Puffbox

Simon Dickson's gov-tech blog, active 2005-14. Because permalinks.

2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

Code For The People company e-government news politics technology Uncategorised

api award barackobama barcampukgovweb bbc bis blogging blogs bonanza borisjohnson branding broaderbenefits buddypress budget cabinetoffice careandsupport chrischant civilservice coi commentariat commons conservatives consultation coveritlive crimemapping dailymail datasharing datastandards davidcameron defra democracy dfid directgov dius downingstreet drupal engagement facebook flickr foi foreignoffice francismaude freedata gds google gordonbrown governanceofbritain govuk guardian guidofawkes health hosting innovation internetexplorer labourparty libdems liveblog lynnefeatherstone maps marthalanefox mashup microsoft MPs mysociety nhs onepolitics opensource ordnancesurvey ournhs parliament petitions politics powerofinformation pressoffice puffbox rationalisation reshuffle rss simonwheatley skunkworks skynews statistics stephenhale stephgray telegraph toldyouso tomloosemore tomwatson transparency transport treasury twitter typepad video walesoffice wordcamp wordcampuk wordpress wordupwhitehall youtube

Privacy Policy

  • Death of public sector blogging greatly exaggerated

    Much debate over the weekend about comments by Owen Barder, a DFID civil servant on his blog. The Mail on Sunday decides to make a meal of his ‘astonishing website outburst… which compares President George Bush to Hitler.’ But we shouldn’t get carried away here: it’s the Mail, after all.

    Owen has made a single schoolboy error. Like it or not, there are certain banned words in the English language… and ‘Hitler’ is one of them. Any time you use the word, expect it to generate blind fury, completely ignoring the merits (or otherwise) of your argument. That aside, there’s no story here… it’s just typical Mail bluster, which we shouldn’t take too seriously. Outspoken? Good, we need more of that. Sexually explicit? Hardly, based on the passages the Mail has seen fit to quote.

    Tim Worstall does a great job of tearing the Mail piece to pieces: with lengthy justification, he describes it as ‘a mixture of gross distortions, garbled (and wrongly attributed) quotes and in general a hit job.’ Says it all. It’ll be interesting to see Owen’s perspective (when his blog comes up again), and any official response from DFID. I’m sure their press office will be seething… but since a large part of DFID’s role is campaigning, this attention may secretly be welcomed.

  • Google Analytics gets properly googlified

    I’ve always liked the Google Analytics website analysis tool… mainly because of the pricetag. (Zero.) It gave you all the top-line usage statistics you’d be looking for, and a lot more besides, but it always felt a bit too fussy. Google bought the product in, took away the subscription model, but didn’t really get round to applying its trademark ‘beautifully simple, simply beautiful’ house style. Until now.

    I logged in this morning, to apply tracking code to my new puffbox.com WordPress-based blog/site, to be confronted by the new interface. And yes, this is Google all over. An entry screen packed with the sort of info you’d be looking for immediately. Huge Flash-based graphics, with interactive elements you’ll recognise from other Google products (eg Finance – which is looking great these days too). The ability to send scheduled reports by email, or export to PDF. When they say it’s ‘easy enough for a layperson to understand, but also offers the sophistication experienced users need’, they aren’t exaggerating.

  • Alan Johnson, poster boy for Twitter

    A bit of a surprise to see Labour deputy leadership candidate Alan Johnson presented as the poster boy for Twitter in a piece in today’s Guardian output. But then, of course, his campaign is being driven (online at least) by our own Stuart Bruce. I think Stuart’s absolutely right, incidentally: ‘We’ve taken a decision that Alan is not going to start a blog just for the deputy leader contest… It’s better to not blog than to do it badly.’

    From there, the article becomes another ‘isn’t Twitter just a waste of time?’ piece. It’s a contention I’m gradually having more sympathy with. I’ve tried to get into Twitter, but I can’t. I’ve tried Jaiku too, and again, whilst there’s a lot to like about it (particularly the Flickr integration), I just haven’t got the spare time.

    But I’m convinced that Twitter – as a concept – is definitely on to something. I’ve got an early idea based on microblogging, which excites me and seems to fit very neatly into one of my clients’ areas of activity. I just need to find time to develop it a bit more. (Which pushes Twittering even further down my to-do list.)

  • WordPress upgrades, Typepad evolves

    One of the main reasons I opted for WordPress as my blogging tool of choice was its ‘pages’ feature – in other words, the ability to have content outside the chronological blog presentation. It’s a very simple addition, but it turns WordPress into a pretty comprehensive CMS option. Now I see Typepad – the blogging tool of choice for smaller or more suspicious businesses, thanks to its rapid set-up and minimal cost – is offering the same functionality. Too late to win me back, but it does make Typepad a more serious long-term option. Why do I still love WordPress? Because upgrading from v2.1 to v2.2 yesterday took seconds, and made me smile as I did it.

  • Chelsea FC to launch branded 'RSS app'?

    Chelsea finished a disappointing sixth in the league table of football websites published by comScore: Man Utd are top, Liverpool second, Arsenal third, then Real Madrid and Barcelona completing the top five. So Roman’s Empire will be hoping for a traffic boost with the launch (effectively) of its own RSS reader, based on UK firm Zebtab‘s platform.

    Zebtab bills itself as ‘the ultimate widget (offering) ‘snackable’ rich content and entertainment including audio, video and pictures direct to desktops’. It’s basically your classic ‘desktop alert’ tool, with the benefit of having multiple content sources in the one application. Their promotional material doesn’t mention RSS, but today’s Guardian piece on the product says it’s ‘based on a form of RSS content feeds, but avoids technical jargon… Though widely used by bloggers and technology sites to syndicate and monitor new content, the acronym has deterred more mainstream adoption of RSS. Zebtab aims to make the technology invisible.’

    We’ve seen others try to simplify RSS by launching branded applications, not least the Guardian incidentally… and fail to make much impact. I thought IE7 would have done more to drive it home, but I think they missed the opportunity. Vista’s sidebar could yet be RSS’s salvation… and whilst Zebtab’s aim is laudable, I don’t fancy their chances.

  • Tories look to replace Webcameron creator

    I read that Sam Roake, credited with the success of the Webcameron site, has left the employ of the Conservative Party, for reasons yet to be disclosed. I’m inclined to agree with Guido Fawkes (which could be a first) – the relaunched Webcameron does seem to have taken something of a backward step, and Dave does need to cut his blog posts down a bit. (Littler and oftener, please.) If anyone fancies running the site, you need to get your application in before 29 May. Shame they didn’t proof-read the job advert’s error-strewn copy: maybe that’s one of the vacant position’s responsibilities?

  • BBC man: expect more two-way reporting

    A very interesting post from Kevin Marsh, head of the BBC’s college of journalism, reflecting on the Panorama fuss earlier in the week: ‘This is how it is now and will be more so in days to come. And it’s not a bad thing for Big Journalism. If the argument for investigative journalism is that things done in the light are done with more integrity and accountability than things done in the dark… then the argument for investigating journalism – for audiences and those journalism puts in the news to investigate journalism – is unanswerable.’

  • Rolling back to IE6

    First task of the day: uninstalling Internet Explorer v7, and getting used to v6 again. I’ve decided that too many clients are still sticking with IE6, for reasons I don’t immediately understand. But since you can’t (easily) have both on the same (XP Home) machine, I’ve had to make the choice… and the only sensible choice is to ensure you’re coding compatibly with the vast majority of clients. A relatively painless process, thankfully, with no obvious signs of side-effects. But it still feels very odd to be taking a backward step. I thought it was being forced on people automatically?

  • JobCentrePlus double-top

    I knew that DWP’s JobCentrePlus website was a permanent fixture at the top of the ‘most popular sites in government’ ranking. I didn’t know it was also the country’s number one recruitment site generally – and by one heck of a margin. Hitwise data gives it a market share of over 14%, with Total Jobs second on less than 5%, and Monster on just 4%. (Figures quoted by silicon.com)

  • You can't keep Blair off YouTube

    Tony Blair – who, as you may have missed in the news coverage of recent days, is actually still Prime Minister – has been at it again, with a new message on YouTube. Off on a tour of new school buildings, I’m told he actively volunteered to do another quick video piece, reflecting on the government’s major capital investment programme. His two-minute ‘talking head’ clip was unscripted, and was done in a single ‘take’ – exactly as it should be. He’s getting good at this… timing, eh?