Archives
The return of e-petitions; a new home for the Govt Digital Service; and an ironic footnote
Two site launches today worth noting: the return of e-petitions, and the 'new' Government Digital Service blog. E-petitions used to belong to Downing Street; now it's moved over to Directgov, and thence to individual departments, rather than landing everything on the PM's desk. There's very little to see just now: just a submission form, and [...] read on »
No10 proposal to replace press offices with a blog
The FT is getting all excited by apparent 'proposals' by Downing Street's shaven-headed, shoeless strategy director Steve Hilton to abolish maternity leave and suspend consumer protection laws, in the interests of kick-starting the economy. Personally, I can't believe either was suggested seriously: sounds more like the start of a brainstorming session. But I can't help [...] read on »
MPs call for ‘urgent rebuilding’ of government IT capacity
The Commons Public Administration Select Committee has published its report into government IT, and to be frank, it's all a bit predictable. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be welcomed: the four highlighted points - better management information, greater transparency, more involvement of SMEs, agile working - are all good. But if we haven't heard it [...] read on »
WordPress-based hosting solution in final stages of Cabinet Office cost-saving contest
It's great to see some positive coverage of the Cabinet Office's Innovation Launchpad process at the Telegraph today; and with it, a very positive writeup for a company we've been building a partnership with. CatN first came to my attention when their commercial director, Joe Gardiner blogged last year about how the Department for Transport could [...] read on »
Public services white paper promises GDS ‘app store’
With all the tabloid shenanigans going on yesterday, you'd be forgiven for missing the publication of the new White Paper on Open Public Services - launched complete with a WordPress-based consultation site, developed by Harry Metcalfe's DXW, with rather cheeky advertising in the source code. It's worth noting a couple of references to the Government [...] read on »
Downing Street redesigned
Very quietly last week, Downing Street launched a new design for number10.gov.uk - but to my own great relief, and (happily!) contrary to my prediction of last December, it remains very much on WordPress. Visually, I personally think it's a great improvement, with bold use of the iconic 10, now complemented by the lion door-knocker. [...] read on »
Puffbox develops new web platform for the Co-operative Party
It takes a special kind of political anorak to even know that the Co-operative Party exists; but they're actually the fourth largest political party in Westminster. Puffbox has been working with them to rebuild their web presence in WordPress - and with custom post types and taxonomies in a multisite configuration, it's turned into the most intricate build I've ever done. read on »
The many uses of a Polaroid Pogo printer
I'm amazed quite how much use I'm getting out of the Polaroid Pogo printer I bought out of sheer curiosity on a rainy afternoon a few months ago. Roughly the size of your hand, from wrist to fingertips, it prints photo stickers about the size of a business card. All done via Bluetooth, so there's [...] read on »
Open source advocate’s Cabinet Office role
Liam Maxwell is head of ICT at Eton College, and a Conservative councillor in Windsor & Maidenhead. He co-wrote a 2008 paper for the Tories on 'Open Source, Open Standards: Reforming IT procurement in Government', plus the 2010 paper 'Better for Less' for the Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age, in which he declares: British Government [...] read on »
£874,000 on a website that couldn’t be rescued?
From the Telegraph: Britain’s human rights quango spent £874,000 on a new website that was scrapped and replaced less than two years later after suffering “grave technical difficulties”, it has been revealed. After 18 months of 'repeated crashes and other failures [which] meant it “could not be restored or used further”', the story continues, they [...] read on »