An online notebook
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An online notebook
A quick pointer to an interesting project in central government in the UK. It’s looking at redefining the technology used by civil servants to get their jobs done. There are a number of interesting issues around this agenda. The experience…
WorkSmart is a new blog about how we do our jobs. It strikes me that there is a lot going on in terms of building fantastic user interfaces and processes for customers and end users of services – and this…
I find this stuff so you don’t have to: An Open Letter to Software Suppliers – 13 Ways to Help the Public Sector to the Cloud – @copley_rich Why the obsession with “coding” misses the point – from @jjn1 “Whatsapp…
At the DH digital champions summit on Tuesday, during the afternoon open space session, an interesting discussion broke out. One among many, I’m sure! Anyway, what was being discussed was the sheer unusability of government systems and processes. Only, not…
I’ve been doing work with local councillors for some time now – helping them see how they can use the internet to better engage with citizens, and communicate with them too. This takes the form of running training workshops usually.…
I find this stuff so you don’t have to: Delivering alpha performance reporting dashboards | Digital Health Origami – Design prototyping with Quartz Composer (free from Facebook) Daring Fireball: Microsoft, Past and Future – excellent read Splat the rat –…
Or maybe not actually rethinking email, but taking it back to what it was meant to be about… Working with a colleague the other day in a government organisation, I saw him looking for a document, that he was sent…
Sometimes to make collaboration work you need to set some ground rules. It’s easy to say, “let’s start up a google doc!” – and imagine everyone leaping in to give their ideas. But it’s not so simple as that, especially…
I find this stuff so you don’t have to: Redefining the Digital Divide | @helenmilner The system is failing, hack the system – via @annemcx The Four Freedoms – wonderful piece on #opensource by @photomatt The dangerous appeal of the…
I’ve just started a LinkedIn group on the topic of digital skills in the workplace. You are very welcome to join. I have to admit – I’ve not done much with LinkedIn groups before, and while much of it is…
As Samuel Beckett wrote, in Worstward Ho: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Acknowledging the fact that we surely don’t really want our project to fail, what does failing better actually mean? It’s surely…
WordPress started as a blogging engine, then became a content management system, and these days is a platform for the development of simple web applications. After all, an awful lot of applications are basically just about putting bits of text…
I find this stuff so you don’t have to: Building an Open Source Laptop | MAKE Moving to GOV.UK – the MHRA experience so far How many people does it take to tame the Digital Dragon? (digital skills for all!)…
Linkydink is a lovely little service that does one thing very well. It allows people to add links to a group and for a daily list of the links collected to be emailed out to subscribers. It is run by…
I wonder if one way of helping the process of blogging is to separate the tools you use for writing and for publishing. Here’s what I mean – when I use WordPress’ editor to compose a post from scratch, I…
Just before Christmas, and as a bit of a Christmas treat for myself, I bought an iPad mini with retina display and 3g mobile broadband access (ie not the wifi only model). I love it. Up til now my tablet…
I find this stuff so you don’t have to: ongoing by Tim Bray · Software in 2014 Joho the Blog » What blogging was – *sniff* Is Local GDS a good idea? « @demsoc Let’s Replace Council Websites with Local.Gov.Uk…
A fairly interesting, if somewhat confused in places, piece in The Guardian a few days ago from the author Philip Hensher. He starts by pointing out the rather glorious way that slightly niche publishing projects can get off the ground…
Some amazing news over the winter break for my friend and inspiration, Mary McKenna. First she receives an MBE in the new year’s honours list, for services to Digital Technology, Innovation & Learning. Then she announces her first new role…
I find this stuff so you don’t have to: Don’t drown in email! How to use Gmail more efficiently twister : peer to peer microblogging platform (interesting from privacy/decentralisation angle) Why blogging still matters in business – and always will…