In an ideal world, people wouldn't drop litter. There would be plentiful bins and people would be responsible with their rubbish. In a slightly less ideal world, the local council would have enough money to clean up the mess left by people. But we don't live in an ideal world. People are ignorant and selfish. Councils are cash-strapped. So, once in a while, I'll go litter picking. I strap on a high-vis jacket, take a grabber, gloves, and refuse sack. Then I get to work. It feels like the…
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I recently had an interesting voting experience which I'd like to share with you. Perhaps you can give me some advice? I'm a member of a board and we recently held an election for new board members. We had 8 spaces and 19 candidates. Candidates wrote a short application and we each ranked them in preference order. My most favoured candidate was ranked 1, the worst candidate was ranked 19. With multi-member elections, there are seemingly endless ways to tally votes. So we tallied them…
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Queen of the geek scene Emma Mulqueeny has recently been asked to sit on Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy. They're currently soliciting for comments on the question: The system of laws and law-making in the UK is complex, but is that inevitable given the highly developed and interconnected society which laws regulate? Should you need to be a lawyer to understand and use an Act? You can leave your comment on their forum - here's what I submitted. Albert Einstein said: [T]he…
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While on the anti-Digital-Economy-Bill protest, I bumped into Denny de la Haye. I've known Denny virtually for a while - and he's commented on this blog a number of times. Denny is standing for parliament in Hackney South and Shoreditch. He is standing on a platform of Direct Digital Democracy. If he is elected, he will run an online poll for his constituents. Whichever way they vote, he votes. Why This Is a Dumb Idea The wisdom of the crowds relies on an informed crowd. Asking pe…
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Tim Berners-Lee has made a call for governments to open up their data. Indeed, Tim's been appointed by the UK government to do just that. His central thesis is that we, the taxpayers, have paid for government research and data - we should be able to access it. Easy, free and unfettered access to raw, unadulterated data will allow us to do wonderful things. Take a look at his recent TED Talk, it's inspiring stuff. I think there's a fatal flaw in his plan. Data, in its raw form is hard to…
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Hello! I'm what you would probably describe as a natural Labour voter. I'm middle class, the son of teachers, University educated, member and representative of the NUS, I'm employed by a big British company, I'm a proud union member and a home owner. I even spoke at the TUC before Gordon Brown took the stage. I probably won't be voting Labour in the next General Election. I say probably, because you still have a chance to win me back. Allow me to explain. I was a few months short of being …
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