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.

Ancient history: live summit reporting whilst at FCO, 1997-8

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 early standard for central government. We were doing content management, personalisation and email alerting as far back as 1998, before most people had even heard of them.

I introduced new web-friendly working practices at Sky News, and won a European Online Journalism award for innovation. I've appeared on live worldwide TV, I've worked inside small technical agencies and I've worked alongside the 'big boys' of IT consultancy.

Picking up a European Online Journalism award (that's me in the black)

So am I a developer? A designer? An editorial consultant? An information architect? A code monkey? Yes, all of these and a few other things besides. I take considerable pride in being a jack of all trades - because the fact is, the industry isn't producing many people who understand each stage of the process from pitch to production.

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 the corporate environment rather than inside. And it worked. I'm delivering often groundbreaking websites and applications for clients in the news and government spheres, within timescales and budgets which big ugly IT departments simply wouldn't believe. Work which has been recognised by industry gurus as cutting-edge.

First WordPress T-shirt ever worn in Downing Street, Oct 2008

And it's all fun again. The open source movement is making it easier to get more done in less time than ever before. So we can spend our time and energies really rethinking how we do what we do, and defining how to do it better.

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)
• Orange award for best digital campaigning by a General Election candidate
  (Lynne Featherstone, 2010)