Archive for 'conservatives'
Tories' commentable Budget
Following the apparent success, back in December, of presenting a leaked draft of the government's IT strategy for reader comments, the Conservatives have repeated the trick by laboriously scanning every page of the Budget book, and presenting them on commentable WordPress pages. They aren't asking for email addresses on comments, and aren't posting the comments [...] read on »
Number10's iPhone app
I finally gave in, and upgraded the company's iPod Touch for the purposes of testing the brand new iPhone app from 10 Downing Street. And then, as I spent an hour randomly resetting and restoring, I promptly remembered why I hadn't upgraded for so long. Anyway... On a technical level, the Number10 app is actually [...] read on »
Brown's big picture of the digital future
Gordon Brown's speech, describing a vision of Britain's digital future, is stirring stuff, with its pledges to make Britain a world leader in terms of digital jobs, public service delivery and 'the new politics'. The announcements and commitments came thick and fast - from the £30m to create an Institute of Web Science, to be headed [...] read on »
Tories promise IT skunkworks
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 [...] read on »
Tories: always big City fans
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 [...] read on »
Captcha yourself on
There's always a risk attached to using automated text-generating services. For example, this 'captcha' I was presented with by the Conservatives' Blue Blog website: Not one to raise on the first trip to Camp David, perhaps. read on »
Wanted: consultation platform, £1m reward
I'm glad my former Microsoft colleague John McGarvey reminded me of Conservative shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's proposal of a £1m prize to develop 'the best new technology platform that helps people come together to solve the problems that matter to them'. That's what happens when you announce things over the Christmas holidays. The plan [...] read on »
Tories publish leaked Govt IT strategy with WordPress
You might have seen coverage in the last few days of the Government's forthcoming ICT strategy - 'New world, new challenges, new opportunities' - which leaked out last week, and is due to be published next week to coincide with the Pre Budget Report. The first I saw of it was at UKAuthority.com, with follow-up [...] read on »
Thoughts on MyConservatives
A bit pushed for time just now, but I wanted to jot down a few thoughts regarding the launch of the Conservatives' new community platform, MyConservatives.com. I hope they make sense. It's built on an open-source platform - specifically Drupal. Almost certainly the right choice: after all, Drupal describes itself as 'community plumbing'. For those [...] read on »
Tom, Tories and Timing
Tom Steinberg's blog splutters back to life after more than two years asleep, to confirm reports that he will be advising the Conservatives on IT policy. 'I've been asked to advise the Tories on IT policy,' he writes, 'and I've accepted.' He's clearly sensitive to the issues this raises as regards his 'day job' as [...] read on »