Sociologists use the term framing to describe the way in which your prior experiences – cultural and personal – give context to way in which you approach a problem or issue. Its a central aspect of how the public sphere operates and critical to our decision making process – both formal and informal. As a …
I was talking the other day about potential visions for future public services. I was asked what mine was and I didn’t give one. Instead I talked about culture and method and behaviours because how we go about shaping the future is critical, how we work will determine what is within reach. I have passionate …
The political landscape has still not got its act together – and I am too impatient to wait for it to change. As the post-industrial society unravels and something new emerges we need to focus on equipping people to participate in what comes next. Our tools to shape these changes are limited so we need to hone …
The image is of the democracy stack – you can have a read about this here Nothing I have seen in the last week or so has made me any less of the belief that the slow death of the current political party machinery is bringing our democracy down with it. Have we not yet run …
I voted remain for two reasons; one is that I believe that we are better off as part of a bigger more connected Europe, two I cannot abide and will not stand for the racist and bigoted tone that parts of the leave campaign reached. Clearly not everyone agrees with me. A referendum was always …
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 …
We’ve been working on the networked councillor programme for a while now and so its really exciting to see the first two groups up and running in Suffolk and West Sussex (two more to follow in Cambridgeshire and Solihull as well). I have said all along that I expect to learn as much from these …
So, this post is a run through of what we plan to do to test the mapping process which evolved from the mapping event I blogged about here. We are going to test a paper based process with the intention of turning this into an online data collection tool. We will try two different things …
This is my write up from the mapping session we held in Leeds in December. This is the first post in a new research project but it connects to earlier work on the networks of networks concept and also the creation of digital civic space. Its part of the NHS Citizen project which you can read about …
So – if you follow me on twitter you will probably know I spent an intense but brilliant day in Leeds on Tuesday meeting all kinds of fascinating people. This post is an attempt to capture my initial reflections – I know that lots more will come of it as I mull over the many …