As with Governance (and indeed the new No10 site), there's heavy reliance on third-party services, like YouTube and del.icio.us, with content being pumped in automatically via RSS. Steph's following the Governance idea of using 'famous name' video clips to kick-start debate in the form of blog comments: both sites are in their earliest days, so we don't have any meaningful evidence about its effectiveness yet, but it feels like a good way to work.

Steph's big step forward is on widgets. His starting point is that few people have an interest in every question raised by a consultation; but most people would have an interest in some of it. (Good call.) So using a simple tickbox form, you can pick out the questions you think your readers would have a view on, and create an embeddable (Javascript-based) questionnaire for your own site, feeding into the main database. Very smart.

Here's one I made earlier.

It'll be fascinating to see what kinds of responses this move produces. I'm still a bit wary of the whole Big Questions approach to consultation: my own feeling is that the constant, small-scale exchanges around a well-managed blog will build something more valuable. But if Big Questions are the way you're going, this is a very clever way to drive them further.

PS: Remember PlaySpace, the DCSF SimCity-esque consultation game? JonW wondered how much it cost; the answer's in Hansard (well, TheyWorkForYou) this week. Good as the app is, there's no getting away from the fact that £50,000 is a lot of money for a three-month consultation exercise.