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I have a feeling that everyone likes using AI tools to try doing someone else’s profession. They’re much less keen when someone else uses it for their profession.
Dave Briggs
An online notebook
Dave Briggs
An online notebook
Tuesday, 31 March, 2026
A new entry in the Digital LGR Playbook has been published: Disaggregating services and data.
Feels like, following the announcements last week, that we will need to write a lot more on disaggregation as it seems like single-unitary counties are not going to be the thing.
Friday, 27 March, 2026
When Nick and I started planning LGRCamp, we knew we wanted the audience to be local government folk only – plus a smattering of other bits of the public sector who have an interest. Of course there are suppliers who want to be in the room, but for a first event of this kind, there needs to be separation between the community and the commercials, to build trust. So, suppliers can come along, but they have to pony up to support the event, and they have to play by the rules.
That hasn’t stopped several commercial enterprises registering anyway, and It amuses me greatly to see them describing themselves as “other public sector” or “non-profit” or even as a council to try and slip through the net.
I’m all for building bridges between the buyers and sellers of digital products and services in the sector, but seriously, this is not helpful.
Wednesday, 25 March, 2026
Really nice in depth case study looking at how Milton Keynes City Council transformed their planning services, using Arcus Global’s tech:
Legacy back-office systems are holding many planning departments back—slowing processes, frustrating staff, and limiting the ability to deliver efficient, modern services for our communities. Replacing them is no small task; for most councils, it feels like a mountain to climb. But it can be done. This case study shows how Milton Keynes City Council took on the challenge, navigated the risks, and is transforming its planning service with a new cloud-based platform. It is proof that while digital transformation is hard, it is not impossible.
Tuesday, 24 March, 2026
Richard Pope – Unified inboxes, streams and augmentation:
The idea of a unified inbox for government is not a new one. Many governments around the world have developed one, as have public organisations like the National Health Service in England, which has a unified inbox for patients. Many commercial services, like banks, have them too.
Rather than seeing unified inboxes as a desirable end state, I argue that we should see them as a staging post to something else and a tool to further unbundle services. And that, long-term, we will come to see them as representing a missed opportunity.
Friday, 20 March, 2026
Giles Turnbull points to Signboard, a kanban board app that saves data in plain text files. Neat!
Thursday, 19 March, 2026
Colin Stenning has updated his survey of what content management systems are used across local government – this time, with maps!
Tuesday, 17 March, 2026
New resource added to the digital LGR playbook by the team – Cyber readiness.
Ensuring a new unitary council can protect data, detect threats, maintain secure access, and keep critical services running from day one.
Monday, 16 March, 2026
Terence Eden – How Can Governments Pay Open Source Maintainers?:
When I worked for the UK Government I was once asked if we could find a way to pay for all the Open Source Software we were using. It is a surprisingly hard problem and I want to talk about some of the issues we faced.