Heather Brooke in today’s Guardian: ‘While maps and geographical information are vital to local authorities and their websites, the prices and licensing policies of Ordnance Survey, the government’s mapping agency, mean that some councils have decided to bypass OS and use free maps from Google to create mashups of information for their websites.’ She could also have mentioned usability, flexibility, instant availability via a one-field web form… I could go on.
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Who's behind the McCanns' PR campaign?
It came as a bit of a surprise to see former BBC reporter Clarence Mitchell popping up on camera out in Praia da Luz. Tony Hatfield has been digging around, and it transpires that Clarence – whose day job is heading up Whitehall’s Media Monitoring Unit – has been temporarily seconded to the Foreign Office to handle ‘media relations’ out there.
In my view, it’s entirely appropriate for the Foreign Office to offer consular assistance to the McCanns… and given the unparalleled media interest in their plight, it’s entirely appropriate for that consular assistance to include the services of someone with significant media experience himself. But I’m intrigued as to the extent of his role. Someone is clearly doing a spectacularly good publicity job for the McCanns – they’re still a ‘top story’ nearly a month after Madeleine’s disappearance. Is this Clarence? Normally you’d expect the ‘family liaison’ job to be about keeping the family away from the media…
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Directgov blog disappears
You know that ‘secret’ Directgov blog I mentioned last week? It’s gone. Wasn’t me, guv.
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Another great loss to the public sector
OK, so I’m a bit late with this particular piece of news… Ed Parsons was the first Chief Technology Officer in the history of Ordnance Survey. His departure in December 2006 was widely lamented: it was suggested that he was leaving because he was ‘interested in rocking the boat at Ordnance Survey, especially over its Web 1.0 attitude’. His blogging activity tracked the various developments happening at OS’s new competitors, like Google Maps, and it’s not too big a stretch to imagine his frustration at seeing his own organisation being left for dead. Fast forward to April 2007… and where does Ed start work? Google. The public sector actually did have a guy considered good enough by the cutting-edge to be their new Geospatial Technologist. And it lost him. Brilliant.
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I think I'm a programmer-journalist
Dan Gillmor notes that scholarships are available for ‘an academic program blending computer science and journalism, designed to fill a staffing void at many digital news sites. The goal is to turn out students who understand both journalism and technology, connect one to another in ways that build audiences and also enhance and protect the civic functions of journalism in a democratic society.’ A very wise move.
Dan uses the term ‘programmer-journalist’ which, on reflection, should probably have been my job title during my time as online agitator at Sky News. Knowing the news business, knowing what’s happening in the tech world, and working out how to meld the two. I’m also working on something right now which puts me right back in that space… I’ll write it up in the next day or two. I’m excited again.
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Sky News forums open for business
Sky News has very quietly launched a new ‘message boards‘ area, built (as I understand it) in-house by the team behind MyKindaPlace. Presentation is pretty basic, almost primitive in fact. Anyone expecting extra forum-esque goodies like personal profiles, RSS feeds, rating systems, etc etc will be disappointed. So far, discussion is entirely dominated by the ‘UK News’ channel, and specifically Madeleine McCann threads. Minimalist registration required to post, with post-moderation applied.
I freely admit I’ve got a blind spot when it comes to open forum spaces like this. I just don’t ‘get it’, but other people have made a success of them. (Very few, though.) Sky probably has a strong enough brand to pull it off, but it’s going to take a lot of effort. Possibly more than they realise.
Again though, I’m wondering if they wouldn’t have been better to just install an off-the-shelf forum package. There are quite a few (fairly obvious?) navigation and usability issues, which I’d have expected any established forum package to have resolved. I particularly like the look of bbPress (from the WordPress crew), although development seems to have slowed lately.
I’ll have more to say about Sky News in the next day or two… ๐
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Brown's big ideas for real-time information
Looks like my source was right: Gordon Brown has plans for the internet. There’s a lengthy interview in today’s Guardian, conducted with Jackie Ashley last Friday. Of particular note:
The Labour party may not realise what is about to hit it. Brown believes the days of political parties as “small organisations of people who are accused of talking to themselves” are over. In future, constituency parties will become local hubs, building links with other networks and groups, and using new technology to reach out way beyond their usual supporters.
Brown expands his theme: “There are so many different forms of communication – writing, phoning, the internet – at the moment we’re not doing enough to keep people informed and to show people that when they have a view, we’re prepared to listen to them.” So we may become like New Yorkers, who can access “real-time information” about what is happening in every precinct of the city on the internet, whether it is crime, health or education.
There are ideas here, big ones, but throughout the time my tape recorder has been running Brown has remained guarded in his language. As soon as we are talking off the record he becomes a different person – enthusiastic and genuinely excited at the thought of being able to change politics. … He is certain he can win the next election by sorting out health, education and housing, and by ushering in a new style of politics. If the public could see this side of Brown they would warm to him more.
Communication? Networks? Internet? Big ideas? Blimey. The next month could be a bit quiet, but the following 100 days might be very interesting indeed. It’ll be a heck of a challenge… but when Downing Street says ‘do it’, the civil service really doesn’t get a choice.
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Parliament's new forum site proves 80-20 rule
I was looking at the Cabinet Office website’s section on Consultations. I clicked on a link ‘Less is More‘. It took me to a ‘page not found’ error page. You couldn’t make that up.
The new eConsultations website for Parliament is ‘the result of a great deal of effort from the Hansard Society over a number of years’ (according to Jeremy Gould); so it’s intriguing that in the end, they’ve gone (by the look of it) for an off-the-shelf discussion forum package. And so far, it seems to be working pretty well.
It’s running on the Phorum platform, which I don’t know at all but seems perfectly fit-for-purpose. And by taking an off-the-shelf product, they get some nice extra features including search and RSS. The debate on Medical Care for the Armed Forces is getting a lot of traffic, presumably as word gets round the forces and families; not so much for the other discussion around the Local government and the draft Climate Change Bill. Everything is subjected to moderation which ‘should happen within 24 hours’.
It’s further reinforcement of my growing belief that there’s an 80-20 relationship in most web projects: the first 20% of effort will yield 80% of the likely benefit… and that it’s very rarely worth the extra 80% effort to get the final 20% of benefit. There are exceptions, but then again, there always are.
We shouldn’t get worked up about the electronification of the existing formal consultations process. If Tom Steinberg reckons it’s beyond the mySociety crew, that’s a clue. And besides, it’s far from an ideal process anyway. Few old-fashioned consultations get great responses, in either quality or volume. We can do better.
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192.com adds better aerial photos
Online ‘people and business finder’ 192.com now has Google-style maps and aerial photos. It has a definite British accent, with Ordnance Survey maps and the most recent photography of all the competitors in the space (certainly for my house anyway). But its Flash-based interface isn’t quite as smooth as Google’s javascript-powered tool, and there’s no apparent scope for mashing. (Google just launched a ‘street view’ – but no UK support yet.)
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Leading LibDem blog to close
It’s really quite sad to note the imminent demise of Lib Dem Voice, which had established itself as the main LibDem blog – part of a very healthy political triumvirate with ConservativeHome and LabourHome. Host Rob Fenwick writes… ‘I’m unable to continue for various reasons – not least of which the amount of time running a site of this nature takes up.’
Perhaps more interesting is the follow-up commentary from Tory candidate Iain Dale: ‘it just shows that it’s impossible to make it work unless, like Tim Montgomerie on ConservativeHome, you can devote yourself to it full time. I don’t think Tim would disagree that in the six months he was working at 18 Doughty Street ConservativeHome suffered a little and that since he and Sam Coates have gone back to it more or less full time it has gone up another level. In my own case, this blog only took off in the first half of 2006 because I had taken a six month sabbatical from work and was able to devote the hours necessary to develop it.’
Does it take two people’s full-time attention to make a serious splash with your political blog? Apparently so.