Monthly Archives: September 2010

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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The ‘Online State of Nature’

Tweet We’ll be publishing Political Innovation no5, 6 and 7 and announcing the date and venue for our Scottish event over the next few days. But in the meantime, as a bit of a preface to one of the essays … Continue reading

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Personal Democracy Forum in Barcelona – October 2010

Tweet We’ll be joining a number of political innovators from all over the world at PDF Europe next month in Barcelona. There’s a video trailer for the US version and I’d be interested to see what the European version will … 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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Cross-party support for Councillor Kitcat

Tweet Cllr Jason Kitcat – a Green Party Councillor in Brighton – is facing disciplinary action over his decision to post footage of a council meeting up on YouTube. I’ll let Lib-Dem Voice take up the story (or point you … 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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Is social or design innovation always a political act?

Tweet Cameron Tonkinwise is asking … “is social innovation a means of circumventing politics?” “….what happens if design-based social innovation is not just a way of avoiding conventional, explicit politics, but a way of undermining politics altogether? What if scaling … 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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