News & Comment

Archive for January, 2009

Stephen Fry and George Osborne jump on open source bandwagon

Posted by ChrisQ on Jan 29 2009 | Debate, Democracy and government

Looks like the idea of using open source is gaining momentum once again. Earlier this week, the Conservative Party chucked its hat into the ring with a promise to make all future government IT projects smaller and based on Open Source Software. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/27/tory_linux_push/. I should think that whoever gets into power will be looking for more intelligent ways of meeting IT challenges, but it's good to see things moving in such a positive direction. If politics isn't… read more

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aMap makes Delib (more) famous

Posted by Ben on Jan 27 2009 | Debate, Delib news and events

Just like Chris promised, aMap is proving to be something of a 'viral product', starting conversations and arguments across the web.  Interesting buzz we've seen so far includes: Watch this space for more Delib fame… read more

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White House gets online – with email

Posted by Ben on Jan 23 2009 | Democracy and government

I know there's going to be an awful lot of oohing and aahing over the shiny, valuable and 'actually-getting-it' online initiatives that everyone's expecting from the Obama administration (not least from us; after all, it looks like a lot of the sorts of approaches and opportunities we've been advocating are going to be realised from probably the most prominent seat of democracy in the world). But I don't know what to… read more

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aMap launches launches at Social Innovation Camp

Posted by ChrisQ on Jan 21 2009 | Delib news and events

After many months / years of development, we're pleased to finally launch and showcase our latest product - aMap - last Wednesday at Social Innovation Camp. It was nice to finally reveal aMap to a friendly audience + get some initial feedback on it. For those that don't know, aMap is short for ‘argument map’.  The idea’s very simple - to promote the art of arguing by mapping out complex… read more

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Young People And Text Messaging. Again.

Posted by Gez Smith on Jan 14 2009 | Advice, Bad examples, Conversations, Engagement

Odd story this one, can half see the point of it, but half think it's going to go horribly wrong. Basically, Crimestoppers and Lancashire Police have just launched a service allowing young people to text a number to report someone at their school carrying a knife.  The text will be anonymous, and is meant to help the police deal with knives in schools. On a superficial level, it's yet another of… read more

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Blogging And Citizen Journalism

Posted by Gez Smith on Jan 08 2009 | Advice, Conversations, Debate, Democracy and government, Engagement, Good examples, Participation

Came across this the other day in the way many of the best websites are found - randomly. 

 

It's a blog for Worcester, Massachusetts, covering lots of different issues for the area, but also covering, in a… read more

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