We’re just in the process of wrapping up the exciting online dialogue project that we’ve been working on with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) in the USA, www.thenationaldialogue.org.

This has been a great project for many reasons, not least the incredible professionalism and ability of our stateside clients, but I particularly liked the way they described the project:
In late October, just before a… read more

I had the joy of being in Washington for election night - so got to experience the giant Obama love-in that spontaneously gathered outside the Whitehouse after the California results came through.  The Whitehouse celebrations were a kinda mix between a Take That concert - crowds of adoring fans screaming uncontrollably - and a football match - with choruses of chants.

The chants and screams seemed largely dictated by the presence… read more

Can’t let this morning pass without a quick blog really. Lots has been said already about the role of the internet in the US election over the last year or two, and being politically neutral it’s not really our bag to get involved in campaigning related issues here at Delib.

But this article was interesting in the Guardian yesterday, a claim that this election was the ‘Twitter Election’, with… read more

It’s becoming a bit of a mantra round here, but time and again we’re telling clients to use Youtube for their video content, unless they’ve got a genuine reason for not doing (such as wanting to restrict the content to a small group). Not making use of a channel that is a) free and b) has a massive existing user base just seems like utter madness.

Of course, Youtube in a… read more

There’s an enlightening post on the official Google blog which shares some of the data trends from the search engine during last week’s American vice-presidential debate: candidates, questions and queries.

I love this kind of data where people’s intentions are so clear (everybody ’straight talks’ into Google) and present in such large numbers.  I was especially pleased to see this as it’s… read more

For a long time now there’s been a political debate rolling on about Europe, largely around the questions of its relevance to modern Britain and what exactly it does (and of course why are they so bad at golf?!).

Clearly there’s no easy or simple way of addressing these issues.  Europe, as a political body, is undoubtedly a complex body - yet, as complex as it is, it also has a… read more

The subject matter of this consultation is really interesting, the MoJs Consultation Paper on Weekend Voting unfortunately is not so forward thinking in its practice as it is in its content. Check out the website for the consultation http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/cp1308.htm, can you see an online response mechanism there? Nope, nor could we. Does it end in about a week, and did I hear about it? No there… read more

Myself and Gez attended the National Participatory Budgeting Conference yesterday, at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. Despite the early start and threatened train delays (no 6 am journey is complete without that announcement, is it?) we got there in time to hear the keynote address by Hazel Blears.

The resounding message I got from the Secretary of State’s speech and the conference overall was enthusiasm for the PB process, but a… read more

Had an fun evening out the other week for the leaving do of my former colleague Carol Hayward at Bristol City Council. She’s off to New Zealand now, and despite working in the virtual world where location is more meaningless, will be missed.

Anyway, it wouldn’t be a Bristol City Council do without various suppliers being there alongside people from the council, and it was really interesting to chat to them… read more

Every year I help run a course on “e-governance” for the Royal Institute of Public Administration.  The course runs for 2 weeks over the summer, and my class is an assortment of civil servants from an assortment of countries - this year we had guys from Oman, India, Nigeria, Zambia and Ghana.

As part of the course I take the class on a magical mystery tour of e-governance projects across the… read more