Wesenwille

This post is somewhat of a first for me.  While I work with Scott on a daily basis and we sit at opposite desks, we’ve never put our heads together to write a blog post before.  However, recently our office banter has touched on the subject of blogs (well, only some of it has, let’s [...]

This is not a political blog. As I’ve said in previous posts, I work hard to ensure that this commentary is a-political. I know a lot of other public sector bloggers, particularly those still in direct local government or central government employment, also steer clear of the “P” word. Maybe that’s why, despite columnists, broadcasters [...]

KEDDXSYFUXVE Today I was talking to several friends who have been, or are, involved in BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme.  For anyone who’s missed the news the last few days, this was the former Labour Government’s plan to re-build every secondary school in the country, which has been put on hold and looks [...]

I was very privileged this weekend to be part of the team organising LocalGovCamp Yorkshire & Humber.  I’m not in a hurry to claim too much credit.  A simple idea over twitter and a few drinks, a list of venues a friend sourced for me and a few emails was pretty much my input, with [...]

In education, e-safety is a key topic.  Well, let’s be fair, it’s a fairly key topic anyway, however recent changes to OFSTED’s Handbook for the inspection of further education and skills from September 2009 makes it quite clear that, in education, internet safety is of primary importance and that all learners should be aware of [...]

I don’t like farmville. There, I’ve said it now, I’ve got that off my chest. For those who don’t know, farmville is a Facebook based game with over 80million subscribers worldwide where people create a virtual farm and trade with their “neighbours” (other Facebook friends) to build better farms. Part of my dislike for this [...]

I’ve tried very hard to keep this blog a-political and this post is no exception.  However, as a former constituent of David Wright MP and a strong advocate of political use of social media, I felt it was important I put out a blog regarding the news story about the “Scum sucking pigs” comment that [...]

I was having a chat today with a student from Leeds University, who is doing a dissertation on brands in social media. This took me back a bit to my other areas of work but, also, during the discussion, made me think a bit about what we mean by brand. There was certainly a time [...]

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of spending the day with an inspirational group of people at UK GovCamp 2010.  UKGovCamps, for those who missed it, are informal “un-conference” get togethers of people with a passion for public sector technology and/or social media.  This one took place at the, frankly, inspirational offices of Google in [...]

Anyone who’s worked in a local authority will know about posts which are “politically restricted by way of remuneration”.  If you’re wanting to know the finer points of what this means, here’s Darlington Coucil’s guidance on the subject.  However, in short, it means that people in certain roles and above a certain pay grade at [...]