Monthly Archives: September 2009

A more social civil service is needed for a true open governance

Posted on September 28, 2009 by ChrisQ

Sadly I missed the Civil Service Live event in June when Will Perrin presented his thoughts around how the civil service should start to wise up about social media.  Reading his presentation, I liked the way they nicely summed up … Continue reading →

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Government and the market

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Gez Smith

e-Participation is still a new and growing area, moving forward in various directions and various speeds in various places. The audit of local authority e-consultation we’re about to publish has captured some really interested findings, and more on that soon, … Continue reading →

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Six Pieces about Sentiment Analysis

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Andy

I’ve been researching sentiment analysis, and I think I’ve found pieces to suit a range of tastes and interests. Tasters First the notes from a 2008 talk given by Lillan Lee from Cornell University. Lee’s topic is “…the flood of … Continue reading →

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ePB – a discussion paper

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Gez Smith

In April we arranged a gathering of Participatory Budgeting aficionados to talk about the potential of online Participatory Budgeting (ePB). This meeting has helped form a discussion paper on the subject written by the PB Unit which can be found … Continue reading →

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Q: How do you get young people talking to MP’s?

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Gez Smith

A: A Robot. Simple.  Not my first thought either, and that’s why it’s great.  Here’s a smart way from V-The National Young Volunteers Service to do just that.  It’s a website where young people can take control of a robotic … Continue reading →

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Brum vs Utah

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Gez Smith

OK, so the whole of the digital government Twitterati has come out of the woodwork to ‘have their say’ on what a bad job Capita have done of the new Birmingham Council website, how it’s outrageous that it cost £2.8m, … Continue reading →

Posted in From other people, Heroic stuff we admire | 2 Comments |

Obama’s democracy 2.0

Posted on September 8, 2009 by ChrisQ

In the context of Senator Obama’s radical and successful use of the internet to win the Presidency, commentators wildly speculated about how President Obama would then use the internet to govern.  Having amassed 1 million+ followers, would he run the … Continue reading →

Posted in From Delib, From other people, Heroic stuff we admire | 4 Comments |

A US perspective on e-democracy – views from across the pond

Posted on September 4, 2009 by ChrisQ

Back in November last year we worked on a project with the National Academy of Administration (NAPA) aimed at creating a debate and gathering ideas around the issue of “Health IT” – called the National Dialogue on Health IT.  The project itself was relatively low-key given it was run in the final weeks of the Presidential elections and most people in government had bigger things on their minds.

Having… Continue reading →

Posted in Heroic stuff we admire | 3 Comments |

Seven August things to help you convert the skeptics

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Gez Smith

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re already somewhat sold on the whole idea of the internet and the opportunities it presents for better involving people in decision-making/governance – and that means you almost certainly know and are frustrated by … Continue reading →

Posted in From other people | 2 Comments |

COI launch new Digital Policy blog

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Gez Smith

The Central Office of Information has just launched a new, public, departmental blog.
Following the COI’s internal blogging efforts on CivilBlogs, and the results of a review on the topic of ‘Improving Government Online,’ the Digital Policy team decided to throw open their discussion to the public, and set up Digigov to talk about digital policy online with “other departments, agencies, web developers, bloggers and academics.” Adam Bailin is running the… Continue reading →

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