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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 'twitter'

New Cabinet’s online footprint

13 May 2010 1 , ,

camcleggI make it seven members of the new Coalition cabinet with Twitter accounts: although of course, some have been more personal than others: Nick Clegg William Hague Vince Cable Chris Huhne Eric Pickles Danny Alexander Jeremy Hunt It's worth noting that only Hague and Pickles have been active since polling day; and judging by one [...] read on »

Yes you can change your Twitter ID. Don't.

8 February 2010 5 , ,

nadineA while back, Mark Pack wrote a couple of articles noting that if MPs were worried about breaking election campaign rules by running a Twitter account with the letters MP in it, they probably needn't be. The authorities tended to be 'sensibly flexible'; and besides, it was dead easy to change your Twitter account name. [...] read on »

Hansard Society event on Twitter in politics

What can you say about Twitter? They came in their dozens to the Hansard Society's event at Portcullis House to find out from a panel consisting of blogger Iain Dale, MPs Jo Swinson and Kerry McCarthy, and Tweetminster founder Andrew Walker. I hadn't expected to learn a lot: I've been using Twitter longer and more [...] read on »

Who says Labour people can't do web?

A couple of (broadly) Labour-related online developments of note late last week. One was the relaunch of LabourList, just in time for conference. Alex Smith has done great things editorially since taking control of the website in the wake of Drapergate, and entirely deserved the recognition of a high ranking in Iain Dale's annual poll [...] read on »

Trying to engage with the Taxpayers' Alliance

3 September 2009 4 , ,

I usually let the Taxpayers' Alliance stuff wash over me. No matter how valid their points often are, it's getting to the stage where every news story about any government expenditure has to feature an angry quote from them. Maybe journalists really are using that online TPA Quote Generator. Then today, in the widespread but [...] read on »

Should Labour share the NHS love?

14 August 2009 1 , ,

I've been a fan of Graham Linehan since he was a writer on Irish music (etc) magazine Hot Press. On Wednesday, he stuck a message up on Twitter reacting angrily against 'rightwing wackjobs in the US lying about the NHS'. He starts using the hashtag #welovethenhs and asks celebrity chums to help spread the word. [...] read on »

Twitter strategies: the boring bit

28 July 2009 7 , ,

Anyone who finds Neil Williams's 20-page Twitter strategy especially newsworthy clearly hasn't spent much time inside Whitehall. Then again, with Parliament having just closed for its summer holiday, I guess the Westminster hacks had to find something to keep themselves busy. So anyway, a week ago, Neil published a template for a departmental Twitter strategy [...] read on »

Congratulations @downingstreet

20 July 2009 4 ,

It doesn't matter how they got there, and it doesn't matter if a significant proportion are spammy. The @downingstreet Twitter account hit one million followers on Sunday afternoon - making it surely the biggest e-government hit in a couple of years at least. At zero setup cost. And zero marketing spend. The question is - [...] read on »

Breaking news: minister tweets

9 July 2009 1 , ,

It's just a small thing; but for the first time this morning, I noticed a Twitter message prompting a 'BREAKING NEWS' 'strap' on Sky News TV. Specifically, culture secretary Ben Bradshaw's tweet about the Andy Coulson phone tapping thing (sent, I notice, from 'mobile web'). Now I don't know if Sky were tipped off via [...] read on »

No10's Twitter status worth $250,000?

By getting involved early and enthusiastically in the whole Twitter thing, has DowningStreet earned itself $250,000 of free digital engagement? Well-known internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis (number of followers: 63,000) has offered Twitter a cool quarter of a million bucks - as I believe our American friends would describe it - to secure himself a two-year [...] read on »

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