Labelling himself a “podcasting pioneer”, Tory MP Ed Vaizey has recorded two podcasts thus far, available at Politics on Demand. His most recent podcast “takes us on a day in the life of a conservative MP”. Bet you can’t wait to listen.

Politics on Demand is a podcast production company recently launched by former LBC managing director Mark Flanagan and Smooth FM breakfast presenter David Prever, reports the Press Gazette. Lib Dem Jo Swinson has also podcasted to her constituents through Politics on Demand and Labour’s Shahid Malik is another a client.

One of the few bloggers to notice this new sensation is Conservative writer Iain Dale. Iain has recorded a podcast (expected for transmission in a few days), which he believes has the potential to be more entertaining than some: “… we were recording a piece for my first Podcast (watch this space) and suddenly I saw a mouse run across the floor. I’m afraid I had a Chantelle moment and started repeating “Oh my God” over and over again. It rather disrupted the flow of the Podcast but makes hilarious listening!”.

Let’s wait and see shall we.

A grassroots revolution has been initiated among NHS patients who feel voiceless and powerless against an increasingly management dominated healthcare system. This uprising is being led from within by Paul Hodgkin, a Sheffield GP who has set up the new website called Patient Opinion.

Patient Opinion was conceived to provide a public forum for patients to share their experiences of healthcare services. Patients are asked to rate hospitals on medical and nursing care, parking, cleanliness, punctuality of service delivery and whether they were treated with respect and dignity.

Patient Opinion is completely self-sustaining and not part of the NHS, funding itself by marketing reports to hospitals and PCTs. Dr Hodgkin is keen to emphasise that the service is independent, confidential and free of charge to all patients. “Patients need to be able to trust Patient Opinion,” says Dr Hodgkin in The Times, “and I also want Patient Opinion to be really useful to staff — not just another stick to beat them with.”

The results of the trial period have been encouraging. More than half of the postings on the website have been positive, praising NHS staff, and criticisms tended to be constructive. Also hospitals that subscribed to Patient Opinion reported the feedback to be useful.

Going by these findings it appears that Patient Opinion could be the beginning of a real dialogue between NHS workers and its users. More exciting is the fact that if this website takes off the same idea could be applied to other public services – surely Passenger Opinion is the next logical step.

The government would be well advised to take note if it is serious about re-engaging with the British public.

In his recent article for AOL on the role of new media in political communications, self-confessed technophobe Alastair Campbell admitted that “we in the UK are well behind our campaigning colleagues in the US when it comes to its use.”

Pressure groups are generally more savvy than political parties when it comes to these things, but here too the US is out ahead. Howard Dean used the internet as his main campaigning tool during the Democratic Primary Election that began in 2003, while liberal political action group MoveOn.org launched as far back as 1998 as a nonpartisan petition against the impeachment of President Clinton. In comparison, the web presence of British politics looks positively neolithic.

This could be changing, however. Last week saw the launch of Liberty Central, a site which describes itself as “not an organisation and certainly not a political party [but] ‘a coalition of the willing’”.

Despite having a name that brings to mind gun-totin’ citizens militias somewhere in Montana, the site has distinctly liberal sensibilities. It was launched by ‘Unity’ of Talk Politics in response to the concerns of bloggers of all political stripes that authoritarian security legislation presents a threat to Britain’s civil liberties.

The site aims to provide news and opinion on the relationship between government and governed, covering a range of subjects including the role of a written constitution, devolution, electoral reform and the identity cards and terrorism bills. On top of that it provides listings of forthcoming events, includes a blog, and - a new one, this - a space in which contributors can attempt to draw up a constitution using a wiki.

All users are welcome to contribute to the site, even those without a grounding in constitutional theory. Whether Liberty Central will have any impact on policy remains to be seen - but it does suggest that British politics is, at last, moving online.

As the recent publicity surrounding the infamous Child Support Agency highlighted, the Government has a notorious record with IT projects. Just three weeks ago John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, announced that the CSA’s computer system would not be properly operational for another two years.

In one particular area of government, things are looking ominous. Just two days ago, Pensions Minister Stephen Timms - famously booed when addressing the Pensioners’ Parliament in Blackpool last year - revealed that the Department for Work and Pensions has “in excess of 100 individual projects that embrace both information technology and business change”.

This, it should be noted is just one out of a total of 19 government departments. Mr Timms went on, during his questioning in the House to list seven of his department’s “major projects based on IT change”, totalling £1.5bn. And the list did not even include the pensions IT bill, which will not be announced for another four months.

The facts come into perspective when you consider that last year’s DWP resource budget was £7.8bn. So without the other 94 less important IT projects, the major computer spending is around 1/5 of the total departmental budget.

One final - and worrying - thought: a 2003 Office of Science and Technology report revealed the sobering statistic that only 13% of all IT project - across both public and private sectors - were classed as successful (that is to say on time, to specification and to cost).

It’s really not legal but the locals can’t get enough.
Read more >>

Ofcom today published the results of research to assess the extent of adult media literacy in the UK.

A total of 3,244 respondents were interviewed for the research across the UK. The audit focuses on the four main digital platforms, with analogue TV and radio included where relevant.

The full report can be found here:

Here is a development that we missed last week…

Bath is going wireless in a research project testing new mobile technologies and the impact of a city-wide wireless network on the ancient city. Wireless, Bluetooth and near field communication, a new type of short-range communication technology, will be used throughout the city for the study and then expanded for general use.

The project, Cityware, is based at the University of Bath and will track the use of new wireless applications and services by 30 participants over the next three years.

The participants will get to try out the possible features of the next generation of mobile phones, laptops and hand held computers. Such features will include interactive games and cultural activities, and information services.

One nifty example is an image recognition tool: a lost or curious visitor can take a picture of their surroundings with their camera phone and send it to a server. The server compares the picture to others in its database and then sends the visitor information on their location, the history of the building and nearby points of interest.

Participants will not only give feedback on the applications, but also on how the pervasive network impacts their lives.

Collaborators on the project include Imperial College London, University College London, Vodafone, Nokia, HP Laboratories, Node and IBM. The £1.6 million project is funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the project partners.

Bath is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, making it an ideal location for testing how to embed new technologies without destroying historical architecture.

Andrew McLaughlin, press officer for Cityware said: “I see this being a major sort of boon for the city.”

Volunteers are still needed to participate in the study. Organizers are still looking for women, boys and girls under the age of 18, and men and women over the age of 60. (Sorry guys – they have enough of your type.) For information on getting involved, contact Dr Tim Jones in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath at t.jones@bath.ac.uk or 07768 917684.

Hi Politically Blogging Chums,

I expect you all read about the launch of the Power Inquiry report on Monday. mySociety has no formal connection with it, but I found it such a surprising, intriguing document (having read just the exec summary) that I thought it deserved a good roast-chicken-style picking apart and chewing over. In a nice way, of course.

So, we did a bit of a ‘theyworkforyou’ to it:

www.commentonpower.org

All unofficial, 100% fresh off the presses. Kudos to Chris Lightfoot and Francis Irving who built it all in less than a day. If nothing else, and if nobody wants to leave comments, I hope at least it’ll mean more people read the summary.

best,

Tom