When I posted my last post this morning, I had a great response. However, it wasn’t just the response I noticed, but the number of others who sent me their blog posts on the subject.
So, I’ve put a list here together of all the posts I’ve found on the subject, so that this can be a one-stop-shop for cases studies about technology could, or did, help the public sector respond to the recent snow “crisis”.
The list is a bit small – please, send me links to yours (tweet them to @kevupnorth) or leave them in the comments section
My recent post on social media in a crisis, my guest post on NOMAD about mobile working in the snow , a round-up of the snow discussion at UKGovCamp on and older posts on snow and emergency planning
John Popham from DIGITAL 2020 on how the internet could be used through twitter or learning platforms
Tim Hobbs, director of Bartec on how Twitter can get the word out in the snow
Dave Sugden from Village E-Learning on how the education sector could prepare for snow days
Donald Clark from UFI LearnDirect on the problems of closing schools (personal blog, not technology related)
James Clay on closing schools – should it matter – and when will we learn?
Ingrid Koehler from IDeA on examples of how councils used social media in the snow
Sarah Lay on how local gov snow-sites were not just accessed via the PC, or even the iPhone
Snow and the problems it causes are surmountable. The problem we have these days is the litigation society and the ‘not my job gov’ types. Aided and abetted by the useless HSE and greedy lawyers. Another reason for a countrywide shutdown is many schools have closed because rather than open up to a half full house they shut, thus saving themselves from OFSTED black marks for absenteeism. This has a seriously detrimental effect on the workforce as alternative childcare is not available at short notice.
The age of commonsense has died.
In order for us to continue in bad weather we will have to turn to remote working. I can’t see things changing now quangos, lawyers and the luvvies have such a hold on society, so we will have to work round it, possibly in the way suggested by one of the people on your list. @johnpopham has blogged that the internet can be a way of carrying on whatever the weather. What we now need to do is make sure everyone has access to reliable, affordable and good internet connectivity. Currently whilst government doesn’t get IT and ofcom and telcos are too busy milking the obsolete victorian phone network this isn’t possible, but if we can just get them to wake up and light some fibre this country could once again rule the waves. Once the infrastructure is upgraded there is scope to raise awareness and make plans for any contingency, fire famine or flood, frost, heat or snow, or even mass epidemics of disease. Also more home working will cut down our carbon footprint and save a fortune in both money and fossil fuels…
There is a lot to be gained from technology.
When IT works.
Chris
[...] There have already been posts about how council services and comms coped with the bad weather – there is a good round-up of those by Kev Campbell-Wright. [...]