Category Archives: Essays

Policymaking in the Cloud: Doing Things Differently

Tweet Cloud computing is a popular buzz word. It means that the data and applications we use can be hosted anywhere then distributed to us on any device, wherever we are, whenever we want them. It extends one of the … Continue reading

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No 8: The broadening inkblot: Self-improvement for people who read newspapers (and blogs…)

Tweet If you’re reading this, you’re probably a regular lurker around the blogosphere and the longer, cleverer articles on media websites. You may even go further than that and comment occasionally, “Digg”, share or “like” postings on Facebook. And if … Continue reading

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No 7: Breaking the monopolies that control the way schools are designed

Tweet I’ve been following the Political Innovation project quite closely over the last month or so and the innovation that I would like to propose represents a synthesis of many of the other ideas in this series. I work in … Continue reading

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No 6: Citizen-control of personal information

Tweet If the big political innovation of the moment is to give power back to people, then a good place to do it is with personal data. Whose data is it anyway? Whose health, whose education, whose identity, whose shopping … Continue reading

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No 5: Government information? Get the public to provide it!

Tweet For too long, policymaking has been monopolised by civil servants, self-serving pressure groups and sensationalist journalists. We get a vote once every four or five years and we’re expected to be satisfied with that. Public services are too important … Continue reading

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No 4: See Change – opening policy research to the public

Tweet Although Government claims to want our participation and wants us to appreciate its policies, it hides the evidence on which it bases its policies in fat documents and reports that are hard to read and only available free at … Continue reading

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No 3: Assertion-flagging: for less partisan, prejudiced blogging

Tweet Most political bloggers are motivated to fight what they see as bigotry, prejudice, and ill-informed, unjustifiable assertion. This is a fine and noble cause, because the spreading of false beliefs – without the evidence to support them – is … Continue reading

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No 2: The politics of buying stuff

Tweet Well, you wouldn’t still be reading had I called it the politics of procurement now would you? (no, stop – don’t go!). No-one who engages with government procurement comes away impressed with it. It’s a process that wastes £billions … Continue reading

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No 1: Towards Interactive Government

Tweet The communication revolution that we’ve undergone in recent years has two big impacts: It changes what’s possible. It makes creating networks between people across organisations easier; it opens new ways for communication between citizens and state; it gives everyone … Continue reading

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