@jamesmkemp.bsky.social
Public servant, delivering change mostly. Have worked in many departments. Based in Scotland. #GovPDC Explorer Scout Leader, sometimes gamer & writer
In 2026 we are reinstating the regular One Team Gov breakfast club in London and also running a virtual one for anybody who doesn't have a meetup near them.
If you're interested you can sign up for both using the link (and please retweet/skeet!)
www.linkedin.com/posts/onetea...
As it happens there is a core in Glasgow who meet in the canteen of the HMRC hub on the first Wednesday of the month.
It wasn't branded OTG because at the time we set it up the main effort wasn't going.
I'm trying to sort out a different session on a different day and time, maybe in Edinburgh
I said it before, will say it again -- generative AI fetishizes "ideas" while sneering at effort, execution, and education. That, despite Gen-AI being built on and out of other people's effort, execution and education.
09.12.2025 14:00 — 👍 1312 🔁 397 💬 19 📌 31Cool. It's the touch screen and WiFi I'd definitely want working, to continue to use it as a drawing pad.
I've seen the surface Linux project stuff, but wasn't sure quite how mature that was.
My daughter has been using the SP, but she's getting a laptop with Mint herself for Christmas.
Algorithm post for visibility to other nerds 🤓
📚 TTRPGs
🖖 Star Trek
⭐️ Star Wars
🖤 80s music
👽 The X-Files
🎮 Videogames
🎲 Board games
📕 Comic books
🎥 Horror Movies
🧙♂️ Lord of the Rings
👨🎨 Miniature painting
🧙 Magic: The Gathering
🦸♀️ Smart and heroic women
Yeah, we watched, rewound and watched again while drinking bottles of Beck's Bier.
I think there was a time when we were word perfect on the script.
I've got a Surface Pro 6 that I've been considering Linux for (I have had Ubuntu on my desktop and laptop for over a decade).
What distro did you stick on your Surface?
Movie I've watched the most is probably Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves because it was the only VHS tape in Lochgoilhead Scout Centre and there was no TV signal in the summer I spent there on the hill team!
07.12.2025 21:37 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
just gonnae keep publishing this until the government(s) leave Twitter
digitalpolicy.substack.com/p/how-the-go...
In the foreground a table with a large vinyl map of the planet on it. Two Maroon shirted control team members sort out things for the next turn. In the background the Science Control is in a white lab coat and is talking to a player about their latest line of research
The table in the foreground has a large board game style layout with the nuts and bolts of the colony three players plan what they need to produce for the turn.
Some more interactions at the map table with players finding out what they discover when the survey another part of the planet.
The way it went was organised chaos. The end game debrief included loads of stuff that wasn't in the plan, but people had fun, and that's all that counts!
22.11.2025 17:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0On my way to Edinburgh for "Lit By Another Sun" my first full #megagame design to run.
Almost all of it is in one huge box in my boot. This is going to be chaos, but the fun sort of chaos!
www.tickettailor.com/events/truen...
I can report that I'm out of the house with shoes on for the first time in a week, even though I have actually spent more time outside my house than in it in the last week!
22.11.2025 07:29 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
We’re looking for a venue partner who can help with physical space to support this open, community-driven, and free-to-attend event.
🗓️ When: A Saturday in Spring 2026 (Flexible)
👥 Size: 100-120 people
📍 Where: Accessible UK location, ideally Leeds
Please get in touch! ukhealthcamp.com/venue
So what it needed through the discovery and high level design, following the GDS Service Manual, was a bit of creative thinking to look at the process non-linearly, use real-time APIs to check facts to minimise document handling, and when we did get sent docs minimise how long we held them.
18.11.2025 08:29 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We had also been trying since at least 2007 to improve the service and streamline things to make it easier to automate. I'd run a team of operational analysts. We did process mining (although the hard way back then).
That laid the foundations to understand where we relied on paper in the system
What we had was a couple of years on minor services with some people working on the nuts and bolts of the main application service. We did that with loads of ops colleagues, because we saw them as users as much as the public.
That built confidence in the process.
I was allowed to fail right from the outset. The instruction I got from the director was that we were going to build capability using ordinary people, not an elite group.
Started late 2012, GDS service manual published April 2013, I failed a service assessment in June, and used feedback to iterate
That was certainly part of it. However even the more complicated services can categorise better and use branching logic to improve the questions they ask and then collect information they need to resolve in one human interaction (if not automated).
Too many online services look like paper forms
If anyone managing a public service that would like to make it better wants to get in touch feel free.
I'm still a civil servant, and my current programme role finishes in February.
I did service design on the passport service in 2015 (other people built that, and others make it continue to work well give them the credit).
Other public services could do that if they had a senior with vision. I think the success in HMPO was the senior leadership allowing us to do new things.
Just seen my first snowfall of the winter from Ninewells.
18.11.2025 08:01 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We @connectedbydata.org are planning a conference next year (early March, in Manchester) about people, power and participation in (public sector) data and AI.
If you were coming, who would you really like to hear from as a keynote speaker to kick off the day?
What is Pride in Place?
The government’s Pride in Place Programme will see up to £5 billion given to nearly 250 areas across the UK.
Each area will receive up to £20 million of funding & support over the next 10 years to make long-term improvements that residents want.
You can find out more here!
"A civil servant cannot answer back publicly. Holding a civil servant to account is what ministers should do... but that has to be in private."
Speaking to @christopherhope.bsky.social, @fdagensec.bsky.social challenges briefings against civil servants who cannot defend themselves publicly.
The format of the book about Randomness that @sonofsuntzu.bsky.social and I are writing forces readers to do some work.
It's slightly depressing how many people are mildly horrified by that idea. That somehow books should be frictionless insight devices.
Randomthebook.com
They're not too bad in Scotland. Abolished peak fares too.
24.10.2025 21:39 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I am recruiting a Senior Accessibility Specialist to be part of the Government Digital Service accessibility and digital inclusion team. Applications open until Sunday 26th October. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...
#a11y #Accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations
How should governments rewire the state to get things done?
Join us and Onward at #CPC25 on Tuesday 7 October as we explore how UK institutions can better deliver national priorities with our expert panel featuring Jesse Norman MP zurl.co/Y0fzz
Slight lull at the moment in Angus, but it was battering my windows earlier!
03.10.2025 16:33 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
