Tag: Local Government

Stuff I've seen April 22nd through April 23rd

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

  • OpenGov: One big challenge? Or a thousand small hurdles : Tim’s Blog – “The big challenges are not about technology – they are about the content and the process of mobilisation and communication. When it comes to technology we’ve not got one big challenge we’ve got 100s of small challenges – and we’ve got no systematic way of dealing with them.”
  • Sutton Green Map – “This is the Sutton Green Map, designed for pedestrians and cyclists with lots of overlay information to help you make the most of the Borough.” Brilliant use of open source mapping and data scraping.
  • Echoes From The Edge | Friction arts – Exhibition starts April 23rd 2009: Echoes From The Edge is a unique living history contemporary art exhibition, housed in a converted factory in Digbeth, Birmingham. Over the past eighteen months, Friction Arts have been collaborating with US artist, Shannon Flattery, to create an interactive exhibition reflecting the voices, thoughts and histories of the residents and workers of Digbeth, Deritend and Highgate as the area undergoes it’s most significant changes for forty years.
  • Stumbling and Mumbling: Waste & decentralization – “cutting waste and empowering public sector workers are not substitutes. They go together.”
  • Home of the Community Broadband Network – “There is an increasingly important role for community broadband projects even after traditional operators have provided vanilla services into an area. Many member projects give something back to their local community, and are constantly innovating and evolving their service to the needs of their community.”

Stuff I've seen April 18th through April 21st

These are my links for April 18th through April 21st:

  • Better ways to share information digitally « Observations – The Observatory’s Population & Society Group is planning a seminar in the summer to investigate and discuss how research organisations in the West Midlands can get better at sharing information digitally. Do you have any thoughts on this?
  • Google News Timeline – Google News Timeline supports lots of different types of queries that you can add by clicking on a checkbox below.
  • Birmingham City Council Press Releases – An independent site that purely exists to allow a space for commenting on Birmingham City Council Press Releases.
  • World Bank API – Welcome to the World Bank Developer Network! – The World Bank's first API offers 114 indicators from key data sources and 12,000 development photos (see all sources). We are releasing this API because we believe this information can be mapped, visualized and mashed up in an unlimited number of ways that will help develop a better understanding of trends and patterns around key development issues.
  • The Conservative Party | News | The Blue Blog | Making Government data work for you – "MySociety are campaigning for Parliamentary bills to be published in an internet-friendly format, so the public could be kept up-to-date with their progress through Parliament. Thankfully, David Cameron agrees – it’s a great idea, and one that could lead to a UK version of OpenCongress (or, better still, our version of YourOwnDemocracy – an ambitious US project still in its early stages) becoming reality."

Stuff I've seen April 15th through April 17th

These are my links for April 15th through April 17th:

  • G20 Police Witnesses IDed: ‘D5′ – City of London Police dog handler A712 – ID'ing G20 police officers
  • YouTube – How copyright extension in sound recordings actually works – How copyright extension in sound recordings actually works.
  • Better ways to share information digitally: West Midlands Regional Observatory. – The Observatory’s Population & Society Group is planning a seminar in the summer to investigate and discuss how research organisations in the West Midlands can get better at sharing information digitally. Do you have any thoughts on this?
  • The Social Innovation Camp comes to Scotland. – Over one weekend from 19th-21st June 2009, we’re bringing together some of the best of the UK’s software developers and designers with those at the sharp end of social problems at the Saltire Centre, Glasgow.

    Their mission will be to turn six back-of-the-envelope ideas that could change the world into social start-ups in under 48 hours – complete with working software.

    You’ve got until Friday 22nd May 2009 to send us your idea that uses the web to create social change and you could be joining 100 other participants to try and make it a reality.

  • Local Authority Mapping Collective | Bringing together mapped data across the UK – The Local Authority Mapping Collective aims to get officers from local authorities in the UK collaborating with one another using Google My Maps. It is hoped that this will allow for large sets of mapped data to be made publically available without the need for bespoke software development. This data could then be used on local authority websites, as well as being made downloadable to use in any number of projects.

    We would also like to encourage members of the public to get involved; if your council is not submitting their data to any of our maps, let them know about this project. The more local authorities we can get on board, the larger the data sets we can make available.

Things I've spotted – April 12th.

Here are some o the things I’ve been reading April 12th from 11:23 to 18:18:

  • Thriving too: Building a Biker Community – “Contrail is a tool for developing bicycle communities. As you ride, contrail leaves a faint chalk line behind your bike. The goal is to encourage a new cycle of biking participation by allowing the biking community to leave a unique mark on the road and to reclaim this crucial shared space.”
  • Can the Statusphere Save Journalism? – “Think about it. Of the hundreds, thousands, of newspapers around the country, there are really only a few that matter. Good journalism and journalists, on the other hand, are worth saving.”
  • LGA defends council-run newspapers | Media | guardian.co.uk – The media is getting desparate: “The Local Government Association has hit back at press industry claims that council-run newspapers and magazines damage local newspapers, saying they are not “rivals or alternatives”.”