PD Newsletter #38: Christmas edition and 2019 year note

Merry Christmas from all of us at Public Digital. We've just published a year note for 2019 🌲

🎁We've also still got a few copies of the third issue of our periodical, Signals. We’re happy to post them anywhere in the world. We’d love a photo or two, shared with @publicdigitalhq.

👉If you'd like one, fill in this short form with your details.*

We're closing the office from Friday 20 December, re-opening on Monday 6 January, and will be back in your inbox in January.

Emma
@egawen

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4 new things to read

🙌 A must read from GOV.UK on how they use structured data markup to help users get trusted information quickly and easily: whether that's on google, bing or using a voice assistant.

3-5-2: The Chinese government is planning to remove foreign computer equipment and software from public administration. The FT looks at the consequences for global technology groups.

🤖Tiago Peixoto & Tom Steinberg set out eleven predictions on the influence of emerging technologies

🏠It takes a village: How many people does it take to operate and scale a business like 1Password? Jamie Phelps unpacks the operation.

1 Christmas reading recommendation 🎄

I've been reading the most excellent Sandworm, by Wired writer Andy Greenberg. It's a deep dive into how cyberwarfare has developed over the last decade, from Stuxnet to NotPetya. It's a fascinating, sobering and very readable look at the intersection of geopolitics, technology and war.

Amazon UK | Amazon US

2019 round-up

Once again, ways of working are your favourite reads. Here are a few of your favourites across 2019:

You might not be as agile as you think you are, from 18F. How to diagnose if you're saying the words but not quite living the practice.
How Deliveroo used observational research to improve their order tracking experience.
Good questions to kick off a discovery, from DXW.
A story of the U.S. Navy’s $100 million checkbox: how bad design killed 10 sailors and wrecked a destroyer

Also very popular from Andrew's guest edition was the some advice on bluffing. "The only counter-strategy to that is to know your enemy." In case you missed it, this academic paper on Bullshitters: who are they and what do we know about their lives? is your guide.

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