So, some digital information has leaked from its home. Its been played with by an excel monkey and plotted on maps. It shouldn’t have happened, but it has. Doh! doesn’t quite cover it when I think of the stupidity of some people.

While there are many political uses of the information, the lists of names of membership of any organisation should be kept private. Lists of names, as Tom Steinberg (MySociety) said, start us down a path best not begun. There are lots of lists of names missing or lost about the place, perhaps they shouldn’t be seeded as torrents or publicly searchable. Just because there are techniques to mash this data and present it in interesting ways (against ethnicity data, or social deprivation indexes, or just against voter turnout) does not mean that anyone should.

From an Information Governance and Information Security perspective, these BNP kids are going to have to get their act together. The Information Commissioner is going to want to have words with them. Perhaps there will be court proceedings for breech of human rights act and data protection legislation; although perhaps in not quite the way that Nick Griffin expects, with claims against the BNP for negligence.

It’s been a busy fortnight for open-information projects and campaigns. Widely announced and re-announced were the winners of the Show Us A Better Way (SUABW) competition, sponsored by the Government, which sought new solutions to perhaps unknown problems. SUABW asked people what web-based tools they would build from public data-sources that would  improve the way public information is shared and presented.

The winners are:

• Can I Recycle It?
• UK Cycling
• Catchment Areas
• Location of Postboxes
• Loofinder

The BBC PM report referred to a court case being thrown out because a piece of law that the case was built on had been taken off the statute book. The codified law of the British Isles is a huge chunk of public data I’d like to see freed up, so I’m hoping for great things from the Free Our Bills campaign: wide open and accessible Parliamentary Bills… searchable and remixable legislation… a wiki statue book?

Sarah Teather wrote back to me this week concerning EDM2141, saying

The Liberal Democrats believe that Bills ought to be published in such a fashion that they can be accessed as easily and as early as possible by the public.

Sarah will be adding her signature to the EDM which currently has 76 members of Parliament supporting it.

Local residents group North West Two are now using Fix My Street to file reports with Brent Council. I’ll be working with the other residents groups in my area to get links to FMS on all the community websites I can.

Fix My Street (FMS) is A LOT faster and easier than using the Brent Council reporting system. All I need to do to report via FMS is enter the street name, choose the right street and then write up the problem. It’s certainly easier than burrowing through Brent Councils website to find the right e-form to complete when all I want to do is report a broken paving slap or some dumped rubbish.

Using FMS is a great way of making public the problems that are reported to Brent Council.The openness of this tool could reduce the number of duplicate issues reported to the council. I wonder how long it’ll be before Brent adopt a similar method of receiving reports from residents.

News earlier this year was that the Heritage Lottery Fund announced stage 1 funding towards a grant of £1.2 million to help restore Dollis Hill House. This would have enabled Dollis Hill House Trust (DHHT) to work with Training For Life and Brent Council to annex a section of a public park for pseudo-social-enterprise, or, in the words of the DHH, to bring about the “commercial exploitation of the house’s prime and dramatic location, balanced with a positive vision of the house’s future as a cohesive focus for the growing and increasingly diverse population of the surrounding area.”

Last Thursday (6th Nov), TheWillesden Observer ran a cover story asking “Is this the end for Dollis Hill House?” after Boris Johnson decided not to give money pledged by Ken Livingstone.  Johnson is reported as saying that “…in these harsh economic times and with many so many other priorities chasing limited resources, the money would be more effectively spent on initiatives that improve the lives of Londoners.”

Click through to the Observer website for some pictures of the derelict and firedamaged building.

I’m currently wondering how much money Brent Council could save by pulling down the building. More reports on this when I get the information.

Today I’ve accessed three different MySociety websites: TheyWorkForYou, WriteToThem and WhatDoTheyKnow.  I honestly don’t know what I’d do without these powerful tools: MySociety are indespensible and we’d all miss them if they weren’t here.

I was using WriteToThem to contact Sarah Teather to urge her to support Early Day Motion (EDM) 2141 that her parliamentary colleague Jo Swinson has tabled.

 FREE OUR BILLS CAMPAIGN, 22.07.2008, Swinson, Jo

That this House believes it has a duty to publish Bills in such a fashion that they can be accessed as easily and as early as possible by the public; notes that the non-partisan Free Our Bills campaign is urging the House to publish bill texts in a new electronic format to improve accessibility and public scrutiny of legislation; further notes that the changes requested would have no impact on the content of Bills, nor upon the process by which they are currently made; considers that the new format could be delivered cheaply and quickly; acknowledges that the Leader of the House’s office did not accept a prior request for new formatting from mySociety, nor provide an explanation of why the changes could be made; and calls on the Leader of House to ask House of Commons Clerks to work with Free Our Bills campaign staff to commence publication of Bills in the new format.

I wrote to Sarah

“As you will recall from previous meetings and correspondence, I have a strong belief in the enabling potential of new media technologies in mproving accessibility and increasing timely access to information. The opportunities of new media technologies are being ignored or locked by parliamentary authorities, preventing public scrutiny of legislation by the widest possible audience.”

“EDM 2141 calls on the “Leader of House to ask House of Commons Clerks to work with Free Our Bills campaign staff to commence publication of bills in the new format.” I urge you to support this EDM and to give as much support as you can to this proposal.”

Why don’t you write to your MP about Freeing Our Bills using WriteToThem today too?