David Durant
@bowsy.co.uk
I've been a long-time supporter of the government technology and transformation communities since 2009. I've worked for mySociety, the GLA, HackIT and GDS. I'm on the committees for GovCamp, TransformGov Talks and the UK Polyamory Association.
Reposted by David Durant
Looking for examples of 'service veneers' where a solution has been plastered over a complex series of services with the promise of a streamlined better experience but hasn't done hard work to improve whole system.
Think like 'life stage' digitised journeys or outcomes still being hard to meet
Think like 'life stage' digitised journeys or outcomes still being hard to meet
November 14, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Looking for examples of 'service veneers' where a solution has been plastered over a complex series of services with the promise of a streamlined better experience but hasn't done hard work to improve whole system.
Think like 'life stage' digitised journeys or outcomes still being hard to meet
Think like 'life stage' digitised journeys or outcomes still being hard to meet
Reposted by David Durant
Some #weeknotes from the #GDS Service Standard & Service Manual team:
🖋️ Looking at how a senior 'Managing Editor' + strategy + singular IA might help GDS organise and improve its wide array of often-not-very-well-joined-up-or-designed content products
1/6 #govdesign
🖋️ Looking at how a senior 'Managing Editor' + strategy + singular IA might help GDS organise and improve its wide array of often-not-very-well-joined-up-or-designed content products
1/6 #govdesign
Short week for me, not in tomorrow or Friday, so... #weeknotes from GDS's Service Standard & Service Manual team...
🤧🏖️ Lots of lurgy and holidays in our little crew, and at homes
🤸 Arranging more refresher training in Agile services
1/3 #govdesign #gds
🤧🏖️ Lots of lurgy and holidays in our little crew, and at homes
🤸 Arranging more refresher training in Agile services
1/3 #govdesign #gds
🙇 Sorry it's been a while, but here are some #weeknotes, or #quarternotes, from GDS's Service Standard & Service Manual team. We've been...
🏉 Getting the new team together, shaping our roadmap for continuous improvement
1/6 #govdesign #gds
🏉 Getting the new team together, shaping our roadmap for continuous improvement
1/6 #govdesign #gds
November 14, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Some #weeknotes from the #GDS Service Standard & Service Manual team:
🖋️ Looking at how a senior 'Managing Editor' + strategy + singular IA might help GDS organise and improve its wide array of often-not-very-well-joined-up-or-designed content products
1/6 #govdesign
🖋️ Looking at how a senior 'Managing Editor' + strategy + singular IA might help GDS organise and improve its wide array of often-not-very-well-joined-up-or-designed content products
1/6 #govdesign
Reposted by David Durant
Why seek political office if you have a stonking majority and you use it to…endlessly fret about losing your majority rather than running a country? It’s no good. There is no theory for how to make things better. It’s not even well managed decline.
November 13, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Why seek political office if you have a stonking majority and you use it to…endlessly fret about losing your majority rather than running a country? It’s no good. There is no theory for how to make things better. It’s not even well managed decline.
I mean, at this point sure a class action suit by students to sue the university for now not providing them with the level of rigorous education they've paid a *lot* of money for.
Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I mean, at this point sure a class action suit by students to sue the university for now not providing them with the level of rigorous education they've paid a *lot* of money for.
Reposted by David Durant
A reminder we have a brilliant line-up for next Tuesday's Data Bites (6pm, 18 Nov), the last one of 2025
Sign up online, or come in person (Broadway House, opposite St James's Park tube) where there'll also be drinks afterwards 👇
Sign up online, or come in person (Broadway House, opposite St James's Park tube) where there'll also be drinks afterwards 👇
🚨 THIS TIME NEXT WEEK 🚨
Come to @publicdigital.bsky.social Data Bites #60 (SW1/online) with:
- Steph Howarth (Chief Stat, Welsh Govt) on StatsWales
- Penny Babb (Office for Stats Regulation) on new Code
- @mhwauben.bsky.social (GLA) on Data for London Library
- Michelle Waters (ONS) on Census 2031
Come to @publicdigital.bsky.social Data Bites #60 (SW1/online) with:
- Steph Howarth (Chief Stat, Welsh Govt) on StatsWales
- Penny Babb (Office for Stats Regulation) on new Code
- @mhwauben.bsky.social (GLA) on Data for London Library
- Michelle Waters (ONS) on Census 2031
Data Bites #60 — Public Digital
public.digital
November 14, 2025 at 10:31 AM
A reminder we have a brilliant line-up for next Tuesday's Data Bites (6pm, 18 Nov), the last one of 2025
Sign up online, or come in person (Broadway House, opposite St James's Park tube) where there'll also be drinks afterwards 👇
Sign up online, or come in person (Broadway House, opposite St James's Park tube) where there'll also be drinks afterwards 👇
Reposted by David Durant
New thing! The @carefultrouble.bsky.social Careful Consequence Check is now live and free to use. Based on research with the Bristol Digital Futures Institute, this practical tool will help you answer the question "is my AI product creepy and weird" www.careful.industries/consequences
November 13, 2025 at 4:23 PM
New thing! The @carefultrouble.bsky.social Careful Consequence Check is now live and free to use. Based on research with the Bristol Digital Futures Institute, this practical tool will help you answer the question "is my AI product creepy and weird" www.careful.industries/consequences
Local power in action - just down the road from me.
Winchmore Hill Residents' Association meeting addresses big local issues
Neil Littman on the main topics of interest arising from last week's annual general meeting
enfielddispatch.co.uk/winchmore-hi...
Neil Littman on the main topics of interest arising from last week's annual general meeting
enfielddispatch.co.uk/winchmore-hi...
Winchmore Hill Residents' Association meeting addresses big local issues
Neil Littman on the main topics of interest arising from last week's annual general meeting
enfielddispatch.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Local power in action - just down the road from me.
Reposted by David Durant
This is absolute gold from @richardpope.org on digitally enabled preventative healthcare
Preventative healthcare: designing for the service loop
A set of provocations about the design of digitally enabled preventative healthcare
www.rpp.works
November 13, 2025 at 9:39 AM
This is absolute gold from @richardpope.org on digitally enabled preventative healthcare
This is excellent - small modular reactors are the future. However, I'm hugely skeptical of any ability to predict the cost / timescale.
US ‘disappointed’ that Rolls-Royce will build UK’s first small modular reactors
US ‘disappointed’ that Rolls-Royce will build UK’s first small modular reactors
As Keir Starmer announces SMRs to be built in Wales, US ambassador says Britain should choose ‘a different path’
Keir Starmer has announced that the UK’s first small modular nuclear reactors will be built in north Wales – but immediately faced a backlash from Donald Trump’s administration after it pushed for a US manufacturer to be chosen.
Wylfa on the island of Anglesey, or Ynys Môn, will be home to three small modular reactors (SMRs) to be built by British manufacturer Rolls-Royce SMR. The government said it will invest £2.5bn. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:55 AM
This is excellent - small modular reactors are the future. However, I'm hugely skeptical of any ability to predict the cost / timescale.
Reposted by David Durant
If you care about Mamdani's success, you might want to read this.
www.eatingpolicy.com/p/robert-mos...
www.eatingpolicy.com/p/robert-mos...
Robert Moses's unfinished business should be Mamdani's priority
The mayor-elect has 25,000 job applicants in 24 hours and a civil service system designed to keep him from hiring any of them
www.eatingpolicy.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:54 PM
If you care about Mamdani's success, you might want to read this.
www.eatingpolicy.com/p/robert-mos...
www.eatingpolicy.com/p/robert-mos...
Reposted by David Durant
🧵Spotted from a Sunny Cafe in Aotearoa New Zealand:
A effervescent woman (80s?) wearing a flowing yellow floral dress bustles from her wooden cottage and carefully crouches down on her garden path to offer a bumble bee a drink from an outstretched teaspoon.
Beaming when her gift is accepted. (1)
A effervescent woman (80s?) wearing a flowing yellow floral dress bustles from her wooden cottage and carefully crouches down on her garden path to offer a bumble bee a drink from an outstretched teaspoon.
Beaming when her gift is accepted. (1)
November 12, 2025 at 2:39 AM
🧵Spotted from a Sunny Cafe in Aotearoa New Zealand:
A effervescent woman (80s?) wearing a flowing yellow floral dress bustles from her wooden cottage and carefully crouches down on her garden path to offer a bumble bee a drink from an outstretched teaspoon.
Beaming when her gift is accepted. (1)
A effervescent woman (80s?) wearing a flowing yellow floral dress bustles from her wooden cottage and carefully crouches down on her garden path to offer a bumble bee a drink from an outstretched teaspoon.
Beaming when her gift is accepted. (1)
Reposted by David Durant
Anyway, one alternative is to build better ways of doing things, and to really empower folks working in tech to feel confident about making alternatives. I hope the Society for Hopeful Technologists can be a part of that. Still a handful of places last at our 3rd open house event luma.com/isqs8n9x
Hopeful Tech: Community Event - Open House 3 · Luma
Our first open house to help shape the UK's Society for Hopeful Technologists. Come along and discuss the draft charter, develop the theory of change and help…
luma.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Anyway, one alternative is to build better ways of doing things, and to really empower folks working in tech to feel confident about making alternatives. I hope the Society for Hopeful Technologists can be a part of that. Still a handful of places last at our 3rd open house event luma.com/isqs8n9x
Wow. Just wow. The Co-op Business Account website has the worst setup UX I've seen in years. You need a different one time pass-codes from SMS and email to set up their specific security app then generate a code from that *5 times* (with 30 fixed gap) and then another challenge code.
November 11, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Wow. Just wow. The Co-op Business Account website has the worst setup UX I've seen in years. You need a different one time pass-codes from SMS and email to set up their specific security app then generate a code from that *5 times* (with 30 fixed gap) and then another challenge code.
To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of launching the ONS website in 2026 (the highlight of my career) I'm going to have one last swing at a Gov big data initiative (but not 'Big Data!') and will return to the Civil Service as Head of Products & Services for the National Data Library in January!
November 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM
If @gavinfreeguard.bsky.social wasn't so busy I'm sure he'd have a time-in-post graph for this, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer. Maybe for the next #PDDataBites .
www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...
www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...
New government chief technology officer sought as David Knott announces exit
Knott will step down from the role at the end of this year
www.civilserviceworld.com
November 11, 2025 at 9:50 AM
If @gavinfreeguard.bsky.social wasn't so busy I'm sure he'd have a time-in-post graph for this, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer. Maybe for the next #PDDataBites .
www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...
www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...
This kind of small update that is useful to a niche group of people is just great.
insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/10/a...
insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/10/a...
A year of Google Analytics 4 on GOV.UK
Discover what we’ve learned in the year since the GOV.UK website fully migrated to Google Analytics 4, and how our use of data is evolving as GOV.UK expands to multiple digital channels.
insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk
November 11, 2025 at 9:13 AM
This kind of small update that is useful to a niche group of people is just great.
insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/10/a...
insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/10/a...
Reposted by David Durant
make it stop.
just. make. it. stop.
just. make. it. stop.
AI chatbots could help stop prisoner release errors, says justice minister
AI chatbots could help stop prisoner release errors, says justice minister
HMP Wandsworth gets ‘green light’ to use AI after team sent in to find ‘quick fixes’ after spate of mistakes
Artificial intelligence chatbots could be used to stop prisoners from being mistakenly released from jail, a justice minister told the House of Lords on Monday.
Lord Timpson said HMP Wandsworth had been given the “green light” to use artificial intelligence (AI) after a specialised team was sent in to find “some quick fixes”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:13 PM
make it stop.
just. make. it. stop.
just. make. it. stop.
This mostly makes me think of my reading Dickens recently and in that there's a whole class of people who, when they hear someone is out of work, think it's a shame their children will starve but that's just the way of things.
And how we have so many people who think virtually the thing same now.
And how we have so many people who think virtually the thing same now.
A bit long term, but my favourite version of "how poor the past was" is in this chart.
Working hours go up (peaking at a 66 hour week), real wages go right.
Working hours go up (peaking at a 66 hour week), real wages go right.
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
This mostly makes me think of my reading Dickens recently and in that there's a whole class of people who, when they hear someone is out of work, think it's a shame their children will starve but that's just the way of things.
And how we have so many people who think virtually the thing same now.
And how we have so many people who think virtually the thing same now.
Reposted by David Durant
Fifth edition of my digital welfare state newsletter now up on my website.
Reflections and news on the role of digital ID in welfare systems, the latest on the child benefit f*ck-up and how the UK is learning lessons, good and bad, from India
www.abdconsultancy.co.uk/blog/digital...
Reflections and news on the role of digital ID in welfare systems, the latest on the child benefit f*ck-up and how the UK is learning lessons, good and bad, from India
www.abdconsultancy.co.uk/blog/digital...
Digital Welfare State edition 005 — ABD Consultancy
Edition oo5 of the Digital Welfare State newsletter. Digital ID and fraud prevention among other topics
www.abdconsultancy.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Fifth edition of my digital welfare state newsletter now up on my website.
Reflections and news on the role of digital ID in welfare systems, the latest on the child benefit f*ck-up and how the UK is learning lessons, good and bad, from India
www.abdconsultancy.co.uk/blog/digital...
Reflections and news on the role of digital ID in welfare systems, the latest on the child benefit f*ck-up and how the UK is learning lessons, good and bad, from India
www.abdconsultancy.co.uk/blog/digital...
Okay. my NHS trust just sent me a reminder text message and a cancellation letter for the same appointment at the same time.
How are we so bad at this? I mean, I know the answer - but even so...
How are we so bad at this? I mean, I know the answer - but even so...
November 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Okay. my NHS trust just sent me a reminder text message and a cancellation letter for the same appointment at the same time.
How are we so bad at this? I mean, I know the answer - but even so...
How are we so bad at this? I mean, I know the answer - but even so...
Reposted by David Durant
November 9, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Reposted by David Durant
Friendship isn’t a consolation prize to be offered out of politeness or guilt at the end of a romantic relationship. It’s a whole different type of connection, and going from lovers to friends only works if all parties are committed to the transition and taking responsibility for their feelings.
November 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Friendship isn’t a consolation prize to be offered out of politeness or guilt at the end of a romantic relationship. It’s a whole different type of connection, and going from lovers to friends only works if all parties are committed to the transition and taking responsibility for their feelings.
Incredible thread from Steve. Please read.
I decided to spend this remembrance day educating myself about the sacrifices we're supposed to be remembering.
I now live on the atlantic coast of France, so decided to learn something about of the second world war here.
As a result, I've been down the most amazing rabbit hole of discovery...
I now live on the atlantic coast of France, so decided to learn something about of the second world war here.
As a result, I've been down the most amazing rabbit hole of discovery...
November 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Incredible thread from Steve. Please read.
Reposted by David Durant
