We often just make stuff up about the future, and present it as factual. Maybe a big political promise, an excitable analysis of the impact of emerging technology, or just a bad plan that won't deliver. False certainty is everywhere you look. daverog.substack.com/p/false-cert...

There's lots of important messaging in this new guidance from GDS / DSIT on AI, open code and vulnerability risk. In particular: "Private repositories can create a false sense of security" and "Openness can surface issues earlier" www.gov.uk/guidance/ai-...

Available today - our latest book “Shaping Technology For Transformation”: We've written a practical guide on building technological adaptability and resilience for leaders ready to strengthen their organisation's foundations. Get your copy here: public.digital/pd-technolog...

This needs to be on the radar of any government service where AI is going to help users navigate the complexity and nuance - I'd say this is most them. Both how useful this will be, and the risks, but crucially starting to think of this as a whole new category of interaction.

Where does London begin and end? Some say you're in London if you're within the M25, others say London ends at Zone 2. These arbitrary lines are too simple. My Londometer uses data to create a much more complicated %. I'm sure this will settle things and not enrage anyone. london.abscond.org

This, in a nutshell. Unsure of who created for credit, but it’s spot on.

Technology forms layers in your organisation - over years, these can start to feel like layers of rock in a geological formation. This is slowing down everything you do. public.digital/pd-insights/...

Interesting looking sessions at the next @transformgovtalks.bsky.social see you there if you're coming too 👋

This team was brilliant today. The time they gave to explain their mission and personal stories was generous, and incredibly insightful. Go @adhdpathfinding.org.uk 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

We're looking forward to having you all at @publicdigital.bsky.social and having an opportunity to support your mission 🙌🏻

We need more of this kind of thing ✊🏻

🚨 Awesome new technologist role at Public Digital 🚨

A proposal for a “Single Front Door” for ADHD. Shaped by my own lived experience, conversations with dozens navigating ADHD journeys and strengthened through generous input from experienced designers, policy thinkers and former civil servants This isn’t just a blog post. It’s a call to action.

Using LLMs for software development can't solve the problem of technical debt, but it feels like it's changing the game share.google/4XDOSKp1OQTs... but I do wonder if it can outpace the ability, with the same technology, to create new technical debt at greater speed

On the myth that efficiency should be the primary goal of government transformation. foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/07/d...

On Friday I'm speaking on a panel at the Institute of Philosophy and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies's event Diplomacy in the Digital Age commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/news-events/... exploring the state of government technology, and the impact this has on this critical domain.

#CampDigital - Meet our speakers! We're delighted to announce that @kwastell.bsky.social and @blangry.bsky.social will join our lineup on 3rd July, with their talk 'Getting things moving in a system that doesn't want to!' 🥳 Grab your tickets today at: tinyurl.com/mw4bcyb9

Someone really needs to have a word with whoever is putting up all this 'red tape' in the first place 🙄

I hope one thing digital government practitioners are taking away from attempting to divine what is happening in the US: it should be a mater of public record how digital public services and infrastructure work, when they change and what data they use. No more excuses.

Found it! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton...

I wrote this on this day ten years ago. It has become a necessary ritual to share it again each year and to remember for those who no longer can.

That was a very enjoyable #ukgc25 (if slightly exhausting). Brilliant to hear different experiences of leadership, problem solve the spending review, and hear people's understanding of and reactions to 'test & learn'. And see so many brilliant people I haven't in a long time. 🤗

It's been a while. Back at MOJ towers for #ukgc25

See you Saturday if you're off to @ukgovcamp.bsky.social we've got a few of us coming from @publicdigital.bsky.social, we're sponsoring again 🙌🏻 Come and say hi to us, we'll be hanging out near our banner in the marketplace and generally milling around and pitching some sessions. 👋🏻

I've written this about trust between leaders and teams, and why there's often a trap you can fall into. Don't trust your team? Don't trust your leadership? Might be worth a read... public.digital/pd-insights/...

The impact of AI: Why I have no idea what it'll be, and neither do you! www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBCS... (my talk from last November at @aifortherestofus.live)

the entire "AGI when?" debate is so funny to me because it's a cult dreamed up by people who seem to lack even the vaguest sense of how actual cognition works, foisted on a public that shouldn't have bought the premise in the first place, leading to a debate that's mostly beside the point

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Wondered what 'test and learn' means? I've written this to unpack and explain it public.digital/pd-insights/...

The UK parliament has joined Bluesky, with proper verified domains and everything: • @houseofcommons.parliament.uk • @houseoflords.parliament.uk • @ukparliament.parliament.uk • @commonsspeaker.parliament.uk

I've been waiting over 10 years for a government minister to make a speech like this: www.gov.uk/government/s...

My colleague @robmiller31.bsky.social has written this blog post about how organisations should be thinking about cyber security. There's no such thing as 'safe', only 'safer'. public.digital/pd-insights/...

It's weird how government services can seem to disappear inside departmental bureaucracies. Service strategies? Service budgets? Service leaders? Nope. You're more likely to find things like projects, programmes, policy teams, operations teams, digital units, design units, security units.

'Business as usual' vs 'change' is often a false binary, leading to split money, split leadership, and split operating models. Problem is 'business as usual' is a bad label for continuous change. So it's just two areas of change to the same thing, competing and misaligning.

It's frustratingly common for digital teams, particularly those with infrastructure skills, to be expected to work out of hours, but not get paid for it - with a damaging impact on people's non working lives. "It's not affordable" isn't a reasonable excuse.

Some reflections from a lifetime of trying too hard. I’m still waiting for my sausages. himalmandalia.medium.com/more-british...

Don't fall into the truth gap! Inspire people with truthful narratives instead. I've written about how leaders in organisations should tell stories (and by stories, I mean strategies, business cases, annual plans, marketing etc etc) public.digital/2024/02/27/w...

These are a powerful set of ideas, and probably the simplest and clearest way of expressing them I've seen - probably very familiar to some, but remain new and radical to most.

Data isn't really an asset. Just having it creates cost, and risk. Doing something useful with it is hard. It's better to think of data as a necessary thing, in pursuit of something valuable, like a service.

I've written about user centred IT: why 'best practice' isn't good enough in the domain of Information Technology public.digital/2024/01/17/u...

Dig out your sequins & Christmas jumpers ... our next @publicdigital.bsky.social PD Sessions is going to be a fun-filled, festive edition! @matildemigliorero.bsky.social & I will be hosting an *awesome* panel to chat about our cities, data & digital. Join us! www.tickettailor.com/events/publi...

At Public Digital, we recently ran an event on digital and democracy: fascinating to see how power, tradition, technology and user centricity work alongside each other. public.digital/2023/09/22/d...

Technology: don't leverage, exploit, unlock or harness it. Just use it, and see it if works.