• Mumbai attacks: Terrorists monitored coverage on UK websites using BlackBerry phones, bombay india - Telegraph
  "Welcome to the age of celebrity terrorism." Terrorists watched for government and media reaction and tracked commando movements using Blackberrys (via Zach Tumin)
  (tags: terrorism india blackberry news media journalism)
• Building Democracy: Announcing this year's Innovation Fund projects
  Having failed to get funding for a Local Innovation Camp through this process, its tough to comment on the winning projects without it sounding like sour grapes. So I won't. Or maybe I just have? Hmmm…
  (tags: democracy competition government opengovernment)
• NESTA Connect: Innovation by enforcing deadlines and experimentation
  Sounds very familiar. Totally agree with Eric Schmidt (and Roland!) on this one.
  (tags: leadership business management)
• PNC Lures Gen Y With Its 'Virtual Wallet' Account - BusinessWeek
  "What the bank's popular Web-based offering lacks in terms of generosity, it makes up for in user-friendliness" (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: finance business banks internet geny)
• HOW TO: Convert Your Blog Into a Podcast on iTunes for Free
  Oooh (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: podcast tools howto blogs wordpress)
• YouTube - Paul Miller - Institutions & Public Trust
  Really insightful piece to camera from Paul Miller on the future of the state and the role of social innovation in challenging long lasting (failing) models of service deliver. Part of IvoIvo's (that's his delicious name!) film "Us Now"
  (tags: film youtube paulmiller schoolofeverything demos)

• Twitter Elite In London
  Meaningless but interesting to see a bit of a who's who of twits in London
  (tags: london twitter statistics)

• IDeA Resources and guidance | CAA Trial Sites Evaluation - final report
  (tags: idea localauthority caa inspection)
• The Future of the Web
  Interesting interesting stuff (if a little meaningless in terms of the when and how but am sure the principles are sound!)
  (tags: future internet)
• TalkFreely : Managing Feedback and Driving Innovation
  "TalkFreely provides an on-demand solution for driving and sustaining feedback and innovation. Through the use of social networking techniques, it ensures that organisations are able to engage with both employees and customers." Sounds very interesting although their website is pants and totally locked down (no I don't want to give you my details to see your presentation…
  (tags: innovation feedback organisations government)
• Community Information Network
  "MCIN is a not for profit social enterprise and charity that increases social inclusion through the use of ICT. We provide technical support to the third sector through our ICT Services." (via Paul Carruthers)
  (tags: organisations it manchester community charity thirdsector)
• The economics of comments | Window on the Media
  "The value lies in the conversation how content providers are just organizing their readers’ discussion. True. So true. But you cannot but notice that sometimes, comments are nothing more than noise. Take YouTube… My point is simply that a larger audience automatically leads to a conversation of lesser value, relative to the number of participants." (via Robin Hamman)
  (tags: content ugc networks conversation community)
• Scamp: First Presentation of Atheist Ads
  Genius
  (tags: religion atheist advertising)
• Lift International : Home of Brian Mayne's Goal Mapping
  via Emma Wallace
  (tags: personaldevelopment training coaching organisations)
• Faster Future: Publishing possibilities now and beyond: Connecting the dots. Creating change
  Thoughts for when delivering organisational change.
  (tags: marketing organisations changemanagement)
• Social Entrepreneurs Turn Business Sense to Good - BusinessWeek
  "As charitable giving dries up, new kinds of leaders are taking on the world's problems, using the for-profit world as a model" Here here! (via Alberto Nardelli)
  (tags: socialenterprise entrepreneur charity)
• Healey unveils council cash funding
  Interesting move all things considered. Good move for vote grabbing mind.
  (tags: localauthority johnhealy finance government recession)
• OpenStreetMap grows, spawns ecosystem | TechCrunchUK
  "Another demonstration of the awesome power of a motivated online mob". When TechCrunch gets interested in this sort of stuff we must be heading for recession…
  (tags: recession maps opensource openrights)
• The Future 100 Young Entrepreneurs | thinkpublic
  Congrats Deboarh - her work as ThinkPublic a firm fave of FutureGov and Enabled by Design.
  (tags: thinkpublic socialenterprise entrepreneur business competition)
• mind the gap - technology and policy | NTO UK - Jerry Fishenden's technology policy blog
  Some sound analysis and ways forward, although still very much thinking within the box. VRM anyone?
  (tags: vrm technology policy microsoft informationmanagement government privacy)
• Information Commisioner's Office - Privacy by design
  All sound enough principles but all feels a little arse about face
  (tags: informationmanagement government privacy)
• Multicolr Search Lab - Idée Inc.
  Pick 10 colours and source your photos.
  (tags: flickr photos search)

• Shared Service Sorcery « Business Analysed
  "The concept of Shared Services has been on the Local Government agenda for some time as a way to combine resources and save money." (via Paul Jennings)
  (tags: sharedservices localauthority business enterprise2.0)

• American youth trail in Internet use: survey (Reuters) by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech
  "Fewer young Americans have Internet access than their peers in the Czech Republic, Canada, Macao and Britain, a survey of 13 countries around the world showed." Blimey (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: geny youth internet digitaldivide)
• Why Big Companies Are So Scared of Social Media - Advertising Age - DigitalNext
  "Sure there are success stories among the big companies that have dipped their toes in the social-media water. But the vast majority of giant companies are still absolutely terrified of social media. Given that even corn flakes are part of social media these days, that's a lot of fear." (via the one the only Derek Baird)
  (tags: digital social media enterprise2.0 business advertising)
• MostPublic Index: UK
  All a bit daft (via Euan)
  (tags: uk statistics blogs)
• Intellect: The industry view - a blog from computing.co.uk
  "The digital divide, the term commonly used to refer to the gap between those people with access to digital and information technology, and those without, is a complex and divisive topic." Yes very true. No pun intended I assume.
  (tags: digitaldivide digitalmentors clg government socialinclusion)
• Role of social media in local government - project report | Simon Wakeman - Marketing and public relations
  "A message from Carl Haggerty reminds me that I’ve forgotten to publish my CIPR dissertation that I completed earlier this year. The dissertation looked at the role of social media in local government in the UK - it included primary research into current social media practices as well as considering the roles that social media could play in the future."
  (tags: localauthority research academia)
• BBC - Ouch! Disability Magazine - Weblog - South Park shortlisted in disability awards
  "A disabled character from the controversial cartoon series South Park has made it onto the shortlist of the 2008 RADAR People of the Year Awards."
  (tags: enabledbydesign disability)
• Venn That Tune
  "Bringing the poetry of maths to the magic of pop!" (via Renataborg)
  (tags: music venndiagram pop maths)
• Policy Connect | Associate Parliamentary Group for Design & Innovation
  "The Associate Parliamentary Group for Design & Innovation (APGDI) is the leading advocate for design in parliament. Working closely alongside MPs, peers and representatives from the design sector, the APGDI promotes understanding in parliament of the benefits of effective design. In essence, we promote knowledge exchange between parliament and the British design industry who are amongst the world's leading creative problem solvers."
  (tags: parliament design group innovation policy government uk)
• APHG - Associate Parliamentary Health Group
  "The Associate Parliamentary Health Group (APHG) is an all-party parliamentary subject group dedicated to disseminating knowledge, generating debate and facilitating engagement with health issues amongst Members of Parliament. APHG comprises members of all political parties, provides information with balance and impartiality, focuses on local as well as national matters, and is recognised as one of the preferred sources of information on health in Parliament."
  (tags: healthcare health parliament policy government)

• D-Rev - Design for the other 90%
  "By viewing the poor as customers (not recipients), and focusing on serving this market with affordable products that enable the poor to earn their way out of poverty, we can make substantial inroads in the mission to eliminate poverty and all its attendant social ills…. D-Rev Solutions are focused on … the design of highly affordable products that enable poor customers very quick (2-12 months) return on investment, thus catalyzing immediate income generation for their families." (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: design poverty social)
• Why the Four C's of Community Require the Commitment of Many - Advertising Age - DigitalNext
  "Let Content, Context, Connectivity and Continuity Guide Your Efforts" (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: community content context marketing)
• Lessig interview on US TV
  Lessig bigs up Obama big time (via Ivoivo)
  (tags: video politics us barakobama)
• The Digital Youth Project: Kids and New Media (and Everything in Between) | PSFK - Trends, Ideas & Inspiration
  "'Time-wasting' social stuff kids do online are key to their explorations and education online." (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: education internet youth digital research)

• IndustrialDesignServed
  "Fresh work from leading creative professionals" (via Alberto Nardelli)
  (tags: design products community creativity architecture enabledbydesign industrialdesign)
• Community Content Creation « Business Analysed
  Reporting on work in Barnet
  (tags: barnetcouncil localauthority business enterprise2.0)

So a bit of a first for me coming to a conference semi-officially to blog it rather than participate and tweet as a form of stress relief. Although that has meant spending all day in a suit AND a tie to try and fit in with the local government crowd, something I’m less and less comfortable with but does mean I fly under the radar quite nicely with so few in the sector on Twitter!

• Complaints Choirs of the World : Home
  Started in Birmingham the choir sings customer complaints at councils
  (tags: localauthority choir customerservice complaints)
• The disturbing inaccuracy behind Google Analytics - iMediaConnection.com
  "It is critical to know how any web metrics package calculates its numbers, even Google. You cannot assume, no matter how big the company, that the numbers will be correct." (via Whatleydude)
  (tags: analytics measurement statistics internet google research marketing)
• Akoha ~ Come Play It Forward
  "Akoha is the world’s first social reality game where you can earn points by playing real-world missions with your friends. Missions might include giving someone your favorite book, inviting a friend for drinks, or buying a friend some chocolate." (via Gapingvoid)
  (tags: games friends social media fun collaboration)
• Don Tapscott on the war for talent
  Pimping his new book "Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World" published this week in the UK (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: books management geny education culture collaboration)
• How-To: Using Social Media Strategically (Pt I) - MarketingVOX
  "This how-to was syndicated from a four-part series on social media created by Leigh Householder." (via Derek Baird)
  (tags: marketing social media howto)
• Bio Mapping - Christian Nold
  Very very interesting…
  (tags: biomapping accesscity sicamp2 visualization maps mashup academia)
• Flashbulb Interaction | Working through Screens Book
  Mind blowing stuff (via Derek Baird)

  "Working through Screens is a reference for product teams creating new or iteratively improved applications for thinking work. Written for use during early, formative conversations, it provides teams with a broad range of considerations for setting the overall direction and priorities for their onscreen tools. With hundreds of envisioning questions and fictional examples from clinical research, financial trading, and architecture, this volume can help definers and designers to explore innovative new directions for their products."

  (tags: visualization userexperience design)
• Social Innovation Camp » Social Innovation Camp April 08 winner Enabled by Design becomes a social start up
  The place where it all began blogs us : )
  (tags: enabledbydesign sicamp08 blog fundraising)

I know what you’re thinking - “he just can’t stay away can he?”. Well you’d be right! Having had such fun at the first Social Innovation Camp and since then working with pal Denise on her vision for Enabled by Design, I couldn’t resist putting in a couple of ideas in for Camp 2. So obviously I’m rather excited (if a little sheepish) to say that one of the ideas, AccessCity, has been chosen as one of the six ideas that will be worked on over the weekend of 5-7 December by myself and (hopefully!) a gang of socially minded geeky types.