General
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Gov cats
General ·In recent years the UK government has got into the habit of announcing that it has employed cats. Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Treasury all have cats whilst the Cabinet Office are about to appoint one. An unusual habit for a government but, I suppose, life should be full of strangeness.
One afternoon I...
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We won’t give up, no matter how long it takes
General ·This is a redrafted version of an article that was published by SixStars in The 1887 magazine sold at the Judgement Day 2 protest march in April 2016. More than 3000 fans marched. The march was organised by the_ Blackpool Supporters Trust and the _Tangerine Knights.
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Gotta work together if you’re gonna catch ‘em all
General ·A cuddly Psyduck from the 1998 launch of Pokemon Red/Blue. Picture by Mrs Gemstone, CC-BY-SA.
The launch of Pokémon Go has seen the rebirth of a 90s craze in the smartphone era. It’s a rebirth that leads to a tale...
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Building financial data infrastructure through open banking
General ·Notes from a speech at a Thomson Reuters_-hosted ODI Futures events on the future of financial data infrastructure. The event also included the launch of an ODI Labs paper on blockchain technology.
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The curious silence of Blackpool Council and its leader
General ·Thousands of Blackpool fans are boycotting their football club. Fewer than half of season ticket holders were going to home games at the end of last season and investigations show that about 25% of season tickets have been renewed for the coming season. The fans are boycotting until things change.
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Widening debate on Greater Manchester’s data sharing strategy
General ·Greater Manchester is one of the first UK city-regions to move ahead with a new city devolution deal. Other city-regions may follow their lead. As part of their devolution deal the public sector organisations in Greater Manchester are considering how to use data to improve public services. Part of this thinking has a strong focus on data sharing through a...
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City data marketplaces are a distraction, let’s improve data infrastructure
General ·I chaired a debate at the Open Data Institute (ODI) titled “What does a good data market look like?” on 29 April. It was a timely debate.
Data is infrastructure at city, national and global levels. It is vital to our societies. It is important to strengthen it. Stable, reliable and well-maintained data infrastructure helps us make better...
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Will blockchains or Beyoncé change the world?
General ·A version of this post, with minor changes, was originally published back in January 2016 at Marketing Magazine.
My thinking on blockchains has evolved but it is clear that many of the current ideas flying around are still nonsense whilst others show a lack of awareness of the damage that could be caused by loss of privacy or an...
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Panama, open data, personal data, open Panama
General ·We’ve been talking about the Panama Papers at the Open Data Institute. This is the second part of a blog that came from discussions with some of the lovely team there.
The first part looked at the Panama Papers through the lens of data infrastructure . This, the second part, looks at it through the lens of...
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Panama, open data, infrastructure data, open Panama
General ·We’ve been talking about the Panama Papers at the_ Open Data Institute. This blog came from discussions with some of the lovely team there.
This part looks at the Panama Papers through the lens of data infrastructure, the second part looks at it through the lens of personal data and privacy.
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Football attendance figures are inaccurate and don’t tell the whole story
General ·It can be useful to know how many people attend a football match but the official figures are not accurate. Blackpool fans have been collecting data and working out more accurate attendance figures for their team. They hope it will help them oust the football club’s owners and help a fan-owned club to emerge. The footballing authorities should encourage clubs to publish the...
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Bitcoin, money laundering, and the challenge that law faces in keeping up with technology
General ·I’m interested in the new organisational structures that blockchains, or other forms of distributed ledger, might enable, the problems they might solve and whether solving those problems can help make the world better. Bitcoin is enabled by one type of blockchain. As Jeni Tennison of the Open Data Institute explained:
Blockchains provide a way to store information...
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Improving UK voter registration
General ·Voter registration is a problem in the UK.
If we opened up aggregated data and registration APIs then we could build a network of services to help get people registered. As a result we would get more people registered and, hopefully, more people voting in our elections.
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The Blackpool Fans' Progress Group are undemocratic and unrepresentative
General ·Thousands of supporters are choosing to boycott Blackpool football club because of the appalling actions of its current owners, the Oyston family.
Over the last three years nearly 2000 fans have chosen to join the Blackpool Supporters Trust (BST). Anyone can join. The trust is democratically run by its members. The trust’s committee is elected...
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An exchange with the Blackpool Fans’ Progress Group
General ·I dropped an email to the Blackpool Fans’ Progress Group (FPG) last week.
The FPG responded within a couple of days. I’m grateful to them for responding so fast.
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Sepp Blatter, Liverpool, Blackpool and open government
General ·At the weekend 10,000 Liverpool fans marched out of Anfield in a protest against ticket prices and it was reported that Sepp Blatter is continuing his campaign to make mischief for football’s global governing body Fifa.
The two incidents are connected and, strangely enough, the connection is the Lancashire town of Blackpool and the global movement of...
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Interesting times for Blackpool fans
General ·While the football is irrelevant this is still an ‘interesting time’ for fans of Blackpool football club. There are ups and downs but despite their appalling owner, and against a background of continuing legal actions, there is a glimmer of hope. An upcoming meeting with the club provides a way to test how fast this progress...
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Politicians should open up casework data
General ·Would it be useful to know whether complaints about welfare payments are rising or falling? Or to understand more about the jobs that our politicians do?
There is data that can help answer both of these questions and many others. Unfortunately it’s not open.
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What journalists say about Blackpool FC
General ·Thousands of Blackpool fans are boycotting their football club, because of the owners, the Oyston family. They will not go back whilst the Oystons own the club.
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What football professionals think of Blackpool FC
General ·At the weekend the current manager of Blackpool FC, Neil McDonald, criticised the fans of Blackpool FC saying:
the support needs to be better. They shouldn’t be shouting about their issues throughout the whole game. That’s all I’m hearing.
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The people’s railway will need to start soon
General ·Railway ticket prices in the UK have risen by 25% in the last 5 years. This yearly rise in prices, and continued complaints over punctuality, has led to the usual yearly rise in news stories about the UK’s railways.
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The FA, the Football League, Lancashire Police and Blackpool FC have failed Huddersfield fans
General ·In 2015 Blackpool FC were relegated from English football’s second division after a season of humiliation on the pitch and a series of disgraceful actions by the owners, the Oyston family. Newspapers across the world reported on the season and the Oyston family’s actions.
Blackpool currently sit at 18th place in the third division. Fans, led...
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A data perspective on the IP bill
General ·Recently the UK Government issued a draft of legislation that would alter its powers to investigate illegal activity on the internet: the Investigatory Powers (IP) bill. The draft is being debated in committee, in public and will be debated in Parliament before a decision is made on the final text.
I have chosen to consider the IP Bill through...
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I do want to be an astronaut
General ·Yesterday Tim Peake, Tim Kopra and Yuri Malenchenko went into space where they will stay on the International Space Station (ISS). My first reaction was to say “I want to be an astronaut”.
Photo: ESA
It’s true.
I do want to be an astronaut.
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I’m so bored of the broadband debate
General ·The papers and tech press are full of talk about broadband access. The price of broadband. The number of homes with or without access. Should every house have access? Should every house pay the same price?
I’m not really bored of broadband. It is really important, But it feels like the wrong debate. We shouldn’t be debating mobile or Wi-Fi...
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12 million UK adults can’t read this blog
General ·Nearly one in four of the UK adult population, about 12 million people, are what is termed ‘digitally excluded’. They cannot perform basic tasks on the internet. Many others might have the skills but are excluded because they cannot get on the internet: because the infrastructure isn’t there or because they can’t afford it.
The digitally excluded, about 12...
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Why I tweet about Blackpool FC
General ·Last week someone asked me “Why do you tweet about Blackpool FC so much?”. I gave them my usual answer.
I tweet about Blackpool to tell the story of what happened after the 2010/11 season in the top division and how it hurt me, my family and the place I call home. I also tweet to give publicity to...
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Let’s get 2.5million more people on the internet
General ·During the Summer of 2015 it was announced that the BBC would pay for a free television licence for everyone in the UK over the age of 75. In 2013–14 the cost of providing a free licence to the over-75s was £608m. The cost in 2013–14 was paid by a different bit of the public sector.
There was a...