19th December 2014 London, UK
I’ve just been presenting to senior Foreign Office leaders on our digital work in 2014. It’s been a momentous year. The Digital Transformation Unit we envisaged in the Digital Strategy became fully operational this spring. The Unit brought new skills into the Foreign Office – expertise in the delivery of modern digital services, expertise in […]
28th November 2014 Beirut, Lebanon
I recently got a Jawbone ‘Up’, a device that monitors your daily activity, sleep patterns and exercise, and helps you better control your health. As a father of two boys, I don’t need anyone to tell me I don’t get enough sleep. But, like many, I’m outsourcing the collection of my data to a plastic […]
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28th November 2014 London, UK
This blog post looks at what we learnt from our recent review of how our embassies around the world are using digital. In our 2014 digital review we asked posts (embassies, high commissions, consulates etc) to assess how they were using digital tools and techniques in four areas: communications; strategic planning and leadership; policy making; […]
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27th November 2014 London, UK
We recently conducted a review of how our embassies are using digital. This blog explains why and how we run that review. The next blog looks at the findings. With a network of more than 200 posts (embassies, high commissions, consulates etc) across the globe, all using digital in one way or another, it can […]
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26th November 2014 London, UK
The FCO has an ambitious change agenda to bring the organisation fully into the digital age. Our Digital Transformation Unit was set up in February 2014, bringing in the specialist digital skills and expertise that we need in our core digital team, but we also need to ensure the FCO’s diverse network of staff increase […]
2nd October 2014 London, UK
Last week, the FCO held its first ever Digital Week: a concentrated effort to show our staff how digital tools and technologies can transform our policy-making, service delivery and communications. We organised a busy programme of talks, masterclasses, digital clinics and competitions, delivered both in our London HQ and around our global network. So what […]
15th September 2014 London, UK
This is the last in a series of three blog posts discussing the discovery phase for our consular appointments transformation. See the posts on who, what, how and identifying user needs. As part of our discovery phase for the consular appointments service, having done a fair amount of navel gazing we also wanted to look at […]
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29th August 2014 London, UK
Maps of the online landscape can provide fascinating insights into how they are connected and how they interact. In my last blog I looked at a few of our Ambassadors’ accounts and found some of the communities that existed amongst their followers. This blog looks at the way maps of the online conversation can help […]
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27th August 2014 London, UK
Armed with the background data on who books appointments and how, in this post I’ll look at what we’ve learned about user needs and the improvements we would like to make in the new service. Over the past 2 to 3 years our consular teams around the world have gradually adopted a third party website […]
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18th August 2014 London, UK
Hi, I’m Mark, a Digital Transformation Manager at the Foreign Office. I’m working on a new service for booking consular appointments, and would like to share the findings of the discovery phase. As my colleague Phil has described previously, the FCO offers a range of services to the public, many of which are delivered at […]
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