procurement – Dave Briggs

LINK: “The Hitchhikers guide to Engaging SMEs and Local Government in Innovation”

May 24, 2018

Due to time constraints, many Local Government Service leads are inevitably ‘heads down’ and perhaps overwhelmed by the variety of technology on offer. It can be hard to team up with neighbouring boroughs because that adds complexity and may slow things down through collaborative decision making. They need more ‘heads up’ time to reflect and review what is going on elsewhere, and try to be open minded and consider wider options – we as SMEs on the other hand need to present our products in terms of their benefits, in plain English, not as a technology offer.

Original: https://medium.com/@hilary.simpson/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-engaging-smes-and-local-government-in-innovation-d9b6d371feff

Blogged elsewhere: Why tech SMEs are Crucial to Public Sector Digital Transformation

November 9, 2017

I was asked by my friends at AdviceCloud to write something for the TechUK blog about how small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can support public sector organisations in their efforts to transform.

Technology is not the be-all and end-all of digital transformation. However, any organisation looking to disrupt itself in this way must have a sufficiently flexible technology stack to support the radical change that is needed – and tech SMEs are in the perfect place to deliver what digital transformation demands.

Read the whole thing on the TechUK website.

What I’ve been reading

April 2, 2012

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

Exploring how digital technology can support young people to engage socially and economically in their communities : Tim’s Blog – Tim is "launching an open research project to find key messages for youth-focussed digital innovation"
A manifesto for teaching computer science in the 21st century – John Naughton tells Michael Gove what's needed.
Knowledge Hub architects defend switchover as lever is thrown. – "The architects of the new local government Knowledge Hub, an online platform for exchange of ideas between council officers, politicians and the public, have defended the switchover from its predecessor Communities of Practice (CoPs) after criticism from some users."
Bring your own device to be piloted at Cambridgeshire council – "Four week trial will initially be restricted to Android and Apple operating systems"
The Emerging Government App Store: IT Public Procurement Nirvana? – "Over the last couple of weeks I have had numerous conversations with government executives and IT leaders about cloud computing, open source, shared services, software reuse. These are all different perspectives on IT sourcing, and they are often made problematic by clumsy public procurement procedures."

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

What I’ve been reading

June 29, 2011

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

2011 London Social Business Summit – Great content from this event.
Introducing South West LocalGovCamp #swlocalgc « Carl’s Notepad – This should be a good one!
’100 million comments a year’ – mutual support and advice in a shrinking state – How government could be making better use of online communities – great stuff from Will Perrin.
Misleading money-saving claims help no one – Ben Goldacre exposes the lazy thinking involved in some "research" about council spending – curiously promoted by CLG.
BBC News – Google’s Chromebook – lost in the cloud? – Interesting review of the new Chrome based laptops.
A little local difficulty – honestlyreal – A very useful primer on Local DirectGov
How To Run A News Site And Newspaper Using WordPress And Google Docs – Really nice workflow system.

You can find all my bookmarks on Pinboard.

Bookmarks for September 20th through October 1st

October 1, 2010

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.

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