WRITTEN ON November 26th, 2007 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Ideal Goverment - project
High time we updated the IdealGov blogroll (now that Matt has reminded me how to do it in the redesigned version – cheers Matt) and apologies for not doing so way sooner. In time-honoured Web 2.x co-governing manner, please add in comments below any favourites, requests, and suggestions for inclusion or deletion. The old one is below.
Please remember, this isnt anyone’s blog in particular. It’s the blog for anyone interested in what we want from e-enabled government or who is prepared, when confronted with anything which is other than ideal, to ask “woudn’t it be better if…..?”
Sponsor
KINDRED SPIRIT BLOGS etc
Jerry Fishenden
Ian Brown
Richard Allan
Jeff Jonas, IBM
Sam Smith
Whitehall Webby
Matthew Somerville
Robin Wilton, Sun
Will Davies
Headshift
Louise Ferguson
CRITICAL FRIENDS/AWKWARD SQUAD
FIPR
The Big Opt-Out
Action on Rights for Children
No2ID
Light blue touchpaper
Perfect e-democracy
NHS23
Spy blog
Verified Voting
PERTINENT ART
Eclectech: Notional Identity
Ecletech Swizz of the cards
Handelsman: NSA wiretaps
Handelsman: US spying
Wearcam
Googlezon
ACLU privacy pizza
Three dead trolls
Stefanos Pantagis
CLASSIC LINKS
NCC: Playlist for public services
Cluetrain Manifesto
Sousveillance by Steve Mann
Stefan Brands’ book summary
Ross Anderson’s book
Engelbart: Mother of all demos
IDENTITY & SECURITY
Bruce Schneier
Kim Cameron, MS
Stefan Brands, Credentica
Toby Stevens, EPG
Information Commissioner
John Madelin
ID theft spy
Planet Identity
Pledgebank for refuseniks
Home Office ID cards
Credentica
Ann Cavoukian, Ontario
MYSOCIETY & SAM’S STUFF
MySociety/
They work for you
Fax your MP
DirectionlessGov
Comment on This
…and the original
Stand ID card campaign
PUBLIC SERVANT BLOGS
David Milliband
Read my day
Lynne Featherstone MP
David Copperfield – police
Roy Taylor, Kingston
ReadmyDay
Bill Sticker – parking
Ealing Magistrate
Cllr Andrew Brown
Reynolds/Ambulance
MAPS MASHUPS
Plymouth Schools
Ben’s UK speed cameras
5-day weather forecast
House sale prices
g-Traffic info
Place-O-Pedia
For Google maps mashups see
Googlemapsmania blog
ADVISERS, NGOs
Advice now
Advice Services Alliance
Advice UK
Citizens’ Advice
Old stuff
RSS in government blog
The ultimate aim of IT in Government must surely be to put the power back in the hands of the people. I know we’re a few years away from the Ideal Government, but when any citizen can propose what the subjects of debate will be and who the champions of the “for” and “against” camps will be, and when all citizens can then vote to ensure that only relevant issues occupy our very expensive administrative time, what need then of party politics or central government.
Can anyone explain why, in such a high tech society, I can only choose to vote for who I feel will do the best job on one or two issues. Then after the election I find I have voted in a whole raft of items known laughingly as “The Manifesto”. Why can’t we vote on each of these items individually or at least vote as to whether we want them in the manifesto at all? I believe this is the major reasont that politics is held in such low esteem by the general public. It is not politics that is out of favour but party politics causes all of the problems. There is a rising level of social consciounsess and as a society we are failing to respond to the needs of our citizens. The reason is simple and that is because our political system is still based firmly in the 18th Century. We caould do no worse if we became a Monarchy. At least someone would be able to make some decisions that can help society at least keep up with the social trends. Party politics should be the next thing under the microscope.
My next post will cover the outdated, expensive and totally unfair “Income Tax” system that was only introduced in the 1890s as a temporary measure to fund the Boer War. But I think I’llhave to find another blog for that one because I believe this blog is just about Government IT Issues, and I wouldn’t want to take away from that.
Andy Galloway