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.”