- Grand Theft Auto: Prostitute killing is a big hit
Feministing drawing attention to one of the hideous promo vids. Catherin Bennett had a good point in the Observer though today - oldies should play it before criticising, plus game play has some researched benefits: I'm game for Grand Theft Auto. You should be too. - China and the Internet
HT: Richard Sambrook. More on their censorship regime. - So long, Canada
Salon. Zealous new border regime - to the point of stopping fire trucks and ambulances - makes Canadians foreigners. - Websites go crazy tracking urban eccentrics
Wired. New local website trend creates new 'micro-celebrities'. - I would like to pay my council tax please
Lindsay from Ideal Government's travails trying to give money to Southwark council. - If you get free data, what will you do with it?
Guardian. Now it's out there, what to do with it. 'Can anyone think what you’d do with a lot of weather data?' - In pursuit of Digital Inclusion
Helen Milner from local online centres describes the positive economic spin-offs from addressing the - enormous - digital divide.
The Guardian newspaper recently calculated the cost of dealing with the 1.3 million most disadvantaged people in the UK at a staggering £44,538 per person*
Liz, somewhere in her 80s, who is a regular at a UK online centre in the South West. She keeps in touch with family, friends and community services by email, maintains her independence by getting groceries and prescriptions delivered to her door, and finds pension, health and other information at the click of an adapted mouse. She’s also made innumerable friends at the centre, follows hobbies on the internet and reads large text books online. - A day’s reporting
Dave Briggs @ the £295 at head 'digital inclusion' conference. Shurely shome misshtake here ... ? - POLL: Bush more problematic for McCain than Wright is for Obama
Via Crooks and Liars. - How do we fund journalism in future?
Roy Greenslade reporting from Aussie conference. He's pessimistic. - Facebook and privacy
Rory Cellan-Jones about 'how much data is accessible to developers who make applications for Facebook'. Tel Aviv Mayor Announces Monument to Gay Victims of Holocaust
Which is wonderful news.- Microsoft's Vista Struggling As Business Customers Snub It
- Public sector blogging in the Guardian
Via Dave Briggs. Patchy article. Highlights Richard Brunstrom, chief constable of North Wales police. - BBC iPlayer On Virgin Media TV
Lovely. Just a pity VirginMedia interactive is so b****y snails pace ...
Not on reader
- Mick Phythian from Leicester Uni is running research into electronic government channel measuremen
t via greatemancipator.wordpress.com If you have anything to do with this, please go and help him out by filling in the short survey and maybe commenting. - New and very interesting EU project the 'Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe'. It aims to build a platform for interoperability assets and services available to the public sector and its stakeholders in Europe, focusing on semantic (ie. content) interoperability.
- Not new (but just seen it) Farmsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by EU Transparency, a non-profit organisation in the UK and Kaas og Mulvad, a data consultancy in Denmark. The aim is to obtain detailed data relating to payments and recipients of farm subsidies in every EU member state and make this data available in a way that is useful to European citizens. The project has brought together journalists, analysts and campaigners in more than ten countries.
- The word on the web: 7 keyword trending tools
Dan Taylor has a useful survey. - The Most Dangerous Men in Kenya
Fascinating, rare interview with young men in Kisumu, on the banks of Lake Victoria and scene of some of the worst violence. - Nepal gets its first gay representative in parliament
And finally ...
Mommy 2.0 - A new picture book about plastic surgery aims to explain why mom is getting a flatter tummy and a 'prettier' nose."My Beautiful Mommy" is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael (a musclebound superhero type) and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: "You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn't fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better." Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.
I commented on Gallomanor that you just had to look at the audience photo to see who ends up going to these conferences - senior bureaucrats. It's self-defeating and says a lot in and of itself about how solutions to the issue under discussion and being evolved - top-down.
ReplyDeleteOn the unconference - there has been some talk of a second barcamp, which is the same idea I think. But also the public sector web managers group - which extends to include consultants like your dear self - will AGM in June. It would probably make sense to tie this to a second barcamp.