Puffbox.com

Adventures in government, politics and open source. Mostly WordPress-related.

Simon Dickson, principal consultant at Puffbox, has been blogging about e-government, online politics, and WordPress since 2005. Some important people read it.

Archives

MoJ CIO to succeed DWP’s Harley

24 January 2012 0

andynelsonI feel obliged to report that Joe Harley's successor as government CIO has been named. It's going to be Andy Nelson, currently at the Ministry of Justice. The Cabinet Office announcement confirms that, as with Harley, it'll be a 'reverse jobshare', with Nelson keeping his MoJ responsibilities - leaving Tony Collins wondering if the role [...] read on »

Scotland’s new public service portal

9 January 2012 5 ,

directscotFirst major government web launch of the year is DirectScot - described by some as the 'Scottish version of alpha.gov.uk', although if you dig beneath the service, it's arguably closer in philosophy to Northern Ireland's NIDirect. On its WordPress-powered blog (yay!), DirectScot says its aim is 'to enable you to find what you are looking [...] read on »

New year, new job? More big-money vacancies at GDS

22 December 2011 6

My attention has again been drawn to the Civil Service jobs website, and the latest vacancies being offered within the Cabinet Office - and specifically, the Government Digital Service. They're looking for, among others: 7 'interaction designers', on salary packages 'up to £97,500 per annum' 2 'creative leads', 'up to £111,000 per annum' 4 'web [...] read on »

GDS’s visions of the future

Francis MaudeI must admit, I was a bit surprised to receive an invite to what was billed as the launch of the Government Digital Service - but was, more accurately, the housewarming party for its new offices at Holborn. I consider myself a 'critical friend' of the project, but it's clear that some people focus on [...] read on »

Petitions: credit where it’s due

6 December 2011 5

Last month, the GDS blog published details of the traffic levels experienced by the new government e-petitions service in its first 100 days: At what price? Well, that came out soon afterwards, in a PQ to the Leader of the House. The Government's e-petition site was designed and created by the Government Digital Service, in [...] read on »

WordPress comes ‘home’: France holds its first WordCamp

27 November 2011 5 , ,

P1060174It seemed like fun. A quick jaunt over to Paris, to attend their first WordCamp proper. A chance to put my French to its toughest test in 17 years. A chance to attend a WordCamp as an ordinary punter, rather than as an organiser. And a good opportunity to check up on the neighbours. Paris [...] read on »

Small site, big name

24 November 2011 2 , ,

cdwIt feels like ages since I built a site completely from scratch; so much recently has been about invisible enhancement, or extra-large scale work taking months to reach its conclusion. So it's been great fun to do a small and relatively quick build for the Commission on Devolution in Wales, established to review the present [...] read on »

Harley to retire; new CIO & Deputy to be hired

22 November 2011 1

The recent silence from government CIO Joe Harley had been noted; now comes confirmation from his original employer, DWP that he is to retire at the end of the year. The DWP press release states: The process for selecting his successor, as CIO for DWP, will begin immediately. The Cabinet Office will run a separate [...] read on »

Friday is the new Saturday

17 November 2011 2 ,

If you were to ask me what has been the single most influential thing to have happened in UK digital government in recent years, my answer would be the annual BarCamp / UKGovCamp. That first event, in late January 2008, helped form a community of civil servants and external suppliers; and demonstrated a desire, on [...] read on »

More GDS vacancies

15 November 2011 2

I see there are another couple of Government Digital Service job vacancies up for grabs: this time, they're looking for two User Experience Researchers, with a quoted salary range of '£44,300 to £56,000 with potential to rise to £59,000 through performance related pay.' The lucky winners will be 'responsible for planning, designing and conducting all [...] read on »

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