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Hello Kathy.
Hello Matt.
What have we been up to at GDS this week?
Well, we've been carrying on our work on exemplars, and on the transition on GOV.UK, moving all
those agencies and arm's length body sites over. But probably one of the things that's
worth just focusing on is our work on Assisted Digital, because we've been doing
a lot there over the last few weeks, and this week in particular. On Wednesday, we had an
event with some potential suppliers, as part of our market engagement exercise, and that
was a really great event, trying to work through with them what sort of needs we have for Assisted
Digital, and how they might help us provide those in future.
Also speaking again with departments on Assisted Digital, just to make sure we really understand
the requirements, particularly of the exemplar exercises. Actually, as part of that, we did
a workshop looking at one of the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) exemplars, and
bringing in people like UK Online Centres, like the libraries, Citizens Advice Bureau,
and we worked through what the user needs were for that DVLA example, and how those
suppliers might help us; what Assisted Digital might look like for those people.
Also on Assisted Digital, we've been doing some work with the Helen Hamlyn Centre (for
Design), and Peter Ziegler, who's come to work part-time with us from the Helen Hamlyn
Centre, wrote a blog, actually, the other day, which is really worth reading, about
the work that he's doing, thinking about the needs particularly of older people and Assisted Digital.
We've also had some visitors in this week?
We have. We had another foreign government come in, which was great; they were from Kazakhstan.
They were particularly interested in open policy-making, and how you can use digital
tools to help with that; particularly social media. They had a good look round the office
and spoke to many people, particularly in our Digital Engagement team.
What do we have coming up next week?
Two big events. On Tuesday we've got our regular monthly all-staff meeting, so everybody from
GDS getting together, finding out what everyone's been up to over the last month, and what things
they're going to focus on next month, so it's a really good catch-up. On Wednesday we've
got our regular monthly Digital Leaders meeting. Two things I'll just pick out from the agenda:
one is the DFID (Department for International Development) Digital Leader, Richard Calvert.
He's going to come and talk to us about the DFID digital strategy, and how they're progressing
with delivery, particularly focusing on things like the aid platform that they've been working on.
The other one that's again worth mentioning is the Digital Inclusion item. In June, as
part of the Information Economy strategy, the government announced that it was setting
up a cross-government team to look at digital inclusion, which will be based in GDS. We're
just starting to recruit that team now, and the meeting on Wednesday is looking at what
the remit of that team is and the scope of its work, and what sort of things particularly
it will be focusing on for the next six months. That will be a good, useful discussion to
get that team's work underway.
Finally, have we had any new starters this week?
We have, we've got four, two that I'll probably just pick out, who are both coming into the
user research team. One of them is Teresa Randall; she currently works at DECC, actually;
our Department of Energy and Climate Change. The other one, who's actually coming into
the Digital Inclusion team I've just mentioned, is a guy called Jon Rimmer. Looking forward
to meeting both of those.
Fabulous. Until next time.
Thanks.