An online notebook
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An online notebook
Since moving house back in October, my local government district is South Holland, in south Lincolnshire. I’m no stranger to it – this is where I grew up, before leaving to go to University. It’s good to see the local…
GovCamp this Saturday was a delight, thanks to the wonderful people who attended, those that helped out, and the good folk at Microsoft who looked after us all so well. This year there has been so much written online that…
Recently I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the ‘participation deficit’ – the fact that too few people are contributing too much to society. It’s what informed my post about my view that we need more councillors. No even half…
In the run-up to Wednesday’s publication of the health and social care bill David Cameron is discussing his plans to overhaul public services, including the NHS, today. You can voice your thoughts on Cameron’s plans with other social care professionals by grabbing one…
The biggest get-together of folk in the UK with an interest in how the public sector uses technology happens on Saturday, just 5 sleeps away. The list here says 204 people are coming, not counting our sponsors and hosts. Gulp.…
Andrea Di Maio reports on the US Defense department doing away with dedicated social media officers: No more specialized offices, no more social media silos, no more experts or consultants building new strategies. Social media is a tool, amongst many…
Who Owns My Neighbourhood? is a cool new project from Kirklees Council. Supported by NESTA, according to the blurb it: …is a service that helps local people take responsibility for the land, buildings and activities where they live and work.…
Learning Pool is delighted to be running a unique free event in association with the Scottish Improvement Service for those working in public services in Scotland who want to get the most from the social web. This highly interactive session,…
The MJ reports on Buckinghamshire County Council’s successful bid to reduce the number of members elected to it, from 57 to 49, in the name of cost cutting. County deputy leader Bill Chapple said: ‘I’m delighted the commission is taking…
The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov looks like it will be useful and interesting reading for those interested in the internet and its effects on politics and democracy, providing something of an alternative (thanks to Dom for the wording advice)…
As mentioned in a previous post, I’m just putting the finishing touches to a handbook on the topic of using social technology behind the firewall to make an organisation more interactive, collaborative, better at learning, and that sort of thing.…
I just downloaded the latest update to Apple’s computer operating system, Mac OSX, which brings with it an app store, like the sort on your mobile phone, or iPad. It means that I can browse for, pay for (if necessary)…
I first wrote about the social question and answer site Quora last June – I mention this to point out that I am considerably dorkier than you. Anyways, something has made Quora very, very popular in the last week. This…
Not so much dead tree reading, for me anyway, as I tend to read books on my Kindle these days (they’re awfully good), but here’s a few books that I’ve found really useful on the topic of innovation. All those…
The world it seems is full of blog posts about RSS – really simple syndication, for the non-dorks. Apparently it’s dead. Or dying. Or very much alive. RSS is a standard for publishing the latest content on a site with…
So my post about whether local government needs skunk works got quite a reaction both in the comments and on Twitter, so it’s obviously something people are interested in discussing. How can we move the debate forward? Let me sketch…
Simon Dickson has been doing his best to keep us up to date with the government skunkworks, the project to form a tight group of innovators in central government to work on new ideas. If you’re new to the idea…
Following the announcement that Yahoo! don’t care too much for Delicious anymore, I’ve been worrying away about Flickr. I know a few others have been too. Phil Bradley points out that a great tool exists for backing up all your…
Newcastle United, in an apparent break in their usual culture, appear to have done something sensible: Newcastle United’s players will shortly be given guidelines about their tweeting habits. Alan Pardew was annoyed last Tuesday when José Enrique, his Spanish left-back,…
2010 has been an interesting year for the internet. Where will 2011 take us? Here’s a slightly apocalyptic set of thoughts. Wikileaks, privacy and security Anybody who has thought for even a moment about the implications of the internet and…