Tuesday, 30 August, 2011

The Learning Pool Community Day – 14 September

I’ll be joining my good friends at Learning Pool on the 14th September in celebrating their Community Day – where the UK’s biggest public sector online learning community will be coming to life. The packed agenda features plenty of reasons…

Monday, 29 August, 2011

“Kids today need a licence to tinker”

Nice article by John Naughton on the state of IT education in schools: What is happening is that the national curriculum’s worthy aspirations to educate pupils about ICT are transmuted at the chalkface into teaching kids to use Microsoft software.…

Friday, 26 August, 2011

Who retweeted you?

I didn’t know you could do this. Maybe you don’t either, so I’ll share it. How do you find out which of your tweets have been retweeted, and by who? Turns out, by looking on the Twitter website! First, go…

Local TV

I think it’s fair to say that DCMS’s plans for Local TV are mostly terrible. Luckily, people who know a lot more about it that I do are writing it all up. I enjoyed these three posts on the LSE…

Thursday, 25 August, 2011

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. openkent :: home – "Open Kent is where public sector bodies in Kent can publish information about the services they provide." How to do a Crowd | Innovator Inside –…

Tuesday, 23 August, 2011

Thoughts on Google+

Having been playing with Google+ for a while, I’m starting to get to grips with things. I’m seeing it as a place to talk geeky stuff, where I won’t bore the large group of people I am friends with on…

Monday, 22 August, 2011

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Clay Shirky Says Good Collaboration is Structured Fighting – "Large collaborative projects aren't, in fact, large collaborative projects according to Shirky. They're small collaborative projects with tight groups, that integrate…

Wednesday, 17 August, 2011

Cornwall Council’s social media policy

Fair play to Cornwall Council, who have posted up publicly their social media policy and passport (basically a business case type document and process). You can download them via their social media page. Thanks to Matt Bond, from Cornwall’s Communications…

ScotGovCamp tickets available

The wonderful Lesley Thomson has once again put together ScotGovCamp for another year. It takes place in Aberdeen on Saturday, September 24. All the details and booking is here. Don’t forget the event blog and networking group. Not sure if…

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Ministry of Lorem: filler text generated from UK government press releases – Bonkers but strangely compelling site from @lesteph Social media can help riot-hit communities recover – "In all the…

Tuesday, 16 August, 2011

Skunkworks videos

Today I came across two useful videos featuring Mark O’Neil – a CIO in central government and the guy that heads up the government skunkworks – talking about his work. They can be found via the UKauthorITy site: Skunkworks: How…

Evaluating digital engagement

A record number of people took part in our live web chat on evaluating online engagement. Whilst in the course of the hour we didn’t exactly solve the issues, the discussion threw up some great examples and ideas and everyone…

Friday, 12 August, 2011

What is Google Docs?

Here’s another quick one page guide, this about about Google Docs. If you can’t see the embedded version below, you can head to the Kind of Digital site and download a PDF. What is Google Docs? View more documents from…

Thursday, 11 August, 2011

Police, Twitter, and riots

Really pleased to be able to publish this post from Cisco’s Jeremy Crump on the use of Twitter by the police, with specific reference to the recent disturbances in London, Birmingham and other cities. The widespread use of social media…

What is blogging?

Haven’t published one of these in a while, so here’s a quick guide about blogging. PDF over on the Kind of Digital site if you can’t see the embed below. Enjoy! What is blogging? View more documents from Kind of…

Public Sector Web Network events

Just a quick pimp of some of the great events we’ve got lined up in September through the Public Sector Web Network: Tuesday 6th: Digital Engagement Workshop – Wales. Find out more. Monday 12th: Digital Engagement Workshop – Birmingham. Find…

Monday, 8 August, 2011

Too busy for Twitter?

A common risk associated with public bodies engaging online in spaces like Twitter is that there’s too much interaction to cope with. It’s something that often gets raised when I am talking with clients. E-government bulletin covered the issue recently:…

Monday, 1 August, 2011

What is Facebook?

Here’s the latest of our mini-guides to social technology, where we have had a go at explaining what Facebook is all about. It’s embedded below, but if you can’t see it, you can visit the Kind of Digital site and…