politics – Dave Briggs

Why be a councillor?

June 24, 2014

Pretty damning stuff from Cllr Roger Gambba-Jones:

If somebody was to ask me about becoming a councillor nowadays, I’m not sure what I would tell them were the benefits of doing so and I don’t mean to the councillor. Government funding cuts and more and more centralisation of power, hidden behind the facade of Localism, means that getting elected is more likely to become a exercise in frustration and disappointment, than a fulfilling experience in serving the community.

Link roundup

March 19, 2014

I find this stuff so you don’t have to:

What I’ve been reading

March 21, 2012

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

Tales of the city: the rise of the local blog – "In its daily blogposts, Spitalfields Life aims to portray the full colour of life in London's East End. But who is the mysterious 'Gentle Author' behind this extraordinary work of social history?"
Apache Cordova – "Apache Cordova is a platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript."
Building Community in your Area? There’s a Handbook for that! – "The Community Organizers Handbook is the one-stop-shop for tips, tricks and how-tos for organizing local communities."
User experience design on new.shropshire.gov.uk – Project WIP – "Our aim is to provide the user with best experience we can possibly give them allowing them to do what they want quickly and easily."
When is an ‘official’ Twitter account not an official Twitter account? | Puffbox.com – "Much consternation in certain political circles this afternoon, as Boris Johnson renames his Twitter account… and takes a quarter of a million people's details over to his election campaign HQ."
The problem with digital politics – "If the major parties get their act together, the next election could be a very interesting time indeed for technology-watchers."
@LiamStacey9 : Tangential Ramblings – "Online hate is a big problem. Children, adults, celebrities and people outside of the public eye are all victims. The trouble is: those that dole out the abuse don’t seem to be the sorts of people who care."

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

August 22, 2011

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

Clay Shirky Says Good Collaboration is Structured Fighting – "Large collaborative projects aren't, in fact, large collaborative projects according to Shirky. They're small collaborative projects with tight groups, that integrate very large amounts of small participatory effort."
Clay Shirky Says Good Collaboration is Structured Fighting – "Large collaborative projects aren't, in fact, large collaborative projects according to Shirky. They're small collaborative projects with tight groups, that integrate very large amounts of small participatory effort."
Will it be orange? | Government Digital Service – Is orange a good colour for a government website?
Does democracy have to be political? | The Democratic Society – "I can’t be the only one who has been struck by the way in which the people getting involved with the community clear-ups after the riots have been so keen to state that their motive is not political."
Opening government, the Chicago way – O’Reilly Radar – "To get anywhere close to achieving that goal, Chicago will have to close the IT gap between the public and private sector, particularly in the emerging field of data science."

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

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