Grapes Hill Community Garden wins a Norwich Eco Award

I was pleased to attend last night's 2010 Norwich Eco Awards, along with other members of the Grapes Hill Community Garden Group. Our award was in the category of Eco Community Group and was presented by the Sheriff of Norwich, Professor Tim O'Riordan. This recognises the hard work done by group members as we strive to turn a disused area of tarmac into a thriving community garden.

I'm looking forward to our first work day this Sunday, clearing Cotoneaster plants to make way for railings around the site.

I designed and built the group's website, http://www.grapeshillcommunitygarden.org/.

Design Different supports the Robin Hood Tax

The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on bankers that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and abroad.
By taking an average of 0.05% from speculative banking transactions, hundreds of billions of pounds would be raised every year.
That’s easily enough to stop cuts in crucial public services in the UK, and to help fight global poverty and climate change.

A website (sadly, not one of mine) has now been set up to give more information about the campaign.

Watch the video below and go to http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/.

Website of the Month - Vincent Van Gogh: The Letters

One of the best websites I've seen, for the sheer amount of information it holds, the way it is organised and its overall design is Vincent Van Gogh: The Letters.

There is an exhibition in London at the Royal Academy of Arts until 18th April 2010. I hope to go to that the next time I'm in London, but for the moment the website gives me a fascinating glimpse into Van Gogh's life.

There is also a superb book of the letters but it costs £395, so thank goodness for the website.

Internet Snooperhighway

The British Government has just set up a dedicated unit for delivering the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP),  a surveillance project that will record the details of every email, phone call, text message and internet session in the UK. This will cost the taxpayer £2bn over 10 years. 
While the police need to use communication data to stop crime, this does not justify collecting all our private data, on the assumption that we are guilty until proven innocent.
Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner responsible for overseeing the protection of private information, has described the creation of the IMP as "... a step change in the relationship between the citizen and the state". 
Also, given the Government's ability to lose our private data, we can have no confidence that the data will be kept securely, leading to the possibility of sensitive personal or business information falling into the wrong hands.
At a time when the Government deems it acceptable to make widespread public funding cuts, the Government considers that its creeping programme to snoop on us all is sacrosanct.
Find out more
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=12013
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=10315
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=11189