The role of BT in providing the digital backbone for our nation is currently in the public spotlight as Grant Shapps has published a report into the state of Internet access in the UK. The report recommends that BT is forced to sell off its infrastructure business OpenReach to encourage more competition and a better service for … Continue reading Broadband – the perfect place for Government as a Platform
Category: Technology
The Internet, and in particular social networks, for all their wonderfulness, are crammed full of banal aphorisms, insights that aren't insightful, and motivational proclamations that make me want to take a spoon to my own eyeballs. I saw one of the last category last week on one of the many channels I pop into now and … Continue reading One-speed IT
I've written in the past about the curious evolutionary mutation that happened in the railway industry in the middle of the 20th Century with experiments to develop diesel-fueled steam locomotives. In hindsight the idea of using a different fuel to power an engine that operated using the same propulsion methods as coal-fired steam engines was obviously daft, … Continue reading Steam diesels revisited
The National Audit Office yesterday published a fascinating paper examining the role that contract and consulting staff play within central government and the broader civil service. I found it a somewhat depressing read. The short version: contractors and consultants can be used to help bring in resource on a short-term basis to add skills or capacity when … Continue reading Interchangeable units of resource
I can't draw. Well, not very well at least. There's one massive psychological block I've got to drawing, and that stems back to when my O Level art teacher, Miss Moon, told me outright just before my exams "You've got a reasonable eye, Matt. The problem is you can't draw." That kind of stuck. But, … Continue reading Sketch lines
Over the past few months I've been immersing myself in the world of collaboration and organizational sharing. Here are the books that have been helping me along the way... Danah Boyd It’s Complicated an anthropological investigation of how teenagers use social networks Peter Checkland & Sue Holwell Information, systems & information systems a primer on … Continue reading #sharingorg bibliography
I had a fascinating conversation this morning with the HR Director of a large engineering company as part of my #sharingorg research. He has been helping to foster a change in how his organisation collaborates internally and externally, necessitated by changes in the markets in which the company operates (they're big in mineral commodities, mineral commodities … Continue reading Living the values
I spent a lot of time driving over the Winter break, and as a result had a lot of time to think as we hurtled down the French péage road network. Ironically, I seemed to be thinking a great deal about the challenges faced by self-driving cars... What has struck me is, as ever, the … Continue reading Changing lanes
It's that time of the year when pundits start taking their crystal balls down from the shelves and giving them a good polish as they start to wheel out their predictions for the year ahead. The more outlandish the prediction, the more coverage it gets. The more outlandish the prediction, the more chance it's total … Continue reading Polishing my crystal balls
Of all of the social networks I use regularly, I think that Twitter is probably my favourite. It's the least constrained, most chaotic. It's the place where one can interact with friends, strangers, people, "brands". It's kind of lawless. And as a result, it's not to everyone's taste. My hunch is that, for the way … Continue reading Social promiscuity
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