Archives: May, 2009
WRITTEN ON Sunday, May 31st, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Political engagement
From the 1943 Bavarian White Rose movement (leaflet #3):
…why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanised state system presided over by criminals [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (0)
WRITTEN ON Saturday, May 30th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?
Go Bazzer O’Bazzer!
“Let me also be clear about what we will not do. Our pursuit of cyber-security will not — I repeat, will not include — monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans. Indeed, I remain firmly committed to [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (1)
WRITTEN ON Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?
There’s a Quaker booklet on civil liberties coming out soon and I drafted a chapter on advices, queries and the database state. It’s quite personal and probably not for everybody, so I’ve posted it on my personal web site. I’d be very grateful of any comments before the thing gets sent off to press.
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (0)
WRITTEN ON Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 BY Paul Smith AND STORED IN Political engagement
There are a whole load of interesting angles and comments on the Guardian site. I particularly enjoyed Michael White’s piece – that assertive parliamentary committees play a vital role in holding government to account. It does run counter, however, to the slightly-urban-myth view that the greatest barrier to change in the public sector is the [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (1)
WRITTEN ON Saturday, May 16th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Political engagement, Save Time and Money, What do we want?
Wow. Opposition (Tory) MPs’ expense claims live in real time, powered by Googledocs, with XML feed if you’re that interested. The transparency is surprising, but isnt the speed with which this can now happen much more remakable still?
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (0)
WRITTEN ON Friday, May 15th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Design: Co-creation, Design: user-oriented, What do we want?
A query from Deborah at thinkpublic is always something to follow up:
The NHS Institute, together with Involve and Thinkpublic are currently looking at the ways in which new technology can be used to involve patients, staff and public in health decisions.
We would like to learn more about:
whether you already use technologies to engage and involve
how [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (0)
WRITTEN ON Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 BY David Moss AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?
Many government initiatives – notably the ID cards scheme – depend for their success on the reliability of certain mass consumer biometrics. Ministers and officials suggest that these biometrics are reliable. The field trials conducted suggest the opposite. Are they reliable or aren’t they? What are we to believe? WIBBI official statistics were collated by [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (1)
WRITTEN ON Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Design: Co-creation, Foundation of Trust, What do we want?
Correspondence on the private (except when leaked to Ministers) FIPR list has just come up with a massive Wibbi, which I’ll try to restate in my own words. This isn’t my idea, and restates something early explored by Bruce Sterling in The Hacker Crackdown.
Problem is that government, simply by being clunky, arrogant, introspective and [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (1)
WRITTEN ON Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?
This looks good:
Private Data, Open Government: Questions of Information – 13 May 2009
As Richard Thomas prepares to stand down as Information Commissioner, he is to host a conference at the QEII Centre in Westminster on 13 May, to take stock of progress with Freedom of Information and Data Protection. The aim is [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (1)
WRITTEN ON Friday, May 8th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Political engagement, Save Time and Money, What do we want?
The Parliamentary procedures committee wants action and progres on e-petitions to Parliament (from press release):
The Government should think again about its waning support for a parliamentary e-petitions system and should allow the project to move forward.
The Procedure Committee today publishes a report, regretting the apparent lack of will by the Government to support the development [...]
CONTINUE READING - LEAVE A COMMENT (0)
