Oh man. Our soon-to-be-LCC-accredited-Master-of-Design Donagh has brought the IdealGov themed "pertinent art" idea to life:

We'll be voting on which ones we like best at the live and spontaneous 1st Popular European e-Government Happening in Malmo Sweden next week. Still time to send in your pertinent art ideas - either on the blog or mail contribute[at]malmo09.org.

Still time to join us there at Garaget!

We're preparing Idealgov for a refresh and rebirth. Meanwhile we're looking forward to the first popular spontaneous European e-Gov event: Malmo09.org.

High time someone asked this sort of question:

speaker:Oliver Letwin : 1 Written Answer
========================================

Written Answers - Treasury: Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services (26 Oct 2009)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-10-26a.295035.h&s=speaker%3A10355#g295035.q0
Oliver Letwin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether HM Revenue
and Customs (HMRC) accrued revenue in the last three months from callers
to HMRC 08 telephone numbers being kept on line while waiting to be
answered.

But the answer?

Stephen Timms (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; East Ham, Labour)

HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) centrally managed network of contact centres has received no revenue in respect of its use of 08 telephone numbers. HMRC's contact centre policy is to provide as quick and efficient service as possible.

Hang on- so does HMRC get 08 numbers for free? Or does BT keep the revenue?

IdealGov can continue. Delighted to say the powers that be at GNM listened carefully and have had a change of heart. Given the community it has formed, and once they took on board the problems that changing domains would cause in terms of broken links etc they have - very kindly, I must say - decided simply to hand the site over with no strings attached. Very big thank you to them.

So we'll get the domain transfer sorted outm then port the whole thing to Wordpress (which no reader need care about but which will save me endless hassle) and see if we can bring back the original Platform1 design. Then we have a big fat new project.  Hurrah!

It's time to wind this thing down. The Guardian owns and pays for this site and domain, and has decided the blog has run its course, which is entirely their prerogative and fair enough. They've been great for the last two years.

We've got, I think, a final four weeks before it closes end October. I'll try to have backed up the content which has some gems and nuggets, vital to the future historian of wibbies and of the Benighted ID Scheme.

I'll be blogging personal and idealgov stuff over at williamheath.net, and e-government matters European will be covered at malmo09.org. My new work is covered at Mydex.org (which is quiet in blogging terms but busy behind the scenes) and at Ctrl-Shift (which is busy, blogs, and tweets too). Between them Mydex and Ctrl-Shift will seek to put right the things going wrong with personal data we have described over the years here (whether under the categories Identity, Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust or co-creation.

In a way this multi-author blog has done it's job, and we're increasingly just reporting stuff in the slightly smug but valid category "We told you so". In another sense now, more than ever, is the time the online community needs to summon the energy and focus to tell a potential incoming administration just what we want from ideal e-enabled government - a crowd-sourced Wibbi in response to Transformational Government and the Benighted Scheme.

Of course that has to happen. But it won't be on this site. 

This is such a simple and good idea from the Nick Clegg website:

Let's hope it works. It just takes humility to ask others for good ideas. Opposition breeds humility, and the LiDems have had too much opposition.

This powerful No2ID ad - much more striking, foreful and truthful than the stupid Home Office smiley-fingerprints ads launched today - was the subject, it seems, of complaint to the Advertising Standards Association by one single reader of the New Statesman.

pdf here

The complaints were:

that the ad: 1. misleadingly exaggerated the information that would be held on the National Identity Register and how staff would be able to access it, and 2. was offensive to those who worked for the National Identity Register and implied they were corrupt.

The ASA's response is

We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Principles), 3.1 (Substantiation), 5.1 (Decency) and 7.1 (Truthfulness), but did not find it in breach.

Next up: how many complaints will there be about the stupid smiley fingerprints? 

Wired has a nice graphic for the FBI's God-quest. It shows several of the businesses which handed over customer records to the state:

My letter to ONS

I've been asked (by pacifists and others concerned that the 2011
census is managed by a US defence contractor) what are the legal
options for non-participation. I know it's not a question you'll
welcome, [however] I believe I fully understand the arguments about why it's
safe and a good thing to do, and that Lockheed Martin will process the
data in the UK and lawfully etc.

You should not underestimate the concern people now have about the
database state. This is of course not principally the fault of ONS
(it's ContactPoint, ANPR, health records, ID cards & register, DNA,
CCTV, e-borders etc etc). But the loss of trust in the state's
intentions and competence with personal data may affect ONS.

So I'd be grateful if you could advise me of any acceptable and legal
basis for non-participation in the 2011 census (eg being out of the
country, dual nationality, homelessness). If you have an exhaustive
list of circumstances, that would be ideal.

Wibbi a new administration used the occasion of the census to offer every British citizen the chance to use a secure independently-issued user-centric online ID?