• 2gether08
  "Here we go again - this years 2gether summer festival will be held over the 7th - 9th July 2009 at a central London venue - keep tabs on this site www.open2gether.com for updates and news…"
  (tags: social government events innovation 2gether09)
• How To Live In The 21st Century
  "Building on its Programme for Renewal, Compass is inviting policy proposals to be submitted and debated on this site and at meetings around the country. The proposals will then be voted on by the Compass membership - forming the policy priorities for the organisation to campaign on. The successful polices will sit alongside the narrative How to Live in the 21st Century."
  (tags: politics blog policy headshift crowdsourcing opengovernment compass)
• My top 2 2008 technologies | Andrew McAfee
  "Twitter and the other emergent social software platforms I’ve used in 2008 have moved me away from Wilde’s view of humanity and toward Mark Twain’s, who said "In all my travels the thing that has impressed me the most is the universal brotherhood of man, what there is of it." One of the things I’ve learned this year is that thanks to 2.0 technologies, there’s a good bit more of it than there was previously."
  (tags: twitter business books kindle ebook mcafee)
• News from the Herd: How focusing on individual authority and influence causes us to lose sight of the bigger picture
  "…serves as a warning for those of us in this space, that we should spend less time obsessing about whether this or that person has the greater ‘influence’ and ‘authority’, as otherwise we miss the real picture of what can be achieved if you drill down to a grass roots level."
  (tags: twitter social marketing networks influence)
• Openness with policies and software :: Blog :: Headshift
  "We [Headshift] were brought on board to help them [Compass] quickly and inexpensively get up and running with a site that would allow them to run the 'Ideas for the 21st Century Competition'. They wanted a site that would enable visitors to quickly and easily submit a proposal for policy"
  (tags: politics policy uk opensource opengovernment compass)

• Tories plan purge of town hall ‘fat cats’ - Times Online
  Not a particularly healthy conversation. Perhaps salaries have got a little out of control, but these are big jobs doing big things for communities. And an extension of the Brentwood model - paying £30k to Kent to share their chief exec, an already massive role in charge of a huge council - would be absolute madness (story via Tom Watson)
  (tags: government localauthority conservatives pay)
• ThoughtFarmer
  Intranet 2.0. Wikis, blogs, social networking (via Dave Briggs)
  (tags: tools wiki enterprise2.0 social software productivity intranet)
• Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot: Study Reveals Youth Attitudes on Alcohol
  Interesting take as ever from Derek on social marketing approaches to gen y
  (tags: youth advertising socialmarketing)
• Make the dragons say yes: Tips for securing business investment - 20 Aug 2008
  Handy
  (tags: enabledbydesign business finance startups investment)
• Things to do before you're 30 | enabled by design
  Self-indulgent of me to save an Enabled by Design post, but a really interesting one from @dizzel I thought.
  (tags: enabledbydesign events mobility assistivetechnology)
• Twitter Applications
  Lots and lots of ways of cutting twitter (most limited in some way by the api limit - would love the wheel tool to load more than 100 friends)
  (tags: twitter tools analytics)
• Front Seat - Software for Civic Life
  A conveyor belt of software for social good (via Alberto Nardelli)
  (tags: tools social software innovation socialaction)
• Get Your Walk Score - A Walkability Score For Any Address
  "We help you find a walkable place to live by calculating a Walk Score for any address." (via Alberto Nardelli)
  (tags: accessibility maps us local neighbourhoods walking accesscity)
• RSA - Richard Thaler
  On Nudge
  (tags: video rsa)
• Never Trust a Hippy: The confidence needed for collective action
  Interesting thoughts from Paul in response to recent posts on the role of the state and where exactly social entrepreneurialism fits in all this (a position I largely disagree with Paul on - yes the term has become hollowed out but not all is lost just yet and it remains the most vibrant and progressive force for good currently across public and private sectors)
  (tags: government socialenterprise business publicservices publicvalue)
• State Agencies Use Open Source to Cut Costs, Too - Open for Business
  "A few weeks ago, Tech News World suggested that unlike businesses, few state governments are adopting open source — economic downturn notwithstanding. Though that may be true for state governments overall, I have found since then that the same may not be true for state agencies." The fightback begins…
  (tags: government technology software opensource)
• TheDieline.com
  The #1 Package Design Website, World's Best Packaging
  (tags: enabledbydesign marketing design branding photos)
• Why Do Social Entrepreneurs Belong In Politics? « sep2012
  "Social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches and advance sustainable solutions that create social value."
  (tags: politics government socialenterprise entrepreneur)

• Interacting with Government - Department of Finance and Deregulation
  "Interacting with Government explores Australians’ use and satisfaction with e‑government services provided through the internet and telephone."
  (tags: government customers customerservice egov australia satisfaction)
• Accessible UK Train Timetables
  As it says. Great for AccessCity.
  (tags: tools accessibility maps uk travel transport information accesscity trains)
• UK government wants to regulate the Inter Tubes | Techcrunchuk
  The criticism continues.
  (tags: internet government uk regulation)
• It's About Every Single One Of Us ‎(Every Single One Of Us‎)
  "Every Single One Of Us is a communications movement with a vision to enable and enhance interaction between people and commerce. It is a collaborative venture created to safeguard user experience in the ultra-connected world. Global objectives include market research, seminars, consultancy, workshops, master-classes, and platform development. By promoting and authorizing best practice, Every Single One Of Us intends to provide a central access point for positive and progressive communication activities focussed on citizen engagement."
  (tags: platform communications community mobile music interactive advertising)
• BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Attention + Influence do not equal Authority
  "Reporters don’t have authority. They have attention and possibly influence because they have so many followers. But that doesn’t give them authority." Fascinating and prescient discussion given the increasingly deep and wide use of social media and related increased desire to seek out filters to grade relative importance given this increasing noise.
  (tags: twitter social media microblogging technology network search clayshirky rating authority jeffjarvis)
• “You’re Likable Enough, Gay People” « Feminist Philosophers
  Some minority groups are more equal than others in the new American order it seems…
  (tags: politics us barakobama homosexual feminism gender)
• Crowdsourcing policy « Local Democracy
  "The FT has picked up on a couple of social media sites that are intended to bring ‘the wisdom of crowds’ to bear upon the new President’s policymaking. Both Fix This Barack and Whitehouse 2 aim to set priorities for the incoming President." Sounds thoughts from Paul on the tension between participatory and representative democracy.
  (tags: democracy politics us barakobama participation engagement FT)
• Project management lingo | this is sippey.typepad.com
  Hilarious/scary (via Steve Portigal)
  (tags: business projectmanagement words jargon)
• SuzeMuse » How Small Towns Are Social Networks
  Top post on rediscovering the offline community networks (via Danny Brown)
  (tags: social media internet community offline)
• Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
  "The PICSTM specification enables labels (metadata) to be associated with Internet content. It was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing and privacy. The PICS platform is one on which other rating services and filtering software have been built." (via Steve Bowbrick)
  (tags: internet government policy uk privacy standards rating)
• C is fer… @ NixonMcInnes: Social media goodness. Translated. Created. Delivered.
  The social media alphabet moves onto C this week
  (tags: social media howto agency nixonmcinnes)
• Podnosh Blog » Archive » Why doesn’t government have reservists?
  "What is interesting though is how we habitually structure most government on an assumption of permanence. That means that when we need more government we struggle to find the capacity and when we need less we are clumsy at shrinking, often reluctant to scale it back, put the excess capacity to useful work elsewhere." Interesting thinking from Nick although all a bit too state centric still perhaps, coming from the point of view that there is some core and clearly defined notion of government that exists as a starting point to build on. If there is, I'm not convinced we understand what it looks like and how it best facilitates others to fulfill other key social duties.
• Nailed. at adoption curve dot net
  Strong words on the fate of New Labour.
  (tags: politics government uk newlabour)
• The demise of woolworths, globalisation and the rise of the connected consumer | Tom Watson MP
  "We are entering an era of profound and irreversible change to the way people choose to live their lives and organise the world around them. And there isn’t a politician on the planet who is going to stop this." Agree with a great deal although I would say I don't think change is one directional and inevitable. Watch for the globalisation/virtual lives backlash (online lives are already driving increased offline interaction)
  (tags: shop tomwatson globalisation)
• Brown has brought Britain to the brink of bankruptcy | David Cameron | Telegraph
  "Responsible business and responsible government: that is a rallying cry for 2009 and beyond"
  (tags: government conservatives CSR 2009predictions responsibility davidcameron)

It’s amazing what can happen when you bring a bunch of interesting people together in a room around a subject they are all personally and passionately committed to. Well that’s just what I tried a couple of Mondays ago with the generous support of Rohan Gunatillake and the people at NESTA Connect – and it certainly didn’t disappoint! The premise of the session was a chance meeting I’d had with Derek Wyatt MP back in October…

• Spending Public Money | Accenture | particpatory budgeting
  "Welcome to ‘Spending Public Money’, an online experience that lets you tell us about the choices government should make in providing public services" (via Lee Bryant)
  (tags: government localauthority participatorybudgeting finance accenture)
• Re-Localization Opportunities - Local 2.0 - ReadWriteWeb
  The web as a tool for reinvigorating the local in the age of the global. Not a total convert to the thesis but some interesting thinking nonetheless.
  (tags: social media internet community business local)
• Democracy 2.0: Seven Guidelines for Government Leaders | LGEO Research
  Seven guidelines for government leaders taken from Wikinomics - nice to be reminded for the year to come
  (tags: social media democracy politics internet government)
• 9. Tweet - Top 10 Buzzwords - TIME
  In a low class list its nice to see 'tweet' make the top 10 (via Renate Nyborg)
  (tags: twitter words buzzwords)

• FT.com / UK - Tories fail to connect on network sites
  "A £500,000 Conservative campaign to build an army of online supporters resulted in only one person signing up at one of the four websites targeted, Financial Times research has revealed." (via Tom Watson)
  (tags: social networking politics conservatives)
• Internet sites could be given 'cinema-style age ratings', Culture Secretary says - Telegraph
  "The Cabinet minister describes the internet as “quite a dangerous place” and says he wants internet-service providers (ISPs) to offer parents “child-safe” web services." Uh oh, this is bad. And totally mad (via Tom Watson)
  (tags: internet government policy dcms regulation)
• Andy Burnham and Internet site classification | Tom Watson MP
  Again - interesting/worrying/scary. Mostly scary. And how was Tom brought in on the loop on this given his knowledge and portfolio? Join up government please.
  (tags: internet government policy dcms regulation)
• Twitter / tom_watson: Internet sites to be age c …
  Interesting/worrying/scary. Mostly scary. And how was Tom brought in on the loop on this given his knowledge and portfolio? Join up government please.
  (tags: internet government policy dcms regulation)
• BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » It’s not just an era; it’s a new world order
  Big predictions on big changes. Mind I do think its a hell of a lot easier being a commentator watching this stuff from the side Sometimes. And it was hype and scaremongering that partly got us into this mess in the first place, so I wonder whether it is really going to get us out of it. Then again if people like Jeff scare the likes of the government into action, that can only be a good thing as big change is needed.
  (tags: internet google business economy guardian analysis change recession)
• Tweebay Offers A Rudimentary eBay For Twitter
  Pretty poor but a start
  (tags: twitter ebay)
• Soundscape » Blog » tomtaylor.co.uk
  Totally totally lovely. Enjoy
  (tags: headshift iphone soundscape eppingforest tomtaylor)

• Twitter Users Are Older and More Educated Than Facebook Users | Gauravonomics Blog
  "The top 1% of Twitter addicts contribute to 34% of Twitter’s traffic, compared to 11% of Facebook account for 62% of Facebook’s traffic." Happy to play my part
  (tags: facebook twitter research trends analysis)
• Crowd Science Demographics
  "Crowd Science Demographics is a new analytics service that gives online publishers detailed and reliable reports on the demographics and attitudes of their audience."
  (tags: tools websites demographics statistics measurement)
• The Brown bounce - how high can it go? | Matthew Taylor's blog
  "Who would have thought it? All to play for in 2009"
  (tags: blog rsa matthewtaylor)
• What use is Facebook for Online Political Strategy? | The Wardman Wire
  Interesting thoughts on the use of Facebook for political (or other) organising
  (tags: facebook politics activism groups)
• MediaFuturist: Nice quote as we head into 2009: interest of the masses may take over
  Thinking you might see this on a presentation or two of mine this year…
  (tags: presentations crowdsourcing quotes 2009predictions)
• Crayon Physics
  Wowzers
  (tags: enabledbydesign design software art drawing)

• 100 top sites for the year ahead | Technology | The Guardian
  "Our latest selection finds that location-based services, work-anywhere collaboration and video are prominent" (via Tony Molloy)
  (tags: tools research social media news websites review guardian 2009predictions)
• HACKNEY GAZETTE
  Hackney headlines (via Tom Taylor)
  (tags: newspaper hackney)
• steve clayton: geek in disguise : Gapingvoid Goes Fine Art
  Love Hugh's work and a particularly big fan of this positive message
  (tags: humour microsoft cartoon gapingvoid)
• Facebook Users Can Comment On This Blog Using Their Facebook Profile
  2009 - the year of Facebook Connect methinks.
  (tags: facebook friends comment facebookconnect)
• twitTangle | untangling the mess of too many friends
  "twitTangle is a free service that helps you untangle the mess of having to many friends on twitter. We allow you to rate and tag your friends and then filter your timeline to help you easily find the tweets that are most important to you!" Rate your Mate! Sheesh…
  (tags: twitter tools mashup groups rating)
• Islington Gazette - 'More work to be done' at 'adequate' care home
  "Inspectors have ordered improvements at a care home - for the second time this year."
  (tags: publicservices olderpeople sharehome)
• Islington Gazette - School’s 'marvellous piece of technology'
  "Sevim Mustafa experiences a taste of freedom - with the help of a £50,000 wheelchair system." at an Islington school. Now just to bring those prices down…
  (tags: enabledbydesign london wheelchairs islington assistivetechnology)
• SocialTech: Twitter allegiance
  "I invited 100 of my 1,276 current Twitter followers to fill in a quick survey cunningly designed to provide a fairly wonky measure of community allegiance." Some big wins for the lovely people of twitter here…
  (tags: twitter community socialgraph socialaction)
• Social Media: 2009 conferences: Social media, tech, marketing
  Great calendar of events for 2009 - for the US at least. Anyone know of the equivalent for Europe?
  (tags: social media events calendar 2009predictions)
• Rolling Rains Report:: Advertising Hotel Room Accessibility
  Mashing up room accessibility data has to be a must for AccessCity
  (tags: accessibility travel accesscity accommodation)
• Smart Design
  Amazing design company with stunning list of clients including flip and oxo good grips
  (tags: enabledbydesign consultancy design innovation products nyc)
• NORAD TRACKS SANTA 2008
  Love it
  (tags: maps google visualization interactive simulation christmas)

• Why the whole world is in a Twitter - Telegraph
  Bit late in the day after the Guardian and others but good to see Twitter go more into the mainstream (including a star appearance from resident expert @amanda)
  (tags: twitter social networking media news telegraph features)
• YouTube - Jeff Stelling (Soccer Saturday) - Middlesbrough
  Now that's pride in place - go Jeff! (via @b3rn)
  (tags: video youtube middlesbrough football)
• Welcome to MuniGov 2.0! ‎(Exploring Government Collaboration Via Technology‎)
  "MuniGov 2.0 is a coalition of local/municipal governments focused on exploring the use and principles of Web 2.0 in an effort to improve citizen services and communication via technology." (via Dave Briggs)
  (tags: social media us community government collaboration)

• Kable - EU enables 30 day procurements - 23 December 2008
  Can only be a good thing. Can they now make the whole process less painful (no matter how quick it is) please?
  (tags: government eu procurement ojeu)
• paulcanning: UK egov: not the best in the EU
  I always question the data behind these things, but is a bit of an indictment for DirectGov and the egov programme. No doubting for many it has made life no easier.
  (tags: government eu egov)
• Funky.Karaoke: Web Trends on a Tube Map (Live Edition)
  "In 2007 some cool guys from iA created a Web Trend Map using the tokyo subway map as the basis for visualization… They followed up on their success by releasing version 2 and 3 of the Web Trend Map. Here is the online version with clickable links for your pleasure."
  (tags: social media maps trends tube tokyo)
• Twitter Design Generator Bookmarklet - monospace blog
  "A bookmarklet makes easier to design your twitter theme."
  (tags: twitter design)
• Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Micro Fundraising on Twitter: Red Kettle Campaign, Wellwishes cracks $2,000 mark
  Using twitter to raise money. And fast.
  (tags: enabledbydesign twitter social media fundraising nonprofit)
• 20+ Online Drawing Tools | DESIGNwalker max
  Great list of online drawing tools
  (tags: enabledbydesign tools design software visualization drawing)
• Twitter ye not: crash survivor updates blog from burning plane | Technology | The Guardian
  Glad its not just me that would react like that then!!
  (tags: twitter us travel aircrash)
• Frixo | Road Traffic Reports, Travel Information and Traffic News
  "At Frixo we provide current Road Traffic Reports. It's a free service aimed at giving you live traffic news and information. Frixo specialises in traffic news and reports making it easy to use whether you're about to make a journey or out and about using our mobile service."
  (tags: tools travel transport information widget traffic)
• Bracknell Forest Council Web Development Blog
  "This blog has been setup by Bracknell Forest Council’s Web Team. We are constantly developing the Council’s public website and improving the range of online services that we offer."
  (tags: blog localauthority bracknellforest)
• Transport for London DES (Disability Equality Scheme) « connect culture
  (tags: accessibility accesscity tfl tube)
• Crowds, Surfers & Sinkers | Crowd Surfing
  Interesting take on 2008.
  (tags: clg radiohead crowdsurfing hazelblears 2008review)
• Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot: Youth Vote 2008: How Obama Hooked Gen Y
  "Dan's presentation, What Every Brand Could Learn from The Obama Campaign's Marketing to College Students, outlined some of the key demographic and media consumption trends among college students that the Obama campaign leveraged to get youth more involved in the political process."
  (tags: us barakobama youth government geny)
• Digital Economy blog | Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
  "the Australian Government will develop a Future directions paper for the digital economy—a roadmap for Australian businesses, households and government to maximise participation in the digital economy. And we would like you to help us create the roadmap." Much like the upcoming Digital Britain report, just far more open and collaborative.
  (tags: politics communications government digital economy australia)
• Change.gov's comment policy | The Ideal Government Project
  "The Obama campaign seems to take good manners quite seriously throughout."
  (tags: barakobama guidance comment change.gov)
• List of Social Media & Online Participation Policy and Guidelines | LGEO Research
  Great collation en route to a definitive set of guidelines should people wish to adopt them
  (tags: social media localauthority guidance)
• Time for more social intelligence | thinkpublic | blog
  "Emotional intelligence as a series of competencies and skills that drive performance."
  (tags: social thinkpublic intelligence emotionalintelligence)
• News: Influence your Council's spending | Stratford-on-Avon District Council
  Councils really are a lost cause with this kind of thing. And we're all as bad as each other save one or two. And we wonder why people don't give a monkeys…
  (tags: consultation localauthority participatorybudgeting engagement finance)