The offence of squatting in a residential building comes in to law from 1st September 2012, the Ministry of Justice has announced. Justice Minister Crispin Blunt said: ‘For too long squatters have had the justice system on the run and have caused homeowners untold misery in eviction, repair and clean-up costs. Not any more. Hard…… Continue reading Ministry of Justice: New offence of Squatting in a Residential Building
Month: August 2012
Health: Funding to develop digital services
The Department of Health has announced that local NHS organisations could be awarded funding to develop new digital services that improve patient care and can be used to share information more easily across the NHS . The information sharing challenge fund (ISCF) is open to eligible NHS organisations. The fund is looking for innovative ideas…… Continue reading Health: Funding to develop digital services
Cabinet Office: £100k Challenge Prize fund to help communities reduce isolation in old age
The Cabinet Office and Nesta have announced a challenge with a £100,000 prize fund to help tackle the problem of isolation in old age. Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: It’s very encouraging how many people would like to help reduce loneliness in our communities. Through this Challenge Prize we are looking to support…… Continue reading Cabinet Office: £100k Challenge Prize fund to help communities reduce isolation in old age
My week guest-hosting #WeeklyBlogClub
Something new arrived in January 2012: Weekly Blog Club. It’s a club, for bloggers, who try to post something every week. Weekly Blog Club is aimed at – but isn’t limited to – people who work in the public sector, charities, or voluntary organisations. There are very few rules, and most of them are flexible.* Some -…… Continue reading My week guest-hosting #WeeklyBlogClub
The Songs of Me (Part 2)
Last week I blogged Six Songs of Me which was my response to the Guardian’s Six Songs of Life project. I had intended to have a go at answering Janet Davis’ set of questions, but ran out of time. Louise Brown has risen to the challenge this week and posted her selection. I normally struggle to write one…… Continue reading The Songs of Me (Part 2)
A Blue Light on the horizon
A month or so ago I blogged: Reflections on Events, in which I looked back at some of the events I’ve attended over the last couple of years. I suggested some ‘tweaks’ for organisers, and how physical attendees might help improve the experience for those attending remotely. I re-read the post recently and was reminded…… Continue reading A Blue Light on the horizon
Visual data mining of Google Street View
What Makes Paris Look like Paris? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and INRIA/Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris have developed visual data mining tools which detect features, such as street signs, streetlights and balcony railings, that give Paris and other cities a distinctive look. Video and report below. Full details on the report web site. [gview file=”http://graphics.cs.cmu.edu/projects/whatMakesParis/paris_sigg_reduced.pdf”]
Opening Up Policy Making
A case study from the Institute for Government of the National Planning Policy Framework and other models of more open policy making [gview file=”http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/opening_up%20policy%20making_final.pdf”]
Tableau Dashboard of Open Data Releases by Central Government department
A Dashboard of scheduled Open Data releases by central government departments, has been created by Caroline Beavon using Tableau Public visualisation software. The charts show Release dates by department Searchable release date by dataset Datasets without dates The timeline visualisation immediately makes clear that the bulk of data sets are scheduled for release in 2012-2013. You can…… Continue reading Tableau Dashboard of Open Data Releases by Central Government department
Six Songs of Me
I was planning to blog this week about next year’s BlueLightCamp, which is coming up in April 2013*. However, I looked at the Weekly Blog Club timeline and got distracted by blog posts by Kate Bentham, Janet Davis and Louise Brown entitled: Six Songs of Me. It seems it all stems from The Guardian’s Six…… Continue reading Six Songs of Me