Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
- The day in pictures News is getting pretty visual nowadays. I?ve just come across a site called 10x10, which allows viewers to peruse the news headlines via a series of pictures that are updated every hour. Click on the picture that interests you and the site gives you a series of links to the stories that have generated it. [If you?re interested about how it does this it?s explained here].This is the same kind of thing as the visual representation of our del.icio.us page, which I always find a quicker and easier... continue reading on 22nd February 2005
- See you tomorrow Right, i'm off home.[via Tom Watson] continue reading on 21st February 2005
- Yesterday's News Seeing as the paperboy in my area has taken to delivering the papers after everyone has left the house in the morning, i tend to read yesterday's papers over breakfast. So, whilst i was munching on my cornflakes this morning i was struck by the similarities and differences of the pictures on the front pages of the Guardian and the Times yesterday [my family are news junkies]. See if you can guess which paper carried which picture: here's the first and here's the second. No cheating... continue reading on 17th February 2005
- Faking it The first was the description given by Derek Twigg, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, of the channel as "A window in to a wider world" ? which chimed well with the recommendation we made in Switched On that the channel should act as a "?shop window? showing some of the outstanding practice in our school system", rather than becoming simply another communication channel between government and schools.The second, which came up in conversation after the launch, was a... continue reading on 8th February 2005 Comments (1)
- School Networks, Election Manifestos, and Sunny St Albans Networks of schools are something that Demos has been interested in for a while; last year David Hargreaves suggested in Education Epidemic that the entire education system would benefit from the use of ?innovation networks?, whilst the thinking that Tom laid out in the introduction to that pamphlet was re-visited in a recent publication from the National College for School Leadership.The Conservative plans also emphasise the role of choice in driving up school standards, and it will be... continue reading on 3rd February 2005
- What-do-you-reckon'? So the good news is that Tom Watson?s blog is back up and running ? and the other news is that he?s asking people who visit the site for their views on which poster the Labour Party should use to respond to Conservative plans to cut taxes should they win the next election.Maybe one day this kind of thing will be used to harness some untapped creativity, rather than simply offering people a choice. What?s that advert, John Craig..? continue reading on 26th January 2005
- How to prevent a word of mouth epidemic I came across an article in The Times over the weekend. The headline was 'And talking of books...how word of mouth made a surprise bestseller'. The article was about how a Gladwell-esque word-of-mouth epidemic helped a book defy the conventional ?rules? of bestsellers [for example, it was translated from another language] and shoot up the list. There must be something deeply ironic, then, in the way that The Times website itself makes it incredibly difficult to link to an article once you?ve... continue reading on 24th January 2005
- How to blog like a rockstar Ever wondered why your postings never get any comments? If so, click here for some advice about how to blog like a rockstar. [via Instapundit] continue reading on 20th January 2005
- What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics The debate certainly seems to be gathering momentum ? the Media Guardian ran lengthy discussion of the arguments in the book last week, Madeleine Bunting mentioned it in her column on Monday, and the proposal itself for a media institute has generated more coverage today. Copious notes were taken of the discussion last night, so a more detailed write-up will follow shortly, but in the meantime you can read a summary of the arguments made in the book by clicking here to get to the full text of... continue reading on 19th January 2005
- Busted! Being a text vote it was fairly predictable that a group with a teenage following would beat Katie Melua for example, but what may have helped Busted beat rivals such as Girls Aloud and McFly was the use of their slightly controversial ‘School Chairman’ innovation to mobilise and widen their fan base. To become a School Chairman all you have to do is promote Busted within your school (it's for pupils, not teachers) and show some evidence of success. Having done this you not only... continue reading on 6th January 2005