"Whether or not Simplicity Computing succeeds will be a big test of two things - the appetite of older people to get online and the attractiveness of open source software as a means of dealing with digital exclusion."
- Dave Briggs
"Tom's Planner, allows you to create and share Gantt Charts online with "drag and drop" sim- plicity. It has great ease of use and gives control back to the project manager."
- Dave Briggs
"When completed, this extension of the Postini security and management capabilities could go a long way toward calming concerns from CIOs and IT managers about using Web-hosted software like Google Apps." - a potentially important move for use of Google Apps in government? Via @monkchips
- Dave Briggs
"Today, the Department of Internal Afairs launched data.govt.nz, a beta site where government agencies can register their non-personal data sets for use by members of the public and organizations."
- Dave Briggs
"John Allsopp from Web Directions was an organiser of GovHack, an event sponsored by the Taskforce. It was held on the 30th and 31st of October 2009 to encourage greater use and availability of government data in support of the MashupAustralia contest."
- Dave Briggs
"Local Bloggers are beginning to produce a few good examples of effective scrutiny of Local Councils. In this piece David Keen, who is a Vicar in Yeovil and writes regularly for my Wardman Wire political site, gives an account of a local controversy in the Somerset town of Somerton, which has lead to a number of resignations from the Town Council."
- Dave Briggs
"Government’s Citizenship Survey results published today reflect some familiar trends but there are also some surprising findings that support new thinking on empowerment, active citizenship and community cohesion."
- Dave Briggs
"When the lovely Baroness Kinnock, newly appointed Minister for Africa and steadfast supporter of lifelong learning, is the keynote speaker at your launch party in a new overseas territory you know you must be doing something right."
- Dave Briggs
"Swindon are working with the Leadership Centre for local government and FutureGov to explore ways of using new methods of on and offline engagement to help councillors engage with local communities in new and interesting ways as part of the 21st Century Councillors programme."
- Dave Briggs
"I’m very pleased to have brokered transitional arrangements with Cambridgeshire County Council to ensure that Nomad can continue. Under new arrangements I will assume the national lead for Nomad and I’m working on proposals to develop a revised and rejuvenated programme, supporting regional groupings including Nomad Scotland."
- Dave Briggs
"Prominent voices in the hyperlocal debate gathered at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport today to talk about the changing landscape of news and media and, if anything, what the government should do."
- Dave Briggs
"I like Shared Services, my first response to any business need is to look around for a service which can provide it, only if all else fails do I develop it myself...So why do I too often groan when someone suggests a new “Shared Service” offering to me?"
- Dave Briggs
"Personal communities and word of mouth. Nothing is different from business as usual then, other than the internet, and the scale it brings for community building."
- Dave Briggs
"A Melbourn benefit fraudster was caught out after council investigators checked her social networking site profile as part of their investigations."
- Dave Briggs
"One of the things I’ve had on my ToDo list for OpenlyLocal for a while was providing a a list of links to online services provided by each Local Authority."
- Dave Briggs
Great work by @abeeken to make Council data available via a shared folder in Google Docs. A great example of using tech that already exists and works!
- Dave Briggs
"While gov20, transparency and campaigning are all beginning to revolutionise the relationship between government and its citizens in profound ways, the fantastic work of organisations such as the Sunlight Foundation and MySociety is very much focused on improving the status quo, a much maligned and mistrusted status quo."
- Dave Briggs
"Are you interested in ePetitions? Perhaps you run electronic petitioning tools for a local council, or are involved in analysing the results? Do you build tools for governments to use to help citizens petition it more effectively? Or maybe you’re a keen hacker who wants to see these tools built in transparent and effective ways?"
- Dave Briggs
"A Bill requiring councils in England and Wales to provide local residents with a facility to lodge electronic petitions, and to respond to such petitions, is set to be passed into law after moving to what is likely to become its final Parliamentary stage last week."
- Dave Briggs
"The council aims to develop a much deeper and more nuanced understanding not only through conventional methods of public engagement such as a citizens’ panel and customer forums, but through ethnographic research into the day to day lives of its most needy citizens. "
- Dave Briggs
"Established by Kent County Council, the Kent Savers service will provide an alternative to unscrupulous loan sharks and lenders who take advantage of desperate residents by charging exorbitant interest rates."
- Dave Briggs
"To make menus and links simpler you have to think like a customer. You also have to reduce the number of links and focus on the task at hand."
- Dave Briggs
"We’re developing an open platform to support organisations delivering social impacts to collect, visualise and reflect on evidence of their work and the outcomes it is achieving."
- Dave Briggs
"Microsoft, a hitherto-successful computer company based in Redmond, near Seattle, has been labouring for two years to recover from a disaster called Vista, which was Version 6 of its celebrated Windows operating system."
- Dave Briggs