Pinboard (guardiantech)

London Output Area Classification >> DataShine

guardiantech — 2014-10-23T14:26:45+00:00

If you live in London, find out which of eight different "tribes" (city vibe, urban elites, etc) you belong to, based on data from the 2011 Census. A fabulous use of the London Data Store's data, and a great use of free data.

River level data must be open >> Climate Code Foundation

guardiantech — 2014-02-28T17:48:54+00:00

Nick Barnes has seen his home flooded for the second time in a month:

There are thousands of river monitoring stations across the UK, recording water levels every few minutes. The [Environment] Agency publishes the resulting data on its website, in pages like this. For each station it shows a graph of the level over the last 24 hours (actually, the 24 hours up to the last reported data: my local station stopped reporting three days ago, presumably overwhelmed by the water), and has some running text giving the current level in metres above a local datum. There’s a small amount of station metadata, and that’s all. No older data, and no tabular data. I can’t:
• See the levels over the course of a previous flood;

... and 11 other things that he would like to do if he could get access to the data directly without having to pay a licence fee - for data whose sale generates 1% of the EA's non-flood budget.

#Floodhack and opening up Environment Agency flood data >> mapgubbins

guardiantech — 2014-02-17T18:23:08+00:00

Owen Boswarva isn't impressed by the data made available by the Environment Agency for the floodhack day:

this very limited release of open data does not represent a significant “opening up” of government resources. The arrangements for river-level data are slightly more flexible than release of the data under a three-month developer licence would have been, but the effect is broadly similar and presents no erosion of the Environment Agency’s strongly commercial stance on licensing of flood data.
There has been a good effort to pull together existing open datasets that might be useful to #floodhack developers. However most of the EA’s flood-related datasets remain subject to restrictive licensing.

Five stages of data grief >> Open Data Institute

guardiantech — 2014-02-17T07:55:33+00:00

Jeni Tennison:

In our last ODI [Open Data Institute] Board meeting, Sir Tim Berners-Lee suggested that the data curators need to go through was something like the five stages of grief described by the Kübler-Ross model.
So here is an outline of what that looks like.

Why open data was the best $3m investment in Canada's 2014 budget >> Cantech Letter

guardiantech — 2014-02-12T17:38:48+00:00

If Open Data strikes you as long on concept, short on results, you need not leaves the confines of Canada to witness one of the best and most widely cited examples of its relevance. In 2010, public policy expert David Eaves described “…a well documented but little known story about how open data helped expose one of the biggest tax frauds in Canada’s history.”
By accessing Canada Revenue Agency records, a colleague of Eaves discovered that the CRA was being duped by fake charitable receipts -in a big way. When all was said and done, it was revealed that sketchy charities were bilking Canadians out of a billion dollars a year. That was .6% of the entire annual budget of the Federal Government, notes Eaves.

At Sochi Olympics, crowdsourced OpenStreetMap trounces Google Maps >> Wired Science

guardiantech — 2014-02-12T13:46:29+00:00

If you’re looking for detailed maps of the Olympic sites around Sochi, Google maps may not be your best bet. OpenStreetMap, the crowdsourced Wikipedia of cartography, looks to have much better coverage of the Olympic sites, as the images in this gallery show.
The region outside Sochi where the Olympic ski and snowboard events will be held is virtually a pale green blank on Google maps, for example. The maps here come from the fun and fabulously time-sucking Map Compare tool on the website of Geofabrik, a German company developing commercial uses for OSM data. The Olympic park along the coast, and even downtown Sochi are also covered in more detail in OSM (although with some features that appear on one map but not the other, it’s not clear which is more accurate — at least not without being there).

OpenStreetMap is a modern wonder. (Apple's map of the area is pretty much bereft of detail; Nokia HERE's is OK. Puzzling why Apple doesn't just take OSM's content outright.)

Opinion: Land Registry is not for meddling >> Law Society Gazette

guardiantech — 2014-01-27T22:51:43+00:00

Michael Cross (co-founder of the Free Our Data campaign):

The problem is that Land Registry is a key part of the critical national infrastructure and ministers know they cannot get away with flogging it to Amazon or Google. The 26-page plan put out for consultation last week bends over backwards to demonstrate that the new company will continue to be state controlled and enjoy an intimate relationship with the chief land registrar.
Indeed several functions would be shared after the split – these include keeping a register of title, dealing with objections and responsibility for the consequences of complaints arising from alleged maladministration.
As usual with these exercises, the government suggests three models for the new delivery company: it could be 100% state-owned, jointly owned by the state and a private partner, and wholly government owned but with its day-to-day responsibilities outsourced. With the third model clearly the bonkers option - a double layer of responsibility for an outsourcing contract is a recipe for blame-shifting and disaster - and the first too much like the status quo, the public-private partnership is clearly the favoured option.
But what would a private partner bring to the necessarily monopoly business of land registration?

Privatising Land Registry would almost certainly be bad for open data.

Thousands of free circular walks around England >> walks.io

guardiantech — 2014-01-14T22:12:25+00:00

Following on from Tuesday's Why the world needs OpenStreetMap, here's one of the apps built on OSM data: circular walks from any rail station for a length of time you choose.

Welcome to Realtime Trains v2.0 >> Realtime Trains

guardiantech — 2013-08-23T06:18:02+00:00

Tom Cairns:

The first thing you’ll notice is a fresh, clean design. This design is responsive, which means it scales nicely regardless of your screen size — whether you’re using a PC, a tablet or a phone, it formats itself to fit, so it’s easier than ever to get the information you want on the move. We’ve also overhauled the simple view.
Also new is a quick search bar, at the top of every page (behind the menu on mobiles.) This makes it a snap to search for a station (with the station name or three-letter code), direct trains (for instance, SOU to BMH), or specific trains by running ID. Just type and hit return for all matching passenger trains. Go advanced to search the whole database: stock moves, freight trains, the lot!

Really nice.

The Empire acquires the rebel alliance: Mendeley users revolt against Elsevier takeover >> paidContent

guardiantech — 2013-04-09T21:44:08+00:00

Mathew Ingram:

While the founders of the network maintain that they are committed to the “open access” movement, and argue that having Elsevier’s resources will allow them to expand their work and make it even more accessible, a number of high-profile users have said they aren’t convinced that Elsevier has changed its stripes, and they are taking their work elsewhere.

Watching brief on this one.

Open addresses and linked data >> Open Data Institute

guardiantech — 2013-02-18T21:24:56+00:00

Stuart Harrison:

There has been a lot of talk recent about the need for an open national address dataset. As someone who has campaigned tirelessly for open postcodes, and, in my previous role at a local authority, who is only too aware of the issues surrounding licensing of geodata, this is something I'm passionate about too.
However, all the talk recently has been around making the Postcode Address File (PAF) public, which, given that the Royal Mail is about to be privatised, I can understand.

It's a suggestion and debate that has been going on for the best part of a decade, without any resolution.

Open Data Field Guide >> Socrata

guardiantech — 2013-02-13T21:24:26+00:00

A comprehensive guide to ensuring your open data program serves you and your citizens.
With Insight From: City of Chicago, City of New York, City of Edmonton, State of Maryland, State of Colorado, Code for America, The World Bank, City of Baltimore, State of Oregon, and more.

Datacatalogs.org

guardiantech — 2013-01-21T12:26:35+00:00

Simply: "a comprehensive list of open data catalogs curated by experts from around the world." Worth a bookmark, perhaps.

SplashMaps by David Overton >> Kickstarter

guardiantech — 2012-12-07T16:33:35+00:00

A SplashMap is a map printed onto a fabric, and like its inspiration (the escape and evasion silk maps used in the second WW and distributed around the continent in Monopoly boxes) they are light-weight, durable, washable, wearable and ideal for the "real" outdoors of mud, wind, snow and rain... all the conditions that paper is not "cut out" for. This is a fresh new market offering, never done before; uniquely based upon the best Ordnance Survey data and other Open Data Sources.

Terrific - and already past its target, so join in and make it all gravy. (Via @edparsons blog.)

Australian Public authorities >> Right To Know

guardiantech — 2012-11-28T06:35:16+00:00

Opening up the Australian government so that people can make freedom of information requests. It's an Aussie version of the UK's "What Do They Know?" site. (Thanks Francis Irving, CEO of ScraperWiki, for the pointer.)

Prime minister’s special envoy ‘disappointed’ with open data use >> ComputerworldUK.com

guardiantech — 2012-11-19T18:04:51+00:00

Across UK government more than 9,000 datasets have been made available via data.gov.uk and the Cabinet Office plans to launch a £10 million Open Data Institute, headed up by inventor of the internet Tim Berners-Lee, to help businesses maximise the commercial value of open data.
[Michael] Anderson [PM Cameron's special envoy on the UN's post-2015 development goals] said: “I’m sure that a big part of [how much it is being used] is the kind of way that we are delivering the data. I recognise that we need to get better data out in a usable form.
“We still publish things in PDF files, which is awful. But we are going to improve, and we all have to move on this together.”

Can't expect much use if you publish data in PDF files.

Open data: seize the moment >> BMJ

guardiantech — 2012-11-01T18:01:56+00:00

The august British Medical Journal calls for data from all clinical trials to be made available for analysis so that we can properly determine the effects of new pharmaceuticals. (Via @bengoldacre on Twitter.)

Building apps with rail data >> Guardian Datablog

guardiantech — 2012-10-31T07:01:51+00:00

Great hackday report, which included people coding the answers to questions such as "What is trains were on Foursquare?" and "what if travel planning showed the actual shape of the tracks, rather than straight lines?" Wonderful.

The Data Journalism Handbook >> European Journalism Centre and Open Knowledge Foundation

guardiantech — 2012-09-17T09:59:52+00:00

Available on a CC-ShareAlike licence. Includes contributions from The Guardian, New York Times and many others. (Thanks @sputnikkers for the link.)

The first Free Our Data question? Ordnance Survey Maps >> Hansard, 22 July 1912

guardiantech — 2012-07-22T20:58:22+00:00

You could call it the first open data question, sure. Anyhow, it has a long heritage.

Kasabi shuts down, says data marketplace ‘too slow’ >> Gigaom

guardiantech — 2012-07-15T21:00:27+00:00

Kasabi, a platform that hosted and published linked data, is closing down after owners Talis Systems said the market was growing too slowly to be sustainable.
The UK-based company allowed anyone to publish data sets, create APIs and use tools to combine and recombine them with each other. It was spun out of Talis, a semantic web developer that focuses on moving information to the web, last year.
But after just over 12 months on its own, the parent company said that while the opportunities were still interesting they were too large and too slow-moving to be sustainable. It said that the market for linked data wasn’t panning out as it expected, and it was “time to admit that Kasabi is not getting the traction we thought it would.”

CityDashboard: Birmingham

guardiantech — 2012-07-05T14:41:31+00:00

Also available: Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester. A UCL/JISC/NeISS/CASA production. Rather neat.

The World Bank demands open data in Google mapping project >> Publish What You Fund

guardiantech — 2012-04-12T22:22:17+00:00

The World Bank has confirmed that it will not support the use of Google Map Maker for citizen-mapping efforts unless it gives users free access to the map data they create.
The World Bank and Google have launched a project using crowd-sourcing to populate maps with the locations of public services in the developing world – a resource which could be used by many different groups in humanitarian and longer-term development work.

Good move by the World Bank.

Putting APIs first: legislation.gov.uk >> Government Digital Service

guardiantech — 2012-03-31T20:55:08+00:00

We are inviting people from outside The National Archives to work with us, to apply changes to the legislation in the database. Quality is maintained through our editorial practice and a stringent process of review. It is an exciting time as private sector companies are now investing, employing people to work with us to bring the database up to date and to maintain it.

Really interesting. Build the API first, make the API available, get people involved. And you think government is behind the times?

Guardian Open Weekend: your views >> guardian.co.uk

guardiantech — 2012-03-26T22:00:07+00:00

Very cool interactive from the Guardian's first Open Weekend.

Response to Open Data article in The Guardian >> Open Rights Group

guardiantech — 2012-03-15T06:40:25+00:00

The Guardian published quite a good article on Wednesday in relation to a public announcement on Open Data by Francis Maude, and we wrote a response highlighting some issues the Guardian missed. While the advances since 2006 are undeniable, the comment above shows there is a long way to go. The new Public Data Group that will amalgamate OS, Land Registry and some other data providers will perpetuate the monopoly model while giving away minor data concessions. The issue here is the basic core public data infrastructure (mapping, stats, etc.) required for every other service and open data project. This is the "too difficult" box that could hamper innovation beyond some college project apps.

No argument about this - there is a lot still to do.

Why it took me five months to write @whensmytube >> qwghlm.co.uk

guardiantech — 2012-03-07T06:49:28+00:00

Chris Applegate:

I was too busy adding the features for @whensmybus, and that’s one reason why it took me five months to write its counterpart, @whensmytube, which I launched last week. But there’s a stack of other reasons why it took so long. It didn’t seem too difficult to begin with. Just like with buses, Transport for London have made their Tube departure data open-source (via a system called TrackerNet), as well as the locations of all their stations. It would be pretty simple to do the same for tube data as it would for bus data, right? Wrong.

Fascinating look into the hassle of not-quite-open data.

Now with postcode outlines >> Google Maps

guardiantech — 2012-03-05T22:36:00+00:00

Now when you type a postcode into Google Maps, it shows you the outline.Here's how SW1A 1AA (a certain central London residence) looks. And if you're wondering - the freeing of the postcode data does follow a long-running campaign by Guardian Technology.

UK Government: Open Standards Consultation

guardiantech — 2012-03-02T06:33:35+00:00

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude:

Open standards are vital for progressing this work and I encourage you to share your views in this consultation.

Get stuck in - or you can't complain in the future.

Publisher drops ownership claims to time-zone data >> Wired.com

guardiantech — 2012-02-27T06:13:48+00:00

Massachusetts-based publishing house, Astrolabe, abruptly dropped its months-old database case Wednesday after getting legal threats from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF said the lawsuit was an affront to the legal system, as historical facts are not subject to copyright. “Thus, we can only conclude that neither you nor your client conducted even a cursory legal or factual investigation prior to filing the complaint, much less a reasonable one,” EFF attorney Corynne McSherry wrote to Astrolabe. The EFF also sought sanctions unless the lawsuit was dismissed. The publisher markets its data to astrology buffs “seeking to determine the historical time at any given time in any particular location, worldwide,” and claimed ownership to the data in its “AC International Atlas” and “ACS American Atlas” software programs. Astrolabe took EFF’s threat seriously, dropped the case and issued a public apology.

Don't mess with the EFF. (Thanks @rquick for the link.)

$1 million to build a data platform >> ScraperWiki Data Blog

guardiantech — 2012-02-09T23:44:41+00:00

Amazingly impressive: Liverpool's ScraperWiki goes from strength to strength (financially):

Today we closed our round of investment from Enterprise Ventures and Blue Fountain. In total, provided we hit certain milestones next August, and with the Knight Foundation money, this means we have a cool $1,000,000 of capital.

And also now has the Canonical CEO joining to chair the board. Bonus points: she's female, improving the gender ratio.

StatsCan’s free data costs $2M – a rant >> eaves.ca

guardiantech — 2011-12-21T22:18:35+00:00

"So the other day a reader sent me an email pointing me to a story in iPolitics titled "StatsCan anticipates $2M loss from move to open data" and asked me what I thought. "Frustrated, was my response." Points out how the "cost" figures for making data open are often pulled out of the air. Canada is getting towards open data, but it's a fight.

Data storm: Making government data pay >> BBC News

guardiantech — 2011-12-16T17:55:03+00:00

Michael Cross, co-founder of the Free Our Data campaign: "Earlier this week, the vice president of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, called for action to turn this information into gold. "'Taxpayers have already paid for this information, the least we can do now is give it back to those who want to use it in new ways that help people and create jobs and growth,' she says. "She was following a lead set by the UK government. In his autumn statement last month, Chancellor George Osborne promised to open for re-use government data sets covering transport and especially health. "'Making more public sector information available will help catalyse new markets and innovative products and services as well as improving standards and transparency in public services,' the Treasury said. "The presumption is that all Crown Copyright data will be available under an 'open government licence', which allows its re-use in apps and other commercial products without the need to seek permission. "The Europe-wide policy announced this week would take this even further."

Changes to the DFID website >> Department for International Development

guardiantech — 2011-12-14T06:54:41+00:00

"The homepage of the projects database has a new look. There is a list of our latest projects and the most recently published project documents, including new business cases. You can search by sector and keyword, or by finding a country on the world map. When you view a project, instead of just seeing the title and description, you now see a colourful pie chart showing the project budget by sector. Hover over each sector with your mouse to see the latest budget for that sector. This is an excellent way of illustrating how DFID-funded projects can target a variety of priorities." What's not visible is the number of very smart people who are working in the background to get more and more government websites not just up to date, but to incorporate some future vision.

Anonymising medical data properly >> Ross Anderson

guardiantech — 2011-12-05T22:38:27+00:00

"I will be talking in London on Wednesday at a workshop on Anonymity, Privacy, and Open Data about the difficulty of anonymising medical records properly. I’ll be on a panel with Kieron O’Hara who wrote a report on open data for the Cabinet Office earlier this year, and a spokesman from the ICO." Professor Ross Anderson is always worth listening to. Get along there.

Public datasets on Amazon Web Services (AWS) >> Amazon

guardiantech — 2011-11-09T22:27:23+00:00

"Previously, large data sets such as the mapping of the Human Genome and the US Census data required hours or days to locate, download, customize, and analyze. Now, anyone can access these data sets from their Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances and start computing on the data within minutes." Wow.

Open Source Procurement Toolkit >> Cabinet Office

guardiantech — 2011-11-03T23:58:43+00:00

"The Government first set out its policy on the use of open source in 2004. This was restated in both 2009 and 2010. The Government ICT Strategy states that “Where appropriate, Government will procure open source solutions.” To support this, Action 3 of the Strategy says that “To create a level playing field for the use of innovative ICT solutions, the Government will publish a toolkit for procurers on best practice for evaluating the use of open source solutions.” "The following set of documents make up that toolkit…The purpose of this toolkit is to ensure that there is a level playing field for open source and proprietary software and that some of the myths associated with open source are dispelled. "It is intended for those who need to consider, evaluate or procure open source solutions as well as anyone just wanting to know more about open source." We strongly suspect this is the work of Liam Maxwell. In which case he has moved fast. This bodes well.

The Later Today Guardian >> Guardian Hack Day appspot

guardiantech — 2011-10-21T06:03:28+00:00

Very clever - takes the so-far published news list and shows it in an accessible and really striking form.

FixMyTransport: fix the ticket barriers at Paddington

guardiantech — 2011-10-17T21:20:51+00:00

"I'm writing to you and not Network Rail as they have told me that First Great Western manage the operations of ticket gates at Paddington. "Every time I try to put my ticket in the ticket barrier to exit at Paddington, the 'seek assistance' message is displayed and I need to join a queue to be let out." Have you done anything on FixMyTransport lately? Why not?

Travel time maps >> Mapumental

guardiantech — 2011-09-22T20:42:18+00:00

Not time travel, please note.

UK Central Government and Local Authority Public Spending 2012 - ukpublicspending.co.uk

guardiantech — 2011-09-20T21:16:50+00:00

Very nice, although it would be good to be able to drill down to more details such as suppliers. That really would be impressive. And it goes back to 1700. (That's not 5pm.)

Government wants open standards to be royalty-free >> eWEEK Europe UK

guardiantech — 2011-09-15T05:35:54+00:00

"Francis Maude has confirmed that it will adopt royalty-free standards, to deliver a level playing field for open source
"Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, has clarified the government’s policy on seeking open standards when procuring IT equipment, following confusion over whether “open standards” means Royalty-Free (RF) or Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND).Technologies available under RF conditions, can be used freely, while those under FRAND terms require users to pay a “reasonable” royalty. The HTTP protocol is free, for instance, while technologies for 3G communications are FRAND."

Important distinction.

CycleStreets: now in mobile form >> Cyclestreets Blog

guardiantech — 2011-09-14T05:23:20+00:00

"Today, we're very pleased to announce the beta mobile web version of CycleStreets – written by me, project-managed by Martin, and funded by Cycling Scotland:
"It's at http://m.cyclestreets.net/.
"Built in jQuery Mobile and HTML5, this extends CycleStreets' mobile support beyond our well-received Android and iPhone apps to cover other platforms, including iPad and BlackBerry."

Yay for Cyclestreets!

Indices of Deprivation: Linked Data Prototype >> Open Data Blog

guardiantech — 2011-09-13T05:25:12+00:00

From the OpenViz blog: "Those of you with longer memories will recall my post back in May, promoting the then new triple store for DCLG’s Indices of Deprivation.
"I’d love to report that this has generated a flurry of new apps. I think I’m not alone when I say: we need some more real-world examples which show us the true power and potential of blending together different data sources….over the web…..using open standards."

Very impressive demonstration. The thought that occurs on seeing it is that indices don't tell you much about behaviour or other things; they don't provide any predictive power, and that's what's lacking.

Helping Toronto understand itself with freer, cleaner data | OpenFile

guardiantech — 2011-08-29T21:16:42+00:00

A fun open data project in Toronto, Canada: "The City's controversial Core Service Review, a consultant-led examination of which municipal services might be cut or reduced for cost savings, involved public consultations in May and June. Those consultations generated over 13,000 responses from residents who either attended a consultation session, or filled out a form online.
"The City, being the City, crunched all that data into some black-and-white PDFs and posted it on an obscure section of its website. Brian Gilham had other ideas.
"What Toronto Said, a cleanly designed website that Gilham, a professional web designer, built over the course of three weeks in his spare time, provides a search-bar interface for the entire corpus of feedback data. It makes filtering the raw opinions of thousands of Torontonians about as simple as using Google to find a recipe for soup. It launches August 29."

The growth case for open data >> Placr News

guardiantech — 2011-07-20T16:38:59+00:00

"If you look at data.gov.uk in detail you will find that it is stuffed with organograms and spending declarations, and that many of the datasets that started publishing have already ceased (e.g. A&E activity. Most government agencies still seem to be operating ‘user pays’ policies when you get beyond headline free data releases e.g. Meteorological Office data services. So while there are some notably early successes, there is clearly much more to do."

Open government data to fuel Kenya's app economy >> O'Reilly Radar

guardiantech — 2011-07-11T21:13:43+00:00

"From Brazil to France to Australia to India, new laws and platforms are giving citizens new means to ask for, demand or simply create greater government transparency. The open data movement has truly gone global, with 19 international open data websites live around the globe. This week, the world will see another open government platform go live in Kenya."

Amazing.

Cameron unveils the transparent society >> UKAuthority

guardiantech — 2011-07-07T20:31:19+00:00

"Data on the performance of GPs, schools and details of sentences passed by individual courts is to be released in open, standardised format under the government's latest transparency initiative, to be announced on Thursday.
"A letter on the new Number 10 Downing Street website, launched on Thursday, promises 'the most ambitious open data agenda of any government in the world.'"

Other events may have overshadowed this, but it's very significant.

Browse your Oyster travel and fare history >> GitHub

guardiantech — 2011-07-07T11:37:11+00:00

Requires you to have your own server, and written for Linux (or Mac OSX). Clever, if you have the chops to make it work.

Why can't we have court listings made public? FOI result >> Whatdotheyknow

guardiantech — 2011-07-05T21:13:17+00:00

A company called Courtel has the contract for putting court listing information on the courtserve.net site. But it seems to have... misread its contract in a restrictive fashion.

England's health data mapped >> guardian.co.uk

guardiantech — 2011-06-28T22:07:54+00:00

This is really interesting to play with. Uses data from public health observatories - who had hell's own fight a few years ago trying to publish data on Ordnance Survey maps online. Now: fixed.

Linked Data API Configuration >> reference.data.gov.uk

guardiantech — 2011-06-15T20:58:45+00:00

Oh, wow - government department data as real proper RDF. This is amazing.

Dynamic Public Transport Travel Time Maps for Greater Manchester >> Mapnificent

guardiantech — 2011-06-03T15:19:35+00:00

This is exactly the sort of thing that we want open data to create.

Speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon George Osborne MP, at Google Zeitgeist 2011 >> HM Treasury

guardiantech — 2011-05-17T05:21:47+00:00

It didn't sound that content-ful when he read it out, either - open data hirings and cyberattacks apart.

Find London Buses Quickly and Easily >> BusMapper.co.uk

guardiantech — 2011-05-13T12:40:00+00:00

"Can't figure out which bus to take in London? Click on 2 points on the map and we'll tell you!"

Really we need to have these for all cities.

If you started today, you would never build what we’ve got. You would build Alphagov >> Neil Williams

guardiantech — 2011-05-09T21:29:45+00:00

"We’re mere days away from the big reveal of Alphagov, the prototype ‘single domain’ website which will set a challenging vision of what a unified, user-focused front end to UK government could look like.
"I’ve been relatively close to the project, from unofficial chats with project lead Tom Loosemore and others in dingy Lambeth North pubs before the thing had a name, to more formal advice lately on how Departments do their digital communications – and how Alphagov could help them do it better. (Though if I’m honest, an index card saying “F*** IE6” is the contribution I’m proudest of).
"Without giving the game away too much, here’s a taste of what’s coming to a browser near you soon, and some speculation on the stir it will surely cause."

Read on...