How Alan Turing<\/a> Finally Got a Posthumous Apology
\nby John Graham-Cumming<\/a> | @jgrahamc | comments: 12
\nGuest blogger John Graham-Cumming initiated and led the successful petition drive to procure an apology to Alan Turing from the UK government<\/a>. John is the author of The Geek Atlas, CTO of a stealth-mode start-up, and a longtime programmer who has a doctorate in computer security. If you’re in London this Saturday, September 19, come by the launch party for his book at the Brunel Museum<\/a>.
\nThere’s a long tradition in the UK of direct democracy<\/a>, with citizens petitioning the Prime Minister<\/a> themselves. Typically, thousands of signatures are collected on paper and then delivered directly to the Prime Minister’s home at No. 10 Downing Street<\/a> in London. The petitioners arrive at No. 10 and hand the signatures through the open front door.<\/strong>
\nBut the British government has made great strides to bring many aspects of government relations into the electronic age. Through the non-profit MySociety.org the government has created web sites (all with open-source<\/a> code) for citizens to interact with local and central government offices.<\/strong>
\nOne such web site is the No. 10 Downing Street petitions page (its code is open-source and can be found here).
\nI used the petitions web site, a collection of Web 2.0<\/a> technologies, and a bit of media savvy to successfully petition the government to apologize for the prosecution of the seminal computer scientist Alan Turing.
\nvia How Alan Turing Finally Got a Posthumous Apology – O’Reilly Radar<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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