"Guardian Writer Dave Hill On Politics, People & Goings On"

Great little hyperlocal blog from Dave Hill

Good in theory, effective in practice? Any evidence NHS Choices has made an impact so far? Would be interested to see the difference in impact systems 'in the tent' have (eg NHS Choices) have vs those 'outside' it (eg Patient Opinion) (via Euan Semple)

"The economy will no doubt be the dominant issue at the next general election, but we can also expect public service reform to feature highly. So, given their prominence in political controversy and their importance in so many people’s lives what might be a new progressive approach to public services?" Matthew calls for "new public service alliances… [of] policy makers, managers, professionals and citizens committed to strong public services"

"The third instalment of ‘my new progressivism’ (I haven’t yet been consumed by my own verbosity and pomposity, but we are only half way through the week)." Hardiha!

Nice way of presenting geotagged flickr photos.

"This is a small web app that uses new Flickr API methods to show where in the world photos have been taken. It will show photos with a particular tag, or, if you authenticate, photos from your friends, contacts, or yourself. The size of the circle on any given place indicates how many photos were taken there. You can click on a circle to see photos taken in that area, or zoom in if there are lots of overlapping areas."

The US version of TweetMinster (via @jerrymichalski)

Very in line with the thinking going on in Barnet, valuing 'lifeworld' over 'systemsworld', people over process.

"Councils should think about switching most of the money they spend on pointless opinion research (asking people things they don’t think about and getting answers that are as likely to reflect ephemeral influences as underlying beliefs) into employing ethnographers or social network analysts."

Exactly so.

All sounding very 'Nudge' to me as the ever quickening march to the end of ideology continues.

"We need an entrepreneurial approach to government, because social entrepreneurship, charity, volunteerism, and even responsible business cannot solve our problems alone. The challenges that we face are of a magnitude that we require all hands on deck, with a government that ready to teach or learn and lead or support as necessary."

"You’ve probably seen many articles on companies and organizations saying that they take social media seriously. Here’s one such organization that you might not expect: the United States Air Force. Take a look at the Air Force Blog Assessment chart" Really rather good from an unexpected source.

"Ten of the top questions culled from different topic sections (economy, national security, science and technology, healthcare, etc.). Obama’s resolutions for the new year should be to answer them"

Given the dry subject matter, a pretty darn good effort at viral marketing (via @jaffne)

Top post on using online for engaging citizens. A blog to watch this one with @liz_ayzan focusing her PhD on this subject and pulling together some great thinking on the subject.