Chatbot research with Neil Lawrence

It was an absolute pleasure to talk with Neil Lawrence from Dorset Council about the research project he led, using Local Digital funding to find out what the user needs are that using a chatbot might meet. You can watch the video on YouTube. It…

Chatbot research with Neil Lawrence

It was an absolute pleasure to talk with Neil Lawrence from Dorset Council about the research project he led, using Local Digital funding to find out what the user needs are that using a chatbot might meet. You can watch…

Launching the DigitalCllr survey

I’ve been doing work with local councillors for some time now – helping them see how they can use the internet to better engage with citizens, and communicate with them too. This takes the form of running training workshops usually.…

Residents online: opportunities for councils?

Rob Dale at LGIU blogs about some research being done in collaboration with Networked Neighbourhoods about the impact of online local community activity. You can take part: If you are a councillor, complete this survey. If you are an officer…

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…

‘Official’ local gov blogging

Simon writes a nice post celebrating the existence of the new official BIS blog, and provides a handy list of existing Whitehall “formal, properly-designated corporate ‘blogs’”. Here they are – I’ve also added UKTI’s blog to the list, which I’m…

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 –…

Democracy, decisions and politicians

I’m thrashing around with a post about consultation, engagement and crowdsourcing and why efforts in this direction haven’t been massively successful for governments – whether in the UK or elsewhere. I’ll get it into a fit state to publish one…

Bookmarks for August 18th through September 8th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Civic Commons code-sharing initiative bids to reduce government IT costs – "Around the United States, city governments have created a multitude of software. Unfortunately, most of the time the code…

Bookmarks for August 11th through August 18th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. OnePeople › Open source matters to open government. Really. – "Both DiMaio and Caudill make the mistake of believing that open source is about making cheap bits. Instead, it’s a…

Bookmarks for June 7th through June 17th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. What Does Government Transformation Mean, Exactly? – "Rather than fantasizing about the myth of transformation, governments have to accept that future is no longer predictable and focus on what changes…

Bookmarks for June 3rd through June 7th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Armchair Auditor – Nice clean and simple example of what can be done with open government spending data by @adrianshort Supreme Court’s untendered website cost revealed – "You need to…

Bookmarks for April 30th through May 14th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. Should the Public Sector pay for Content Management Systems? « Carl’s Notepad – [with open source] "You will still need to consider the integration aspects but open source products are…

Bookmarks for April 25th through April 30th

I find this stuff so that you don’t have to. More plugins for securing your WordPress install – Useful guide for making WP a bit more impregnable. Introducing the Hybrid Organisation – Hacking UK Politics with IBM Middleware: open data,…