So – here we have a quick 10 point post from UKHealthcamp on Saturday…as ever a HT @danslee for the format! New unconferences have a flavour and tone of their own as a new community starts to form – I can’t wait to see where this one goes The work on NHS.UK Alpha to date is …
If libraries are some of the best examples of civic space which we have then is your library card a potential route to democratic participation? I spent last Saturday with the Association of Senior Childrens and Educational librarians at their annual conference. I was speaking about libraries as digital civic spaces and I wanted to …
I have a long running sofa argument with my husband about the fact that he believes that at some point soon the googleplex (the Howe domestic shortcode for machine based decision making in the cloud) will take over the business of government and that messy old democracy will fall by the wayside. I disagree (hence …
I was at the Solace conference recently and one of the topics which came up repeatedly (along with finance and devolution) was “digital”. This post is a combination of my reflections on this and an attempt to move the discussion on a bit. I also think that there is something in the ether at the …
I’ve been a methodology geek for a while and I am now moving on from development methods to wider programme and change methodologies – fun for some of us I can assure you. This post is an anchor for some work I am doing in this area as I am thinking about the methods and …
I have been thinking a lot about innovation labs recently and this post is a collection of some of the examples which are in my mind as I ponder this. I’d be really grateful if you could add any other examples to the comments – I know I have not got a comprehensive list here. …
This post is by way of a warm up for LocalGovCamp – its to help me shape what I want to pitch. There is no guarantee I’ll actually pitch it of course but best to be prepared! Localgovcamp is, for me, a chance to work on ideas which are personal projects so this post is …
This post is the second half of my thoughts from the MadwData event in Sheffield recently (first half here where I talk about system change) in which I actually talk about open data! The point I am trying to make is that open data can never be seen as an end in its self so …
This post is really just a sketch of something I have been calling the democracy stack. The idea behind the democracy stack is a believe that representative democracy needs to be seen as just one part of a democratic system and that participatory and deliberative ‘layers’ are also needed. The diagram above is an attempt to …
I have had a really interesting couple of days the week before last at Labworks and then at the MADwData event in Sheffield – both excellent in different ways. I meant to blog last weekend but Life intervened in a very pleasant way so here is my belated contribution. But firstly – have you noticed that …