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https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2013/10/01/this-week-at-gds-49/

This week at GDS

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Accessibility, GDS team, Technology

This week news of an office move at GDS, as well as new developments on open standards and the launch of Go ON North East. Rewired State are holding a Parliament Hack Day on 16 and 17 November, Ben Terrett and Josh Marshall are speaking at 'Making public services accessible', Dublin, and we say goodbye to Rebecca Kemp.

Transcript

Interviewer:
Hello, Kathy.

Kathy Settle:
Hi, Abi.

Interviewer:
What's going on this week?

Kathy:
The first big announcement to make is actually the place where I'm sitting right now. We're now on the third floor of Aviation House, and we have just moved some of our staff down from the seventh floor down to the third floor because actually we're growing so fast we need a bit more space. Down here now are our Office of the Chief Technology Officer and also our Transformation team, so welcome to them to the third floor.

Interviewer:
What else is happening this week?

Kathy:
Two things probably worth mentioning; the first is the Office of the Chief Technology Officer has launched their first open standards. There were two standards launched by the board, and if you look at Liam Maxwell's blog from Friday, he'll tell you all about them. The other thing to mention is one of our exemplar projects, so the DEFRA Waste Carrier Registration Programme has now moved into alpha, so that's good news from them.

Interviewer:
That sounds great. Any events?

Kathy:
Yes, Martha Lane Fox’s organisation, ‘Go On’, they're doing a big launch in the north east today. This is all about how they can get people, both citizens and businesses in the north east, online and getting the full benefit of what digital has to offer. Good luck to them and I look forward to supporting them as they roll that forward.

The second thing is Ben Terrett and Josh Marshall are taking part in an event about making public services accessible. That's in Dublin on Wednesday, so they'll be sharing the benefit of all their knowledge.

The final thing is the Parliament Hack Day; that's taking place on 16 and 17 November. If people are interested in taking part, they can sign up via the Rewired State website.

Interviewer:
Any visitors to GDS?

Kathy:
We have; we’ve had Jon Flaherty and his team from SOCA, the Serious Organised Crime Agency. They came in and saw Tom Loosemore and a few other people in our organisation, to share some of their knowledge. Also, we had a great visit from some children from a school in Tottenham, and it was lovely to see them here. I know we're short of staff in GDS, so we're recruiting early, as you might say. We were talking to them about digital and trying to get them excited, and maybe we will actually get some staff for the future there.

Interviewer:
Any new starters this week?

Kathy:
We have quite a few new starters; I'll just pick on a few. In terms of content designers, Lizzie Bruce has started with us, so welcome to her. Also on User Researchers, Barbara Chicca and Ben Holliday have also started, so welcome to them.

Unfortunately, we do also have to say some goodbyes though. Someone from my team who I'm really sorry to leave is Rebecca Kemp. Rebecca's done some fantastic work for us over the years, on both Assisted Digital and Digital Inclusion, really trying to help those people who were offline. Thank you to Rebecca and good luck to her as she starts her own company, starting from next week actually.

Also we've recently lost Louis Hyde and Tom Cutting, both of whom again have worked for us now for at least a year and have done some fantastic work, so thank you and goodbye.

Interviewer:
Thanks very much, Kathy, until next time.

Kathy:
Thanks, Abi, until next time.

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2 comments

  1. Comment by Rich Wilson posted on

  2. Comment by Alan Rider posted on

    Sorry to see Rebecca go. She was a real asset to GDS and very enthusiastic about delivering Assisted Digital help to support the more vulnerable users of public services to access online services. The best of luck to her in her new venture!