Civility in service

It really is quite simple. If you wouldn’t have said it before there were social media, don’t say it now just because there are. If you work for an organisation, don’t be rude about its leaders, products or policies in public. Don’t imagine that online anonymity is an invisibility cloak. If you work in the […]

On being private in public

From the random juxtaposition of things in a feed reader come two posts, one human and passionate, the other dry and analytical, each illuminating the other. Here first is Julian Sanchez writing about The Trouble With “Balance” Metaphors: Legal scholar Dan Solove, for instance, argues forcefully that “privacy” is not a monolithic value defined by […]

Complaints choirs – the album

This is a great day for everybody who has been on tenterhooks for the last four years after watching the Helsinki Complaints Choir in action. I have just discovered that a dvd plus no fewer than three cds of complaints choirs from around the world is about to be released. For those too eager to wait or […]

Getting social with media

Three years ago, Owen Barder was the subject of an attack by the Daily Mail for his blog. It caught my attention partly because I knew Owen slightly and admired what I knew and partly because as a then much more tentative public sector blogger it was a reminder of just how unclear boundaries and […]

What if bears had indoor plumbing?

The pope is a catholic, it goes without saying. But perhaps it would be better if sometimes he were not. When papal elections come round, there is always a little comment in the press coverage to the effect that the college of cardinals can elect anybody they please – they don’t have to choose one […]

New voices of government

My post from May last year on who is blogging in government is picking up a lot of fresh attention at the moment (with thanks to Dominic Campbell and others for sharing it round).  The questions of whether the approach is a useful one and, if it is, who falls into which category are still […]

More on Apps for Elephants

My post last week on apps for elephants has prompted some interesting discussion.  Steph Gray had some eminently sensible practical thoughts on how government could balance the need to adapt to changing demands with the need to support openness and flexibility: Of course Government should be developing smartphone apps (though probably not iPhone exclusively) as […]

Apps for Elephants

The government is an elephant, as I have noted before.  It tries to dance, but finds it hard, and the smaller animals around it can get hurt.  The solution may be for the elephant to stand stock still, to do nothing for fear of treading on something more nimble, but more easily hurt. Or it […]

Mass compromise not mass personalisation

Politics is about collective decision making.  It’s hard not just because people disagree about the answers to particular questions, but even more so because they disagree about how those questions relate to one another.  The answer you get depends on the question you ask, and politics is about trying to find agreement on the questions […]