Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

At UK GovCamp recently a bunch of us looked at what an open data platform should look like. Not the technical stuff, but what a council would need to do to make the most of it. One aspect of that is how to encourage interest and trust from people who have ideas for using the [...]

The only difference between engaging someone in public consultation and engaging them in user testing is, as far as I can see, the type of reward they get for taking part. With user testing it’s easy: the client pays a company an extortionate amount of money to test their product; or, if it’s being done [...]

One of the challenges facing proponents of open data is persuading others of its value; particularly persuading the custodians of data that making it publicly available is a valuable thing to do, and is in their interest to do it. Dan Slee (Walsall Council) and Stuart Harrison (Lichfield District Council) and myself have compiled some [...]

A few weeks ago Socitm released their Better Connected 2010 report on the quality of local council websites. Stuart Harrison has read the report, and in the last of our pilot digital engagement discussions he will share its insights and his thoughts on them. Socitm is the membership association for ICT professionals in Local Authorities [...]

In yesterday’s interview with BBC Breakfast, Digital Inclusion Champion Martha Lane Fox rather worried me. She seemed to be advocating something because someone else had told her it’s a good idea, and not because she understands the issues herself. Martha Lane Fox: “… Government is going to move most of its services onto the web [...]

Excellent post by Tim Davies. He argues that when it comes to governments and large organisations engaging with technology for social change, there is not one big challenge but lots of little ones; and that as those multiply, the ability to engage effectively shrinks. He then lists 50 key challenges that he's encountered so far this year: so now we know they exist we can do something about them; and – hopefully – improve the chances of technology to support social change effectively.

Visit OpenGov: One big challenge? Or a thousand small hurdles