Back to the past with government identity

The Government Digital Service (GDS) has a generous £400m budget to develop “One Login”, a single sign-on and digital identity system for government services. But it comes

UK Government Platforms | Revisited

The UK Government was a platform pioneer. It was amongst the first to understand the potential of platforms in the design and delivery of public

What can politicians learn from Universal Credit?

The unfortunate saga of Universal Credit is a powerful reminder of the repeated failure to successfully integrate policy making with technology. A failure that comes

The political cost of legacy systems

Passengers arriving at airports across the UK recently encountered irritating delays because of problems with the automatic eGates. One likely cause is the Home Office’s

Digital Government — stuck in a groove?

For the past ~27 years, UK digital government efforts have largely focused on the left column of this table, occasionally drifting into ‘Rationalisation’ — and

social media, free speech and abuse

Social media is back in the news for all the usual negative reasons: hateful, racist, sexist, fraudulent and otherwise abusive users. None of which is

community networks: Reloaded

Amazon is in the news, yet again (when isn’t it?). This time it’s for ‘Amazon Sidewalk‘: it aims to connect together every Echo speaker and

360-degree policy making

How can we improve policy making to make it more effective — not just for politicians and policy makers, but citizens, organisations and communities too?

International Standards and Digital Identity

So-called ‘digital transformation’ can often involve little more than moving things from paper onto a screen or automating the way things are already done, aiming

policy making in the digital age

UK Authority have published my article Rethinking policy making in the digital age. It explores the need for a national digital infrastructure that provides open,

Rebooting ‘progressive’ politics

In his speech at the end of July, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury talked about the need for a “faster, smarter” culture in government

Maggots, rats and a fork in the road

So what’s it going to be then, hey? Will the outcome of the Brexit negotiations see the UK forced to adhere to the EU’s “level