Podnosh

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading February 23rd from 16:39 to 23:38:

• Open Government Ideas Look All the Same: Are You Surprised? –
• Nodalities » Blog Archive » Richard Stirling Talks about data.gov.uk –
• When using open source makes you an enemy of the state | Technology | guardian.co.uk – "It turns out that the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an umbrella group for organisations including the MPAA and RIAA, has requested with the US Trade Representative to consider countries like Indonesia, Brazil and India for its "Special 301 watchlist" because they use open source software."
• digital economy bill – massive lobby remains | Tom Watson MP – "If you counted the number of people who are working full time to bounce this Bill through the Commons on behalf of big publishing interests I bet it would run into three figures. Those that want to protect the Internet connections of the nation’s youth? Probably one or two."
• Are newspapers selling linkspam? (Again?) | Online Journalism Blog – "Clever as this idea may sound, the newspapers may want to research what happened when other publications tried the same approach. The Irish Independent, the Economist and The Times are among publications whose PageRank has been penalised by Google."
• RAWM and Charity Builder UK – "RAWM has joined forces with Charity Builder UK to offer a £300 a year web service free of charge to RAWM members.
  Charity Builder UK (CBUK) is a new online service which has the potential to transform administrative tasks in your organization. Designed for charities and community groups, it provides advice on lots of important topics such as human resources, health and safety, volunteering and governance."

These are my links for February 20th through February 23rd:

• Socitm and LGA prepare open data guidance | Kable – The Society for IT Management and the Local Government Association are preparing advice to help councils make more of their data publicly available
• Pulling down and building up: Citizen Ethics Network « Nick Baines’s Blog – "When I read it I felt genuine hope for the first time in a long time that it might be possible to change the way we talk about ethics, public policy and those who engage in the public discourse."
• Citizen Ethics Network – There is a widespread concern that the winner takes all mentality of the
  banker, and the corrupted values of the politician, have replaced a common
  sense ethics of fairness and integrity. Many worry that an emphasis on a
  shallow individualism has damaged personal relationships and weakened
  important social bonds."
• Iceland mulling plan to become ‘haven’ for journalism – The China Post – "Hoping to make Iceland a global home for freedom of speech, lawmakers are asking the government this week to implement a journalist's dream package of legislation — promising a safe haven for reporters who want to dig deep, hit hard, and avoid being sued. "
• MASHe » Blog Archive » Twitter powered subtitles for BBC iPlayer – "Whilst in the general populous there is still uncertainty over the benefits of sites like twitter broadcasters are already exploring how this technology can be used. A case in point in the BBC/Open University The Virtual Revolution series which is exploring how 20 years of the web has shaped our lives. Its not surprising that a programme of this ilk is exploring how technology can be used to support the broadcast (including allowing viewers to mash-up and reuse clips from the series), it is also the first programme that I’ve seen broadcast a hashtag within its opening credits. The hashtag is a community driven invention which allows comments and content to be tracked across the web including in comments made as tweets."

These are my links for January 16th through January 22nd:

• Puffbox.com » Archive » Creative Commons coming to data.gov.uk – "There's something almost unnerving about the launch of a government website getting so much positive coverage. But today's been data.gov.uk's big day, and everyone seems to agree it's a jolly good thing. For now.
  James Crabtree's piece for Prospect magazine hails it as 'a tale of star power, serendipity, vision, persistence and an almost unprecedented convergence of all levels of government'. The New Statesman says it's 'a far more radical project than it first appears… a clear break with the closed, data-hugging state of the past.' We're all getting quite excitable, aren't we?"
• Unlocking innovation | data.gov.uk – Advised by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt and others, government are opening up data for reuse. This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data and is under constant development. We want to work with you to make it better.
• News Corp is foolish to block linking | Media | The Guardian – "Linking is a right. The link enables fair comment. It powers the link economy that will sustain media. It is a tool for accountability. It is the keystone to free speech online."
• The Through the Viewfinder photography of Pete Ashton – My mate Pete keeps on forging new ways to make money from networks, trust and creativity: "As part of my plan to make lots of money from my photographs I’m encouraging you to download high resolution versions of my TTV photos to make cool things with them and I don’t mind if you pay me or not."

  There’s a new section in my shop: Roll your own. That explains how I expect this to work so go read it before reading on.

• African Social Media Surgery launch | Technology for Community Empowerment – I am almost impossibly excited by this first social media surgery in Africa: "The Social Media Surgery will be managed by Craig Ross and the rest of the RLabs Superstars. What excites me about this initiative is that the management and our surgeons will be men and women who use to disempower their community through drugs and violence, who are now giving back and empowering citizens through Social Media."

These are my links for December 6th through December 13th:

• When 1000s of Spaniards Rallied in Defence of Online Rights (I): A Chronicle | Personal Democracy Forum – Well worth a read: “An online fire is burning in Europe. It was set by what appears to be a designed campaign to transform the European intellectual property regime, towards a more restrictive set of rules directly affecting the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and information. We’re seeing its implementation in Sweden, France, Italy, UK or at the EU level in Brussels.”
• The Ernest Marples Blog › The blog for Ernest Marples’ Postcodes – There have been some pretty exciting announcements during the last few weeks. Alongside those, we’ve also met with the Royal Mail to have a talk about finding a way forward.A couple of weeks ago, we had a great meeting with the Royal Mail. They explained in some detail the background to these datasets: how they’re maintained, where the data comes from and where money changes hands. It’s all a bit complicated!
• Lee Bryant on leadership – I keep returning to this post by Headshift’s Lee Bryant, on leadership in the networked society. It’s big, meaty and good.My starting point was the myth that leadership is somehow less important in new, networked organisations. Not so. If anything, it is more important than ever, but the focus and practice of leadership is changing; and if we are to engage leaders and involve them in the development of social business structures, then we need to be able to understand and address their challenges and issues using language that resonates with them.He provides some slides from a talk he recently gave on the topic, which give a nice overview – though I really do recommend you read – and re-read – the whole thing:
• http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digitalengagement/post/2009/12/07/Local-Government-Data.aspx – “The Government will encourage local government to release local public data and make it free for reuse, and establish an open-platform local data exchange. Professor Nigel Shadbolt from the University of Southampton has been asked to head up a panel of experts to oversee the release of local public data and ensure that data are linked effectively across local authorities, the Local Government Association, government departments and agencies.”
• Countdown to oneplace « Audit Commission blogs | Michael Newbury – If knowledge really is power then we’re truly putting an awful lot of power into the hands of the ordinary citizen. The person who uses and pays for public services. In times of extraordinary pressure on public finances this seems absolutely the right thing to be doing.

These are my links for November 4th through November 5th:

• The Big Debate – Ten more ideas – Birmingham Post – Business Blog – "Be ambitious and aim… low. It sounds mad, but I think some people were discussing the problem with large projects / initiatives having lots of money attached, largely that they're often then crippled / stifled by paperwork and a need to 'report' on outcomes. "
• Developers are great but… « Emma Mulqueeny – "when they do open it all up, please take time to look through what has been done, and see what clues you can find to making your own businesses better – in and outside of government."
• SI Web and New Media Strategy – Executive Summary and Moving Forward – "This Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy was created through a fast and transparent process that directly involved, and continues to involve, hundreds of stakeholders inside and outside the Institution. This strategy feeds into the Smithsonian’s comprehensive strategic plan."
• Secretary Clinton Announces Civil Society 2.0 Initiative to Build Capacity of Grassroots Organizations – In her remarks today to the Forum for the Future, Secretary Clinton announced Civil Society 2.0, which will help grassroots organizations around the world use digital technology to tell their stories, build their memberships and support bases, and connect to their community of peers around the world.
• Innovation Exchange » Innovation for Personalisation: A call for ideas (West Midlands) – “We need to work together with passion and commitment to help everyone lead fulfilling, independent lives. This is an important event for the JIP in helping us to find high-potential innovation projects that are making personalisation a reality”.
  Eric Robinson, Lead on Personalisation, ADASS and Corporate Director of Social Care and Health, Staffordshire County Council

  Personalisation depends upon our ability to innovate in social care – to develop new services, relationships and organisational approaches. Across the West Midlands, people in the public and third sectors are already using their passion and ingenuity to deliver personalisation. But no one person has all the answers and we can always do better.

These are my links for October 26th through October 31st:

• mySociety » Blog Archive » Harassment problem leads to FOI strangeness – Interesting story about how government departments are making quite subjective judgements about which information to release through FOI: "Today we have a strange story about a department that appears to think that it has a duty not to release information under FOI if it makes people angry."
• We Share Stuff – Accredited course in Social Media – A triumph for wesharestuff: "We’re really pleased to announce what we think is the first officially accredited course in understanding and using social media for those with no previous experience. We Share Stuff has developed the course and it’s now part of the OCN framework (WSS are an OCN Centre), as three units of 10 learning hours each."
• Data is what we want – but why? – Birmingham Post – Business Blog – Paul Bradshaw explains in simple terms: "The best analogy I can think of is polymers. When the technology behind polymers was developed in the last century, it created a whole new market – innovative producers could create new products, and cheaper ways of producing old products. Similar opportunities are available with the release of data – release postcodes for businesses to use cheaply or for free, and you have the opportunity for new businesses creating applications based on location. Release transport data and others can tell you which direction to head in for the next bus."
• Blog | Birmingham Conservation Trust – Really interesting film about The highline – a community campaign to save an old elevated railways line in New York as a green park. Fascinating ideas about how to galvanise community.
• Green shoots of recovery – Birmingham Post – Lifestyle Blog – Kate Copper: "The accidental empires of the 20th century weren't forged in workshops (not even facilitated ones), but in back bedrooms, unused garages and fusty university research labs. At the forefront of this revolution were pizza-fed, caffeine-fuelled nerdy boys who couldn't get a date. These brainy T-shirted lads did weird math, challenged their mates to do even weirder stuff — not in order to make money or lead a revolution, but simply to explore what it was that they could do."

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading October 24th from 21:53 to 22:40:

• FutureGov » Features » ePetitions data standards – get involved! – Andy Gibson is looking for local government to help him create a standard data set for e-petitions.
• Against Transparency | The New Republic – This, from Lawrence Lessig, is really worth reading: "This is not to say the data will not have an effect. It will. But the effect, I fear, is not one that anybody in the "naked transparency movement," or any other thoughtful citizen, would want."
• An encouraging week at the conferences – Digigov – David Pullinger of COI reflects on a couple of conferences: "It struck me that there are many talented expert e-communicators across government but hampered by the misperception that Web is IT."
• Living with rats: Trafigura, climate change and the power of reputation – Julian reminds us that Trafigura is about our willingness to use tools, not the tools themselves: "The real story, I think, is the power of citizens to change an organisation’s reputation. What matters isn’t the tool – Twitter, Facebook or even good old-fashioned newsprint – but people’s willingness to use it. What’s also interesting is people’s readiness, at a time when politicians’ esteem has hit a new nadir, to defend the rights of Parliament against corporate and legal bullying. There was a glimmer here of what Parliament should be: the champion of the citizen and the exposer of abuses."
• potlatch: the economic sociology of receipts – Will is really interesting on the growing trend to give a receipt with everything: "to normalise receipts in cafes or bars is to strive for the perfect, 'dis-embedded' clean exchange, of the liberal-economic imaginary. It depersonalises the interaction and substitutes data for memory. It declares the exchange over, with nothing more owed by either party. Frankly, this is futile, as exchanges always leak into society."
• New for 2010: Retooled | Antonio Gould – Antonio's latest job: "The project will work with ex-manufacturing employees from the West Midlands, skilling them up in social media and working together on a challenge which mixes old and new skills."
• Volkswagen to Rely Solely on IPhone App for GTI Launch | Advertising Age – Neville’s posterous – Volkswagen of America is launching the newest-generation GTI exclusively on an iPhone app, a cost-efficient approach the automaker said is a first for the industry. How cost efficient? When the marketer introduced the GTI in 2006, it spent $60 million on a big-budget blitz with lots of network TV. By comparison, an executive familiar with the matter estimates the annual budget for mobile AOR services is $500,000. And while an iPhone-only strategy may seem limiting, consider this: In September, Apple reported there are more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide. By comparison, CBS' "NCIS," the most-watched show for week ending Oct. 18, reached 21 million viewers and commands an average price of $130,000 for a single 30-second spot.

These are my links for August 22nd through August 23rd:

• http://libreapps.com/blogotics/ – Blog-o-tics is an innovative new service brought to you by a group of young, politically minded developers. The project was conceived as part of the “Young Rewired State” Hack Day, an attempt to use government data to create web applications. Blogotics uses information about the bills being passed through the UK parliament and analyses their standing in the blogosphere. Blogotics uses innovative code to analyse the positive or negative nature of blogs and subsequently show a certain blogs popularity.
• Killing Hope – You’re Just Making it Worse | Benjamin Ellis – “When will you learn?” “You’re just making things worse!”
• Cheo, 3Dom and Stokes Croft – An Apology! « Bristol graffiti – Bristol Council apologises fo getting something wrong!
• BBC – dot.life: The new tech start-up – US government – These include an app called StumbleSafely that uses crime data to help people get home safely after a night on the tiles and Carpool Mashup Matchmaker to help people find carpools.
• Blog What I Made » iFreeThePostcode – “iFreeThePostcode is an iPhone app to make submitting postcodes to freethepostcode.org really easy. You can download it from the iTunes app store or just search on the app store for “iFreeThePostcode”.”

These are my links for August 19th through August 22nd:

• Ernest Marples: the first month – Harry Metcalfe – “Scores of people have sent us messages of support. I’ve even been hugged.”
• Open Plaques – “Open Plaques is a service that aims to find and provide data about all the ‘plaques’ (often blue and round) that can be found across the UK.”
• Open Knowledge Foundation Blog » Blog Archive » Open Plaques: open data about UK heritage sites -
• Together we are LOUDER – Louder.org.uk will be the new online home for campaigners across England. The site combines a cutting-edge social networking platform, established multimedia toolkits and a hub for online advocacy resources
• Power in People’s Hands: Learning from the World’s Best Public Services – Bit late but thanks to Dave Harte: “This report presents the findings of a Strategy Unit study of leading edge innovations in world-wide public services, which involved interviewing 50 academics, public servants and other experts from around the world. The report highlights more than 30 case studies from 15 countries. It emphasises that innovation and productivity come from forging stronger relationships with citizens and finds the most successful services have five distinguishing characteristics:”
• Communitybuilders fund will open in September – Third Sector – “The Communitybuilders fund will provide loans and grants to help community-based organisations in England that boost interest in local democracy and improve community cohesion.”
• FutureGov » Features » Using web 2.0 to safeguard children: an invitation to a round table discussion – “we are looking to bring together multi-disciplinary group of senior managers and practitioners from childrens social services, teachers, police and health workers with social web technologist, public service designer, funders – or even just people who have a personal passion for this area – to help us design and run a small Safeguarding 2.0 pilot.”

These are my links for August 16th through to August 18th:

• Lancashire County Council – Homepage – “Welcome to our new website. To find what you are looking for, use the search box below. If you are interested in the featured campaign, follow the link in the right-hand box.”   Neat – I think I like it.
• Centro consultation on local rail routes – new stations for Kings Heath? – “We are now seeking your views on this draft. These will help shape the final document.” Not like this you’re not. There are better ways to do online consultation.
• Go forth and play! « Talk About Local (alpha) – Google and hyperlocal tools: “I don’t know who you are or what you want to do, but chances are a few of these powerful tools will help you do it really easily – and, of course, for free.”
• Young Rewired State « Emma Mulqueeny – Emma Mulqueeny is excited: “nearly 70 people aged between 15-18 years have registered (way more than we had dared hope for, and more signing up – even though we have closed the list)” and rightly so
• Illegal downloading – P2P – filesharing – UK government plans tough new laws | Tom Watson MP – Tom Watson writes a fine piece on the proposal to criminlise file shares in the UK. “It is clear that the big corporations are gearing up for an online struggle. Enforcement is central to their strategy. Expect to see hordes of bedsit bloggers and home alone music fans in the courts for copyright misdemeanours over the next few years.Just as the newspaper industry looks set to embark on a collective global impersonation of Ned Ludd, there is an irony that forward thinking players in the music market might be finding some solutions. We’re at a stage where attempts to bring all-you-can-eat digital services to music fans might just be about to pay off. Civil servants might better serve the nation if they were to establish what conditions drive these Internet success stories.”