William Heath’s blog

Attention conservation notice: this is a write-up I said I’d do for an informal Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) session on “engaging with the political process” today.

This felt like a great way to spend a Friday night, in a local place I didn’t know, among many people I didn’t know (and hald a dozen I did) all trying to work out for whom to vote at the next election.

A year after Godalming Friends adopted the “database state” as a corporate concern, the main party political manifestos published this week suggest the tide may have turned over control of personal data. On Monday we had:
We will explore how to give citizens direct access to the data held on them by public agencies, so that [...]

Personal data: Professionally I want to contribute real broad progress to empowering people online. I see two ways: work with Mydex to put tools in people’s hands for informational self-determination, and build Ctrl-Shift’s work helping organisations understand and benefit from the enormous implications.
UPDATE
Milestones:
- Mydex live service this year (funded, designed, developed) by Dec 2010
- treble [...]

Do you sense a major redistribution of power and the restoration of something more like parity in relations between individuals and organisations? Whether you work for an organisation, or care about this as an individual you may care to keep up with this fundamental change with a free sub to the new Ctrl-Shift newsletter:

join [...]

After Simon Jenkins last week, now John Gray in the Guardian
What is more bothersome is that the tacit admission by these leaders that drug use is a normal part of life goes with unwavering support for the failed policy of prohibition.
Right on. Go Grauniad! Support Transform, people, or at the very least read their stuff. [...]

Here’s (in two parts) Craig’s video summary of yesterday’s west coast VRM workshop:

and part 2

Update: please read this first

The new nominee for the crucial job of ICO is Christopher Graham from the ASA: (from OutLaw)
The head of the advertising watchdog will become the new Information Commissioner in June, pending Parliamentary approval. Christopher Graham has been chosen as the Ministry of Justice’s preferred candidate for the job.

Hurrah. A Friend had encouraged me to take my concern about the surveillance society and database state formally to Godalming Quaker Meeting. So I wrote it up (see below), and we today had a great and intense discussion about whether this is a spiritual as well as political and personal matter. After thorough consideration they’ve [...]