James Darling

@abscond

Putting strings into databases, taking them out again, and helping deal with the consequences. Founding trustee

Leyton, London
abscond.org
Joined November 2006
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    26 Feb 2017

    Happy birthday to me, here’s 2,000 words on a digital membership platform prototype I made:

    8 replies 21 retweets 64 likes
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  2. Retweeted
    Jan 20

    Thread. The UK's street address data is one of our most important, and problematic, public datasets. Now, an opportunity has arisen to do something about it. Read on. (1/10)

    14 replies 274 retweets 322 likes
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  3. Jan 19

    More Big CapEx Energy

    British hospitals use blockchain to track COVID-19 vaccines
    3 likes
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  4. Jan 13

    “Service design needs the ‘means of production’, to use Karl Marx’s phrase. Without software developers, good user research and prototypes rarely become the tools our service users and frontline teams need.” ⁦:⁩

    6 likes
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  5. Jan 13

    Being a homeowner has changed my experience of being a British citizen in so many ways. From simple beauracracy to my social standing to personal outlook. It is quite insidious. Thatcher was smart.

    2 replies 8 likes
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  6. Jan 13

    Personal reflection on meal parcels: Previously I felt personally invested in this, as I felt I could one day need it myself. Now I own (checks mortgage/mouseprice) 60% of the house I plan to live in for the rest of my life, I (rightly or wrongly) no longer feel like that.

    1 reply 2 likes
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  7. Jan 7

    Modded Minecraft is a very tall, delicate tower of hacky code held up by passionate communities who provide free 24/7 support within 10 seconds of asking.

    1 reply 3 likes
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  8. 28 Dec 2020

    Big CapEx energy

    tech people: local government should adopt modern technology haringey council: tech people: no, not like that
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    3 likes
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  9. 24 Dec 2020

    This meme has been going local. I'd love to see everyone else's local version of this. (Speak to anyone who remembers Leyton Leisure Lagoon and they'll immediately tell you that people would "stick razor blades in the slide")

    1 reply 3 likes
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  10. 8 Dec 2020

    I don't think I knew this Dean. That's very rewarding to hear. Here's that somewhat youthfully charged post:

    I had no interest in government-related design (having politicians as a client? No thanks!). That changed when I read a blog post by saying that they increased organ donation registration by 10,000 a month, just by redesigning a form. I now work for NHS Digital.
    2 replies 8 likes
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  11. 8 Dec 2020

    First show and tell on the new cross local government project I'm working on.

    We're excited to move into the private beta phase for BoPS and can't wait to share with you the updates at 11:30 tomorrow on . Meanwhile don't forget to post questions to which we will read out for Q&A session at the end!
    2 likes
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  12. 3 Dec 2020

    Most awkward new office misstep: Third day and I'm on the phone and need to take a note, so I write it on a whiteboard. Finish call and turn around to find the whole office staring at me. There was no whiteboard, it *was* just a white wall.

    1 reply 1 retweet 20 likes
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  13. 3 Dec 2020

    A big part of being a contractor is being comfortable regularly joining new office environments/cultures. This can be quite draining, but for me the regular new experiences is one of the appeals, and I miss it.

    1 reply 2 likes
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  14. 26 Nov 2020

    Very vague but ongoing frustration I have about popular political chat: it feels like when we give ourselves permission to think larger than the immediate concerns, there's an urge to overshoot and, for example, start talking about hunter-gatherers and what's 'natural'.

    2 likes
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  15. 19 Nov 2020

    The US left politician who's campaign strategy was more based on "it's currently less important to engage with current institutions" was Bernie Sanders (as detailed in "Rules for Revolutionaries"). So this comparison (which I wouldn't want to make in the first place) is backwards

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  16. 19 Nov 2020

    (this is unrelated to any opinions on this exact context, which I'm trying to avoid having, just wanted to be accurate about this bit)

    1 reply
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  17. 19 Nov 2020

    Purely on a historical level, this is a mis-characterisation of "Obama-style". Obama was/is heavily inspired by his Alinsky-style community organising - working with leaders of existing community groups: from churches to, yes, trade unions.

    If I was Labour I'd let Unite disaffiliate. It's daft for any political party to look like it's being controlled by any union boss (or any other interest or individual). Plus Labour have more chance of creating a wide Obama-style donor base without McCluskey and others there.
    1 reply 1 like
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  18. 18 Nov 2020

    This is also true of any non-centralised organisational structure. The specifics are different, but it's an underlying truth that applies to trade unions, religious organisations, scouts, charities such as and many more. Software requires op-ex, not cap-ex.

    4 likes
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  19. 18 Nov 2020

    This has a big impact on the funding and governance of local government services. You're not sharing a product, you're sharing a team:

    This never gets old: we need to start with teams. Every tool needs a team. By
    1 reply 3 likes
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  20. 11 Nov 2020

    But also can lean towards wistfulness, leading to complaints, leading to 'youth today', which leads to outright offensiveness and arguments, which can lead to plain and simple far-right takeovers. I'm not sure of the best engagements to prevent it going past complaints

    1 reply 1 like
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  21. 11 Nov 2020

    Local 'Memories' facebook groups are a bit... tricky. They have the potential (or cover?) of being great at connecting communities to local history, building a greater sense of 'place', which is powerful within a representative democracy based on home address.

    1 reply 2 likes
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