Tom Steel
@tomsteel.co.uk
Doing digital things for the public sector https://iam.tomsteel.co.uk
Reposted by Tom Steel
We're hiring for a number of roles here at dxw, including:
- Developer
- Senior Developer
- Lead Technologist
- Product Manager/Senior Product Manager
Find all the info on the roles and how to apply here 👉 www.dxw.com/careers/#ope...
- Developer
- Senior Developer
- Lead Technologist
- Product Manager/Senior Product Manager
Find all the info on the roles and how to apply here 👉 www.dxw.com/careers/#ope...
August 27, 2026 at 2:47 PM
We're hiring for a number of roles here at dxw, including:
- Developer
- Senior Developer
- Lead Technologist
- Product Manager/Senior Product Manager
Find all the info on the roles and how to apply here 👉 www.dxw.com/careers/#ope...
- Developer
- Senior Developer
- Lead Technologist
- Product Manager/Senior Product Manager
Find all the info on the roles and how to apply here 👉 www.dxw.com/careers/#ope...
“If you don’t make your service easier to use today, the machines will come tomorrow, and they’ll chew through your friction and cause you much, much, much bigger problems.”
blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2026/08/04/f...
blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2026/08/04/f...
Friction is dead. Deal with it. – Tom blogs
blog.tomsteel.co.uk
August 6, 2026 at 12:50 PM
“If you don’t make your service easier to use today, the machines will come tomorrow, and they’ll chew through your friction and cause you much, much, much bigger problems.”
blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2026/08/04/f...
blog.tomsteel.co.uk/2026/08/04/f...
Reposted by Tom Steel
I've written a long blog post about AI Agents and the need for those running services to prepare - technically, operationally, commercially, strategically, legally and in terms of policy.
AI Agents could be a properly huge deal. There. I wrote it.
loosemore.com/2026/08/04/k...
AI Agents could be a properly huge deal. There. I wrote it.
loosemore.com/2026/08/04/k...
Know Your Agent: Why you should act now, to avoid playing catch-up later
Back in March, I was beaten by the bins. I’d spent a happy few evenings (and a great many tokens) trying to build a simple web app: share any UK address, find out which bins to put out, and w…
loosemore.com
August 4, 2026 at 8:49 AM
I've written a long blog post about AI Agents and the need for those running services to prepare - technically, operationally, commercially, strategically, legally and in terms of policy.
AI Agents could be a properly huge deal. There. I wrote it.
loosemore.com/2026/08/04/k...
AI Agents could be a properly huge deal. There. I wrote it.
loosemore.com/2026/08/04/k...
Reposted by Tom Steel
Termsync.co.uk is most excellent, not least it's running on an open weight LLM hosted under the maker's desk.
TermSync — School term dates, nailed
Subscribe to your child's school term dates. Terms, half-terms, INSET days and holidays land in your calendar and stay up to date on their own.
Termsync.co.uk
July 24, 2026 at 11:52 AM
Termsync.co.uk is most excellent, not least it's running on an open weight LLM hosted under the maker's desk.
Worth a read: the Digital Poverty Alliance’s latest report examines accessibility across UK government services, highlighting where barriers remain and opportunities to improve digital inclusion. digitalpovertyalliance.org/wp-content/u...
digitalpovertyalliance.org
July 6, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Worth a read: the Digital Poverty Alliance’s latest report examines accessibility across UK government services, highlighting where barriers remain and opportunities to improve digital inclusion. digitalpovertyalliance.org/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Tom Steel
Regarding the speed of an AI and the volume of code it can create: None of that matters.
June 30, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Regarding the speed of an AI and the volume of code it can create: None of that matters.
Reposted by Tom Steel
I was responsible for this (it was literally my idea while I was Product Manager for Media Playout at the BBC) and it is still my proudest achievement ever
FYI: if you're playing a programme on BBC iPlayer in a web browser you can still turn subtitles on and off by pressing 888.
A sad day. 888 came up as a raffle ticket but *nobody*, including people older than me, remembers this as being how you got subtitles on the telly.
May 24, 2026 at 9:48 PM
I was responsible for this (it was literally my idea while I was Product Manager for Media Playout at the BBC) and it is still my proudest achievement ever
Reposted by Tom Steel
#BBCNews - 'Millions' of pounds saved by replacing Palantir tech in refugee system
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK saves 'millions' of pounds by ditching Palantir for refugee system
The government said its in-house IT system was
www.bbc.co.uk
May 15, 2026 at 6:25 AM
#BBCNews - 'Millions' of pounds saved by replacing Palantir tech in refugee system
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Tom Steel
![Comic. [Person 1 with short hair gestures to car while talking to Person 2.] PERSON 1: You won’t have to worry about gas pries *or* electricity prices with our new pullback drive model. At the factory, we put the car on the ground and tow it all the way backward until it starts clicking. To drive forward, you just release the brake and it goes.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreid7nx5xlxlmws5o2b2rg347mkgqhtbzleojikwkntvvh6cpkyhqie)
May 12, 2026 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Tom Steel
Design legend Margaret Calvert is 90 today.
Look at that cake!
If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it.
One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her.
Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG)
Cake by: mybaker.co
Look at that cake!
If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it.
One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her.
Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG)
Cake by: mybaker.co
May 12, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Design legend Margaret Calvert is 90 today.
Look at that cake!
If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it.
One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her.
Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG)
Cake by: mybaker.co
Look at that cake!
If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it.
One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her.
Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG)
Cake by: mybaker.co
Reposted by Tom Steel
We’ve got a new podcast!
Bad Services is out on the 20th of May, but if you can't wait to get stuck in, we’ve just launched a podcast so you can dive into the book early, and listen along as we talk about each chapter over the next few months.
good.services/badservicesp...
Bad Services is out on the 20th of May, but if you can't wait to get stuck in, we’ve just launched a podcast so you can dive into the book early, and listen along as we talk about each chapter over the next few months.
good.services/badservicesp...
April 8, 2026 at 7:30 AM
We’ve got a new podcast!
Bad Services is out on the 20th of May, but if you can't wait to get stuck in, we’ve just launched a podcast so you can dive into the book early, and listen along as we talk about each chapter over the next few months.
good.services/badservicesp...
Bad Services is out on the 20th of May, but if you can't wait to get stuck in, we’ve just launched a podcast so you can dive into the book early, and listen along as we talk about each chapter over the next few months.
good.services/badservicesp...
Reposted by Tom Steel
VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England.
I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Government to lift paywall from large parts of the Land Registry
Exclusive: finding out who owns land will become simpler under plans to make the best use of green spaces and hit net zero targets
www.theguardian.com
March 18, 2026 at 7:01 AM
VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England.
I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Tom Steel
Brilliant analysis of what went wrong with the expensive redesign of Australia's version of the met office app.
leisareichelt.substack.com/p/what-went-...
leisareichelt.substack.com/p/what-went-...
What went wrong with the BoM Redesign?
A Post-Mortem on Judgement, Usability, and Redesign at Scale
leisareichelt.substack.com
March 17, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Brilliant analysis of what went wrong with the expensive redesign of Australia's version of the met office app.
leisareichelt.substack.com/p/what-went-...
leisareichelt.substack.com/p/what-went-...
Reposted by Tom Steel
Good Services came out 6 years ago and I am SO excited to finally announce that the Sequel - Bad Services - will be out in late May!
March 17, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Good Services came out 6 years ago and I am SO excited to finally announce that the Sequel - Bad Services - will be out in late May!
Reposted by Tom Steel
We've hit FORTY-THOUSAND entries on openbenches.org 🥰
All contributed by people like you.
Thank you to all our wonderful supporters, brilliant photographers, and open source coders.
All contributed by people like you.
Thank you to all our wonderful supporters, brilliant photographers, and open source coders.
March 1, 2026 at 5:08 PM
We've hit FORTY-THOUSAND entries on openbenches.org 🥰
All contributed by people like you.
Thank you to all our wonderful supporters, brilliant photographers, and open source coders.
All contributed by people like you.
Thank you to all our wonderful supporters, brilliant photographers, and open source coders.
Reposted by Tom Steel
In September, I was asked to give some thoughts about the NHS 10-year plan based on some of the principles in Platformland. Here are the slides and speaker notes:
www.rpp.works/ways-of-d…
www.rpp.works/ways-of-d…
February 24, 2026 at 12:59 PM
In September, I was asked to give some thoughts about the NHS 10-year plan based on some of the principles in Platformland. Here are the slides and speaker notes:
www.rpp.works/ways-of-d…
www.rpp.works/ways-of-d…
All careers lead to tech.
(If you want them to)
(If you want them to)
Not everyone chooses to go into tech from a young age, with some people ending up in tech entirely by accident – here we follow people with “unusual” paths into tech...
👉 [read]
👉 [read]
October 25, 2025 at 8:37 AM
All careers lead to tech.
(If you want them to)
(If you want them to)
Reposted by Tom Steel
"Fail fast" is not a viable approach to software construction. There's no benefit in constant failure. What we want to do is succeed fast. Do that with small batches and frequent corrections based on feedback. That's not "failure," it's just part of the process.
1/2
1/2
October 22, 2025 at 7:06 PM
"Fail fast" is not a viable approach to software construction. There's no benefit in constant failure. What we want to do is succeed fast. Do that with small batches and frequent corrections based on feedback. That's not "failure," it's just part of the process.
1/2
1/2
Reposted by Tom Steel
“There are few things more dehumanizing than being told by a machine that you’re not real because of your face"
For the last month, I've been speaking to people living with facial differences and disfigurements about how face verification tech is failing them. Spoiler: things aren't going well
For the last month, I've been speaking to people living with facial differences and disfigurements about how face verification tech is failing them. Spoiler: things aren't going well
When Face Recognition Doesn’t Know Your Face Is a Face
An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say they’re getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services.
www.wired.com
October 15, 2025 at 10:23 AM
“There are few things more dehumanizing than being told by a machine that you’re not real because of your face"
For the last month, I've been speaking to people living with facial differences and disfigurements about how face verification tech is failing them. Spoiler: things aren't going well
For the last month, I've been speaking to people living with facial differences and disfigurements about how face verification tech is failing them. Spoiler: things aren't going well
Reposted by Tom Steel
Europe's largest city council delays fix to disastrous Oracle system once more
Europe's largest city council delays fix to disastrous Oracle system once more
System meant to go live in 2021 costing £20M awaits reimplementation with new £170M price tag
Europe's largest local authority has delayed the introduction of a vital income management system (IMS) amid confirmation that total spending on a disastrous Oracle implementation could hit £170 million (c $230 million).…
dlvr.it
September 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Europe's largest city council delays fix to disastrous Oracle system once more
Reposted by Tom Steel
The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon
The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon
Are tech giants getting nervous? They should be
Opinion There tend to be three AI camps. 1) AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread and will transform the world. 2) AI is the spawn of the Devil and will destroy civilization as we know it. And 3) "Write an A-Level paper on the themes in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet."…
dlvr.it
August 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM
The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon
Reposted by Tom Steel
Trust
Day 1/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.
Day 1/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.
August 17, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Trust
Day 1/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.
Day 1/30 sharing my favorite doodles and drawings.
Reposted by Tom Steel
GREATNESS IS SERVING
Read the full story of a very special evening at Leyton's Coach & Horses, where some very special guests helped us tell the full story behind the fantastic new #LOFC mural - and all in a very deserving cause...
Read the full story of a very special evening at Leyton's Coach & Horses, where some very special guests helped us tell the full story behind the fantastic new #LOFC mural - and all in a very deserving cause...
Greatness Is Serving
the real story behind Orient's newest mural: a picture of compassion, loyalty and gratitude
theleytonorientear.substack.com
July 28, 2025 at 5:12 PM
GREATNESS IS SERVING
Read the full story of a very special evening at Leyton's Coach & Horses, where some very special guests helped us tell the full story behind the fantastic new #LOFC mural - and all in a very deserving cause...
Read the full story of a very special evening at Leyton's Coach & Horses, where some very special guests helped us tell the full story behind the fantastic new #LOFC mural - and all in a very deserving cause...
Reposted by Tom Steel
Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty
Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty
Under oath in French Senate, exec says it would be compelled – however unlikely – to pass local customer info to US admin
Microsoft says it "cannot guarantee" data sovereignty to customers in France – and by implication the wider European Union – should the Trump administration demand access to customer information held on its servers.…
dlvr.it
July 25, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Microsoft admits it 'cannot guarantee' data sovereignty
Reposted by Tom Steel
Conspiracy theorists should be required to do work experience in government departments so they can see firsthand the impossibility of any vast secret government conspiracies.
July 1, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Conspiracy theorists should be required to do work experience in government departments so they can see firsthand the impossibility of any vast secret government conspiracies.