Public Strategist

how great is this interface http://brainoff.com/mirror/tube_map_travel_times/

Lloyds TSB has just anounced it’s decision to drop scripts in call centres following a piece of research showing just how frustrated it makes customers feel. Wouldn’t it be a good idea not to follow 10 years behind the financial services industry, slavishing mimicking their errors in order that, once we have then fixed them, [...]

In other news, have you ever noticed how computer and software and general IT advertising often features a picture of a multiethnic, mixed gender group of co-workers, smiling faces all lit by the light of the monitor of the obviously excellently working computer they are gathered around. When in fact the only time five people [...]

Today is Louis Braille’s birthday. So naturally Google has changed its front page in commemoration.  This is Google in Braille – visible of course to blind people only through the alt tag, which doesn’t say ‘Google in Braille’.

Mark Say has his doubts: On a couple of weeks reflection, and a few conversations with people around Whitehall, my initial impression of the Transformational Government paper is unchanged: the success of the strategy will depend largely on what the customer group directors and the Service Transformation Board do to break down the old silos. [...]

Q:  What’s your view of the National eBenefits Project? A:  Should I roll on the floor laughing? Glyn Evans, who provided the answer, is in charge of IT for Birmingham, one of the largest local authorities in the country.  Even more significantly, he has a well-earned reputation both there and from his previous job in [...]

I went to the launch of the final report of the Work Foundation’s research project on public services and ICT.  There seems to be less substance to this one – and a bit more setting up straw targets in order to knock them down again.  Some of the earlier material they produced had more value [...]

Claiming a pension, 1908 style: An application for a pension begins at the Post-office. Here forms of claim may be obtained, and if you cannot write very well or are not a good hand at understanding print the postmaster will help.

Just found from a time capsule.

A seminar at the Berkman centre at Harvard was billed as being about: how Germany’s transition to offering welfare services online has created new responsibilities for German citizens David Weinberger provides an account here.  Some interesting implications for integration between services – and so for the boundary issues which need to be addressed in each [...]