended family of government webbies, it's very quiet. Once the election was called, almost everyone inside the Civil Service took a cautious reading of the guidelines regarding the 'purdah' period, and cut all online communication: blogging, tweeting, whatever. As I wrote, it's an entirely understandable reaction. But it's getting [...] read on »
Taking Slugger O'Toole to the next level
If you have any interest in Northern Ireland politics, you'll be familiar with Slugger O'Toole. It's by far the best known blog in the province, and manages to pull off the impressive feat of appealing to both sides of the sectarian divide - even to the point of winning awards at ceremonies in both the [...] read on »
The PC/Mac battle has ended – in a draw
Last week, Puffbox Ltd invested in a Mac. Somehow I never quite saw myself as a Mac owner: a combination of the cost, the vendor lock-in, the slightly smug grins on Mac owners' faces - even when the kit failed, as it seems to do with unexpected frequency, judging by my Twitter stream. But my [...] read on »
Lynne Featherstone making a splash
When we launched the new Lynne Featherstone website back in September, our plan was always to add some new functionality once the campaign finally began (properly). One such feature went live tonight: 'splash pages', managed purely within WordPress. I've developed a new custom page template, which - as you can see - expects to be [...] read on »
Our new site for LibDems' Chris Huhne
With the election now well and truly underway, it's high time I blogged about the latest website Puffbox has built for a high-profile Liberal Democrat - this time it's home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, as he looks to defend a wafer-thin majority in Eastleigh. We were approached by Huhne's team late last year: they'd seen [...] read on »
Transport's web design spending
A PQ from Lib Dem MP Jennifer Willott: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department spent on external website design consultants in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. To which Parliamentary Under-Secretary Chris Mole responded on 30 March 2010: Tables have been [...] read on »
An MP for the blogosphere?
Tom Watson, soon-to-be former Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East, has been the greatest advocate for, and representative of the 'digital industry' in the past few years: not just in his time as Cabinet Office minister, but just as much (and arguably moreso) in the period afterwards. I've no idea if he has been [...] read on »
Our new Defra site plays nicely with PDFs
In the late March dash to complete jobs before the end of the financial year, not to mention the imminent election declaration, I pushed a couple of websites live without having the time to blog about them. One of these was another little job for Defra: a WordPress-based satellite site for their Science Advisory Council. [...] read on »
Lib Dem leaflet is memorably Marvellous
Only my most dedicated stalkers will remember my rant a year ago, regarding a by-election in Thatcham South and Crookham, the council ward where I live. I was complaining about the lack of information on the contest, which was eventually won by a lady rejoicing in the name Marvellous Ford. I wrote at the time: [...] read on »
Civil servant socialising grinds to a halt
When it eventually came, after two and a half years of speculation, the announcement of the general election almost felt like a disappointment. But the welcome news finally came this morning: it's 'game on'. Or rather, if you're a civil servant - off. The day has seen a steady stream of tweets from civil servants [...] read on »