#govcamp — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #govcamp, aggregated by home.social.
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🆕 blog! “Book Review: Platformland by Richard Pope”
★★★★★This is an exquisitely detailed and righteously determined look about the how and why of Digital Government.
Richard Pope was there at the beginning of GOV.UK and helped steer it to the magnificent beast it is today. He reflects, clear eyed, on the various successes and failures of the geeky attempt to turn …
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/book-review-platformland-by-richard-pope/
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#BookReview #gov.uk #govcamp -
Book Review: Platformland by Richard Pope
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/book-review-platformland-by-richard-pope/
This is an exquisitely detailed and righteously determined look about the how and why of Digital Government.
Richard Pope was there at the beginning of GOV.UK and helped steer it to the magnificent beast it is today. He reflects, clear eyed, on the various successes and failures of the geeky attempt to turn the state into something approaching modernity.
He's forthright on his views about the lack of vision in most projects:
The aim of most digitization programmes is the status quo, delivered more cheaply. This is not surprising. Government business cases are woven from such hopes. The resulting documents are catnip to treasury officials. But efficiency is a trap.
All of the advice and lessons are sensible and pragmatic. It is an efficiently written book which avoids the temptation of too much name-dropping or mythologising mundane events. There is, perhaps, a tinge of bitterness that some projects got dropped or some ideas never quite made it. While the personal is political, he doesn't get into the Politics of the time - but does acknowledge that every decision has a political dimension.
Where credentials will ‘live’ is both a technical question and a political question. Apple’s and Google’s digital wallets, and those of Samsung and others, are turning the storage of credentials into a zone of contest between the public and private sectors.
Similarly, he is much more interested in what is proven to work and what helps users rather than getting caught up in the various ideologies which spring up around digital government:
Privacy debates tend to attract absolutists on both sides, with sometimes-arbitrary arguments that everything must be put under user control in the name of privacy, or the counterargument: that it doesn’t matter what information is reused because people assume the government knows it anyway. Both are unhelpful.
Underpinning all of the advice is the realisation that it needs organisational will and political cover to instigate transformation. These things don't happen in isolation and techies need to confront the reality of the way the world is organised.
It is (delightfully) weird seeing friends quoted in this book - and from GovCamp no less! - and gratifying to see one of my posts cited. There's a section about the NHSX Covid tracing app (which I was intimately involved in) - I think it is a fair assessment of what happened and whether those choices were in the best interests of the country. But, again, it is weird seeing your personal history in a book!
Ultimately, it is the sort of book which should be mandatory reading for all Civil Servants and Politicians of every colour. We have to reconfigure the interface between the citizen and the state in order for them to have a more copacetic relationship. We have to redesign the state so that it is able to meet the challenges of today. We have to ensure that it is able to rapidly adapt to the challenges of tomorrow.
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#OpenSource, #government, and #governance — three words that belong together here at #GovCamp #Cymru #Wales. I’m at the #TYPO3 booth with Tom Warwick from @typo3 and Gary Fuller from agency Prater Raines. #FOSS #gccy2
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#OpenSource, #government, and #governance — three words that belong together here at #GovCamp #Cymru #Wales. I’m at the #TYPO3 booth with Tom Warwick from @typo3 and Gary Fuller from agency Prater Raines. #FOSS #gccy2
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#OpenSource, #government, and #governance — three words that belong together here at #GovCamp #Cymru #Wales. I’m at the #TYPO3 booth with Tom Warwick from @typo3 and Gary Fuller from agency Prater Raines. #FOSS #gccy2
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#OpenSource, #government, and #governance — three words that belong together here at #GovCamp #Cymru #Wales. I’m at the #TYPO3 booth with Tom Warwick from @typo3 and Gary Fuller from agency Prater Raines. #FOSS #gccy2
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#OpenSource, #government, and #governance — three words that belong together here at #GovCamp #Cymru #Wales. I’m at the #TYPO3 booth with Tom Warwick from @typo3 and Gary Fuller from agency Prater Raines. #FOSS #gccy2
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"Die Welt im Wandel – Gemeinsam Barrieren überwinden" lautet das diesjährige Motto des #GovCamp
Wann? 29. November 9-15 Uhr
Wo? Wien Akademie, Rotensterngasse 9-11, 1020 WienNatürlich mit Dolmetschung zwischen der deutschen Lautsprache und der Österreichischen Gebärdensprache
Meldet euch an: https://barcamps.eu/govcamp-vienna-2024/
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HEDDIW! : TODAY!
Bydd tocynnau olaf #GovCamp #Cymru ar gael am 5.30yp
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The last #GCCy23 ticket release is today at 5.30pm
#MAP via @mapioCymru
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HEDDIW! : TODAY!
Bydd tocynnau olaf #GovCamp #Cymru ar gael am 5.30yp
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The last #GCCy23 ticket release is today at 5.30pm
#MAP via @mapioCymru
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HEDDIW! : TODAY!
Bydd tocynnau olaf #GovCamp #Cymru ar gael am 5.30yp
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The last #GCCy23 ticket release is today at 5.30pm
#MAP via @mapioCymru
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HEDDIW! : TODAY!
Bydd tocynnau olaf #GovCamp #Cymru ar gael am 5.30yp
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The last #GCCy23 ticket release is today at 5.30pm
#MAP via @mapioCymru
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HEDDIW! : TODAY!
Bydd tocynnau olaf #GovCamp #Cymru ar gael am 5.30yp
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The last #GCCy23 ticket release is today at 5.30pm
#MAP via @mapioCymru
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Diweddariad tocynnau #GCCy23 tickets update:
Dim ond 12 tocyn yn weddill heddiw ar #TocynCymru ! /
Remarkably, only 12 of today's tickets are left!
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TOCYNNAU AR GAEL NAWR! /
TICKETS ARE GO! ( available : )https://tocyn.cymru/event/ca4773f3-2c09-4a4f-9700-e2d047acea5b/s
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TOCYNNAU AR GAEL NAWR! /
TICKETS ARE GO! ( available : )https://tocyn.cymru/event/ca4773f3-2c09-4a4f-9700-e2d047acea5b/s
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@traceyallred Saturday 20 January 2024 for #govcamp24 London. But the next #govcamp event could be sooner thanks to our grant fund https://www.ukgovcamp.com/grants/
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I just got a very welcome email: a ticket for #GovCamp in Jan 2023. Is anyone else I know going?
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Hack Da Police (and other emergency services) #UKBLC14
This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer.
I've just come back from an amazing BlueLightCamp 2014 - held in the splendid offices of the Ordnance Survey.
Themed unconferences are nothing new - but I think this was one of the first that I've been to focussed o
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/05/hack-da-police-and-other-emergency-services-ukblc14/
#/etc/ #govcamp #hackathon #police #ukblc14
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Hack Da Police (and other emergency services) #UKBLC14
This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer.
I've just come back from an amazing BlueLightCamp 2014 - held in the splendid offices of the Ordnance Survey.
Themed unconferences are nothing new - but I think this was one of the first that I've been to focussed o
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/05/hack-da-police-and-other-emergency-services-ukblc14/
#/etc/ #govcamp #hackathon #police #ukblc14
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GovCamp Rules – In Memoriam
The last year has seen an overabundance of death. Some of us got chatting about the various people from the GovCamp community who have died recently, and how we could memorialise them.
It used to be the case that we started every 'Camp with a reading of the rules. A gentle intro to let everyone be on the same page.
The "rules" started out as:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/03/govcamp-rules-in-memoriam/
#/etc/ #barcamp #death #govcamp #ukgc #ukgovcamp
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#Frage nach den #Bedingungen der #Möglichkeit eines #unsichtbaren #Theaters:
Welche #Form von #Institutionalisierung lässt sich #vermeiden?
Wodurch gelingt der #Verzicht auf einen #Zusammenhang von #Vermachtung?
#Beobachtung von #Barcamps 2020: #GovCamp #Wien; #OpenScience; #Erfahrung: #Vollständige #Vermachtung
#UnsichtbaresTheater #Vermeidung #Organisationszwang
https://colloquium.ifwo.eu/Barcamp-Open-Science-2021.html
https://twitter.com/frankstaudinger/status/1231864234323169280
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"In welchen Bereichen kann Digitalisierung zu CO2-Reduktion beitragen?"
Eine #Fragestellung aus dem #Wahrnehmungsbereich der #Unterscheidung von #Staat und #Markt.
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Notes from GovCamp 2020
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What Happens at #GovCamp Stays at GovCamp?
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/01/what-happens-at-govcamp-stays-at-govcamp/
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Guten Morgen vom Küchentisch. Nach meinem halben Urlaubstag am Mittwoch und einem Tag #DEEPSEC gestern, kommt heute das #GovCamp. Der Rest der Woche ist auch schon verplant. Ich freu mich schon auf Montag und meinen Schreibtisch ... Habt alle einen schönen Tag! #Autorenleben #writerslife
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The Gender Politics of Conference T-Shirts
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/01/the-gender-politics-of-conference-t-shirts/I spent my Saturday crewing the reception desk at the amazing UK GovCamp Unconference. Part of our task was to check people in, hand them their name badges, schwag, and offer them a free conference T-Shirt.
If you're anything like me, you've got hundreds of conference Ts stuffed in a drawer somewhere. They're all the same - a funky logo on the front, and usually a list of sponsors on the back. Not quite as glamorous as a rock-concert tour shirt but, hey, good enough from slobbing around the house.
As I was directing people to their shirts, a few of us got in to a (very good natured) discussion about the gender politics inherent in linguistic choices. For example, considering the following sentence.
On the left we have women's T-Shirts, and on the right we have men's T-Shirts.
What if a woman would rather wear a "male" shirt? Are we implicitly suggesting that such a course of action is wrong? If a trans-person wants to wear a specific shirt, are we reinforcing the notion that they are violating social norms?
It is simply a matter of politeness. I'm not necessarily talking about a Debrett's etiquette guide on whether a Marchioness outranks a Viscount - but what language is the most inclusive while retaining clarity.
A Little History
For the longest time, the British tech conferences I went to asked participants only for T-Shirt size on attendee application forms. It was gently pointed out that T-Shirts come in more than one style, and that a female medium size is equivalent to male small size. Thus, organisers started asking whether participants would prefer a male- or female-style shirt and, if so, in which size.
But, what are male and female styles? Generally speaking, they look like this:
The male one is basically a rectangle of cloth, the female one tapers in at the waist and has more space at the breast.Back To Language
Here are some of the choices we talked about, and some of the decisions we came to.
- Regular / Fitted. This implicitly says that people who want fitted are somehow irregular.
- Fitted / Non-Fitted. Again, implicitly saying one is different from the norm.
- Unisex / Women's. Suggests that, while women can wear either, men may not.
- Tits / No Tits. (Suggested by a woman I hasten to add!) Not all women have breasts. Some people have breasts but choose not to emphasise them with figure hugging clothes.
- Straight Cut / Curve Cut. The most factual description, but caused some confusion when we asked as this is not usual terminology.
In the end, we tentatively settled on "Fitted or Straight Cut" only to be hit with a problem.
Men are idiots.
The majority of men who were given the choice between "Fitted or ..." responded with either "Errr.... I'll take one that fits...?" or simply "What does fitted mean?"
Yup, guys generally have no clue that a traditional women's cut T-shirt is different from what a man usually wears. So, we had inadvertently chosen a language which was exclusionary to those who don't pay much attention to fashion.
If you have to ask what the difference between two choices is, you're marked as an outsider who lacks knowledge.
A Solution
From my many years of helping out with events, I know there are some things one just shouldn't do. Chief among these is cause guests embarrassment. Many people actively dislike being asked what size shirt they wear. They're also embarrassed if, after saying they want a Medium, they have to return it for a larger size.
What we usually do is leave the T-Shirts on a separate table, sorted by size, so that participants can pick the one which best suits them.
We abdicate responsibility, in order to provide a more pleasant experience. That, I think is what we should do in this case.
If we had one of each style and size of T-Shirt on a hanger, we could have placed them over their respective pile and simply let participants pick the size and shape they are most comfortable with.
Language choice matters. The words we choose to use have an impact. It might not be the most pressing issue in the world, but we should strive to avoid needless discomfort to those around us.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/01/the-gender-politics-of-conference-t-shirts/
