Archive for the ‘Dextrous Web’ Category
Dextrous Web to join PM’s delegation to India 26th Jul 10
I’m honoured and delighted to have been asked to join the PM’s delegation for his visit to India next week, in order to participate in a hack day with Indian developers in Bangalore. This should be a great event — we’ll actually only have 4 hours for the hacking, but hopefully we’ll be able to take some of the lessons we’ve learned about civic hacking here at home and apply them to some Indian problems. Very exciting.
From my loose understanding, India certainly faces some interesting and unique challenges. But I don’t know what they are, or how best the web can solve them. I’m sure there’s a broad section of Indian society for whom web applications are not a very practical solution to any of the challenges they face. At least for the time being. So, what are the problems experienced by Indians who are digitally included? And how can we use the web to solve them?
Should we be focusing on applications for mobile phones? Or on low-cost devices like the curiously iPad-like $35 laptop?
Should we aim to produce a quasi-public-service like FixMyStreet, or tools for accountability and transparency, like Armchair Auditor?
What sort of public data is available in India, both officially and for scraping? And how might we be able to use it to influence Indian public policy for the better?
As always, the aim for the day is to have something tangible, useful and interesting that we can show to people. Even if it’s only a screenshot or a very raw prototype.
Very grateful for your ideas, thoughts and advice!
We’re Hiring! 24th Jun 10
We’re looking for an exceptional programmer to join the team – which is currently two full-timers and a band of freelance designers and programmers.
The Dextrous Web was founded with a specific mission in mind. We want to build exemplary, smart web projects for the public sector. We think that Government can get much more out of the web than it does, and create much better websites than it has, and we want to help make that happen.
Finally: the new site is ready 12th Apr 10
It’s taken us a long time to get around to it, but we’ve finally managed to get our new site done. It’s strange, but as a web agency, your own site often seems to be the lowest priority. We’ve been busy with client work and short deadlines, and finding time for our own stuff has been pretty hard. We can thank Purdah for giving us a few days to finish it off!
There’s lots I didn’t like about the old site. It was never meant to last for long, but lingered for ages. It didn’t really describe us very well: we’ve been thinking about how and where we should fit into the UK’s digital landscape, but the site hasn’t been keeping pace with the ideas. We were overdue for a change.
This site isn’t finished: there’s more we want to add about us, our plans, our team and our ideas about building the kind of web supplier that Government needs and wants. But it’s better than what was here before, and hopefully introduces us a bit more clearly.
As always — if you have thoughts or ideas about the site, or us, or anything else, we’d love to hear them. Please do let us know what you think.
We're Hiring! 4th Jun 09
The Dextrous Web is a young start-up, making its first hire. We’re looking for a PHP/Ruby developer to join the team – which is currently one full-timer and a collection of freelance designers and programmers.
The Dextrous Web was founded with a specific mission in mind. We want to make useful things on the web that solve interesting and difficult problems. We think that agile, social, programmable websites are the best thing since sliced bread, and we’re constantly amazed at the things the web makes possible.
Most of our clients are in the public sector, and that’s where our hearts lie: we want to show the Government how it ought to be doing things on the web! There’s so much that could be done, and the possibilities are exciting.
We think this is a great job for the right person. If that might be you, please do read some more and consider applying.
Launch 16th Dec 08
At last, we have a website.
We have more plans for it. We’ll have a section to show off some of our work, and we’ll put up more stuff explaining what we do. Time, though, is precious, and we’d rather spend it on our clients: so those things can wait for another day.
We’re going to use this blog to talk about things that we think are interesting. We might comment on new websites and services. We’ll definitely post about our own projects when something neat happens. You should expect the odd technical post, too: sometimes we solve tricky problems, and it’s good to share.
Above anything else, we’re here to solve interesting problems, so if you have one, please let us know!