Comments on: Is Tom Watson MP stealing or reading? The Tories think the former.

By: Whitehall 2.0 : Global Dashboard

Whitehall 2.0 : Global Dashboard — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:59:48 +0000

[...] (There’s also an amusing anecdote in it about him making a speech in which he observes of open source that “One, nobody owns it. Two, everybody uses it. And three, anyone can improve it.” – whereupon Two days later a political opponent sent out an email laying claim that in fact they are the ‘owners’ of these new ideas. I was accused of plundering policies from the Conservatives. [...]

By: 451 CAOS Theory » David Cameron: open source visionary or opportunist?

451 CAOS Theory » David Cameron: open source visionary or opportunist? — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:43:52 +0000

[...] – UPDATE Permalink | Email This Post | Technorati Links | Bookmark on del.icio.us | digg it Categories:Software [...]

By: Tom Watson MP » Blog Archive » Power of Information: New taskforce and speech

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:54:35 +0000

[...] Two days later a political opponent sent out an email laying claim that in fact they are the ‘owners’ of these new ideas. I was accused of plundering policies from the Conservatives. [...]

By: Nick Temple

Nick Temple — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:23:33 +0000

Nick, in reference to this comment http://podnosh.com/blog/2008/03/11/georgeosbourneandtomwatson/#comment-65054. That\'s a truly frightening thought. Although Cameron does seem keen on co-ops of late. All we need is Labour to become a CIC (asset lock and all).....

By: osimod

osimod — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:33:33 +0000

Nick I see what you mean, I wasn’t implying political support. I’m not THAT italian :smile:

By: Nick Booth

Nick Booth — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:19:39 +0000

I understand. That needs explaining. Under UK law a charity cannot be political – support any political party etc. mySociety exists to create practical open online tools to further democracy in the UK. To that end it is both natural and right that they should be talking to both the government and the opposition on how government needs to use the web well.

So maybe you’re a touch too Italian?

By: osimod

osimod — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:02:28 +0000

Hi Nick
what I meant is that I was surprised by the mysociety post which associated their “consultancy work” with the 2 speeches, making it look like they helped both speeches. Perhaps I am naive (or too Italian) but it’s surprising to see the same people giving consultancy to both parties… which is good of course as we largely follow the views of MySociety on these issues.

By: Nick Booth

Nick Booth — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:41:36 +0000

Thanks David for chucking in that link to the mySociety – which is, as ever, presented in the measured non-inflammatory tones of mysociety. We mentioned the Cameron speech here:

http://podnosh.com/blog/2008/03/01/cameronmysocietyconervativescraping/

not least in praise of a party leader bothering to care about open information in a public setting. Tom Steinberg popped up in the comments to make sure the record was straight.

By: Nick Booth

Nick Booth — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:35:50 +0000

Nick – it’s exactly like that. The questions is how to get minds focussed on solving social problems rather than scoring political points – perhaps we shuld sub contract both government and opposition to social enterprise?

By: osimod

osimod — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:31:47 +0000

Maybe a hint on the similarities comes from this post by Francis Irving :)
http://www.mysociety.org/2008/03/13/two-speeches/