Tom Watson, blogging MP extraordinaire, was promoted in the Peter Hain aftermath to be a junior minister in the Cabinet Office. According to his blog he has some responsibility for technology projects, which is a good thing because Tom is certainly interested in technology, and he wants to hear from Read more…
When we start a new project we also start a blog. I’m a Scientist has started. Cllr2.0 has been going a little longer. It is good practice. It helps us market the project, it helps us communicate with a wider group of stakeholders and it helps us define what we Read more…
That’s a fair description of BarCampUKGovweb (although I guess the easy doesn’t apply if you organised – hats off to Jeremy, Emma and co.).
My way of describing BarCamp is that it is a conference without the interminable self-promoting presentations. It is self-organising to the extent that the agenda can and does change right the way through the day and more time is spent discussing and networking than listening to people tell you things you could have read if they’d been bothered to share it online.
More information about BarCampUKGovweb is on PageFlakes.
I want to use this post to make a few comments about the day and to move the conversation forward. This is needed because the one frustration I felt about the day was that everytime the discussion was coming round to solutions and actions someone would pop their head around the door and say
Some children’s hospital wards are decorated with ‘fun’ images of clowns. This is supposed to cheer up the patients and help healing, etc. Then someone thought of actually asking the young people what they thought. It turns out that they thought clowns were sinister and odd. And really, who doesn’t? Read more…
What do you do if the public vote for the "wrong" name? If you’re Blue Peter you do a cover-up. If you’re Greenpeace you smile about it and be thankful for all the publicity that has been created for your anti-whaling campaign. [hat-tip to The Bristol Blogger and Bloggerheads]
" Having a static website rather than a blog is like having a cardboard cutout of you at a party instead of going yourself." Tim Ireland used this analogy, three or so years ago when we met to discuss how to get more MPs and councillors blogging. There have been Read more…
Jeff Littlejohn uses Google Alerts for his work [and quite possibly on his own name too – hope all is well in Bellingham, WA]. Jeff is interested in Community Development and emailed us the day after the YouCanDo Guides website went live asking a question. He has a Google Alert Read more…
Following the avalanche of emails about the rapid organisation of BarCampUKGovweb is a masterclass in Web2.0 tools. Twitter, Googlegroups, Wiki, Yahoo Pipes, Flickr, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Slide.com, and my favourite because it brings them together – PageFlakes.
We here at Gallomanor Towers are very excited about our next venture – "I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here!" It’s, errm, a bit like "I’m a Councillor, Get me out of Here!", only with scientists. As you may or may not know, my background is in science communication Read more…
There’s been a flurry of calendar dates on the UKDoWire email list today. A while back whilst experimenting with Google Calendars I created one for eDemocracy events. Clcik on Agenda in the top right of the page to see the events so far listed. This button links to the calendar Read more…