Puffbox

On Tuesday this week, I gave a presentation at the Government Communication Network's foundation course for new entrants - talking about the current online and social media landscape, and highlighting a few specific implications for those working in government. I haven't received the feedback questionnaire summary yet; but the initial signals look encouraging. (Thanks Sue.) For [...] read on »

There's a new website for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - aka BIS - this weekend; and as I reported here back in November (sniff!), they're waving farewell to WordPress as their core publishing platform. The new site is built on Sitecore, and is appearing bang on the published schedule. Visually it's really nice: [...] read on »

If there's one commitment in the Conservatives' Technology Manifesto, billed as 'the most ambitious technology agenda ever proposed by a British political party', which makes my heart leap with joy, it's this: We will also create a small IT development team in government – a 'government skunkworks' – that can develop low cost IT applications in-house [...] read on »

Over the last few months we've been doing a few little projects with Defra: first came the UK Location (micro)site, and I mentioned there was 'at least one more' in the pipeline. The second project emerged a few days back: a 'commentable page' platform, in the style (as Steph rightly observed) of the now-legendary Commentariat theme. [...] read on »

Hot on the heels of the BNP apparently (?) taking design cues from Obama, here's the new homepage for the Conservatives' website... and the Manchester City FC homepage, with which - you'd have to say - there is a remarkable similarity. For the avoidance of any confusion: one is returning to prominence after a long period [...] read on »

Monday saw a gathering of 250 leading figures from the world of business at London's Saatchi Gallery; and organisers UK Trade & Investment asked Puffbox to put together a microsite for the event. With minimal advance publicity, few official post-conference outputs, and no particular involvement for the general public, we felt the best approach was [...] read on »

A PQ from Conservative shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what her policy is in respect of the installation and use of (a) Internet Explorer, (b) Firefox and (c) Opera website browsers by Government departments. To which Angela Smith replies: Government policy regarding installation and use of web [...] read on »

A subject which keeps coming up in conversation just now is the planned merger of 'normal' WordPress with WordPress MU, the 'multi user' version. There's been both excitement and concern at what it might mean: but the latest report from Jane at WP HQ should be enough to calm anyone's worst fears. It was announced at [...] read on »

I feel obliged to note that LabourSpace, Labour's attempt to build a social network around policy discussion and campaigns, has relaunched. Again. It's less appalling - downplaying, quite dramatically, the voting up and down of campaign ideas which has failed over a two year period now to spark into any kind of life. But I'm genuinely [...] read on »

There's a fascinating (and lengthy) post on the BBC's internet blog, setting the scene for a forthcoming 'post-2.0' redesign of its web presence. It's a design geek's paradise - global visual languages, grid systems, typography and colour palettes. Intriguingly, they start their potted history of the BBC website with a screenshot from December 1997. My own [...] read on »