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.

Archive for 'foi'

Birmingham's new website: how late? how much?

4 August 2009 7 , ,

I don't usually cover local government issues here - I leave that to other people. But I'll make an exception for the news that Birmingham City Council is poised to launch a new website. It was originally scheduled to launch in March 2006, at a cost of £580,000. It is now set to launch in [...] read on »

McBride: a scandal for the internet age

So Damian McBride appears to have been taken down by the blogger he was considering trying to emulate. It's being reported that McBride's emails were sent from his official Downing Street email account. If so, that's a naive error to have made: partly because it leaves him open to (valid) accusations of misusing public resources, [...] read on »

The Obama memoranda

22 January 2009 4 , ,

It's well worth reading the two memoranda issued by President Obama yesterday, on - ironically, given yesterday's events - FOI and transparency. There's nothing about them on the White House website (???), so I'm grateful to this Washington Post blog. On Freedom of Information: In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages [...] read on »

Let freedom of information ring

21 January 2009 1 , , ,

It would appear that the plan to exempt MPs and Lords from Freedom Of Information provisions has been ditched. The Mail's Benedict Brogan is trying to unpick what just happened: Gordon Brown claims that Tories have pulled out of a cross-party deal to introduce the change. The suggestion from No10 is that up until yesterday [...] read on »

Puffbox is registered as a limited company in England and Wales. Company number 621 0273. VAT number 912 9843 08.
Registered address (for nasty legal purposes only): Griffins Court, 24-32 London Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1JX