Tim Davies has written a post about the kind of obstacles that get in the way of organisations in promoting interactivity. He has then spun it out into a Wiki. It’s quite a brilliant idea of Tim’s and I’ve written about it here on the Local Democracy blog. My shorter version of a long post [...]

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be promoting and working on ‘picamp’ – the political innovation camp event in Belfast on the 26th of May. This project is being done in conjunction with the Northern Ireland political weblog Slugger O’Toole, with NESTA-sponsored Amplified ’09 and Queens University Belfast who have kindly allowed us [...]

Here is the text from a speech I’m giving today at the opengov conference as part of a panel discussion. (Update – my co-panelist Steph Gray has posted his outline here). The text below includes links to articles elsewhere that flesh out the relevant points in more detail. Most political scientists are still agreed that highly [...]

Even after Googling for ten minutes or so, I was unable to work out whether it was Groucho Marx or George Burns who said, “The secret of acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”  That may be true for actors, but one of the hardest lessons that brands, politicians and marketers [...]

Thinking about BBC impartiality – is it actually the unqualified virtue that some claim? There will be more on this subject over there shortly. Psst – viral marketing doesn’t work – pass it on!:

I’ve visited and presented to a lot of UK local authorities now – I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve visited over 100 in recent years. In each one, I’ve talked to them about how they can get their councillors to be active users of interactive tools. In each case, I’ve had to spend almost 80% [...]

Wondering if electing police chiefs or mayors is almost as bad as calling a referendum? Psst – viral marketing doesn’t work – pass it on!:

Being interviewed by BBC Northern Ireland’s Julia Paul on the comparisons between local government in Northern Ireland and England. This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video. Psst – viral marketing doesn’t work – pass it on!: