currybetdotnet eGovernment archive

A painless way to file your tax return
Very often when I'm writing about some online application or web site or the other, I'm making a list of things that could be improved. It is always much nicer to be able to write something completely in praise of a system - in this case the HMRC's online tax self-assessment application. Well, I can't completely praise the system, since it is designed to part me with my hard-earned money. And you know they are only going to waste it...

Read the full post - Published September 12, 2008 in Application design, Product review, Usability, eGovernment

Trust me, the Child Benefit data loss risk to children isn't from paedophiles
One thing I noticed in the press coverage of the British Government's abject but predictable failure to protect personal data was this preposterous line of argument in an editorial in the Daily Mail: "The missing discs contain the names, addresses and dates of birth of every child in the country...Wouldn't fraudsters and child abusers give anything to get their hands on them?" Seriously, what are child abusers going to do with this information? Surely, and call me old-fashioned, if paedophiles...

Read the full post - Published November 25, 2007 in Children and Teenagers, Daily Mail, Web, eGovernment

DirectGov's indirect use of Google Ads
When I was researching my recent post about the Biased BBC blog on global warming, I was looking for some information on CO2 emissions. Naturally my research started at the Google search box, and when I got my results I was surprised to see that a link to DirectGov was one of the sponsored results for that search - how very pro-active I thought. But I was even more surprised when I clicked it, and was taken through to...

Read the full post - Published April 10, 2007 in Google, eGovernment

Petition the PM about BBC.com advert proposal
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that the BBC does not compromise its integrity and reputation by taking advertisements on its news website Alex Kirby has set-up a petition on Number 10's site to ask that the BBC be restricted from placing adverts on their international news pages. This petition wants to make sure that the BBC, one of the United Kingdom's most valuable and cherished gifts to the rest of the world, does not agree to...

Read the full post - Published March 23, 2007 in BBC, eGovernment

Working Together - lessons from the road-pricing petition for eGovernment
Next month sees what could be an interesting one-day event in London called "Working Together 2" - which I would have attended if my next flight into the UK didn't miss it by one day. The conference is looking at ways that the public and private new media sectors can combine together better to deliver value for people in the UK from new media solutions. (Although I see from Dave that the organisers could do with a little new media...

Read the full post - Published February 20, 2007 in Media, Politics, Web, eGovernment

Failing to petition Number Ten on Darwin Day
Having been nudged to sign a petition to make Charles Darwin day a national holiday in the UK, I rushed off over to the Number 10 Downing Street petitions site to do just that. Sadly, it wasn't playing fair today. First of all it wouldn't let me sign up because the site was too busy. Then, when I did get a confirmation email, following the link led me to a 503 Service Unavailable error page. The site is a beta...

Read the full post - Published February 12, 2007 in Daily Express, Politics, eGovernment

The spamosphere already have their eyes on Number 10's E-Petition site
In the last week or so the British have had the ability to petition their Prime Minister via the internet, using a beta site developed in partnership by mySociety with the the civil servants at the 10 Downing Street site. Despite it being a 'beta', it was prominently linked to from the homepage of the 10 Downing Street site - although to be honest the thing that caught my eye was trying to sell to children the concept that Government...

Read the full post - Published November 22, 2006 in Politics, eGovernment

Technology in Tony Blair's Party Conference speech
Tomorrow's newspaper headlines will be full of protest, Iraq, and hunting when they discuss Tony Blair's keynote speech to the 2004 Labour Party Conference. Naturally it was the references to technology that pricked up my ears - and there were two in his section on "ten things a future Labour third term can do for Britain's hard-working families". At number seven: "ending the digital divide by bringing broadband technology to every home in Britain that wants it by 2008" That...

Read the full post - Published September 28, 2004 in ID cards, Politics, eGovernment

Walthamstow West Community Council meeting
I got mailed today by Waltham Forest Council to remind me that the next Walthamstow West Community Council is on 6th September 2004 at McEntee School. The mail included as attachments the agenda and supporting papers, and the minutes from the last minute. One black mark though for Waltham Forest's EGovernment is that I couldn't find those documents on their web site. That's a shame, as it makes the community council feel a bit like a closed club. It...

Read the full post - Published September 6, 2004 in Politics, Walthamstow, eGovernment

London Elects - thumbs up
Wow! e-government is usually pretty damn shonky - but London Elects is impressive. It actually does a good job of explaining how to cope with the fact that as a Londoner I have five different things to vote for on June 10th, and what the different electoral systems are. Plus it gives information in 20 languages - 19 in PDF format, 14 in HTML. Just a shame I expect we'll still see the lowest turnout in history - and...

Read the full post - Published May 11, 2004 in Voting, eGovernment

Smartcards, standards, e-Government vs e-anything that doesn't work

Published August 14, 2003 in ID cards, eGovernment