Daily note for 24 July 2023

My piece about single customer accounts seems to have gone down quite well in most parts. My focus in the last year has mostly been on people and capability stuff, and before that on some of the trickier IT problems facing councils. It’s great that my current work in Lambeth is giving me the chance to revisit the ‘digital experience’ and challenge my thinking a bit: https://sensibletech.co.uk/should-you-develop-a-single-customer-account/

There’s lots of very good stuff in here from Coté: “Waiting for the close of open – how long can the 2000s spirit of open source and open APIs last?” https://cote.io/2023/07/21/waiting-for-the.html

“How Signal Walks the Line Between Anarchism and Pragmatism” https://www.wired.com/story/signal-politics-software-criticism/

“Delivery Needs a Strategy” https://jdosreme.medium.com/delivery-needs-a-strategy-94ef09954f36 (also why oh why do people still publish on Medium?)

Elon Musk has already had a company called X. It merged with PayPay in 2000, and then within months the PayPal people got sick of what a terrible guy he was to work with, and sidelined him. I dare say rebranding Twitter is the first step in what Musk hopes will be his great ‘I told you I was right’ project. He’s re-opening a 23 year old wound. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66284304

“Inside 4chan’s Top-Secret Moderation Machine” https://www.wired.com/story/4chan-moderation-buffalo-shooting/ (I wanted to read this so much I actually subscribed to Wired’s online edition for the privilege!)