Royal Mail threatens legal action on improving our country
Do we live in a society that brings the might of the judicial system crashing down on those who use their talents to provide free public services in their own time, often filling market failures far better than the Government? It’s a question that is (finally) beginning to be asked in the media, parliament, and if all else fails, the courts.
Unfortunately it has taken two of the finest of these individuals to endure threatening legal action that threatens their livelihoods to bring this matter to the limelight. For years, however, entrepreneurial creators of the web have been posed with this dilemna with every good idea they’ve had. Some have continued with the hope of a shield of obscurity, others with the mantra “ask forgiveness, not permission”, others have caved in, not wanting to risk what Harry and Richard are going through now.
I urge you to support Ernest Marples’ defence of their service that has the potential to help every person in this country and move Britain into the digital age.
Our guests were far more efficient than we were at writing up the happenings at Young Rewired State on the 22nd and 23rd August 2009. Apologies for our tardiness, we have pretty much recovered now so there are some important things to note and people to thank.
Firstly the young people who attended:
Elliot Theis
Jordan Hatch
Grant Bell
Jonathan Davies
Bryant Tan
Tim Dobson
Fergus Ruston
William Tinsdeall
Isabell Long
Rob Barry
Callum Lamb
James Bowden
Thomas Wood
Horatio Caine
Joe Henthorn
Ben Webb
Kyle Richards
Sahar Abdulrahman
Robert Leverington
Andrew Davidson
Sufian Hassan
Marcus Nelson
Jamie Dickinson
Sufyaan Patel
Nick Scott-Jones
Poppy Johnson
Shyam Thakrar
Samuel Hale
Richard Fontaine
Jawsh Jawshington
Alexander Jethwa
Jordan Smallin
Josh Buckley
Tim Dobson
Lawrence Job
Connor Smith
Stephen Mount
Thomas Veness
Harlan Kohll
Vivan Jayant
Scott Dennison
Richard Thompson
James Stoker
Max Siegieda
Marcus Stewart Hughes
Sarah Frost
Sean Whitton
James Robson
Daniel Kershaw
Chris Parsons-Giles
John Paul Dickie
Edward Worthy
We have bios for most and will put them all up here somewhere, when we have approval from them to do so. They had a variety of skills, a heady mix of highly skilled developers, young entrepreneurs who already run successful tech businesses, science and innovation geeks and those with a basic understanding of coding but a raging passion to understand and do more.
How did we find them?
Initially we used the power of twitter to get the word out, then we started calling people we knew who might know any young people with the interest and skills and finally we charged the mighty Dan Morris of the BBC with getting at least 50 people signed up. With a mixture of his contacts and going to events, he drummed up a list that grew so rapidly we had to close it in the end. Of the 55 signed up when we closed the list, 53 turned up <- an incredible achievement, and thanks mainly to Dan contacting every one and making sure they were able to get there and, for the 15 year olds, had permission from parents. Thank you, Dan! Now an honorary member of the Rewired State team.
In addition to this we used our own networks and it did help when Tim O’Reilly tweeted about us…
What did we do?
At the beginning of the weekend we gathered everyone in the St James’s Park room at Google London and outlined why we were there: to see what we could create over the course of two days using public sector data. Mentors, who had come along with a variety of skills, stood and introduced themselves and outlined their capabilities/passions.
After some hasty scribbling we put up sheets of paper with broad topics that might be a good trigger for an idea, such as: crime, sport, culture, travel. The obligatory post-it notes were dished out and everyone was asked to put down any ideas they had, or issues they wanted resolved and they were then grouped around topics. From then on everything really fell into place; people self-organised into groups, found a mentor and got on with creating stuff (we did have a few individuals that worked one-on-one with a mentor too).
Over the rest of the weekend we really just concentrated on leaving them to it, feeding, watering and encouraging where necessary. The mentors were brilliant and moved from group to group to share their expertise where needed.
Compares violent crime rates with exam results (education)
Education and the web (2)
Does having broadband affect exam results in the area? (education)
Education and the web (3)
OFSTED results (education)
StepSafe
Route planner. Creates heat map of areas to avoid (based on violent violent crime data)
TFHell
Real-time bus service status updates
Blab to Betty
Sex & sexual health service for web and mobile – complementing the Talk to Frank service
AgeVerifier
Online age verification service using passport authentication
Blogotics
Sniffs “mood” of the blogosphere around given Parliamentary Bills
Untransport Direct
Plans journeys door-to-door. If a connection is missed, can replot the journey on the fly
How’s My Train?
Live train service updates.
Will Work For Peanuts
Work experience placement finder and advertiser.
Engage
Leisure activity database.
Unicloud
University course search engine
Free The Theory
Get around the copyright on driving tests to enable more people to take theory tests online.
Schoolroutr 2.0 Beta
Safe routes to school.
At the end of it all, everyone was asked to present what they had done to a group of government people, Press and the judging panel. Enormous thanks to our judges for coming along at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon:
JP Rangaswami, MD of Design at BT
Mark O’Neill – DCMS CIO
Ben Hammersley – Deputy Editor of Wired UK
Diana Johnson MP, Undersecretary of State for schools
Craig Elder – Communities manager for the Conservative Party
Helen Milner – MD of UK Online centres
Mike Hoban – Head of Communications Directgov
Dan Heaf – 4iP
Prizes were awarded in the following categories:
Most likely to be bought by Google: TFHell: Horatio Caine, Jordan Hatch, James Bowden, Lawrence Job
Wish I’d thought of that (prize category courtesy of Harry Metcalfe): Work for peanuts: Bryant Tan, Vivan Jayant, Daniel Kershaw, Shyam Thakrar, Chris Parsons-Giles
Most likely to antagonise CIO council (proposed by Mark O’Neill CIO of DCMS): How’s my train? Callum Lamb and Thomas Wood
Overall best in show: Schoolroutr 2.0 beta: Stephen Mount
Special mentions were given to:
Free the theory test: (developers yet to put their names to this)
Blogotics: Ben Webb, Joe Henthorn, Richard Thompson
UniCloud: Richard Fontaine, Marcus Hughes, Jawsh Jawshington, Sufian Hassan
Blab to Betty: Nick Scott-Jones, Poppy Johnson, Sufyaan Patel, Jonathan Davies
We are in the process of contacting all winners and organising their prizes, we have been jaw-droppingly rubbish and slow at getting this done – apologies to all (again!)
How did we afford it?
By the generosity of our partner Google and the sponsors, who dug deep (and even deeper when we started running over budget when we realised we had to bring so many from across the country, and accommodate them overnight safely and close to Victoria).
Department of Children Schools and Families
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Directgov
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
CIO Council
Unboxed Consulting
4iP
The Guardian
It is very important to note that most of the sponsorship came from government. Our message is intentionally harsh and we want to prove the power of Agile working – but government departments wanted to be a part of this, to learn from this and indeed to take on some of the creations, or at least incorporate what had been done, in future planning. It is with thanks in main to them that this weekend happened. (Money was spent mainly on travel and accommodation in London for the young developers, food and computer hire took up most of the rest of it, with a little left over for prizes.)
What happens next?
Everyone was keen to remain in touch and to continue the work they had started. Some, like DFEY, were an established network – but work is underway to create a way for this collaboration to continue, for the young people and also for those who might want to tap into this talent.
The applications continue to be worked on, and you can watch this in real time on our projects page. We will be talking to all sponsors about those that might be useful to take forward and launched as services provided by government.
Rewired State was set up originally as a hack day for people who wanted to do something practical, rather than talking about what government should be doing. The first one ran in March 2009 and was so successful that we decided to make it an annual event. The idea for Young Rewired State came about when we kept hearing of the struggle government was having trying to get young people to use their websites. Rather than setting management consultants at the problem, we thought we would set some young people at it instead and see what happened.
Interesting discovery: the problems they want solved are no different than the frustrations everyone experiences, and their solutions were simple, focused and in retrospect – often blindingly obvious.
So now, we get ready for the next one! (After a year off)
Ed: There will be another Rewired State run in March 2010. We need a little bit of beer and food sponsorship (but not much as everyone can take care of themselves for getting to that one!) and people to sign up – oh and a venue.
Enormous thanks to the following:
Dan Morris – without whom we really could not have pulled this off at all, not just the gathering together of the young developers, but he threw his hat into the ring with everything – mad dashes across London with laptops, tough financial negotiations the lot <- you are a star
Harry Metcalfe – who provided server and server troubleshooting, mentoring and even suffered through our weekly Thursday night prep meetings without complaint or exasperation
Tiffany St James – who was unfortunately away for the event, but in the run up to it organised all of our press and event liaison, (and us when we flailed about), helped spread the word across government about the event and was generally wonderful
Milo Yiannopoulos – who intended to pop in and see what was going on, then possibly come back on the Sunday afternoon; turned up, stayed, carried on staying, came out with us on the Saturday evening, promised to return the following afternoon, but was there bright and early helping out, finding out who was doing what, writing lots of lists and finally mastered the show and tell session after exhaustion and loathing of public speaking beat Emma into the back seat. You were a legend, we are eternally grateful
Luc, Layla and Laura from Google (plus the Google mentors whose names we do not have – which is bad)
Finally, if you want to read about what everyone else said, then we encourage the use of our partner’s natty tool: Google Search and see the news items and blog posts; there are also many photos on Flickr if you search for ‘youngrewiredstate’ or ‘young rewired state’; and Lee Martin from the department for children, school and families (DCSF) put together this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7SMq_6axT4
After some silence from Rewired State, we can finally announce one of the projects we’ve been working on behind the scenes.
Young Rewired State is a two day hack weekend where we gather 50 teenagers between 15 and 18 years old, and mix them with terminals, 20 of the finest Rewired State hackers and lunch.
Google are massively helping out with this, and have very kindly agreed to lend us their offices outside Victoria station, a treasure trove of technology and toys. They will also be partnering with us in other ways to be announced.
The weekend will start on Saturday 22nd August with quick introductions before getting straight into the hacking. Lunch and dinner will be provided, and for those who need it, we’ll be looking for accommodation that evening.
The next morning will be finishing off the hacks in time to present it to our very special, to be announced, judges. There will be prizes to the best hacks (suggestions welcome).
We’re very excited by this project, and will be working on it at a full pace over the next few weeks. Expect lots of exciting news to be coming from here very soon.
If you’re 15-18 years old (or very close), and would like to apply to come sign up here
We’re looking for as many sponsors as possible to make this the most exciting event. If you think you can help, email Emma at emma@rewiredstate.org.
If you’re from the press and was wondering who our lovely PR person is, email Tiffany at tiffany@rewiredstate.org
I’ve just got back from a holiday with a week away from the internet, but while my writing about it paused, Rewired State keeps moving faster and faster, so there’s a few updates to come.
First up: The EU. Me and Emma Mulqueeny were invited to Belgium so we could present at an EU workshop called Public Services 2.0 event. We were part of the representatives of the “micro level”, up against (or with) the “meso” and “macro” levels of EU e-government. Up against keynote speakers mentioning “small budgets like 2 million Euros”, we really were the micro level, but attempted to show that that certainly didn’t mean we were outgunned.
In my 10 minutes I introduced them to the geek community, some of the influences, the event, and just some of the output of the day. It seems it was received well (Google translate is now vital for keeping up with the twitter stream), and had people approach me later with thoughts on subjects varying from Rewired State events in Sweden to how this can help excluded groups use technology. All interesting stuff we’re following up.
Ever since we started National Hack The Government Day, we’ve had plenty of interest from those who are not able to be at the event in London on the day. I’m very sympathetic to this, and see no reason why those who want to join in from afar can do so.
Obviously, though, I’m not about to start trying to claim world domination of this idea. I have neither the ego, nor the brainpower. So I’d love to get your thoughts and help with this.
There is already a confirmed brighton outpost for the day, and I’ve heard of possible outposts in Manchester, Ireland and a few fruitless (thus far) attempts to have something in North America. Nobody’s quite established what being an “outpost” requires, so I’ll have a stab at it now. Hackers, in close proximity, hacking on Government data. That’s about it really. As long as everyone there is making something (and I mean actually making something: coding, designing, knitting), we’re happy to help out any way we can.
Being able to present your hack at the end of the day is quite important to me. There will be prizes, but we will also be bringing in 50 Government officials to (hopefully) show off how important API hacking can be (they can look, not touch). So if you’re not attending, then I’ll do my best to ensure you don’t miss out on this. Whether we faff around with VOIP or I’ll just present something for you, we’ll sort it out.
I have already set up an IRC room (#rewiredstate on freenode), which of course anyone is permitted to join in on, so that should help those joining in from afar.
Any other ideas? Want to host an outpost in your area? Please do let us know, and we will support your efforts in any way we can.
We’re really chuffed to announce a date and venue for Rewired State. The Guardian have kindly lent us their new (and *very* plush) offices in Kings Cross for a day, on the 7th of March. A really big thanks to Chris Thorpe for helping us arrange it, it’s a fantasic place.
If you can’t make it to London on that day and would like to do something from home or organise your own mini event, the please get in touch at info@rewiredstate.org.
I promised an email with a date and location last Monday. This hasn’t happened.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that I came down ill, and had to leave things for a bit. But the bigger reason is that as the word started to spread, we’ve had some very interesting people come to us with interesting thoughts and offers.
Now we’re certainly not going to be saying yes to all of them. A key part of this event will be who to say no to, so that we can keep the hacker spirit alive. But there have been a few that we feel can really help, and come with the right attitude. And with these people, we’re expanding our plans a little bit.
We have therefore cancelled our booking at our intial venue and are sorting out new things. We have a few meetings planned this Monday, and I hope to have some things to announce soon after that.
So, blimey. It’s been 2 weeks since the idea of a Government Hack Day got scribbled down on a notebook next to a BLT during a late lunch in Soho. The antidote to the current public sector conferences, drinks and ‘camps’. Too much talk, and not enough actual doing. Not enough designs. Not enough code.
This idea has been spreading over beers and laptops around London from that moment. A crack team of notorious doers-not-talkers was quickly formed. I sampled the idea in front of a room of ruby hackers, and 37 signed up immediately. Clearly the idea of doing not talking was going to apply to the event itself.
We’re in the final stages of organising the date and location. Expect the announcement in the next couple of days.
We’ll be collecting all sorts of public data on this wiki page. Hopefully this will become a useful resource not just for the day, but for all hackers.
I will be writing some thoughts here on this blog, updating twitter and very occasionally emailing those who have registered interest with the latest important info.
But enough of this. I’m in danger of talking too much.
