Dave

Dave

  • Joined: January 6, 2026
  • Articles: 3152
  • Comments: 518

Digital visions

I spend a fair bit of time talking to local councils and the like about taking a strategic approach to digital stuff, although usually it is mostly around engagement, and a bit of communications.

It's important - simply to know what you want to achieve and why. As soon as you have those things figure out then it's easy to choose the right tools and channels to help you get there.

Taking a strategic approach though doesn't necessarily mean you need a bit of paper, with 'strategy' written on it. Sometimes just having thought about the issues is all you need to do. A quick look on Twitter or Facebook and it's pretty straightforward to spot those that haven't even done that!

However, there are times when a bit more of an in depth look at all things digital are required. After all, the bits of an organisation like a local council that are affected by the internet go way beyond just the communications team.

Living on a cloud

While despatched on a mission of digital mercy a few weeks ago Mr Briggs (of this parish) and I fell to comparing our computers. Or rather he fell to ridiculing my rather ancient Samsung laptop (seven years old I think, it doesn’t like to process video, original power supply fell apart and it now boasts a rather lovely Maplin back up device). Apple fans do tend to look upon me with fear tinged with pity when I unpack the machine.

Link roundup

I find this stuff so you don’t have to: Councils — Kill your PDFs – Some sage advice from Adrian Short – stop publishing so many PDFs! Evolving Digital Engagement – From Participation to Partnership – "This report reviews the…

New Chromebooks – worth the bother?

Google have announced a new model of their Chromebook – the web only laptop that runs their Chrome operating system, which essentially consists of a browser and not much else.

As well as the laptop, there’s now a desktop machine too – which is rather reminiscent of the Mac Mini.

Both look like nice bits of hardware – but just how useful is a computer that only runs web based apps?

Link roundup

I find this stuff so you don’t have to: The learning organization: an often-described, but seldom-observed phenomenon | Harold Jarche – "What should a true learning organisation look like?" Connecting and engaging inside your organisation – "Social networks are inherently…

Reputation: not a goal but a measure

I am not Dave Briggs*. I’ve been following the #lgcomms12 hashtag this week. This is the label for tweets from the LGComms Academy event in Birmingham. It is much more lively than in previous years I must say and it…

New website, with added blog

Hello! If you can see this, it means that Kind of Digital’s new website is now live. We’ve given things a new look, and have organised the content a bit better, to give folk visiting the site some kind of…

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. BDU: Big Data – E-learning about "big data" which people keep telling me is going to be important. WP2Cloud – Interesting one for WordPress dorks (like me). Stores all your…

LocalGovCamp 2012

LocalGovCamp is returning! It will be held on Saturday, July 14th in Birmingham – venue to be confirmed. Sign up for an early bird ticket here. Thanks to the UKGovCamp fund and Talk About Local who are early sponsors. If…

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. DIY.mySociety.org | Do It Yourself mySociety – a resource for anyone who wants to build copies of mySociety sites, anywhere in the World – MySociety make it easy to reuse…

Two cool tools for knowledge and learning

Neat applications for sharing knowledge and learning are like buses, it turns out. Icon is a new app from Spigit, who are the leaders in innovation management software. It’s a really simple concept (which is good) – the online question…

Going hyperlocal

I had an enjoyable time on Saturday at the Talk About Local unconference, where lots of people involved in hyperlocal websites get together to share stories and experiences and to figure out answers to tricky questions. There tends to be…

Tools for writing

I use a ridiculous number of apps for writing stuff down digitally. It all depends on the context! Rough notes, ideas and that sort of thing tend to be stored in Evernote. It’s easy, and ubiquitous and everything gets kept…

Planning for Councillors

A nice little project this, that we developed for our friends at NALC. It’s a site introducing some of the issues around planning, particularly aimed at parish councillors. We did the design and built the WordPress template, while the guys…

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. SOCIAL PLAN: 11 Golden Rules for Social Media in an Organisation – Some nice tips from Dan. OGP Take Aways : Tim’s Blog – "In an attempt to use reflective…

Share your own knowledge, bring your own app

Interesting post from Steve Dale – taking a slightly different approach to the use of social tools within the workplace (see ‘social business’ or ‘enterprise 2.0’ ad nauseam) where he focuses instead on the concept of ‘personal knowledge management’. In…