Ben Terrett

Very sorry to read of the death of Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley. What a life she lived! Escaped the holocaust via Kindertransport, computer pioneer, philanthropist, autism activist. Amazing, amazing.
www.franmonks.com/how-to-make-...

Got any foldable helmet reccos? For short Lime bike rides. Size and safety more important than price. Thanks!

No agencies, no helmet deniers.

Reframing the AI debate: from existential threat to public asset — Public Digitalpublic digitalpublic digital Blog by Mike Bracken MBE, reflecting on his experience at the AI Action Summit, Paris, 2025

"when it comes to AI for public impact, national ambition requires international collaboration"

A new perspective on the current AI debate from Mike, who's just back from the AI Summit in Paris. // @publicdigital.bsky.social

public.digital/pd-insights/...

Hello week 2 of tax filing season! 💥

Direct File is live and you can now import your tax information directly from the IRS.

Visit DirectFile.irs.gov to check eligibility and learn more. 👏

That was a solid set of announcements and demos. Might seem like the basics to lots of you on here but there was an energy to today that has been missing in previous years.

From me and the Baroness over and out.

Demos were good. Lots of you will like this one.

Minister says interoperable 👏🏻

One decent Q: Will digital docs [in wallet] become compulsory? Kyle: I don’t imagine that but I want them to be so desirable people use them. (Digital services so good people prefer to use them 😉)

Now journo questions from the floor. Will come back here when I’ve seen some of the product demos.

Now showing (not demo) GOV.UK Wallet, also part of the app. Will include Drivers Licence. Too big a topic for this thread but from what I can see sounds like sensible approach.

Kyle now demo-ing the GOV.UK app from his phone live on stage. Easy to be sniffy about that but a big round of applause for a minister doing a live demo.

App looks decent (essentially GOV.UK + login). Launches to the public in June.

Liz Kendall is here. (I know this game and) getting 2 Cab Ministers out of Whitehall to an event is a big deal. Great for GDS.

Kyle demos GOV.UK chat, it works fine and he handles it well including journo questions. Not easy.

Minister about to do live demo, deep breaths…

GOV.UK gets 12 million visitors a week

Peter Kyle kicks off by championing transparency and openness, hence inviting everyone to GDS. (Great to see this come back.)

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon from the advisory panel highlighting the need for curiosity around technology. Also says it’s about people, processes and products backed by data and funding. (Big +1 for that.)

Martha doing the intro

At GDS for launch of the digital government blueprint. Will try and live post on this thread 🧵

DESIGNING SERVICES FOR PEOPLE - Osmonauta

"People don’t distinguish between government departments, they just want to get things done"

Yep. Still true. Also true of your business.

www.osmonauta.space/articles/ben...

Taps. Why do you need A4 instructions to use one these days?

public.digital/pd-insights/...

The how we need now: a capacity agenda for 2025 - Niskanen Center Our politics have become so chaotic in part because the public has lost trust in the government’s ability to deliver on its promises. Restoring this public trust is both a moral and a political impera...

Excellent paper from @pahlkadot.bsky.social and our very own @andrewgreenway.bsky.social on rebuilding the capacity of the state - aka the how of government.

A must-read over the Xmas break for those with any interest in public sector reform.

www.niskanencenter.org/the-how-we-n...

Making the state more like a start-up? We’ve been championing this approach from day one. Test-and-learn, agile digital transformation, and scaling innovation are at the core of real progress. Read this blog from @andrewgreenway.bsky.social for more insights: public.digital/pd-insights/...

12yo has a new friend, who says he has an indoor swimming pool at home.

Not totally impossible, this is London after all, but I have questions.

"Oh really, where does he live?" I ask. "Over there" she replies and points at the huge council tower block.

Patient records and the NHS App are in the news again. Me and @mattstibbs.bsky.social
wrote down some thoughts. TLDR: the perfect architectural approach won’t solve for fundamental environmental challenges that need addressing. public.digital/pd-insights/...

The latest @publicdigital.bsky.social newsletter is out mailchi.mp/1dfdf19a79a9...

Welcome to PD Data Bites, I'm so glad you're here.

See you on the 6th November!

Early days, but optimism is definitely in order.

public.digital/pd-insights/...

Useful set of design patterns for AI courtesy of the very excellent Projects By If. https://medium.com/writing-by-if/new-design-patterns-for-ai-b37f4ff060ba

Heard someone refer to the monarch as "King Prince Charles" and that's what I'll be using from now on.