Things that mention Harry Metcalfe's stuffurn:uuid:2a673254-56ed-13d8-f3f7-bbba560a1fb22010-09-02T15:59:51+01:00HarryMetcalfe.com@paulheraghty is your site a working equivalent of jobCentreProPlus.com then?urn:uuid:f7449864-6f6b-5a4c-35ae-d507d9fb671c2010-09-02T15:59:51+01:00JobcentreProPlus:@paulheraghty is your site a working equivalent of jobCentreProPlus.com then?]]>Helpful Technology meetsurn:uuid:3e2f85d5-5172-82a3-7a72-ba5fdd07b98e2010-08-09T14:40:16+01:00Harry Metcalfe, Dextrous Web:Photo credit: PA via the Daily Telegraph. At the end of July, the Prime Minister and seven Cabinet colleagues visited India at the head of a huge British delegation of businesspeople, politicians and, unusually, entrepreneurial web ...]]><b>Harry Metcalfe's</b> Pagani Zonda C12s - Walkaround - Photos - Drivingurn:uuid:736b18a2-1166-c8a8-169a-e60356d6a3272010-08-05T20:53:31+01:00Harry Metcalfe:Author: Munch997 Keywords: Added: August 5, 2010 More...]]>Open data on the cheapurn:uuid:a09b1e2b-920d-53fa-c696-4d63f3f2eb922010-08-04T22:50:23+01:00ConsultationXML:Jimmy has asked for thoughts from developers and others on how the feeds might be cleaned up and made more useful, so do give him your ideas. Related posts: Public Appointments by RSS; Civil Service jobs, your way; ConsultationXML goes ...]]>Information is Beautiful hacks in India with David Cameronurn:uuid:c791ac4a-8a45-4cc8-5503-0b85588c9bed2010-07-30T14:42:09+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:The Prime Minister took some of the UK's top hackers and data experts with him to India this week. David McCandless was with them. This week, I was lucky enough to accompany UK Prime Minister's delegation to India. ...]]>Civic Hacking Workshopurn:uuid:823e0b54-abcf-62e3-3608-c33f4f2d5f1c2010-07-29T07:28:58+01:00Harry Metcalfe:A bunch of UK and Indian geeks gathered at Google office while Cameron was praising Sachin at Infosys campus. It was a kind of unconference made possible by CIS, with the UK Government's Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office Team for ...]]>MOONGIFT : PDFurn:uuid:5e25e600-88e6-82f3-cfc4-b7ba51f68e832010-07-07T08:00:00+01:00ConsultationXML:使いどころが難しいが、契約書などでベースになるPDFを作成し、それをConsultationXMLにアップロードしてクライアントの名前や住所などを編集し、再度それをテンプレートとしてPDFを生成するというのが妥当だろうか。なお、pdftohtmlが日本語に対応してい ...]]>New UK Consultation Directory: Tell Them What You Thinkurn:uuid:d01c49d2-d182-9f40-749e-ac75b7e0675a2010-07-06T09:01:57+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Update 07/06/2010: Apparently, the site isn't new at all (new to me, though). My bad. Still… nice work! Once again, the UK leads the way and shows us what's possible… The newly launched TellThemWhatYouThink.org is a website that ...]]>Usability of Geographical Information urn:uuid:a8836edf-894d-5fcb-7447-e1fa1e4a27202010-07-01T15:50:05+01:00ErnestMarples:Ordnance Survey Code-Point Open One of the surprises of the Ordnance Survey OpenData release at the beginning of April was the inclusion of the Code-Point Open dataset, which lists the location of all postcodes in England, ...]]>Costs of government websitesurn:uuid:960d9a90-47cb-f784-3c51-4b106f4209782010-06-28T22:53:37+01:00Dextrous Web:On Friday, the Government announced that it is intending to close up to 75% of the 820 public sector websites it has identified. The announcement coincided with a report from the Central Office of Information (COI) outlining statistics ...]]>Charles Arthur: RT @<b>dextrousweb</b> We're looking for an awesome <b>...</b>urn:uuid:1ef2e135-101e-cdd4-d885-12e451bf29812010-06-24T11:50:13+01:00Dextrous Web:Charles Arthur: RT @dextrousweb We're looking for an awesome developer to join the team. Please help spread the word! http://bit.ly/bKXJ7A #careers. (By @charlesarthur - Technology Editor - Guardian, Technology, United Kingdom)]]>Quick write up of 'Data Reveals Stories'urn:uuid:3c70c767-8651-1db2-4bfe-88a45e47284a2010-06-17T15:39:46+01:00ScenicOrNot:Introduction. Yesterday I attended 'Data Reveals Stories': Hoult Session # 2 with mySociety – with the blurb describing it as: Northern Film & Media host mySociety for our second Hoult Session: a one-day seminar in Newcastle on June 16 ...]]>Mapumental: Time & Scenicness in Maps - O'Reilly Radarurn:uuid:c6e3d860-6c2e-633c-f0d3-8951f9657f712010-06-03T08:00:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:MySociety's travel-time maps were pioneered by Chris Lightfoot. The most unique dataset included in Mapumental is "scenicness". The data was gathered by user votes in the web app Scenic Or Not. As Tom told me, "We have 173816 1*1 km ...]]>wp-hackers - Comments automatically being marked as spamurn:uuid:b5e5331b-fe2e-d4f8-add5-0438ec9a476c2010-05-20T15:45:08+01:00Harry Metcalfe:wp-hackers - Comments automatically being marked as spam by Harry Metcalfe on 2010-05-20T14:45:08+00:00; Re: wp-hackers - Comments automatically being marked as spam by Potkanski, Jason on 2010-05-20T14:56:00+00:00 ...]]>Browser-ABCurn:uuid:77c7dce9-18cb-a3e8-791e-958e2a88a3e82010-05-16T07:35:03+01:00Dextrous Web:Ich bin gerade erst darüber gestolpert – Sonntagmorgen, fragt nicht! – Christian Leu listet auf, welche Seite ihm der Browser für jeden einzelnen Buchstaben vorschlägt. Find' ich lustig, also steige ich verspätet noch ein. ...]]>Making the Wordpress source code something you'd want to readurn:uuid:e1f1d7ff-4d85-c066-2bc2-19202d78633a2010-05-12T00:13:38+01:00Dextrous Web:If you develop with Wordpress at all, you're likely to spend a fair chunk of your time wading through source code, and poring over the Wordpress Codex when something isn't working the way you expected, or when you're coding new features ...]]>WPDocs, toda la documentaciurn:uuid:585daa31-f11f-dbd3-703b-25410f8732342010-05-02T17:54:59+01:00Dextrous Web:Leyendo Ayuda Wordpress me acabo de encontrar con un impresionante sitio llamado WPDocs donde encontrarás toda la documentación acerca de las funcioneses y hooks de Wordpress, magnífico para todos los que trabajan con Wordpress ya que ...]]>links for 2010-04-13urn:uuid:99b7768b-c426-b9a5-b524-2f026b09b9912010-04-14T01:31:07+01:00Dextrous Web:Posty – our new gem for geolocation in Ruby – The Dextrous Web. ust last week Ordnance Survey released a tonne of data. This is of course a wonderful thing for everybody, and software making use of this data has only started appearing ...]]>Free Our Data: the blog urn:uuid:30791bf5-4b96-6fa0-4798-639337ba051f2010-03-24T11:02:28+00:00JobcentreProPlus:It was trivial for us to show that it costs more to restrict the use of the CodePoint database by JobCentreProPlus than it actually benefits the economy (because the fees paid to lawyers are greater than the cost of the database licence ...]]>Royal Mail destroying public sector online initiativesurn:uuid:b1c730ec-baca-69c1-1f8f-b9d26a9bae4e2010-03-23T19:45:11+00:00JobcentreProPlus:Jobcentre Pro Plus http://jobcentreproplus.com/ · The Straight Choice http://www.thestraightchoice.org/. How to contact your MP http://www.theyworkforyou.com/. @tom_watson 's Early Day Motion 2000 http://bit.ly/4onud7. Duration : 0:8:49 ...]]>Data Revolution? How far has the UK government gone in opening up <b>...</b>urn:uuid:d0fe4b21-1d59-a9d7-ef85-7c5da8f548782010-03-19T21:58:15+00:00JobcentreProPlus:Last year's event led to the creation of sites such as Companies Open House – where Companies House data can be accessed 24/7 – and Jobcentre Pro Plus – which is an open and accessible alternative to the Jobcentre Plus job finder. ...]]>Opening Up Ordnance Survey Data - Consultation Responseurn:uuid:127a80f9-17d5-51b8-c3de-5927fedb03592010-03-17T17:19:41+00:00ErnestMarples:OS consultation cover image. In response to a government consultation on 'Policy options for geographic information from Ordnance Survey' I wrote: I am writing to respond to the current consultation on restructuring Ordnance Survey. ...]]>Response to the consultation on opening access to Ordnance Survey dataurn:uuid:0dbb4dd3-1368-2ca2-f255-38f13e4a27642010-03-15T21:05:43+00:00ErnestMarples:The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, founded in 2006 is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. ...]]>Rewired State's massive Marchurn:uuid:5b0386d2-0f69-2cc0-ca61-aa57b7ee33c32010-02-20T20:37:35+00:00Dextrous Web:Those of you who know me, or follow me on twitter (@hubmum), can't have failed to notice that we (Rewired State) are putting on quite a few events in March. Also, the more eagle-eyed will have noticed that we have also turned ourselves ...]]>FREE the PostZon (UK Postcode Data)urn:uuid:0180e0c9-7416-1d17-8087-e27427d707d22010-02-01T19:39:00+00:00ErnestMarples:From the Free Our Data Blog: A new No.10 petition: FREE the PostZon and help innovate the UK Geo-spatial industry (We are in 21st Century now aren't we?) Mark Goodge added this as a comment to the data.gov.uk post, but it seems worth ...]]>Data.gov.ukurn:uuid:939d763c-5230-2aba-579a-ed02c727f2662010-02-01T07:21:00+00:00ErnestMarples:Last week the government announced the launch of Data.gov.uk, a public directory of various bits 'n' pieces of government-obtained data. The aim is that people use the information to create applicaitons which can be used elsewhere. ...]]>That's not what we mean by democracy.urn:uuid:ae7c3ace-6040-6700-7137-14b3e2d782872010-01-31T11:57:00+00:00JobcentreProPlus:2009 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 ...]]>That's not what we mean by democracy.urn:uuid:8768fd22-f771-73d9-3aab-6ffdf13ad8cf2010-01-31T11:57:00+00:00JobcentreProPlus:2009 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 ...]]>Locate that postcodeurn:uuid:84aacb7c-3afb-d7a6-fb48-9d7d8180ff3f2010-01-28T18:43:05+00:00ErnestMarples:http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/geopostcode/. Many of you will probably remember the news story a while ago about the forced closure of ernestmarples.com, a website which provided a free postcode geolocation API that was, in turn, ...]]>Locate that postcodeurn:uuid:c3ff3dfc-6832-fe90-68e2-bad34e118eaa2010-01-28T18:43:05+00:00ErnestMarples:http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/geopostcode/. Many of you will probably remember the news story a while ago about the forced closure of ernestmarples.com, a website which provided a free postcode geolocation API that was, in turn, ...]]>FSA begins corporate governance consultationurn:uuid:a7efaa45-3f9f-b456-462d-d9f604268e722010-01-28T16:03:31+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:by Insurance Times, January 28, 2010. The FSA has today issued a consultation paper on effective governance standards within firms. As part of its supervisory enhancement programme, the FSA is placing greater emphasis on the role of ...]]>Consultation on making Ordnance Survey mapping data freely availableurn:uuid:a060461b-c3b1-4a69-7cb5-0395112249a12010-01-27T10:27:28+00:00ErnestMarples:Ian Austin, Regional Minister for the West Midlands and Communities Minister, outlined proposals at the end of December 2009 on how to make Ordnance Survey mapping data freely available, so that the data can be re-used in innovative ...]]>That was the ukgc10 that wasurn:uuid:d2fc26ed-e61f-25dd-796b-e521f73095a72010-01-24T12:03:31+00:00Dextrous Web:Flickr photo credit: Paul Clarke. Blimey. The third annual unconference, or GovCamp, for government types went pretty well. Two main factors, marvellous and generous hosting by Google, and a terrific level of participation from pretty ...]]>Another nut to crackurn:uuid:35730a68-e766-90ee-4983-e862db26116e2010-01-22T17:32:00+00:00ErnestMarples:Just as everyone has been getting excited/delirious/innovative over the launch of data.gov.uk (and of course they should be chuffed) a little spanner appears in the metaphorical works. Over 2000 people signed this petition to No 10 ...]]>The right and left hands of open government data in the UKurn:uuid:414516e1-cbdd-ded5-8ec1-f3fc5fe83c812010-01-22T15:27:47+00:00ErnestMarples:As I'm sure everyone knows by now, the UK Government's data.gov.uk site was formally launched yesterday to a significant fanfare on Twitter and elsewhere. There's not much I can add other than to note that I think this initiative is a ...]]>data.gov.ukurn:uuid:e10c004b-63c6-5ac0-7dec-e643ea9c78e92010-01-21T07:58:00+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:I'm often rather cynical about Government websites, they tend to cost extortionately high amounts of money with little return value - the Department of Communities and Local Government is a case in point, where they spent thousands of ...]]>Adding RDFa to a consultationurn:uuid:5b0099ab-1ff0-683c-27e8-b71eb8349ceb2010-01-19T08:00:43+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Recently, I've been involved in a project to ensure our consultations support RDFa markup, to make them indexable and reusable by third parties, including Directgov. Without duplicating the quite accessible and useful COI guidance, ...]]>Can open data win votes?urn:uuid:c9511dd6-f291-75a3-ebf1-661c0805aab72010-01-18T21:29:47+00:00Dextrous Web:Some politicians seems to think so. Especially in Britain right now. Remember, there is a general election in the UK in June. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Labour) called for smarter government back in December when he presented ...]]>Publication of NHS e-<b>gov consultation</b>urn:uuid:3cd9608e-9b48-42fd-ac14-0dd20430fa612010-01-05T12:01:00+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:This published consultation (to which I was a contributor in 2008) is worth picking over for expressions of concern (and plaudits too of course) over programmes of planned NHS e-governance in research and the delivery of services to the ...]]>UK <b>Gov consultation</b> on the freeing of Ordnance Survey mapping <b>...</b>urn:uuid:eacf19e9-3f4c-b129-c79d-0d4a4be01ca12009-12-24T04:03:04+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Submissions are now being taken by the UK Government regarding the planned freeing of Ordnance Survey mapping of the UK. For more information please see. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_183630. and submit your views to ...]]>Way To Go, Ernest Marples! UK to Free Postal Code Databaseurn:uuid:22073be5-fd19-d879-346a-82552f72a6d72009-12-11T08:36:10+00:00Harry Metcalfe:According to a BBC report, the UK will make its postal code database available to the public in April of next year. This follows a rogue API that provided the data, but was mum about where it came from. That site, ErnestMarples.com was ...]]>'Openness Is Fuel For New Economies'urn:uuid:1068cef5-e16c-18dc-c5aa-80f7d202e0fa2009-11-26T12:11:57+00:00Dextrous Web:RecycleMotorOil I really liked Matt McAlister's take on the nuances in development of the semantic web, open data and Sir Tim Berner-Lee's new mission: "The semantic web folks, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, have been saying for years ...]]>Lynne Featherstone MP: Lib Dems support the Free Our Data campaign <b>...</b>urn:uuid:73741de1-30da-df4d-e53e-2038ffe4c33c2009-11-24T15:11:07+00:00JobcentreProPlus:Free Our Data is a campaign for free public access to data about the UK and its citizens. Most recently the issue has come to the fore when the Royal Mail threatened to sue the ernestmarples.com website, which provides used to provide a ...]]>Free Earnest Marples!urn:uuid:3cccd83e-81f4-7d1e-baee-02587886bc5d2009-11-07T21:20:51+00:00JobcentreProPlus:The Royal Mail have taken legal action against a non profit service, little known outside 'techy' circles called Earnest Marples, shutting it down. You're probably wondering what Earnest Marples is, and why it matters. ...]]>Postcodes for the public good, not for profiturn:uuid:cd1313f9-8363-57e3-dbac-5da67e8f3cae2009-10-29T00:00:00+00:00JobcentreProPlus:At the beginning of October, ErnestMarples.com, the free postcode lookup web service that powered websites such as PlanningAlerts.com and JobCentre ProPlus (which was developed at the Guardian Hack Day that I attended earlier this year) ...]]>What I (nearly) said at Government 2010urn:uuid:269e911d-98c7-5ca5-ee8f-0d5d9788df2a2009-10-25T13:21:36+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:As trailed, here come the notes of my contribution to the discussion about e-consultation at Government 2010 last Thursday. The session's title was “Digital engagement is everyone's job: formal and informal consultation online” and on ...]]>Cracking the Postcodeurn:uuid:1a502dfc-96d4-7031-d4b3-946054e04ad52009-10-20T14:43:28+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Postcodes have become the new bugbear of the UK opendata campaigners, its something everything knows and uses as their default spatial reference to home or work. As such, its the reference that is essential to make many location enabled ...]]>Royal Mail sets new standard for public disserviceurn:uuid:6ebd4b77-d39b-c6ed-76b2-29736ae64cc32009-10-14T14:50:51+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Not content with threatening to disrupt Santa's annual tour of duty with a series of strikes staged by the Communication Workers Union, the Royal Mail is currently working on new ways to spread misery and ill-will around the British ...]]>Backlash to Royal Mail legal threatsurn:uuid:d2ff8478-8cdd-a7ce-f8cb-ba12af4497df2009-10-14T10:04:56+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Surreptitiously, and with a “not for publication” notice, the Royal Mail last week succeeded in shutting down a swathe of important community online tools. They range from helping you to find jobs like Job Centre Pro Plus to increasing ...]]>Paying for postcodesurn:uuid:ea45b41c-974b-e7ff-e64f-5abe133881fb2009-10-13T19:56:13+01:00JobcentreProPlus:David Howarth MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA. Dear David Howarth,. I would like to encourage you to sign Early Day Motion 2000, proposed by Tom Watson: That this House notes with concern the attempts of Royal Mail to restrict ...]]>Another fight for free dataurn:uuid:6348c2d4-b272-ee2d-941e-b4d5b6322ca22009-10-13T12:18:20+01:00JobcentreProPlus:It's not just the Guardian that are fighting for 'Free Our Data'. Ernest Marples set up a site offering postcode data for free, sourcing the data from Free The Postcode and utilising them in two key (free) services, PlanningAlerts.com ...]]>Another fight for free dataurn:uuid:1864c6eb-4746-13cb-a5e1-8b9c336551dd2009-10-13T12:09:08+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Ernest Marples set up a site offering postcode data for free, sourcing the data from Free The Postcode and utilising them in two key (free) services, PlanningAlerts.com and Jobcentre Pro Plus. Both services targeted at making public ...]]>Tom Watson on the Royal Mail and postcodesurn:uuid:1f7eac99-6211-e500-7de2-a859a7fd4ad62009-10-09T09:10:04+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Sites like planningalerts.com, thestraightchoice.com and jobcentreproplus.com make our information rich lives easier. They're also good for the economy. Harry Metcalfe, one half of the talented duo that created the site reckons that ...]]>Save Ernest Marplesurn:uuid:6c075aaf-a19a-9c5d-1651-886c5f7898ea2009-10-08T23:36:05+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Earlier this year, a few people decided to do something about this and created ErnestMarples.com, which provides a postcode API to not-for-profit websites such as PlanningAlerts.com, Jobcentre Pro Plus and The Straight Choice. ...]]>Royal Mail threat over postcode siteurn:uuid:52edee9c-3743-54f8-b10e-c4d8bc5317952009-10-06T20:00:53+01:00JobcentreProPlus:The Labour MP Tom Watson called the move “idiocy” at a time when Royal Mail is looking to cut its workforce, on the basis that websites such as Job Centre Pro Plus, which lets people search for jobs near their postcode, are powered by ...]]>open...: Postcodes: Royal Failurn:uuid:49c1aea0-25ac-1f0d-0e41-b4eac015113e2009-10-06T15:06:00+01:00JobcentreProPlus:We understand that this will cause harm and considerable inconvenience to the many people who are using or intend to use the API to power socially useful tools, such as HealthWhere, JobcentreProPlus.com and PlanningAlerts.com. ...]]>Royal Mail uses legal threats to shut down service that provided <b>...</b>urn:uuid:95573154-1b71-6aac-532f-bc62492761402009-10-06T12:58:18+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Amongst the many non-profit services that face closure today is Job Centre Pro Plus, which allows you to find jobs near you. Royal Mail is currently looking to reduce its workforce of 121000 postal workers. ...]]>Ernest Marples: An elegyurn:uuid:ced76a14-6d77-c128-292a-4a9d6acf24d82009-10-05T21:50:02+01:00JobcentreProPlus:In a time of high unemployment and higher uncertainty, you gave people a fast and easy way to find vacancies near them through Jobcentre Pro Plus without having to suffer the frustrations and indignities of the Jobcentre “adviser” and ...]]>Ernest Marples UK postcode site has been taken downurn:uuid:7bca7e4f-d675-d7a0-54bf-296d7304f4212009-10-05T13:11:45+01:00Harry Metcalfe:Ernest Maples, a free service providing postcode data which we blogged about in July has recently been taken down due to legal action from the Royal Mail. Harry Metcalfe, one of the directors of the project, writes: ...]]>hmg.gov.uk/data and What We Can Dourn:uuid:f28668cd-f815-59ba-c67d-476a9f65f0c82009-10-03T15:00:24+01:00Harry Metcalfe:This week, the Cabinet Office went live with a preview version of hmg.gov.uk/data, available only to those who subscribe to the UK Government Data Developers Google Group. Harry Metcalfe has written a great review, or of course you can ...]]>mylifemyid: How young people rejected ID cardsurn:uuid:ecf27ab6-e062-9915-832f-913ecc477e9a2009-09-22T10:55:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:The Register reports on how the Home office is refusing to publish research which it carried out last year with people aged between 16 and 25 on the subject of the UK ID card scheme. The site was http://mylifemyid.org, and of course ...]]>Speaking (and listening!) at Government 2010urn:uuid:7e179f1f-68f7-ae49-b4b2-440b7a1ebbda2009-09-19T11:30:18+01:00Harry Metcalfe:I'll be taking part in a discussion panel on online consultation at Government 2010 on 22 October – alongside Harry Metcalfe, Tom Watson and David Price. The theme is: Digital Engagement is Everyone's Job: Formal and Informal ...]]>Speak Up Or For Ever Shut The Feck Up!urn:uuid:cd3ddf02-9134-c8eb-adae-eec5b7fb0ac22009-09-15T13:42:17+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Well we all knew that the Government was planning to improve our access to coastal land. crow has been one of the very rare good things that this Government has done for us (despite no legal right to wild camp). ...]]>ErnestMarples.com serves up free postcode data (just don't tell <b>...</b>urn:uuid:15e6ebff-dd5d-3180-cd95-9e688bf86f902009-08-29T08:12:33+01:00Harry Metcalfe, JobcentreProPlus:Projects created to date using the ErnestMarples.com API include PlanningAlerts.com, which alerts you of planning applications submitted near you; The Straight Choice, an election leaflet monitoring service and Jobcentre Pro Plus, ...]]>Scenicness Map of Great Britainurn:uuid:baa2c350-26df-8ec8-b7b2-2e73f6376bca2009-08-21T18:32:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:This was made a while ago, but never really publised - so time it was given a bit more exposure… Thanks to the thousands of people rating locations over at scenicornot, and the fact those locations are tied to Geograph images, ...]]>No Telling How Ernest Marples Freed the UK Postal Codeurn:uuid:7b938420-9f1a-a080-8ca8-25cc39d015c22009-08-19T06:58:58+01:00Harry Metcalfe:A community-minded API has a politcal message for the uk's Royal Mail: open up the postal code database. ernestmarples.com is named after the former postmaster general who apparently first oversaw the introduction of the postal code in ...]]>links for 2009-08-15urn:uuid:72ae26c8-b643-3e64-2bf9-226da1e329b82009-08-15T09:03:59+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Jobcentre proplus. A much improved job search page "snaffled" from Jobcentre Plus. (tags: jobs government). Stafford Direct. (tags: stafford). Stoke-on-Trent City Council crime levels & statistics. (tags: tools maps safety) ...]]>Hot or Not on Google Maps - Updatedurn:uuid:56a6a90c-3a0e-37e8-0009-69e9db8df74b2009-08-10T15:05:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:scenicornot scenicornot is an interesting project from mysociety to find the most attractive places in Britain. The site uses a 'hot or not' format to get users to rate photographs taken around the UK. The site includes a leaderboard of ...]]>Engaging in the DNA database debateurn:uuid:94ed0d82-f346-f256-d218-d9f532f7a6be2009-08-06T17:09:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:With close to 8% of the UK population on the National DNA Database (NDNAD), you must know someone whose DNA profile is on it. Finding out how to get off it and attempting to engage in a proper debate about its future I found the Home ...]]>Tell Them What You Think betaurn:uuid:4cf649e1-757e-0112-8b90-30232ab9118c2009-07-31T12:01:45+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Tell Them What You Think beta. A massive government-wide consultation finder database! About time! Its currently in beta so its not all singing and dancing as yet, but what a fantastic premise. We at Delib are no stranger to a ...]]>DNA database unauthorised use and data loss, and incorrect storing <b>...</b>urn:uuid:951fea5c-3f66-6001-fc51-798a4e3b15c52009-07-24T05:26:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:The government has a habit of forgetting data on trains and unauthorised access, so what's the situation concerning the National DNA Database (NDNAD). As too often with the Home Office, there's some confusion. On Monday 20th July, ...]]>Developers working to free postcode dataurn:uuid:39bdafeb-05c1-8c4d-224c-d98573c4c9782009-07-23T04:00:15+01:00JobcentreProPlus:“So we are setting them free and using them to run Planning Alerts and Jobcentre ProPlus. We're doing the same as everyone's being doing for years, but just being open about it. “Hopefully, the government and Royal Mail will realise the ...]]>Postmaster General Ernest Marples' Postcode Lookup APIurn:uuid:ded3aa16-05ad-fba2-3f5f-3e47bd39ea0a2009-07-14T17:03:24+01:00Harry Metcalfe, JobcentreProPlus:So we are setting them free and using them to run planningalerts.com and Jobcentre Pro Plus. We're doing the same as everyone's being doing for years, but just being open about it. There are now several free sources of UK postcode data ...]]>Money is fertilizer, companies are soilurn:uuid:42a54713-9747-071e-d57a-d68d01f0a7f32009-07-12T13:49:27+01:00Harry Metcalfe:I spent a fair chunk of yesterday working on a redesign of the new ORG website, with Felix, Chris, Mike, Harry, and after we had finished for the talking with Felix about the recession and worthwhile work. We both have friends who work ...]]>opentech, apis and the T wordurn:uuid:8b3943bf-d24f-4275-5b10-2511c9456aa72009-07-08T22:39:49+01:00ScenicOrNot:I was down in London last weekend for opentech, which was up to the usual high standard and full of useful talks on all manner of techy things. I made some useful contacts during the course of the day and have some ideas for how to take ...]]>links for 2009-07-06urn:uuid:b6d9b6c8-897b-d41b-73ec-ddd170dbcc452009-07-06T15:03:23+01:00ConsultationXML:Documents. Harry Metcalfe's rather nice and polished PDF parser… might be handy for tiddlydocs. (tags: harrymetcalfe pdf pdfparsing portabledocumentformat library dev converter xml)]]>A fantastic slippy appurn:uuid:848d0d12-6ec0-48c6-188f-1a9ef41bf3b82009-07-03T20:49:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:Der bliver normalt ikke lagt nogle fingre imellem når der anmeldes kort applikationer på denne blog, men her er en applikation som i den grad har fået superlativerne til at flyde ... Jeg kunne dog desværre ikke checke siden da den var ...]]><b>scenicornot</b> raw data now available for re-useurn:uuid:d804fae4-ce73-a93b-34a3-d56e2c16f3cd2009-06-26T08:58:30+01:00ScenicOrNot:Matthew's just updated scenicornot, the little game that we built to provide a 'Scenicness' dataset for Mapumental, to include a data dump of the raw data. The dump will update automatically on a weekly basis, but currently it contains ...]]>Crowdsourcing policy, visualising debate and evolving consultationurn:uuid:9d2d5378-607d-c784-40a8-daa847c0f3ee2009-06-23T07:30:19+01:00ConsultationXML:Harry Metcalfe and Steph Gray of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (DBIS) came up with consultationxml, a way for web publishers to convert “horrid” PDF data into meaningful XML . The resulting XML can then be transformed ...]]>Scenic or Not ?urn:uuid:85dbd937-6c1d-3ee0-21b5-b042af26c71c2009-06-19T15:08:16+01:00ScenicOrNot:A webpage I'm sort of enjoying lately from time to time is this thing called "Scenic or Not"... which is like Hot or Not except that you vote on what pictures of Britain are scenic... or not (funnily enough). They get the pictures from ...]]>Mapumental: where can I live?urn:uuid:d57e7b81-666f-0bb1-af3c-39c6caa499a82009-06-12T14:55:47+01:00ScenicOrNot:Channel 4 and mysociety – the non-profit organisation who build cool stuff for the public good – have teamed up to create a new website to help people work out where to live, work or holiday. Mapumental, currently in invite-only beta, ...]]>Mapumental: where can I live?urn:uuid:d19c9176-8797-cc34-2553-3100b03e8e2f2009-06-12T14:55:47+01:00ScenicOrNot:Channel 4 and mysociety - the non-profit organisation who build cool stuff for the public good - have teamed up to create a new website to help people work out where to live, work or holiday. Mapumental, currently in invite-only beta, ...]]>Mapumental - mae o'n...mental?urn:uuid:cc0e7140-7f6f-484e-c612-c6475985ad6e2009-06-09T13:52:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:Ydych chi'n cofio cofnod ar Metastwnsh gan Rhodri am wefan ScenicOrNot? Gwefan gan MySociety oedd o ble gofynwyd i bobl gyfrannu at bosiect "hush, hush" drwy raddio gwahanol golygfeydd ar draws ynys Prydain. ...]]>Mental Mapsurn:uuid:059bca3c-5682-ee7e-1348-d14453bd54ba2009-06-04T21:10:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:We've been thinking about the way we view or perceive our local area in Year 6. One of the things we looked at was how to assess our local area and we used this site (thanks to geoblogs) to get us warmed up. ...]]>Mapumentalurn:uuid:a8022a4f-8ba2-8cea-0896-b6295bfcf5242009-06-01T16:22:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:Mapumental. This is a new, currently BETA only, mapping service produced by MySociety in association with 4ip, and explains what the voting that was going on at SCENIC OR NOT was all about. ...]]>BBC - Magazine Monitor: Web Monitorurn:uuid:6093b1e7-4ff9-2072-7da6-2973162b03ea2009-05-21T16:35:15+01:00ScenicOrNot:Scenic or not isn't so different although collagen pouts are replaced by rivers and willow trees. This is a mini site of mysociety.org - a website dedicated to increasing democracy, so Web Monitor got suspicious that it couldn't just be ...]]>NEWS: WEBSITE OF THE DAY - <b>scenicornot</b>urn:uuid:1eae6863-d529-d005-03d4-52713c2992622009-05-13T00:00:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:Beauty spots of the UK - rate them or hate them. Ah, this sceptr'd isle, this green and pleasant land. ... Read WEBSITE OF THE DAY - scenicornot on Pocket-lint now.]]><b>scenicornot</b>urn:uuid:9eee8164-1d50-0ef3-8404-81147c300f2a2009-05-12T14:32:53+01:00ScenicOrNot:scenicornot. mysociety are crowdsourcing opinions on how “scenic” different parts of the UK are, by rating representative photos from Geograph.]]>opengovurn:uuid:d8ef7ffd-6f09-66c2-6d27-b17a1fddd13d2009-05-03T20:06:06+01:00Harry Metcalfe, JobcentreProPlus:... but Alex Butler's contributions were a real highlight – both during her speech and in her refreshing interactions with audience throughout the day, especially in response to Harry Metcalfe's talk about Jobcentre proplus. ...]]>Investigative journalism foiledurn:uuid:00b18ca6-f35a-7fb9-5f33-6d8c66529c962009-04-27T20:21:09+01:00ScenicOrNot:... though Mr Steinberg was not prepared to reveal what that would be." That would presumably be because it's a secret. (For those who cba to read the bbc news link above: the site concerned is a new mysociety project, Scenic or Not. ...]]>Hunt begins for most scenic spotsurn:uuid:71bbde3d-5198-d7a9-1350-4ac30bda63552009-04-27T12:20:04+01:00ScenicOrNot:Scenic Or Not website, ” border=”0″ vspace=”4″ hspace=”4″> ...]]>rosskendall: <b>Scenic or Not</b> - Rate the UK's pretty places http <b>...</b>urn:uuid:8d398967-cdda-a3af-a787-ee8e5b2ffece2009-04-27T11:18:56+01:00ScenicOrNot:rosskendall's status on Monday, 27-Apr-09 10:18:56 UTC.]]><b>Scenic or Not</b>?urn:uuid:6158f4d0-4d61-8c90-dbf3-bf4fc3f166dc2009-04-24T17:51:00+01:00ScenicOrNot:I love the new Scenic or Not website where we get to rate pictures taken from all over the UK. It's fun ... but I do hope we can use such tools to help understand what we value in our environment. We clearly do make distinctions between ...]]>eFoundations LiveWire: OpenGov mashup* eventurn:uuid:87e6d304-66bb-f0fb-4d12-1f4899a0eb332009-04-22T09:46:38+01:00JobcentreProPlus:Sharon Cooper, DirectGov Director of Strategy & Product Design. Chris Thorpe, Developer Advocate for the Guardian Open Platform. Jonathan Akwue, Digital Public. 15:30 UK Projects in Open Government. Harry Metcalfe - Job Centre Pro Plus ...]]>Dewis yr wythnosurn:uuid:a976a79c-267a-1739-a82f-1ab30b329b162009-04-17T10:08:18+01:00ScenicOrNot:Mae Scenic Or Not yn side-project gan MySociety sydd yn edrych i gasglu data yn rhoi gwerth 'scenicness' i luniau o leoliadau sydd wedi eu cofnodi ar wefan y Geograph, sydd yn ceisio rhoi llun o bob cilomedr sgwar yn y DU. ...]]>mysociety launches <b>scenicornot</b>urn:uuid:c015ffea-13a3-47d3-51ae-bb467ed9e5d22009-04-10T17:34:22+01:00ScenicOrNot:The goal of scenicornot is to be a gentle-ambling sort of quasi game that's just compelling enough to keep clicking on, just in case the next picture is the dream valley in which you wish to be buried. mysociety's obviously not in the ...]]>I love <b>Jobcentre ProPlus</b>!urn:uuid:acc6ff8a-8582-c70b-5a6d-c4cafef972112009-03-23T21:13:57+00:00JobcentreProPlus:THIS FIELD IS NO LONGER ACTIVE. location: Sandwell, UK. http://12seconds.tv/channel/wesharestuff/116038.]]>I really dig <b>Jobcentre Pro-plus</b>urn:uuid:13cb29d3-36b8-52ac-e8ca-ae7c7c5ee40c2009-03-23T19:23:45+00:00JobcentreProPlus:I love Jobcentre ProPlus! on 12seconds.tv. http://jobcentreproplus.com.]]>Converting pdfs into other formatsurn:uuid:016ffa42-88a6-4321-26a2-3d265541662f2009-03-19T15:24:51+00:00ConsultationXML:Thanks to my colleague Clive for pointing out this helpful site provided by the DIUS. It is a useful online function that converts .pdf files into .html, .xml or image files.]]>Project updateurn:uuid:1ecce77f-01ea-6d7f-501d-d5c4bc0b53762009-03-11T12:38:55+00:00JobcentreProPlus:JobCentre ProPlus, simplifies the current system and allows information to be shared in numerous ways. We're just looking into how we can incorporate this into the engage site so stay tuned for news very soon. ...]]>Rewiring the State for the public goodurn:uuid:86dd98ea-93ed-06ca-4dc1-fcc7447eb32e2009-03-09T17:55:34+00:00JobcentreProPlus:In any event that's not meant to be discouraging because there's excellent value in the networking and the sharing of ideas and techniques. There's more on the 'winning apps' from the day jobcentre proplus and Companies Open House, ...]]>Live wiresurn:uuid:6afbfe09-deed-5ec0-69f7-17a7700e32432009-03-08T21:03:16+00:00JobcentreProPlus:... other sources (site, video); Jobcentre ProPlus - using post codes as the initial way in to the Jobcentre Plus job vacancy database, then displaying just enough about each job to make it easier to tell what they are really about. ...]]>RT @tom_watson UK Government curn:uuid:da0c9bf2-4f1f-f70c-0967-0fb5e2f17da32009-02-28T08:08:31+00:00ConsultationXML:RT @tom_watson UK Government contributes to Open Source with consultationxml: http://bit.ly/1l3ob And Steph's take here: http://bit.ly/rtkor.]]>consultationxml goes open sourceurn:uuid:e2aa5e44-df41-811d-0a16-87319e50ad4e2009-02-27T22:14:57+00:00ConsultationXML:As Harry's explained over on The Dextrous Web, we've just open sourced the code behind consultationxml, the tool we've been working on which turns consultation PDF files into XML. It's a 0.1 release so still full of bugs, ...]]>E-<b>Gov consultation</b> on nuclear powerurn:uuid:8eb5ddb0-52fb-697d-30c2-e44aa87dd4ee2009-02-09T22:27:00+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Dear Carbon Cutter, please look at this consultation on new nuclear power stations and let them know what you think. I wanted to post a comment in the name of Abingdon Carbon Cutters to ask whether the money ear-marked for nuclear power ...]]>Freeing data, reducing painurn:uuid:7dd47dd2-3f5f-3c91-f2e7-ffdba2a0ddb72009-02-02T23:24:12+00:00ConsultationXML:At Barcamp on Saturday, Harry Metcalfe of tellthemwhatyouthink and I presented some work we've been doing to build a web application which makes it easier to turn PDF versions of consultation documents into structured XML. ...]]>New small tools for better government, horrid pdf's and the Power <b>...</b>urn:uuid:5a9e1eb0-753d-1ae5-36df-3b10f31617f22009-02-02T21:10:37+00:00ConsultationXML:You've got two weeks to get your thoughts into the Power of Information Report. They've offered it up on wordpress to allow people to start commenting. Compare this with how the same group were presenting information a year ago. ...]]>barcamplondon5 Spilloverurn:uuid:5027f539-03f4-3509-aff4-38072dd551eb2008-09-27T20:51:35+01:00Harry Metcalfe:Today I spent up and down the Strand, an old stomping ground from AOL Time-Warner days. I was most of the day at the BCS offices, attending barcamplondon5 Spillover. It was due to start at nine. I was late. ...]]>Mandatory Levels for CFSHurn:uuid:a1fece6a-351e-1e67-a543-76fefa4801b92008-08-20T08:00:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:HM Gov consultation document, 'The future of the code for sustainable homes: making a rating mandatory' sets out the government decision to propose a mandatory rating as opposed to a mandatory assessment. ...]]>On consultationurn:uuid:002ab137-02ec-d516-4f44-0e1d30d10a792008-07-06T16:48:46+01:00Harry Metcalfe:On Thursday night I was lucky enough to be invited to Number 11 for a few drinks with various online luminaries, including a bunch of guys who went on Web Mission 08 and lots of lovely government webbies too, courtesy of Tom Watson, ...]]>Consultations supersite mkIIurn:uuid:7d70445a-5201-ecf5-8483-77a70cbf00a82008-02-27T10:42:53+00:00Harry Metcalfe:Thanks to Jeremy for pointing out Harry Metcalfe's new 'Tell Them What You Think', the latest mass screen-scraping exercise from the MySociety stable: this time, it's government departments' consultation exercises. ...]]>What gov webbies can do to improve awareness of their published <b>...</b>urn:uuid:b4d2c4e1-46b0-ec5a-139f-41cbd944264c2008-02-26T21:15:18+00:00Harry Metcalfe:I had the good fortune to meet Harry Metcalfe recently. Harry told me that he was building a web service that would aggregating information about all government consultations published online. By pulling the information into his site, ...]]>Excellent new consultations site from Harry Metcalfeurn:uuid:6b1a5221-79dd-7e51-3070-a5beb8e04e832008-02-22T12:47:54+00:00Harry Metcalfe:I only met Harry Metcalfe a few weeks ago, when he was volunteering for the Open Rights Groups. Since then he's dazzled us with his completely single handed production of tellthemwhatyouthink, a site which draws most central government ...]]>links for 2008-01-22urn:uuid:e741d2d3-a594-ff62-4230-2aaae9b824ac2008-01-22T04:20:45+00:00Harry Metcalfe:Consultation Feeds. "This site, which is very much a work in progress, indexes the details of government consultations from the various websites upon which they're published." (tags: consultation egovernment feeds governmentit) ...]]>28 November - blogrollingurn:uuid:be6c9c41-5626-60a2-71b5-6cb5d441aff32007-11-28T07:11:23+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Last call for comments on Oz Gov Consultation Blog. Now, to the ampitheatre. Bastard Logic. “I think of you all day long, so try to get some sleep”. CBSA Dziekanski Report: jolicoeur “very,very sorry” ...]]>Last call for comments on Oz <b>Gov Consultation</b> Blogurn:uuid:64295ffc-a34a-dcb0-e4d6-3e7f9ea30bbf2007-11-28T01:00:19+00:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Any of you who are interested in Australian policy, administrative procedures and politics who have a blog or comment on others need to know that comments on the Australian Government Consultation Blog Discussion Paper must be in by ...]]>New nuclear row as green groups pull outurn:uuid:285a63a5-08b8-7a8c-b0fc-4f4e5581ecbf2007-09-07T15:36:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:And that issue seems to be at the heart of a report that could herald the formal withdrawal of a green coalition from UK gov's consultation on nuclear power. The report "accuses the government of 'conducting a public relations stitch-up ...]]>Medical and health services managers A masters degree in health <b>...</b>urn:uuid:6a0b58d5-33d6-fed1-e395-fa1d69b1645e2006-08-14T22:04:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:...Source: stats.bls.govConsultation and Liaison Manual A model and manual developed in Australia to assist mental health services staff and General Practitioners work together more efficiently.Source:]]>mental illness, mental health information center National Mental <b>...</b>urn:uuid:674c8654-147d-0ef5-9125-673932a9adaa2006-08-11T22:16:00+01:00TellThemWhatYouThink:Source: www.mentalhealth.samhsa.govConsultation and Liaison Manual A model and manual developed in Australia to assist mental health services staff and General Practitioners work together more efficiently.Source: www.health.vic.gov.au.]]>I am a Job Seeker Plusurn:uuid:e667c031-ec05-76e7-2eed-693e91f108c52006-06-27T12:15:42+01:00JobcentreProPlus:I also thought of some other names the Job Centre Plus might call itself: Super Job Centre Plus, Job Centre Pro Plus, Job Centre Extra, Mega Job Centre Extra, Job Centre Supplementary, Winner Job Centre, Super Duper Job Centre Plus, ...]]>
Scenic Or Not website, ” border=”0″ vspace=”4″ hspace=”4″> ...]]>