Mastodawn

🆕 blog! “GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source”

GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source

Within the UK's Civil Service you occasionally hear the expression "being invited to a meeting without biscuits". It implies a rather frosty discussion without any of the polite niceties of a normal meeting. In general though, even when people have severe disagreements, it is rare for tempers to fray. It is even rarer for those internal disagreements to spill over into public. Which is what…

Terence Eden’s Blog

Simon Jones May 15

Charlie Hull May 15

Just added a few more search & AI events to my Conference Calendar - hope to see you at some of the European events in June and later in the year at Vespa.ai Live and Search Solutions in London! https://thesearchjuggler.com/conferences/

Search Conference Calendar - Charlie Hull - The Search Juggler

search conference, search event, search relevance conference, opensearch conference, solr conference, elasticsearch conference, vespa conference, RAG conference, enterprise search conference, AI-powered search conference

Charlie Hull - The Search Juggler

Simon Jones May 5

Léonie Watson May 5

We're looking for an experienced Account Executive to join the @TetraLogical team and own new business growth for our consultancy and traininng services.

Closing date is 24 May. More info about the role and how to apply, here:
https://misc.tetralogical.com/careers/2026-05-account-executive/

Must be resident in the UK.

Please help us find the right person! 💜

Account Executive - TetraLogical

Accessibility consultancy with a focus on inclusion. We can help you with knowledge, experience, strategy, assessments, and development.

Simon Jones May 1

Terence Eden May 1

🆕 blog! “NHS Goes To War Against Open Source”

The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories.

Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so…

NHS Goes To War Against Open Source

The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories. Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed Open Source. I spoke to dozens of departments about it, wrote guidance still in use today, and briefed Ministers on why it was so important. That's why I'm beyond disappointed at recent moves from NHS England to backtrack on…

Terence Eden’s Blog

Simon Jones Apr 27

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Open Rights Group Apr 27

AI is not neutral. It can discriminate and make mistakes.

It shouldn't be used to change information that informs life-changing asylum assessments. Without adequate safeguards, there's a risk that unlawful or unfair decisions may result.

Ask your MP (UK) to stand against the use of AI tools in asylum ⬇️

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/ban-ai-tools-asylum-decision-making

#AI #asylum #immigration #homeoffice #ukpolitics #ukpol

Ban AI tools in asylum decision making

Take action! What’s the problem? The Home Office is using two AI tools: The Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) tool uses ChatGPT-4 to summarise asylum interview transcripts. The Asylum Policy Search (APS) tool summarises country Policy and Information Notes (CPINs), guidance documents, and Country of Origin Information (COI) reports. The Home Office’s own evaluation revealed that 9% of the ACS AI-generated summaries were so flawed they had to be removed from the pilot. It also found that 23% of caseworkers lacked full confidence in the tools’ outputs.

Open Rights Group

Simon Jones Apr 27

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Open Rights Group Apr 27

At a minimum, the use of AI tools must have:

✅️ Clear and published safeguards
✅️ Comply with government AI playbook
✅️ Defined accountability structures
✅️ Meaningful human oversight
✅️ Full transparency on how these systems are used

Without this, claims of responsible AI use remain unsubstantiated.

#AI #asylum #immigration #homeoffice #ukpolitics #ukpol

Simon Jones Apr 21

Adrian Roselli, pH0 Apr 21

I believe this is even more true for accessibility, especially given accessibility is explicitly about humans (no matter how much shitty LLM-first browsers misrepresent it):

“The importance of people who care”
https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2026/04/21/the-importance-of-people-who-care/

The importance of people who care – Rachel Andrew

Simon Jones Apr 18

Matt Stein Apr 18

Just for fun!
https://mattstein.com/thoughts/hand-drawn-favicons/

Hand-Drawn Favicons

I love drawing these dumb little things.

Matt Stein

Simon Jones Apr 17

Hidde Apr 17

Today I talked at Web You Want about five essential ingredients of a web in service of us, the people!

Such a web is
- sustainable,
- ethical,
- accessible,
- fun, and, most importantly,
- ours.

🖼️ Slides: https://talks.hiddedevries.nl/YjWPWr/five-essential-ingredients-for-a-web-that-serves-us-all

Five essential ingredients for a web that serves us all by Hidde de Vries

Simon Jones Apr 17

RE: https://front-end.social/@hdv/116421322111428599

I love this! I agree everyone needs easier ways to publish on the web. Tools like WordPress are ubiquitous, but complex for most folk.

What are the simplest tools for people to publish to the web? Or do we need new tools?

And how can hosting companies help make hosting this easier, lowing the barrier to those that don’t know how to self host?

Personal site	https://www.simonrjones.net/links/
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