If you get a moment, pop over to OpenlyLocal and have a look around, will you?
It’s a very good start – showing how all of the investment in data standards is beginning to find it’s own tipping point.
It is beginning to be possible for more of us to get really useful comparative data on local [...]
Posts under ‘The internet’
OpenlyLocal
Augmented reality and new localities
If you’re not following this one (do keep up!) the latest buzz among people with funny-shaped heads is Augmented Reality. This is where you use a technology application to tell you more about the locality you are in than your eyes can work out. There are, of course, opportunities for local authorities to ensure that more people [...]
Choosing who to talk to
Sandwell Councillor, Bob Piper, has a good post here about his recent trip to Bruges, raising questions about graffiti. It seems there may be a case for a high level of short-term investment to make the problem go away?
“One aspect of the City that distinguished it from so many places I have visited in the [...]
Usability, council websites and the obligation to promote democracy
It seems that The Electoral Commission have decided that it is a basic human right for us to have ballot papers that make sense to us. Usability – not just regulatory box-ticking is, it seems the key here (I posted on ballot design here a while ago)
Measuring usability may also be the key to ensuring [...]
The internet for councillors
Apologies for the light posting here lately – even bloggers go on holiday, y’know?
I’ve not collected my thoughts for any original posts yet, though the ‘Duty to Promote Democracy’ and the obligation to offer petitions will be on the statute book shortly providing plenty of new material in the coming weeks.
For now, Dave Briggs has [...]
Sorry to tell you that no-one wants to make friends with a council
I’ve been out and about again this week and speaking to Council’s about their social web strategies. Its interesting (to me at least!) to note a couple of the ideas which seem to have the greatest resonance as it would be good to know if these are themes which are emerging anywhere else:
Government should [...]
Transparency v Objectivity
As local newspapers retreat from providing anything like a good quality of news coverage, local authorities are wondering what their response should be.
On the one hand, there’s the model that Birmingham City Council have taken – providing a much more user-friendly information gateway that is designed to provide resources to citizen-journalists and bloggers.
Other options include [...]
To paste to your clipboard
Ross Ferguson’s blog with it’s bold new eye-catching design has a post with the sort of data that I suspect will form the basis of a good many plagarists’ powerpoint presentations over the coming months.
Here’s my standout stat:
“38% of professionals believe the internet makes them more productive (OxIS 2009)”
I don’t know how the rest of [...]
A blog about representative democracy, social media and a conversational politics. How will peer-to-peer communications change local democracy? How is representation changing? 
