Well, we’re back from a journey that spanned from Bristol to Blackburn. The Local by Social tour saw us travelling across the country to visit forward thinking councils and their residents to help reimagine how the web might be able to help them shape the future of their services. We wrapped things up heading to [...]
We recently celebrated the first birthday of the CityCamp movement – looking at how gov 2.0, local leaders and (most importantly) citizens can design the future of our cities. So, we thought it would be the ideal time to hear how friend of FutureGov Chris Haller, founder and CEO of Urban Interactive Studios, thinks the movement is [...]
Last November, we kicked off the Local by Social programme in Coventry
The deadline to express interest in the Meeting the Cuts and Big Society Challenge programme is this Friday, 19th Novemeber. You can find out how here. Big is the new small it seems. Big cuts and big society spell big changes for the way that local government does business. But how can local government best start [...]
We are pleased to announce that you can now book you place for Day 2 of Local by Social Midlands, to be held in Coventry on Saturday 13th November 2010. Please click here to place your order for a free ticket. Tickets for Day 1 of the regional event, hosted by Coventry City Council at [...]
Bonjour! I’ve just returned from the World E-Government Forum, which was held in Paris last week. As well as some great social activities like a preview of The Social Network (AKA The Facebook Movie) and a trip to the Louvre (I can confirm the Mona Lisa is tiny), I was invited to be a judge [...]
Coventry City Council will be hosting the first regional Local by Social event on Friday 12th November 2010. To book a place at Local By Social Midlands you just need to register your details here. If you would like more information about presenting at this, or any of the Local By Social events please contact lucy [...]
On the 6th of April Gordon Brown announced the official start of the election. As we are faced with the most uncertain result for a generation we have the very real opportunity to reflect and respond to the nitty gritty of the parties policies- and find out the issues that mean most to us…
Last month, Andy Gibson posted about a project FutureGov is doing with Particitech to come up with a simple set of data standards for local government ePetitions in England and Wales. Since then Andy’s been consulting with a small-ish group of people on the standards – establishing what the standards should help to achieve and how they should look. A first draft has been written, but there are still lots of unanswered questions and we’d love a wider group to now get involved…
This year’s European elections marked an all time high for disengagement and an all time low for turnout, reaching a meagre 43% pan Europe (that’s 20% – or a third – down on 30 years ago), worse even in the UK at an mightily undemocratic 34.7% (up from 24% 10 years ago mind). But just as many in the start up world view a recession as the ideal time to start a new venture, what better time to get creative and take some risks to re-engage the public than when things are at rock bottom?