tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:05:31 +0000Talk is easy.http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/noreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)Blogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-5507396435537372999Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:43:00 +00002010-02-14T23:05:31.141ZsousveillanceUNzppThere's been lots of discussion about google buzz, and the privacy changes that they made in the first few days.One thing I've not seen is a discussion about how, if you really care about privacy, or you talk to people who have safety issues (and I varyingly come into both categories), then it may not be the best idea to use *anything* on it's first day.Google buzz had a few defaults that were http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2010/02/google-buzz-and-privacysecurity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-7064011105079237496Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:57:00 +00002010-01-31T12:10:44.117Z2009 is probably the year that WhatDoTheyKnow.com came of age, and joined TheyWorkForYou and FixMyStreet as being banner services from mySociety. Tom talks about how the way that core services like this often work is that you build them, let them run for a few years, and then find that they're indispensable. WhatDoTheyKnow now accounts for over 10% of FoI requests in the UK, so it seems to have http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2010/01/thats-not-what-we-mean-by-democracy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-5349961881025254757Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:00:00 +00002009-12-21T12:57:27.606ZdirectionlessDirectionlessGov was created as a joke in only a morning, just before Christmas. It didn't take long, and hasn't had much more work done since it launched. But, 5 years on, it's still relevant, with roughly stable levels of media coverage and users. If you think that isn't a long time, here's a different way of looking at it: when DirectionlessGov launched, YouTube didn't yet exist.It's been a http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/11/still-funny-after-all-these-years.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-8649212663500744754Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:46:00 +00002009-11-22T22:47:14.697ZcommentonthisHave published a CommentOnThis version of Manchester City Council's Call to Climate Action - add your comments herehttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/11/manchester-city-councils-call-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6021810256528846785Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:03:00 +00002009-11-22T21:09:30.845ZCory Doctorow's new book, makers, arrived before the weekend. And over the last week, I've been pondering a couple of conversations that combine badly.Data.gov.uk (currently in invite only development) had a long discussion last week about what was missing, and which formats output should be in. With arguments from all sides, with varying reasoning, about what they wanted, but with general activehttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/11/tilting-at-data-formats.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-5029197458250107851Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:20:00 +00002009-11-20T17:09:03.985ZFor the last day and a bit (by the time you read this, ending yesterday), I've been without my laptop. Those who know me know I tens to spend a lot of time in front of that keyboard, so this is a brief summary of experiences.Now, for background, its not unconsidered timing. A friend needed to edit some video in final cut, and I I've on my laptop. I spent a good portion of the day in meetings, http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/11/giving-up-laptop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-3578049224530221133Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:16:00 +00002009-11-04T22:23:25.857ZPeople interested in the techie side of open government data should read this post from Emma Mulqueeny.I've long thought that data projects like that shouldn't be considered successful until some 15 year old girl uses the data/services to make a tangible improvement to her and her community, that would otherwise not have happened. When every 14 year old knows that they can do that too, then http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/11/public-data.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-2152235604369366718Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:18:00 +00002009-10-10T00:20:22.484+01:00commentonthisI've put a commentable version of the MoJ Defamation consultation up at http://www.commentonthis.com/defamationhttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/10/defamation-consultation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6742566836280162759Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:53:00 +00002009-10-05T17:00:34.864+01:00As you've probably already heard, Ernest Marples, the postcode to location lookup service, has been legally served with what's effectively a demand for an innovation tax, and the functionality of a load of sites have stopped working.JobCentreProPlus wont be searchable until that gets sorted out. But that's not the biggest problem when pieces of online infrasructure go away. The bits that keep http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/10/ernest-marples-take-down.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-1072156633450336490Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:30:00 +00002009-08-20T22:30:36.818+01:00We tried explaining the chance to improve public services using words, and people didn't really understand. We're now wondering if a comic of a cute panda and a gorilla with a laptop will make it clearer...This is the internet, so it mighthttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/08/tigers-not-words.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6667693100991546230Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:45:00 +00002009-08-12T11:56:20.271+01:00After my last offhand comments about visualisation, a friend got in touch about some work I was involved in a few years ago. They've done the huge amount of work to get where they wanted to be, and can now do some things with it.Wordle is a service where you give it a load of text, and it pulls out the words used a lot and displays them graphically. The area covered by the words denotes the http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/08/simple-visualisation-of-reasons-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-2564415137740893904Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:25:00 +00002009-08-07T19:50:24.727+01:00"The internet doesn't go to meetings. The internet doesn't write letters. The internet doesn't stand outside a building with a sign and shout at people as they come in and out. And the reality is, in the 19th century political system that we have, you still need to do those things. What the internet does, or can do, is help spread the information that was exchanged in the meeting to those who http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/08/giving-tech-help.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-3467671369030027737Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:41:00 +00002009-08-11T23:06:33.869+01:00Roughly once a year, I've tried to take a couple of weeks away from the keyboard outside of work. But for about the last 2 and a half years, for a variety of reasons, I didn't do so. And then I went a bit crazy as a result. Oops. OpenTech was great fun, but a lot of work; coupled with also running this year's EuroBSDcon (you should come), and my wide variety of other projects, the workload built http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/08/touch-more-crazy-than-normal.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-5140325683842982815Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +00002009-08-07T19:50:28.278+01:00MULErewiredstatewhywithingtonOne of the most potentially amazingly powerful projects from 4iP has sneaked out a bit - Newspaper club (Disclosure: they sponsored opentech earlier this year, but NC wasn't discussed as far as I'm aware).One of the projects locally that i've started doing a bit of work with is a Manchester volunteer newspaper (the MULE). They look at a variety of things that aren't getting covered in other mediahttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/08/newspaper-club-sneaks-into-alpha-this.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6965269497306636242Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:32:00 +00002009-07-24T12:32:41.755+01:00sousveillanceopentechBefore I waffle, here's the useful stuff: We've just published the opentech audio. Thanks to David for all his work on recording, and (other) David for handling the programme on the day, and Emily for all the work she did, and all our chairs, especially Dave, Zoe and Siobhan. All the sessions we have audio for are now available (all download links are on that page). We've also published a short http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/07/my-opentech-roundup.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-920738910751748278Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:49:00 +00002009-07-20T21:52:36.800+01:00Angie: Someone who many of us would like to have known for far, far longer.http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/07/what-would-angie-and-chris-have-done.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-184363890358202944Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:49:00 +00002009-07-19T15:31:38.456+01:00Shortly before OpenTech, I was chatting to someone about DirectGov. I'm not sure how we got there; but there are a couple of things that could be done in an hour to make DirectGov better.1. Link2. Direct FeedbackLink. Link!Tim Berners Lee's talk on Raw Data Now starts talking about making documents linked, and how it can go to virtually any document you can imagine. This is basic stuff, but http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/07/2-small-ideas-for-directgov.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-3717251832332373841Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:35:00 +00002009-07-16T20:42:35.471+01:00commentonthisAfter a number of requests, I've put the instructions on how to format a document for CommentOnThis.com online at http://www.commentonthis.com/instructionsIt's not the easiest possible way to format a document, but it is doable by anyone who has a copy of notepad.Allowing a self-upload of documents would not be particularly hard - glue the pdf reader onto a very simple and friendly editor for http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/07/formatting-for-commentonthiscom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6517717765335580926Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:30:00 +00002009-04-14T21:25:02.895+01:00modernlibertycrowdsourcingsousveillanceg20There's been an ongoing discussion this week over at Paul Currion's blog about the benefit of croudsourcing of information in the human rights sphere, most of it criticising probably crazy ideas.Disaster first responders will need customised tools, and if they find something that will save them time, then it will get adopted. But that's always going to be harder than giving them a wiki and they http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/04/crowdsourcing-and-human-rights.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-3756957961277312894Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:39:00 +00002009-03-30T14:01:32.817+01:00Steph at DIUS asked about lessons for FE and Govt from the "Us Now" film. My first reaction was something along the lines of "they're going to have problems".I was watching Us Now with a group of student friends a few weeks back (thanks Ivo for sending openmedia a copy), and one of the things that was mentioned in an extremely interesting debate afterwards was that Us Now didn't deal with http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/03/us-now-fe-and-government.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-4029111620385518020Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:25:00 +00002009-03-29T23:25:19.539+01:00Dear FCO,When you claim that you have permalinks for travel advice for countries, it would be nice if you actually did:http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/europe/france vshttp://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/europe/france1.Cheershttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/03/fco-travel-advice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6199760651767364866Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:35:00 +00002009-07-19T23:04:06.223+01:00http://twitter.com/lesteph/status/1394833962Out of interest, if you were watching 'Us Now' (http://www.usnowfilm.com/) or have seen before, what are the lessons for FE & Govt? #atn09School children now have the same tools as that tradicionatlly active group - university students. I was fortunate to see Us Now with a diverse group. One of the things that came out was that what the film was http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/03/us-now-fe-schools-and-government.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-1452753377984641168Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:12:00 +00002009-03-20T00:32:18.873ZThe video from the talk I gave Convention on Modern Liberty is now up. The slides that should go with it are here.http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/03/convention-on-modern-liberty.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-6443203815628191674Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:26:00 +00002009-03-07T20:28:20.826ZrewiredstateHarry and Glyn built www.jobcentreprolplus.com at rewired state. Lots of other good stuff happened too; I'm sure it'll beonline at some pointhttp://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/03/rewired-state.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25905248.post-4867539681358628366Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:36:00 +00002009-03-02T00:56:12.959Zhave started to put together what's needed for an irrepressible video project. What we really need now is more people to help with it.More details on this page: http://sebastian.foriru.co.uk/~sams/irrepressible_video/if you want to help, read the webpage to find out what we need, start coding and send me an email to let me know. Might be something to work on rewired state this weekend.This was http://www.disruptiveproactivity.com/2009/03/irrepressible-video.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam Smith)0