Looking for something else, I have just stumbled across some notes I took from a book I was reading almost exactly ten years ago (and which had been published that year). Normally I try hard to give proper attribution to quotations, but this time it might be kinder not to: It seems clear that, unlikeRead… Read more »

If you don’t want to read the whole of this post, there are two simple actions to take: Go to the new Public Sector Blogs site, admire it briefly, then subscribe to updates by RSS or by email, according to your fancy Follow @PubSecBlogs on twitter which tirelessly tweets updates in real time. These eachRead… Read more »

Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web Google logic: why Google does the things it does the way it does | Technology | guardian.co.ukThis evolutionary approach, and the Agile design processes that support it, is built into the fibre and psyche of web companies. They don’t think in terms of long-term detailed plans;Read… Read more »

I like govcamp I like govcamp because I meet people I know I like govcamp because I meet people I don’t know I like govcamp because there are lots of people who were there the year before I like govcamp because there are lots of people who weren’t I like govcamp because there are sessionsRead… Read more »

I went to my local council’s customer service centre this morning. The service was broken, and it worked much better. That’s a slightly odd finding, with some interesting implications. I wrote about the same experience a couple of years ago, when everything was working as it was designed to, including the fiendishly clever automatic ticketingRead… Read more »

Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web In defence of bright ideas from people who have absolutely no idea how to implement them | The Source BlogI’m worried that there will come a day, ten years or so from now, when teams of brilliant implementers are sitting around itching to implement the livingRead… Read more »

Data is not a service. Service is not data. Knowledge is power, but it’s not always very much power. My default mode of transport in London is the bus. Having information about when the next bus is coming has been exciting and empowering, even if the shine has worn off a little bit. But I’mRead… Read more »

A stupid decision that works out well becomes a brilliant decision in hindsight. Daniel Kahneman, quoted by David McRaney Original post

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post reflecting on the intersection of law, code and architecture, prompted by Richard Heaton and John Sheridan speaking about the Goodlaw project. That was an unapologetically abstract post, so here’s a concrete bit of legislative detail which encapsulates some of the wider issues. And since John is speakingRead… Read more »

Things which caught my eye elsewhere on the web The Future Isn’t What It Used to Be — I.M.H.O. — Medium Technology isn’t so much about what’s possible as it is about what’s profitable. The primary reason we haven’t landed a human on Mars yet has less to do with the technical challenges of theRead… Read more »