Susie and I have been out of the office – in my case battling an unexpected blizzard in Athens! – so apologies for the late posting. But no mystery – or indeed juicy conspiracy! – on the email address front I am afraid. It was just plain old fashion google research based on a delegate list.

Wish I could also admit to a juicy plot on the part of underhanded PR people to corrupt the web, but again alas I am afraid that the truth is less interesting…. Simply put, we reached out to people whom we thought – however mistakenly – might be interested in the London event in an effort to help promote an agenda we have worked on for years…. And did so as part of our voluntary role in helping to organise the event…. We are not PR people, and I can guarantee everyone that the publicly obtained emails were used for no more than this particular invitation, and will not be used again (unless of course we meet for that coffee and decide to stay in touch!)

That is not to excuse the mistake – or more importantly – the valuable lesson learned, which we have fully taken on board.

By the way, did anyone see the piece in the Guardian about the travel blogger? Raised some interesting issues, as did a recent study by the Centre for Policy Studies about the political use of the Internet in the UK. I’d be really interested in any thoughts anyone might have?

Firstly, I clearly need to apologise. We did not mean to bother anyone, let alone misuse email.

Still, point taken and lesson defintely learned! Perhaps we can incorporate this exchange into a session on how NOT to use the Internet. I always thought that a conference on WORST PRACTICE would be a sell out, and far more valuable than the usual blather.

Fatally flawed on technology? Fair point there. Without wishing to bore everyone with the history of eVoting I have always been a passionate advocate of the need to get standards, procedures and practices in place to ensure fairness, accuracy and transparency. Clearly have not been successful on this front!!!

I won’t tempt a complete loss of all intellectual legitimacy by inviting you to the London event 🙂 (Smiley function is not working, or worse yet my technology skills are continuing on their fatally flawed trajectory!!) But it would be great to get caught up soon and perhaps try to resolve the problems of the eGov universe over a glass of wine or two.

So please consider this an Offical, Non-Mistakenly Extended Invitation!! 🙂

Havent seen her since she spoke at a conference in Brussels with Andrew Pinder. I was a bit annoyed because I had reservations about what she said and raised this in Q&A but AP gave me short shrift and the aud. rated her higher than me – fair dos. I recall an excellent public speaker in a smart suit, confident, engaging, ready to listen (a bit). But was she (and the whole Accenture e-voting thang) perhaps fatally weak on technology?

Good to hear from you. Hi. Yes, it sounds as if we’ve got off on the wrong foot but you’ve taken it in good spirit and actually we have interests in common and should meet up for a coffee. Bloomsbury Mon-Wed most weeks works for me; drop me a line anytime on wmheath at gmail dot com

W

Under FOI I received some of their planning documents for their PR work – I can’t publish it I’m afraid, but they were very cunning in trying to manage media coverage and eliminating certain key people from the media discourse.

Sa spunem conducatorilor Europei ce dorim de la e-guvernare. Vom cheltui 88m de euro taxe pe an pentru informatizarea guvernarii in Europa. Am spus vreodata ce dorim? Sunt proiectele gandite pentru cetateni? Ne vor face viata mai usoara si vor veni in intampinarea
necesitatilor noastre? Putem sa ne incredem in ele? Este clar pentru noi ce dorim?

Sa aflam aici, online. Trimiteti un e-mail lui William Heath daca doriti o parola de autor.

Does that clear things up? That’s the only bit of Romanian I can lay my hands on which I think explains what we do here (but it may, of course, be offering some quite different and inappropriate service). I’m sure our friandly spammers would know, if only they identified themselves.