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The Spending Challenge Featured Blog

The featured WordPress blog this week is actually a UK government site called The Spending Challenge.

It uses a Theme in a directory called Coalitiondocdg, which may be a custom solution, with Contact Form 7 plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi to capture your feedback. It also uses Recent Posts with Excerpts plugin by Stephanie Leary, which lists your most recent posts with excerpts, optionally limited to a category.

According to the home page, The Spending Challenge is your chance to shape the way the UK government works, and help us get more for less as we try to bring down the deficit. It seems to be open initially to people who work in the public sector, but after 8th July the process will be opened up to the wider public. It is easy to make a suggestion via the site, and the email address is optional, so there is a level of anonymity.

For what it is worth, my suggestion was to allow (or even ecourage) organisations to save money by using open source web applications like Apache, MySQL and WordPress on the national infrastructure to provide a low-cost generic platform for non-critical applications.

To visit the site and see an example of WordPress in action in government click here to visit The Spending Challenge.

If you are interested in adding either of the plugins to your WordPress site, see the links below:

You can download the plugins from the links above, or alternatively, if you are in the Install Plugins section of your site Dashboard, search for Recent Posts with Excerpts or Contact Form 7, and the when you have found the right one, click on Install Now.

If you are interested in those plugins, you may also be interested in the Contact Form 7 Widget by Stephanie Wells which allows you to use Contact Form 7 Forms in your sidebars.

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Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) In Force

The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive was first ratified by European ministers in 2003, and was eventually meant to pass into UK law in August 2006 although, delays by the Department for Trade and Industry held it back.

As of 1 July 2010, the new Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations are intended to ensure that major producers, rebranders and importers of household electrical and electronic equipment are signed up to pay for the responsible disposal and recycling of their goods. The WEEE legislation finally came into effect 2 January, although those affected have had until July to ensure they’re fully compliant.

If you have an interest in the disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, the Government Guidance Notes on the WEEE Regulations are well worth a read:
Click here to read the WEEE regulations: Government guidance notes (PDF)
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tna/+/http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file38209.pdf

Code of Practice for collection of WEEE from Designated Collection Facilities
http://www.dti.gov.uk/files/file37922.pdf

For a cautionary tale, see the fine handed out to Plymouth City Council for WEEE breach

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Three Million iPads in 80 Days

Apple® today announced that it sold its three millionth iPad™ yesterday, just 80 days after its introduction in the US. They claimed they hit the two million mark in less than 60 days from launch on 3 April 2010. They only began shipping the iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK at the end of May.

It is estimated that developers have created over 11,000 new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch™ user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. Apple claim that iPad will run almost all of the more than 225,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for the iPhone® or iPod touch®.

To find out more, click here to visit Apple website.