Stephen Mounsey on standards: That matters because some constraints are good constraints. They protect the basics. They stop us reinventing things we do not need to reinvent. They make it easier to reuse what already works. They can create pace,…

A new book from Public Digital: The Intelligence Era Organisation – Creating the Conditions to Thrive in the Age of AI. If you are a senior leader responsible for transformation and AI adoption in an established organisation, you’ll undoubtedly recognise…

I really like the framing of digital leadership as a form of gardening in this post: I think of digital capabilities as the plants that we are trying to grow throughout our organisation’s digital garden, its culture. Sometimes we need…

The National Audit Office have published a Good practice guide for organisations using AI: This guide highlights key considerations for audit and risk assurance committees when overseeing the planning, deployment and scaling of artificial intelligence (AI) within public sector organisations.…

Another update from the Luton low code team on building out a system for managing complaints and other feedback. Have seen this in action and it is really impressive. More impressive, in fact, than Kev’s joke. Part of the difficulty…

The Local Government Digital Standard website

I have finally finished putting all the material for the LGDS onto a website to make it a bit easier to get to grips with. Am still working through a couple of bits of feedback, but everything you need to…

Giles points to a bunch of interesting things, including: Moments – a very bare bones photo sharing thing Lettera – yet another Mac Markdown editor

The Luton team show you can blog about anything, including the rollout of new printers. Over the last few months, the DDaT team have been working on the refresh of the council’s fleet of printers with Ricoh being the new…

This looks useful: Guidance and tools for digital accessibility on GOV.UK.

Following my linkage yesterday to the AI innovation in planning, Tom Loosemore weighs in on the unintended consequences: One worry? Were I to put my mind to the grift, I could easily build a subscription service that would allow anyone…

The BBC reports on Dorset Council testing AI to speed up planning applications: Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are being trialled in Dorset to help combat planning application delays. The team of agents is helping Dorset Council planning officers with minor…

Jo Carter – “Your survey is lying to you: uncovering the pitfalls”: A survey is a tempting thing. It looks inviting, it’s free to pick up, yet it can do a surprising amount of damage, especially when people don’t realise…

Great notes on transformation network building from Matt Wood-Hill: Tangible products and artefacts helped build traction. Starting out as a product team gave us a big advantage. In order to co-design digital planning products at scale we had to collaborate…

Jerry Fishenden shares a useful batch of thinking about AI, etc.

This looks jolly interesting – NHS Operating Patterns: Across the NHS, many people are already working differently – they are enacting a more dynamic kind of devolution, in which people collaborate to do great work, anywhere, on behalf of everyone.…

Dave Richardson – From Awareness to Ownership: Our Cyber Journey Since 2023: Since then, the landscape has only become more challenging. Cyber threats are more sophisticated, more frequent, and more impactful across local government, with real-world incidents disrupting services and…

Tom Loosemore updates his classic definition of digital: The digital revolution is still made of 1s and 0s, but plenty has happened in the decade since 2016. Eras are defined by what’s emergent; the big new thing that’s being folded…

Thoughtful long read from Rachel Coldicutt: Perhaps this collective hangover will be the thing that makes the AI bubble burst – or at least, start it rolling slowly off the peak of inflated expectations. Lord knows, there is no form…

James O’Malley takes a look at the National Data Library: That’s why everyone from the Minister downwards is talking about what the platform ‘could’ do in the future – and, I assume, why the NDL programme was given £100m last…

The newly launched National Data Library features a really useful ‘Data manual’ – think service manual, but data – which I think lots of local councils will find helpful in developing their own data practice.