Comments on: The battle for data, the battle for design http://publicstrategist.com/2010/06/the-battle-for-data-the-battle-for-design/ Working to make government work better Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:35:28 +0000 hourly 1 By: From data to information… to insight? | Public Strategist http://publicstrategist.com/2010/06/the-battle-for-data-the-battle-for-design/comment-page-1/#comment-3474 From data to information… to insight? | Public Strategist Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:42:48 +0000 http://publicstrategist.com/?p=1572#comment-3474 [...] all great examples of exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when I was writing last week about the move from data to design, with Where Does My Money Go? having a particular strength in clear [...] [...] all great examples of exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when I was writing last week about the move from data to design, with Where Does My Money Go? having a particular strength in clear [...]

]]> By: Lance Mercereau http://publicstrategist.com/2010/06/the-battle-for-data-the-battle-for-design/comment-page-1/#comment-3422 Lance Mercereau Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:25:14 +0000 http://publicstrategist.com/?p=1572#comment-3422 Getting the data is the easy bit and presenting this to those who need the intelligence. What is more difficult – and this requires commitment at the highest levels of Whitehall and Downing Street – is ensuring that those who require the spend data have it. A good example is with COINS. There are companies such as Rosslyn Analytics that have turned this data around within 24 hours (http://www.rosslynanalytics.com/newspress/index.php/rosslyn-analytics-to-set-record), making it available to the general public in easy-to-use analytical reports from the web at RA.Pid Gateway (https://rapidgateway.rapidintel.com). We applaud the government’s move toward more transparency; and for companies/organizations to make the data available in a more user friendly format. But the general public aren’t the ones who need this intelligence. From ministerial departments to councils, there are thousands of public sector employees (the front line troops) who desperately need empowerment as they are the ones who have been asked to reduce the deficit through intelligent cost reductions – and if they don’t find the savings then they will be held to account. Until our ministers focus on the needs of public sector employees, George Osborne’s efforts to balance the books will be in vain. Getting the data is the easy bit and presenting this to those who need the intelligence. What is more difficult – and this requires commitment at the highest levels of Whitehall and Downing Street – is ensuring that those who require the spend data have it.

A good example is with COINS. There are companies such as Rosslyn Analytics that have turned this data around within 24 hours (http://www.rosslynanalytics.com/newspress/index.php/rosslyn-analytics-to-set-record), making it available to the general public in easy-to-use analytical reports from the web at RA.Pid Gateway (https://rapidgateway.rapidintel.com).

We applaud the government’s move toward more transparency; and for companies/organizations to make the data available in a more user friendly format. But the general public aren’t the ones who need this intelligence. From ministerial departments to councils, there are thousands of public sector employees (the front line troops) who desperately need empowerment as they are the ones who have been asked to reduce the deficit through intelligent cost reductions – and if they don’t find the savings then they will be held to account.

Until our ministers focus on the needs of public sector employees, George Osborne’s efforts to balance the books will be in vain.

]]> By: The battle for data, the battle for design… and the battle for empowerment | Public Strategist http://publicstrategist.com/2010/06/the-battle-for-data-the-battle-for-design/comment-page-1/#comment-3418 The battle for data, the battle for design… and the battle for empowerment | Public Strategist Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:08:43 +0000 http://publicstrategist.com/?p=1572#comment-3418 [...] after posting earlier this morning on data and design, I came across a post from a couple of days ago by Dan McQuillanmaking a very closely related [...] [...] after posting earlier this morning on data and design, I came across a post from a couple of days ago by Dan McQuillanmaking a very closely related [...]

]]> By: Bookmarks for June 7th through June 17th http://publicstrategist.com/2010/06/the-battle-for-data-the-battle-for-design/comment-page-1/#comment-3415 Bookmarks for June 7th through June 17th Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:01:29 +0000 http://publicstrategist.com/?p=1572#comment-3415 [...] The battle for data, the battle for design | Public Strategist – "The availability of data is a critical enabler, but what matters in the end is what it enables." [...] [...] The battle for data, the battle for design | Public Strategist – "The availability of data is a critical enabler, but what matters in the end is what it enables." [...]

]]> By: Adrian Short http://publicstrategist.com/2010/06/the-battle-for-data-the-battle-for-design/comment-page-1/#comment-3411 Adrian Short Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:17:34 +0000 http://publicstrategist.com/?p=1572#comment-3411 The lesson of the Rewired State hack days and most of the independent development around government data is that you can do good work by doing what would conventionally be thought of as cheating. That is, working with a different set of constraints and objectives than are generally prevalent in official government work. The web is all about fragmentation, as you call it. Programmers talk about code that has high cohesion, low coupling -- each part does things well and is connected to other parts at its natural seams in a way that each component can easily be replaced with another. The web has mechanisms for tying disparate parts together -- hyperlinks, search engines, feeds and APIs. Rather than constraining designers by producing mega-projects with strict design and technical consistency across a range of activities and tight internal coupling, break things up. Usefulness is more important than consistency. Flexibility is more important than slavishly following conventions. Everything on the web is just a single click away, so free up designers to work in a way that makes sense for every fragment of the web using the designs and tools that make sense to them rather than expecting that one size will fit all. Things move so quickly now that agility counts above all else. Digital services need to be designed and built quickly, easy to adapt and small and cheap enough that they can be mothballed the second they no longer serve their purpose. The title of David Weinberger's book sums it up nicely: Small Pieces Loosely Joined. The lesson of the Rewired State hack days and most of the independent development around government data is that you can do good work by doing what would conventionally be thought of as cheating. That is, working with a different set of constraints and objectives than are generally prevalent in official government work.

The web is all about fragmentation, as you call it. Programmers talk about code that has high cohesion, low coupling — each part does things well and is connected to other parts at its natural seams in a way that each component can easily be replaced with another. The web has mechanisms for tying disparate parts together — hyperlinks, search engines, feeds and APIs. Rather than constraining designers by producing mega-projects with strict design and technical consistency across a range of activities and tight internal coupling, break things up.

Usefulness is more important than consistency. Flexibility is more important than slavishly following conventions. Everything on the web is just a single click away, so free up designers to work in a way that makes sense for every fragment of the web using the designs and tools that make sense to them rather than expecting that one size will fit all.

Things move so quickly now that agility counts above all else. Digital services need to be designed and built quickly, easy to adapt and small and cheap enough that they can be mothballed the second they no longer serve their purpose.

The title of David Weinberger’s book sums it up nicely: Small Pieces Loosely Joined.

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