News & Comment

Archive for February, 2009

Diagrams are sweet

Posted by Ben on Feb 27 2009 | Delib news and events

I love diagrams.  Everybody loves diagrams.  They're like the tangy bits in those chewy sweets, the little extra bit of zing that keeps you tantalised right the way through a pitch or presentation.  So as a little treat, I thought I'd dip into the dusty jar of old documents and dig out a handful of Delib diagrams from the past few years.  I'm not saying these are our greatest diagrams… read more

1 comment for now

Budget Simulator taking over the world (sort of)

Posted by MichaelaD on Feb 26 2009 | Delib news and events, Engagement, Good examples, Projects and client work

We always knew our Budget Simulator had the potential to be customised so it could be used successfully by organisations other then UK Councils. In the last month or so we have had resounding confirmation of this fact with both a UK Police Authority and a New Zealand Council making use of our online tool. Both South Wales Police Authority and Wellington Council NZ are currently using the simulator. Given… read more

no comments for now

Cllr Tweeps – relevant to your interests?

Posted by Gez Smith on Feb 25 2009 | Conversations, Democracy and government, Engagement, Good examples, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords

We're not Twitterer's here at Delib, on a personal level at least, but it's definitely interesting, and beyond the small community of early adopters we think there's quite a bit of potential for some interesting projects with it. 

Always best to start at the beginning though, and the guys at Cllr Tweeps are doing something that should have been done with many e-Democracy projects yonks ago. Putting together an aggregated list… read more

no comments for now

Dangers of social networking for the brain?

Posted by Gez Smith on Feb 24 2009 | Advice, Bad examples, Democracy and government, Engagement, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords

Sometimes you blog stuff because it's of interest, sometimes you blog it because you just can't make head nor tail of something and you hope other people can. This is one of those latter times.

Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College, Oxford, has warned that social network sites risk 'infantilising' the human mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky

read more

no comments for now

John Prescott Gets It

Posted by Gez Smith on Feb 05 2009 | Conversations, Democracy and government, Engagement, Good examples, Participation, Social media, web 2.0 and other buzzwords

Have been saying for yonks that if people and policy or politicians are to connect online, the politicians and policy makers have to go out to where the people are, not build fortresses that they expect people to come and visit (an assumption that led to one of the ways the National e-Democracy Project got it wrong a few years ago). In offline politics and policy making, government goes out… read more

1 comment for now

Opinion Suite product site gets a makeover

Posted by Ben on Feb 04 2009 | Delib news and events, Opinion Suite, Opinion research

We've been doing good work on our open source e-consultation and opinion research software package, Opinion Suite, and we've just set live a revamped product site to show it off to people.  Featuring snazzy videos from Gez and Michaela, answers to all those burning Opinion Suite questions and lashings of lovely white space, it really is the only place to be for anyone interested… read more

no comments for now

HMRC Charter Consultation Launched

Posted by Gez Smith on Feb 03 2009 | Consultation, Delib news and events, Democracy and government, Opinion Suite, Opinion research, Projects and client work

We've been working on a really interesting project here at Delib for the last few months with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. In the 2008 Budget, the Government reaffirmed its belief that creating a charter for HMRC could play an important role in ensuring that the tax system is understandable and accessible to all taxpayers. As a result, after a first round of consultation last summer, the good people at HMRC have… read more

4 comments for now