Tim's Blog

I have a confession. I can't drive. I did try to learn once, but realised:

a) I don't like driving

and

b) I really would rather our world was far less reliant on the car, so I ought to make a start by being less reliant on the car myself.

Which means I spend a lot of time trying to find the best way to get places by public transport. Which isn't always as easy as it should be. However, the are two key tools which I find indispensible, and which I often find myself showing to others. So, I thought I would share them with you too...

#1 TrainTimes.org.uk

The fantastic Mr Mathew Sommerville (behind much MySociety code) has created an accessible Train Times website at www.traintimes.org.uk.

"Participation is the informed, autonomous and meaningful involvement of a community in influencing decision making and action."

This blog is at least in part about participation - so I really ought to have a definition. I've got a post on the go that explores what I mean by participation in more depth, but lets start with just getting a sentence sorted out for now. Ok - so the sentence above a bit wordy - but I think it captures quite a lot of what I mean by participation. I scribbled this definition down yesterday when I was asked to come up with my top 5 words to describe participation.

Unfortunately that definition gave me at least 7 words:

• Informed
• Autonomous
• Meaningful
• Community
• Influence
• Decision-making
• Action

But cut down to the 5 I was asked for I ended up with: