Great thread from Ciaran. Genuinely world class state capability. In a new(ish) institution.

You’re seriously asking if a CTO should have a technology background? - Jon Ayre If your CTO isn't from a technical background then, to be quite honest, you have a bias issue, and it's hurting your business.

You’re seriously asking if a CTO should have a technology background?

You might as well be asking if the Pope needs to be Catholic. If your CTO isn’t from a technical background then, to be quite honest, you have a bias issue, and it’s hurting your business.

Why Plaid Cymru’s plan to 'make a plan' might not be a bad plan, after all James Downs, Mental health campaigner One of the more predictable criticisms of Plaid Cymru’s programme for the Senedd election has been that there is too much in it about planning, consultation, and ...

Planning is not always procrastination, and consultation is not always kicking hard decisions down the road. Plaid Cymru’s willingness to build policy with people may be one of the few genuinely interesting things in their approach ✍️ @jamesldowns.bsky.social

This issue is a service owners worst nightmare.
Huge #hugops to the team figuring out what has happened, how long it’s been an issue, and the wider impact of it.
And huge appreciation to @danneidle.bsky.social and co for being sensible. Responsible disclosure is important.

The accompanying blog post shows that Dan and colleagues followed responsible disclosure process before publishing.

Photo of letter from DVLA saying your driving licence should not be adjusted, copied it photographed.

Don't copy your driving licence ... When the driving licence is the ID you're routinely asked to upload to prove your identity

This is an incredibly serious vulnerability in the Companies House digital service.

CH have thankfully taken the service offline to avoid any further compromise.

What's My JND? Find your Just Noticeable Difference in colour perception. How small a colour difference can you actually see?

What's My JND? 0.0039
Can you beat it? www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd...

Civil Service Reform: The Chapter 10 Problem David French recently drew attention to what authors and editors sometimes call the ‘Chapter 10 problem’.

Report after report recommends Civil Service Reform - but it never happens. Here's why:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/civil-serv...
Includes references to writing by @andrewgreenway.bsky.social , @samfr.bsky.social & @iandunt.bsky.social

She Came Out of the Bathroom Naked, Employee Says Bank details, sex and naked people who seem unaware they are being recorded. Behind Meta’s new smart glasses lies a hidden workforce, uneasy about peering into the most intimate parts of other people’...

The data from your Meta Ray Bans is used to train Meta's AI, which most people don't understand means that humans are looking at the most intimate details of their lives. www.svd.se/a/K8nrV4/met...

Silly Rules National Report - Bevan Commission

Nearly 800 people responded to a simple question from the Bevan Commission and Llais:

If you could break or change any rule to provide a better care experience in Wales, what would it be?

bevancommission.org/silly-rules-...

"Gwnewch y pethau bychain" - do the small things. - Compounding impact - Collective transformation

Happy St David’s Day.

He famously said: "Gwnewch y pethau bychain" - do the small things.

🌼 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

"Gwnewch y pethau bychain" - Effaith sy'n cronni - Trawsnewid ar y cyd

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant Hapus.

“Gwnewch y pethau bychain.”

🌼 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

The first chapter on "a better government" is v. interesting...

"people centred", "open and transparent", "measurable outcomes", "test and learn"

Political parties don't often focus on ways of working/culture in government.

For those of us in early-GDS who kept track of the Chief Mousers, this is very sad news. I am however very glad Palmerston enjoyed their retirement in Bermuda.

Badly written consultation questions are a perfect invite for a judicial review. It’s amazing how often government forgets about the Gunning principles test.

Banner image with screenshot of scientific article from nature Medicine, as well as two panels from the study method and results

⚠️ Despite all the hype, chatbots still make terrible doctors. Out today is the largest user study of language models for medical self-diagnosis. We found that chatbots provide inaccurate and inconsistent answers, and that people are better off using online searches or their own judgment.

McSweeney. Starmer. Mandelson. Enough

Can we please re-centre and focus on what Epstein is about.

Justice for these women.

Stopping this shit so no more women, girls have to go through this again.

Dywedodd y Prif Weinidog wrth @willhaycardiff.bsky.social ei bod yn anfodlon gyda chyflymder trawsnewid digidol. Rydyn ni hefyd.

Mae’r broblem yn systemig - mae gennym amgylchedd lle mae’n haws siarad am newid nag yw hi i’w gyflawni mewn gwirionedd.

Darllenwch ein hymateb, a sut i’w drwsio.

The FM told @willhaycardiff.bsky.social she's frustrated with the pace of digital transformation. We are too.

The problem is systemic - we have an environment where it is easier to talk about change than to actually do it.

Read our response, and how to fix it.

Interestingly, I’ve noticed a few local stations missing/not showing. Both Shell garages. Looks like they *are* providing data though the scheme though.

www.shell.co.uk/fuel-prices-data.html

I've written a piece for the @econ-observatory.bsky.social on the history of GDS. Notably, why you need change both top down and bottom up incentives if you're aiming to help a large, federated organisation adopt radical change.

You can thank @daverog.bsky.social for that particular analogy:

public.digital/pd-insights/...

Newsletter #103 | Dafydd Vaughan I’m really excited to share what I’ve been working on for the last few months: a new book from Public Digital on shaping technology for transformation. 📖 Technology is a fundamental part of every or...

Find out more in the PD newsletter: www.linkedin.com/posts/dafydd...

And order a copy:
public.digital/pd-technolog...

It’s a collection of essays from my colleagues, edited by me, on the culture and leadership conditions that make tech work. We dig into: digital sovereignty 🏰, tech spaghetti 🍝, leadership debt 💸, knowing when to stop 🛑 and weathering a crisis 💥.

Really excited to share a thing I've been working on: a new book from @publicdigital.bsky.social on shaping technology for transformation.

Tech is a fundamental part of every organisation - but they're often hamstrung by layers of digital geology, alongside huge pressure to chase the latest hype.

This is Literally the Job Political journalists need to stop pretending they don't know what Republicans are going to do.

"They told us what they were going to do. They published it. They put it on a website. And when it happened, the press was surprised."

Hoo boy, everyone should bookmark this @parkermolloy.com piece & make sure everyone involved in media reads it.

It’s part of France’s open source collaboration software suite that other governments can adopt and run.

Three errors here. First, in confusing some kind of SEND classification (20%) with EHCPs (5.5%).

Secondly in assuming it gives automatic right to DLA. Though there is a strong ECHP/DLA overlap.

Third in assuming that those moving to DLA to PIP never work (it's not an out of work benefit).

The insanity of UK public bodies threatening other UK public bodies with the apparent intention of limiting the reuse of UK address data. Meanwhile the rest of the world has long recognised that postal address data is critical digital public infrastructure in the 21st century.