Now this is absolutely terrifying; the Tory policy on what to do with the NHS National Programme for IT is apparently to give everyone’s data to “Google or Microsoft”. And that appears to be it. This is deranged in several ways. First of all, MICROSOFT??!!! What the fuck are they THINKING? You know, the people…
Read More the purpose of a system is what it doesThere’s going to be a meetup at the Sir Richard Steeles on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening (it looks like at the moment). Readers are invited. Feedback on the time and date is appreciated. Update: Looks like we’ll go with Wednesday.
Read More Six years of TYRMuch fuss about the yellow press listening to voicemail through knowing the default passwords. I’m rather more worried about their network of private detectives who had access, according to the print version, to police databases and to BT’s billing system. And I’m depressed about a group of journos who, given the keys to the 650…
Read More Andy Coulson and the LawBob Dylan lyric too appropriate not to use yet again. Who is trying to frighten MySociety.org users? It begins with a Daily Telegraph story that a clerk, Lisa Greenwood, in the Department for Children, Schools and Families was sacked for posting a comment about Hazel Blears on theyworkforyou. Unfortunately, no comment including the text quoted…
Read More someone’s got it in for us, they’re planting stories in the pressDuncan: why don’t we turn GNER as was into a co-operative? Ah. Like this?
Read More hate to say I told you soOK, it’s coming down to the wire. Next week, on Wednesday, 8th July, the Government is going to put three regulations before the House of Commons. These are the crucial executive orders that put the guts of the Identity Cards Act in place; specifically, they are the ones that make it possible to force anyone…
Read More action: D-day, 8th JulySomething else that came up at OpenTech; is there any way of getting continuing information out of the government? This is especially interesting in the light of things like Who’s Lobbying? and Richard Pope and Rob McKinnon’s work in the same direction; it seems to me that the key element in this is getting information…
Read More why is there no enduring FOIA request?So what do we need to know about a parliamentary bill? First of all, as soon as a piece of legislation is published, it has certain meta-data. Date originated; originating department; originating MP; originating house; type – primary legislation, order in council, statutory instrument; current status (pre-legislative/Green/White Paper, first reading, committee, report, second, third, Royal…
Read More free our bills: hardcore wonk/geek outOpenTech blogging…after this morning’s MySociety brainstorm on the specifications for MPs’ expenses and tracking bills through Parliament, I’m concerned that we’re going to end up with the best imaginable system for monitoring public employees’ expenses, and miss some absolute horror of a thing while our attention is elsewhere. (Is that the latent content of Heather…
Read More a package manager for Westminster 1.4OK, so the Iranian police – well, the Basij, the IRGC, the spooks, the cops, the repressive state apparatus anyway – are publishing photos of demonstrators on the Web and trying to crowdsource the job of identifying the faces on their CCTV tapes. It says here. And, indeed, here they are. Now, this is obviously…
Read More stars of CCTV