puffbox

meet Simon

Hi, I’m Simon Dickson, and I’m the principal consultant at Puffbox. I’m well into my second decade in the web business, and have established something of a reputation for knowing how to use web technologies in government and news media circles.

I became Whitehall’s first full-time website specialist back in 1995, designing and developing the award-winning Foreign Office websites which are still considered to have set the standard for central government. We were doing content management, personalisation and email alerting as far back as 1998, before most people had even imagined it. I introduced new web-friendly working practices at Sky News, and won a European Online Journalism award for innovation. I’ve appeared on live international TV, I’ve worked for Microsoft, I’ve worked inside small technical agencies and I’ve worked alongside the ‘big boys’ of IT consultancy.

Over a decade into the information revolution, and the industry still isn’t producing many people who understand both sides of the equation. People like me, if you like. I can talk technology with the geeks, and I can talk strategy with the senior manager. And when you can speak to both in language they understand, things start to happen.

So am I a programmer? A design or editorial consultant? An information architect? A code monkey? Yes, all of these and a few other things besides. And if I say so myself, I’m often better than people who would consider themselves specialists in any one of these areas. There’s absolutely no shame in being a jack of all trades.

I started Puffbox in April 2007 with the intention of doing exactly the same work I’d already been doing (or more accurately, trying to do), only from outside rather than inside. And it worked. In our first year we’ve delivered truly groundbreaking websites and applications for clients in the news and government spheres, within timescales and budgets which big ugly IT teams simply wouldn’t believe. Work which has been recognised by industry gurus as cutting-edge.

And it’s all fun again. The open source movement is making it easier to get more done in less time than ever before. I can download and set up a free content management tool like WordPress in a matter of minutes, which is more powerful than systems I spent months (and embarrassing amounts of money) trying to develop. So we can spend our time and energies really rethinking how we do what we do, and defining how to do it better.

If that means challenging the status quo, so be it. In fact, what the heck - let’s challenge it anyway. It’s more fun that way.

A few career highlights…

• First central government website committed to real-time updating
  (Foreign Office, 1995)
• First government website to be driven by a recognisable CMS
  (Foreign Office, 1998)
• First government website to offer personalisation / email alerting
  (Foreign Office, 1998)
• Best central government website
  (Foreign Office, numerous times 1998-9)
• Regular contributor to live Sky News TV output, including weekly Technofile show (2000-1)
• European Online Journalism award for best innovation in online journalism
  (Sky News, 2001)
• First government website to offer RSS feed
  (National Statistics, 2002)
• Best corporate website in government
  (General Register Office, 2005)
• First Google Maps-based data mashup in central government
  (Dept for Education & Skills, 2006)
• First blog-powered corporate website in central government
  (Wales Office, 2008)
• First official ‘live blog’ of a world summit - like ever, worldwide
  (Progressive Governance Summit, 2008)