Daily notes

📅 Daily note for 4 October 2024

Jukesie shares his ideas⬈ for the new Digital Centre Design Panel⬈. They are very sensible. #

Steve⬈ has shared a really good looking intro to product management course⬈ – it’s online and free. #

How government defines a service⬈ (via Neilly⬈)

When we talk about a service, we mean all the things that government collectively provides to deliver an outcome for all of its users, through any path a user takes to reach their goal.

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I love Giles’ list of internet inspirations⬈. #

Nice roundup post of interesting thoughts and links⬈ from my favourite anonymous local government blogger. I do like this freewheeling style, a link here, a thought there. Feels natural and authentic, and is the kind of thing I have been aiming for in this notes of mine, too. #

📅 Daily note for 2 October 2024

Daily noting is rare at the moment, largely down to being busy, about which I should not complain! Lots of very interesting work, working with new people – which in itself is quite tiring. #

LocalGovCamp last week felt different – more positive, ambitious, optimistic than it has been for a while. In one session Theo⬈ mentioned that with the new government it feels like we have a window now to make some serious change happen in the sector. The last thing we want to be doing at LocalGovCamp ’25 is mulling on what could have been. He’s right. #

I am pretty certain the answer to this problem (how can digital stuff help councils make things better for local people while not going bust?) is based on changing the focus on what constitutes the local bit of local public services. Much of what happens behind the scenes has no positive impact on people’s lives. Let’s find ways to share the burden of those things, and let councils focus on where their local context, and democratic accountability, really makes a difference. #

Phil wrote up⬈ his LocalGovCamp experience. #

As did Carl⬈. I’ve missed Carl. #

Lloyd has been making some fun vlogs recently.⬈ #

Jerry Fishenden: “Forms? Where we’re going, we don’t need forms!”⬈ #

📅 Daily note for 18 September 2024

Am looking into intranets at the moment for a customer. If you have any good stuff to share, please do let me know! Have already heard from Essex County Council and of course Eleanor’s wonderful post⬈ on the topic too. #

Also I’m really interested in stories from local government folk about their experiences trying to implement GOV.UK components like Notify, Pay and so on. Am keen to learn more about what sorts of things are more likely to work than others… #

Kate Tarling has a free email based course called “From silos to services⬈“. Sounds like something you’d be mad not to take advantage of. #

“3 non-tech principles for decommissioning legacy systems⬈”:

Decommissioning and replacing a legacy system is notoriously challenging. You need some serious technical credentials to navigate a complex legacy landscape and create a new solution that is both flexible and future-proof. All while maintaining business as usual for the people that use them.

But technical prowess is not the whole story. Replacing an existing platform is only as successful as the people who will be operating the new solution. And that’s often forgotten.

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“Blame culture isn’t what I used to think it is⬈”:

Blame culture exists when people feel like they have to explain their actions, and always their failings, as caused by something outside of themselves. This thing happened because that person didn’t do something, they say. Or some other thing didn’t happen because that’s just how it is around here. None of this was caused by my actions, they suggest. That is a culture of blame.

The opposite of a culture of blame isn’t a culture of accepting mistakes, it’s a culture of accepting responsibility. You can see the absence of a culture of blame in the sense of agency people have. When people show initiative and take risks, when they approach problems with ways they can contribute to solving them, when they take control of things within their influence, that’s when there is no culture of blame.

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📅 Daily note for 17 September 2024

How Rushmoor Borough Council set out to understand and resolve the issues preventing an effective and efficient freedom of information request service⬈. #

Have ordered a copy of Platformland⬈, Richard Pope’s book on government digital services. Am looking forward to reading it and nodding. Lots of people have their copies already and seem to be enjoying it. #

Work on the rebrand⬈ is progressing – there’s not a lot holding me back now really, except nerves. Which is daft! Who cares, after all? Only me really. #

I use a Blue Yeti⬈ microphone at my desk, and it really does have a positive impact on audio quality, which is great. But it also takes up a lot of space, so I have ordered a microphone arm⬈ to see if that helps declutter things a bit. #

Needed another browser (I like having different accounts in completely different browsers, rather than multiple windows of the same browser. I get easily confused!) So I went for the DuckDuckGo⬈ browser. It’s really good – nice and fast, and all the privacy stuff is good although I’m not overly worried about that stuff. Definitely recommended. #

🏡 Moving house

Well, we have moved. It wasn’t an entirely joyful process, but we got everything shifted on the Friday 6th and by teatime Saturday most things were in their rightful places. It’s a bit galling because this is very much a temporary, interim, move, until the house we really want to live in becomes available. So, we can’t get too comfy. #

We were without broadband until last Friday (13th), and there’s no 4g signal on my phone in the house. The only network with any coverage at all round here is 3, so I bought a SIM on moving day, whacked it into a venerable mifi type unit and we tried to all to work from that for a week. It was slow going, and the application that didn’t cope at all was MS Teams, interestingly. #

I went to find somewhere with wifi to work one afternoon. Managed to find myself in the one Costa in the world with worse wifi than the house did at that time. #

We’ve moved to West Winch, a small village in Norfolk, just to the south of King’s Lynn. Funnily enough, King’s Lynn is where I started my local government career⬈, as a housing benefits assessor back in 2003. The online process to sign up for council tax worked a treat, so well done, Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk! #

The other weird thing is that, like Lloyd’s⬈, this blog is 20 years old this year. And when I started it, I was living in… King’s Lynn. The circle closes. #

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