opengovernment – Page 2

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

The Case Against Online Participation and Government As A Platform – "the question is: should we just give up and consider open government and government 2.0 an interesting, nice-to-have, but hard-to-sustain development, and perhaps let it die?"
Social media for social care: how Monmouthshire foster carers support each other with Yammer – helen reynolds – Nice little case study.
Huffington Post UK: What does it add? – Good stuff on the rather underwhelming launch of HuffPo UK – which has been rather overshadowed by other media news this week.
Epic | Mobile learning – Epic's mobile learning stuff looks really interesting.
Home :: PetitionYourCouncil.com – MySociety makes local e-petitions more findable.

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

What we talk about when we talk about RSS – A useful bit of background to the future of RSS debate.
Media Trust explains how local news hubs will work – David Wilcox follows up the story.
Civil Servant 2.0 (PDF warning) – Interesting ebook on 'practical tips for working in government 2.0'
Arrested for filming a public council meeting – What a mess.
Trolling in asynchronous computer-mediated communication – An academic version of the debate on whether or not trolls ought to be fed.
NESTA Neighbourhood Challenge – Nice blog covering this hyperlocal project.

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Google’s Chromebook set to transform how we think about computers | Technology | The Observer – “On 15 June, Google will officially take the next step on its road to global domination. From that day onwards, online shoppers will be able to buy the Google Chromebook, a device that the search giant hopes will change the way we think about computers – and in the process rain on the parades of Apple and Microsoft.”
Open-source is great, let’s explode a couple of myths – Some sensible stuff that’s useful reading for anyone overdosing on the OSS kool-aid.
Workshopping in Peterborough | Kind of Digital – Quick summary of our digital engagement workshop. Want one? Just ask!
Reconciling identity and place | Curiouscatherine’s Blog – Yet more great thinking out loud by @curiousc
Alpha.gov.uk: What’s in Your Stack? – Interesting interview about the tech behind AlphaGov
Faster Future Campaign – Interesting looking rural broadband project based in King’s Lynn.
nexters | big ideas. inspiring society. – “Nexters is the big society network’s new programme to support the UK’s best social entrepreneurs.”
Where technology should be used to improve policy-making, and is not – “what about all the conversations where people share problems, suggestions, even solutions, which do not happen on an e-participation web site, but pop out from online communities where people socialize for reasons that have nothing to do with politics?”
FibreValley – Fibre Valley – Digital Worth Valley – Interesting new community broadband project in Yorkshire.
On becoming Executive Director of Digital in the Cabinet Office – The new digital director speaks!

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

Bookmarks for January 27th through February 19th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Big Society – if the price is right – Interesting views on Big Society from a blogging councillor within my local district.
The impact of IT decisions on organizational culture – O’Reilly Radar – "It's said that with great power comes great responsibility. Among business functions, the IT group has disproportionate control over what can and can't happen in an organization."
Have your say – Code of recommended practice for local authorities – DCLG's online consultation discussing how data should be made available by councils.
Thriving too: Big Society: Community Organising – Why? – Great post on the role of the community organiser
Around the Local Government World in Ten Days – Nice writeup of a bunch of interesting events and meetings by Carrie
Local engagement in the land of big sky and sausages – Great blog post picking up my 'place as open source system' idea by @jiiiii
Are you social or anti-social? – Interesting, challenging stuff from @joannejacobs
What does ‘cloud’ mean for the public sector? – Nice post written by @lesteph for Huddle summing up our webinar chat about cloud in government.
Coté’s People Over Process » The US Federal Government and Open Source – Really interesting overview from @cote
5 Things we learned from UK GovCamp 11 | Delib Blog – Nice summary from the guys at Delib!

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

Bookmarks for January 10th through January 24th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

#UKGC11: Flickr, Wikipedia and Open Streetmap for local authorities – Great write up of an interesting session from @abeeken
Reworking the public sector | Public sector pm – Notes on a great topic at #ukgc11
Uk GovCamp 2011 | Partridgej’s Blog – Nice summary of the #police discussion at #ukgc11 from @jiiiii
The Plan is not the Objective – Superb stuff from @curiousc on agile policy making talks at #ukgc11
Considering PaaS – Fabulously useful post on cloud platform stuff from @cote
6 ways to make open innovation easier – 100% Open – Great tips.
Public Data Corporation to free up public data and drive innovation – Interesting. Not least because I'm not convinced there's much money to be made by anyone here – certainly not by small suppliers anyway.
Transport’s £2.7m spend on online game – Shame – a potentially good idea made ridiculous by spending too much money on it.
My GovCamp wishlist (and yours) – Thanks to Simon for sharing his ideas for this year's GovCamp.
How To Build An Online Community – The Ultimate List of Resources (Updated) – Great list of resources from Rich Millington on building online communities- vital reading.
As VLC for iPhone, iPad Pulled from App Store, What’s the Future for GPL Apps? – Interesting post on whether open sources licences like the GPL are incompatible with Apple (and maybe other) app stores T&Cs.

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

Bookmarks for December 12th through December 30th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Five (grim) predictions for 2011 – Ingrid expresses a few concerns. Let's work to make sure this stuff doesn't happen!
What Localism might mean for local gov web managers by Michele Ide-Smith – Great stuff as always from Michele. A must read for folk interested in web and local gov.
Teach Parents Tech – Lovely: "This site was built by a few folks at Google to help keep tech support a family business."
Barrier Busting – DCLG crowdsourcing blockages to local action with a WordPress based site. Via @simond
Tax protest turns Vodafone’s smile upside down – This is what happens when you use social media when everyone hates you.
Let Us Pay – One of the best summaries of the woes of the newspaper business I have come across.
Social media and the future of the public sector – Great notes on social tech for internal use from @jiiiii
Wikileaks FAQ – Useful resource on the issues raised by Wikileaks.
13 measures of success for government digital teams – Good stuff on evaluation of online activity from Stephen Hale
expertnet – "The United States General Services Administration (GSA) and the White House Open Government Initiative are soliciting your feedback on a concept for next generation citizen consultation, namely a government-wide software tool and process to elicit expert public participation"

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

Bookmarks for October 30th through December 10th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Living with rats: Nine signposts towards Our Society – Good stuff from @juliandobson
Wikileaks and the Long Haul – Shirky on Wikileaks
What the attacks on WikiLeaks tell us – John Naughton nails it on the Wikileaks saga.
Budget consultation approaches by Michele Ide-Smith – Nice summary of some of the recent work from Michele.
I’m not anti-SharePoint – chieftech’s blog – Yup – Sharepoint's problems are usually in its implementation, not in the software itself.
Government data in the public domain – intrinsically good, right? – Great stuff from @rossferg
Connected Kingdom – "The UK has a thriving internet economy. It has the potential to grow even bigger. We want your ideas for ways to make that growth happen."
Learning about content strategy by Michele Ide-Smith – Great stuff on organising your website contributors and getting processes and systems right from Michele.
Innovation functions in large organisations – Great insights from @katebennet on innovating.
eDiplomacy: The US State Department’s Global Collaborative Backbone – Interesting stuff on collaborative tech in US.gov

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

Bookmarks for October 3rd through October 19th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Solace 2010 write up; Localism, hash tags and a reflection on priorities – Great write up from Catherine Howe.
Thriving too: Big Society: Yours Mine and Ours – "So how do smaller networks, organisations and projects engage with Big Society if they don’t feel completely comfortable in the space?"
How #gmp24 happened – "The challenge was to find a way to show people the wide range of issues the police are called to deal with."
The Problem with WordPress at Helpful Technology: Blog – Great summary of what sounds like a great event.
When social media reveal IT’s soft belly – "When I was in Canada last week, I visited two provincial government organizations that offered two intriguing examples of how social media are challenging their IT organizations."
Who Should be Your Chief Collaboration Officer? – Whose in charge of getting people to talk to each other in your organisation?
Jimmy Leach: Keep the blogs alight – "We may not solve foreign policy issues through blogs, but we can at least explain them better."
Open source based Managed Learning platform saves public purse £36 million – Learning Pool saves government cash. Find out how.
Too much money plays against government 2.0 – "Definitely an interesting perspective: transparency is not always a desirable attribute, and government 2.0 is more interesting – and useful – where the are scarce rather than abundant resources."
Local By Social – Series of events around the country by LGID promoting online innovation in local gov.
PDF Europe round up – Great summary of the recent PDF Europe event from @curiousc
Catch.com – Interesting looking Evernote alternative.
Training lessons learned: Code dojo, whiteboards, interactivity – "Training can be an incredibly boring, frustrating exercise."
The four sorts of Innovation-Getter | Kate Bennet – "After working in an Innovation team for the last year it’s become apparent that there are four sorts of “innovation-getters” in organisations."
The Stack: The Fifteen Classes of the Social Business Software Suite – Interesting attempt at classification of social tech

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

Bookmarks for September 20th through October 1st

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

Social intranets: Enterprises grapple with internal change – Great stuff on deploying social tech within big organisations.
Open Government Licence – "You are encouraged to use and re-use the Information that is available under this licence, the Open Government Licence, freely and flexibly, with only a few conditions."
Four roles for social media in workplace learning – "Whether or not l&d professionals or senior managers embrace social media doesn't really matter in the long run, because there is no turning back, only futile resistance."
Anthologize – "Use the power of WordPress to transform online content into an electronic book."
“The Case for Personal Information Empowerment”: Mydex publishes groundbreaking White Paper – Worthwhile reading. I don't entirely agree, but a cogent argument.
GCHQ spooks top UK Linux installations | THINQ.co.uk – "Whispers in the courtly corridors around Westminster, the seat of British government, have it that British intelligence uses Linux because it is secure, good at number crunching, and doesn't cost much to deploy."
A framework for the social enterprise – Useful and interesting white paper on knowledge and learning within large organisations.
Government Should Do its Own Data Homework | Jeni’s Musings – "It cannot be the case, long term, that you need to be an expert hacker to reuse government data."
Behind the scenes at ShapeYourPlace.org – Great stuff from Paul Henderson on the techie bits behind a nice local government social media engagement exercise.
Meeting the public sector communications challenge – "But what public sector communicators need to do is continue to demonstrate the value of communications, not as an end in itself, but as an agent for making things better for the public."
Open Courses: About 10 Weeks Seems To Be It, Then? – Great post from Tony Hirst on open courses and online learning.
Open Government as a Means to Shake the IT Suppliers Landscape – "…I have not (yet) seen any sustainable business model coming out of government “app stores”."
Where do the good ideas go? – "Given the challenges we face as a country and as a planet, there’s a tremendous opportunity to make crowdsourcing really work here and now. But it will take courage, patience, and a process which taps into the varied time and talents of the crowd, in its widest sense."

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.

Bookmarks for September 10th through September 14th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to.

MindQuilt – "MindQuilt is an enterprise knowledge management platform with intelligent question and answer matchmaking and gaming achievement dynamics."
Tiny Tiny RSS – Host your own Google Reader clone.
Challenge.gov : The central platform for all US Government challenges, contests and innovation prizes. – "Challenge.gov is a place where the public and government can solve problems together."
The future of digital public services – "The key to this is that Directgov should continue to move to be the facilitators not owners or delivers of the content and apps, they should establish the proper governance, standards and quality assurance for app providers, setting minimum standards that ensure quality and interoperability."
WordPress › Email Post Changes plugin – Potentially spectacularly helpful WordPress plugin.
Beyond Access – a "Public Consultation on access to information and open government data"
Forking is a Feature – Anil Dash – "Moving forward, there are a lot more lessons we can learn if we build our social tools with the assumption that no one version of any document, app, or narrative needs to be the definitive one. We might even make our software, and our communities, more inclusive if we embrace the forking ourselves."
Resources for exploring social media participation – Brill stuff from @timdavies on online youth participation.
The Social Network: Facebook’s intriguing world revealed – "How did Mark Zuckerberg, the son of a dentist father and a psychologist mother, from a comfortably middle-class background, become one of the most powerful men in the world?"
Hand Made from Social Spaces – "Hand Made is a beautiful collaborative book with 26 innovative perspectives and projects from around the world, over 230 pages, about new ways of creating connection and community. The projects have been carefully selected because they have all been developed with new thinking and methodologies and involve Learning, Sharing or Making."
A Brief Guide To Reaching Unbelievably High Levels Of Participation In Your Online Community – Some great tips in here.

You can find all my bookmarks on Delicious. There is also even more stuff on my shared Google Reader page.

You can also see all the videos I think are worth watching at my video scrapbook.