links

Awesomeness off of the internet for November 5th to November 8th:

• data.govt.nz – "Today, the Department of Internal Afairs launched data.govt.nz, a beta site where government agencies can register their non-personal data sets for use by members of the public and organizations."
• Prefinery: Beta Management Software – "Take the headache out of private beta testing with our fast and simple system." Looks really useful.
• GovHack: govt data + hackers + caffeine == good times | Government 2.0 Taskforce – "John Allsopp from Web Directions was an organiser of GovHack, an event sponsored by the Taskforce. It was held on the 30th and 31st of October 2009 to encourage greater use and availability of government data in support of the MashupAustralia contest."
• Local Blog impact on Local Democracy: Somerton Town Council | Online Journalism Blog – "Local Bloggers are beginning to produce a few good examples of effective scrutiny of Local Councils. In this piece David Keen, who is a Vicar in Yeovil and writes regularly for my Wardman Wire political site, gives an account of a local controversy in the Somerset town of Somerton, which has lead to a number of resignations from the Town Council."
• 2 of 3 Feel They Can’t Influence Local Decisions – "Government’s Citizenship Survey results published today reflect some familiar trends but there are also some surprising findings that support new thinking on empowerment, active citizenship and community cohesion."

Awesomeness off of the internet for October 29th to November 5th:

• Learning Pool launches in South Africa with a little help from our new friend… – "When the lovely Baroness Kinnock, newly appointed Minister for Africa and steadfast supporter of lifelong learning, is the keynote speaker at your launch party in a new overseas territory you know you must be doing something right."
• sweetcron – "Sweetcron is a self-hosted lifestreaming application that supports themes & plugins."
• You Should Follow Me on Twitter – "Strange though it may seem to some, the number one activity on the Web is reading."
• Digital Democracy in Swindon: Connecting People, Connecting Places – "Swindon are working with the Leadership Centre for local government and FutureGov to explore ways of using new methods of on and offline engagement to help councillors engage with local communities in new and interesting ways as part of the 21st Century Councillors programme."
• Nomad News « Café Nomad – "I’m very pleased to have brokered transitional arrangements with Cambridgeshire County Council to ensure that Nomad can continue. Under new arrangements I will assume the national lead for Nomad and I’m working on proposals to develop a revised and rejuvenated programme, supporting regional groupings including Nomad Scotland."
• What the government should do about hyperlocal news | Podnosh – "Prominent voices in the hyperlocal debate gathered at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport today to talk about the changing landscape of news and media and, if anything, what the government should do."

Awesomeness off of the internet for October 23rd to October 28th:

• Benefit fraudster caught out online – "A Melbourn benefit fraudster was caught out after council investigators checked her social networking site profile as part of their investigations."
• James Governor’s Monkchips » Personal Communities: fundamental changes in business – "Personal communities and word of mouth. Nothing is different from business as usual then, other than the internet, and the scale it brings for community building."
• 5 “Shared Services” concepts I never want to see again « Lost ConsCIOusness – "I like Shared Services, my first response to any business need is to look around for a service which can provide it, only if all else fails do I develop it myself…So why do I too often groan when someone suggests a new “Shared Service” offering to me?"
• Online services provided by your council: rewiring LocalDirectGov « countculture – "One of the things I’ve had on my ToDo list for OpenlyLocal for a while was providing a a list of links to online services provided by each Local Authority."
• City of Lincoln Council Document Library – Google Docs – Great work by @abeeken to make Council data available via a shared folder in Google Docs. A great example of using tech that already exists and works!
• What I (nearly) said at Government 2010 – "As trailed, here come the notes of my contribution to the discussion about e-consultation at Government 2010 last Thursday."
• co-ment – Web-based text annotation – "co-ment makes it possible for you to write or upload your own texts, submit them for comments and process the comments."

Awesomeness off of the internet for October 18th to October 21st:

• Soup – Publish, collect, share. – "Soup is a tumblelog, a super-easy blog that can do more than just text: post links, quotes, videos, audio, files, reviews and events."
• The power of social innovation: interview with Director of Social Innovation Camp, Anna Maybank – "While gov20, transparency and campaigning are all beginning to revolutionise the relationship between government and its citizens in profound ways, the fantastic work of organisations such as the Sunlight Foundation and MySociety is very much focused on improving the status quo, a much maligned and mistrusted status quo."
• FutureGov » Features » ePetitions data standards – get involved! – "Are you interested in ePetitions? Perhaps you run electronic petitioning tools for a local council, or are involved in analysing the results? Do you build tools for governments to use to help citizens petition it more effectively? Or maybe you’re a keen hacker who wants to see these tools built in transparent and effective ways?"
• Local Electronic Petitions Set To Become Mandatory – "A Bill requiring councils in England and Wales to provide local residents with a facility to lodge electronic petitions, and to respond to such petitions, is set to be passed into law after moving to what is likely to become its final Parliamentary stage last week."
• A post bureaucratic Barnet? : Matthew Taylor’s blog – "The council aims to develop a much deeper and more nuanced understanding not only through conventional methods of public engagement such as a citizens’ panel and customer forums, but through ethnographic research into the day to day lives of its most needy citizens. "
• County Hall’s credit union to see off loan sharks – "Established by Kent County Council, the Kent Savers service will provide an alternative to unscrupulous loan sharks and lenders who take advantage of desperate residents by charging exorbitant interest rates."

Awesomeness off of the internet for October 14th to October 18th:

• Confusing menus and links: the web’s biggest challenge – "To make menus and links simpler you have to think like a customer. You also have to reduce the number of links and focus on the task at hand."
• Microsoft opens Windows 7 with a Tupperware touch – "Microsoft, a hitherto-successful computer company based in Redmond, near Seattle, has been labouring for two years to recover from a disaster called Vista, which was Version 6 of its celebrated Windows operating system."
• Substance Views | Cultural change and technical tools for outcome-based commissioning – "We’re developing an open platform to support organisations delivering social impacts to collect, visualise and reflect on evidence of their work and the outcomes it is achieving."
• Top 10 Most Common Coding Mistakes in WordPress Plugins « planetOzh – Is what it says, really.
• At last I have online access to my medical records – "Then much of what was in my records was garbled and mis-spelt, presumably because the doctors are not very good at typing while they consult."