Web 2.0 North of the Border

Duncan Stephan and Alex Stobart are building up an online resource for public bodies in Scotland to help them make the most of social web technology, with a blog called ScotWeb2. Building on the momentum of the successful barcamp-style event…

Helen Milner on open processes

I was delighted when UK online centres decided to make their bid for the Digital Mentor fund from CLG, inspired by the community initiative to take a policy initiative by the scruff of the neck over at DigitalMentor.org. Now the…

Snow business

The snow has made it a tricky week this week, with transport problems and the local school being closed. What’s more, just outside Cambridge, the snow is still falling on DavePress Towers. It’s quite pretty, mind. It’s hasn’t all been…

This is how it can be done

After all my moaning of recent times, a good news story. Lincoln City Council have released a site called Community Voice which links to all their ongoing consultations, with an RSS feed to keep up to date with new ones…

Fantastic social reporting result

Just have to dash out a quick blog post on this as it’s just so brilliant! One of the presenters at today’s IDeA Performance event, Andrew Hudson-Smith of UCL (see Ingrid’s notes here and a video here) mentioned the use…

More IDeA social reporting

…is happening over at IDeA Performance. This is a great initiative by IDeA, trying to open up the training and workshops they provide to anyone with an internet connection. If you, or anyone you know, is interested in local government…

Democracy and knowledge

Great, meaty article in this fortnight’s issue of The London Review of Books by David Runciman: The wisdom of crowds: why the many are smarter than the few. We-think: the power of mass creativity. Infotopia: how many minds produce knowledge.…

Be less boring

I wasn’t sure whether or not to blog about this. But I think I ought to, simply because this is such a cracking example of how badly digital engagement can be, and how easy it could be made much better.…