Week Notes - July 2018

By @edent · gds oneteamgov oneteamgovglobal WeekNotes work · 1 comment · 950 words · read ~222 times.

I've never written a Week Note before, but I was encouraged to do so after an excellent session at the One Team Gov Global conference. Here, in the spirit of openness is what I've been up to, and what I've got wrong in the last few weeks.

NHS Open Source

A four hour train journey to Newcastle - and four hours back. But so worth it. Chatting to NHS BSA about their plans to open source some of their existing software and to start coding in the open! It's not going to be whizz-bang-shiney beat-cancer code - but it begins the transition to letting people see where their money is going, how their services are being run, and - I hope - will encourage other departments to share and re-use. Win!

NHS Data Science

A less traumatic journey to Central London. My usual fare of interjecting the discussion with "OPEN SOURCE!" and occasionally "OPEN STANDARDS!" I try not to shout - but I get over excited by these things.

NCSC - shhhh!

Having some user-research done on me. I'm sure there's a better term... participant! I participated in user research for a new NCSC "thing".

I was slightly mean spirited. A consultancy I’d never heard of contacted me about the research. In order to screen-share, they asked me to install a “helper” application from a website starting d11yldzmag5yn...

I said "no" - assuming that it was part of the test. I was wrong! We settled on Hangouts.

Great service - and I'm glad I stuck by my principles not to install dodgy looking apps.

BEIS Statisticians

Part of my Sisyphean task to stop people publishing important data in closed file formats. I went slideless. I'm just so bored of PowerPoint - even the stuff I've created. Turns out, I've done this talk so often that I don't need slides. Perhaps I can give them up for good? Anyway, lots of good questions about the practicality of moving to ODF. Some challenging - almost antagonistic - push back. That's fair. I'm able to defend these ideas. But I do need to get better at responding more diplomatically.

#OneTeamGovGlobal

I volunteered for this - so was facilitating five sessions, including the one that prompted this blog post!

Exhausting, but useful. Have some Tweets.

OLEV

An intersection of my interests - electric cars and open standards!

Can we find a standard for electric vehicle charging point location information?

HELL YES!

Applying for FLS

The Future Leaders Scheme in the Civil Service. I totally failed to get through last year. Cocked up the tests completely. Wasn't sure whether I wanted to put myself though it again. But... fuck it. Better to try and fail (repeatedly) than go all "I coulda beena contenda!"

Reading List

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - by Susan Cain
- I think I'm an introvert. I found a lot to disagree with in this book. Some of the science seemed flakey and it relied on outdated nonsense like MBTI. That said, it did challenge some of my preconceptions on how I - and others - behave.
Digital Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery
- The inside story of GDS (my current employers). Avoided being too self-congratulatory by being honest about some of their failures. A useful primer for people working here, or wanting to kickstart something similar.
The Open Revolution - Rufus Pollock.
- A quick read aiming to convince the unbelievers of the necessity of "open". I didn't learn anything new from it - but contains some good arguments to deploy against institutions which seek to preserve their closed nature. Free as a ePub.
One More Chance - Lucy Ayrton
- Not my usual fare! Fiction about a single-mum trapped in prison. Exciting and provocative look at the justice system from an author who really gets the subject. Well worth reading.
Iain M. Banks - Culture.
- I'm working my way through these. I was underwhelmed by "Consider Phlebas" - but the others have been rollicking sci-fi fun. Gone through the first four, might take a break for a bit.

And Breathe

I'm on holiday for two weeks, so my next notes will be delayed.

Did you find these interesting? Let me know!

One thought on “Week Notes - July 2018”

2018-07-20 16:36

mike says:

Don’t know if you’re aware, but the page at the end of that Amazon link for Culture books lists two of his non-Culture sci-fi novels, The Algebraist and Feersom Endjinn. Also short story collection The State of the Art is mostly non-Culture.

There’s another non-Culture sci-fi novel of his, Against a Dark Background, which I highly recommend.

Some of his non-sci stuff is really good too and some of it is really fucked up.

The man could write.

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One thought on “Week Notes - July 2018”

mike says:

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