Puffbox

Slightly more exciting than the headline might suggest... Richard Allan, the former LibDem MP who chaired the Power Of Information Taskforce has been hired by Facebook. The Guardian reports that he left his job as Cisco's head of European regulatory affairs 'to lead [Facebook's] efforts in lobbying EU governments.' Allan hasn't had a lot to [...] read on »

David Cameron has taken the Conservatives' promises on availability of public data a few steps further, in principle at least, in a speech at Imperial College on taking 'broken politics' into the 'post-bureaucratic age'. 'In Britain today, there are over 100,000 public bodies producing a huge amount of information,' he said; 'Most of this information is [...] read on »

It's a sign of how far WordPress has come, that I find myself noting the Telegraph's transfer of its blogging platform to WordPress purely because I feel I should... and not because it's especially exciting. I mean, if you were going to set up a large-scale public blogging community, why on earth wouldn't you use [...] read on »

I've seen a few ripples of excitement at the news that ABCe is to act 'as a sole third party to independently validate the figures generated by an audit of government websites, in the largest project of its kind to date', with 'COI [to] publish comprehensive figures on the cost quality and use of government [...] read on »

On reflection, if you're going to put two of the most forward-thinking people in e-government into the same department, great things are probably to be expected. BERR (as was)'s Neil and DIUS (as was)'s Steph put their heads together on Monday afternoon, and on Wednesday, they launched a new corporate website for the newly-created Department [...] read on »

When Andrew Stott was appointed Director of Digital Engagement, I commented that it wasn't the 'rock star' appointment many of us had been led to expect. Well, the 'rock star' appointment came through yesterday, with the news that Sir Tim Berners-Lee as the government's 'expert advisor on public information delivery'. The Director position required evidence [...] read on »

Today's focus has been mostly on bbPress, the discussion forum cousin of WordPress. I've played with it a few times in the past, but never yet had cause to use it properly or professionally. But when a call came from a client last week, asking to forum up an existing WordPress-based site, I ignored the [...] read on »

I wrote last year about the insanity of the annual Budget speech(es), in which the Chancellor stands up and reads off a list of numbers. In business, you'd never contemplate doing that without some kind of visual aid. But come on, visual aids in Parliament? Let me take you to Canberra, where there's been an outbreak [...] read on »

It took me a while to spot it... but now I'm totally convinced our local Lib Dems are taking their design cues from icanhascheezburger. read on »

The explicit references to the internet in David Cameron's big speech on 'fixing broken politics' this morning don't come until the end. All MPs' expenses to be published online; the same will go for 'all other public servants earning over £150,000'. An Obama-esque pledge to put all national spending over £25,000 online. A commitment to [...] read on »