The work history of Simon Gray, the person behind this site. Or, putting it another way, my online CV.
LocalGovDigital Blog
I've been blogging about my ideas on what a local government digital service might look like and sharing my works in progress since 2012, which over time have turned into something of a Manifesto.
Latest articles
BigTown Council - LocalGovDigital Strategy and Manifesto
Cyber Punks
simon
Tue, 06/10/2026 - 4:18pm
It is a story branching game where you have to try and ensure safety of data, citizens and ensure justice .
The winning outcomes of the game are:
Website restored
Ransomware removed
Citizen data protected
ICO notified within 72 hours
Hacker identified and blocked
6 October 2026
Featured articles
10 Principles for Good LocalGovDigital Design
If you have a liking for Apple products, then indirectly you have a liking for the design principles of Dieter Rams, whose work as Chief Designer at Braun has been credited as a major influence on Jony Ive, the former Chief Design Officer at Apple. Dieter Rams himself coined his 10 Principles for Good Design as a handy distillation of his whole ethos. I wondered if those 10 Principles could be translated into the LocalGovDigital dimension?
Simplified Public Sector English
A style guide for manual editing and prompt to use with an AI tool for Simplified Public Sector English - a plain-language standard for public sector writing. It draws on three sources: a simplified version of ASD-STE100 (Simplified Technical English, a standard originally built for aircraft maintenance manuals), the Basic English vocabulary, and the UK Government Digital Service (GOV.UK) content design guidelines.
Local Government Digital Services 3.0 - A manifesto
My turning point blog post, when I flipped from mainly reporting on events I'd attended and things I'd recently done at work to when I started doing more serious thinking about how we might fundamentally transform our online services rather than merely tinker around the edge.
Essentially this whole site now is my Manifesto, but this post is the Origin Story of it.
