Written on October 20th, 2009 by Nick Booth
Erma Lewis
Six years ago Erma Lewis started the ‘Wheelchair recycling, we can do’ project which refurbishes old and disused wheelchairs for people on NHS waiting lists or for family events and one-offs. This project sprang out of an appeal she ran following storm damage on her one time home island of Jamaica.
As a former nurse, Erma had seen the problem of people being unable to leave hospital for want of a wheelchair. She began to think that if she was able to find and ship old wheelchairs to the Caribbean then perhaps she could also provide them locally. Now the idea is a registered charity and a team of volunteers repair wheelchairs at a workshop in Harborne.
This podcast was recorded just before the Local Hearts Awards in Birmingham in October 2009 – where she was shortlisted in the category of female active Citizen.
Click below to listen to the podcast
Click here to download the podcast
Written on June 18th, 2008 by Nick Booth
After the suspension of a civil servant for blogging Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson has finally got some guidelines up to help civil servants join the online conversation. They are based on the civil service code and a big conversation which was encouraged by Tom on his blog and evolved into Richard Allan’s task force on the Power of Information. I like the simplicity and clarity. For me the advance is number 3 “Be Responsive”. Encourage constructive criticism is good but is also going to exercise some civil service structures and perhaps liberate others:
1 Be credible: Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent.
2 Be consistent: Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation. Be cordial, honest and professional at all times.
3 Be responsive When you gain insight, share it where appropriate.
4 Be integrated: Wherever possible, align online participation with other offline communications.
5 Be a civil servant: Remember that you are an ambassador for your organisation. Wherever possible, disclose your position as a representative of your department or agency.
Other feedback from bits of the web:Brilliant in their simplicity.
It is good.
To be applauded.
Woo Hoo!.
This is a big step indeed.
Some sense of security for those already blogging.
Written on February 22nd, 2008 by Nick Booth
Patients in Cleveland Ohio will have their medical records held in their own Google accounts, according to Webware. This of course means they can be accessed anywhere by anyone the patient permits. Of course if public records are held in such a way then government (us) will need to find ways to guarantee access to the web – a little like our political fathers ensured clean water and effective sewer. There are concerns in principal about privacy – rightly so – but who claims that my medical records are currently private? Hat tip Idealgovernment.