As you know, I'm a supporter of open technology. I write open source, I work on open standards, I care about open data. So I am delighted to have joined the board of OpenUK. Our purpose? To develop and sustain UK leadership in Open technology. I want to make the UK the best place to…
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Way back in 1999, I moved to Canada for a year. Ottawa got down to -30℃ - so I grew my hair to prevent my ears snapping off in the cold. And then I kept growing it. Very occasionally I'd go to a barber for a trim, but I hated the experience. I'm not good…
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I'll admit it - I never really got the selfie. I was trapped in the mistake that they were a mere narcissistic folly. I couldn't have been more wrong. The more I travel the world, the more I see a change in people's behaviour around monuments. It used to be people jostling to get the…
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Post-birthday haze, it's time to set out my resolutions for the upcoming year. Get better at empathy I have a theoretical understanding that other people are humans, with their own complex lives and decisions. I'm not always good at putting that into practice. Groups of people and abstract personae, I feel like I have a…
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It's my birthday! As is customary, here's my year in review. See 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010. Sadly, I am a poor diarist, so if I've missed off something important to you - sorry! It has been a year of great change. A new house, new jobs for us both, new…
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I set myself an unofficial New Year's Resolution* - to read more books and write a review of each of them. I wanted to read about one new book per week. Well, I fell a little short of that target - what with getting a new job, moving house, road-tripping across Australia - but I'm…
Continue reading →Somewhere, stuffed in a cupboard or undeveloped on an old roll of film, is a photo of me laughing and joking with a murderer. It was one summer, while I was visiting home between university terms, and I was out with friends celebrating our youthful vigour. A group of us - very much in the…
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I loathe performance reviews. OKRs, KPIs, EYRs? Bleugh! There's a level of introspection which always makes me intrinsicly uncomfortable. Besides, I always feel like I've done nothing worthwhile other than arse about on a computer. In my new job, I decided to keep an achievement journal. Well, a Trello list of tasks I've done well.…
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When I was at school, we had to wear a uniform. Black trousers, white shirt, brown blazer, brown tie. Coincidentally, it was more-or-less the same uniform as the local supermarket. On the last day of school, I ripped off my tie and vowed never to wear one again. And, aside from the occasional wedding and…
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I get confused when I hear statements on the news like "community leaders have called for calm" or "community leaders will be encouraged to host informative programs" or "assurances were provided by local community leaders" or "community leaders have launched a campaign"... I want to ask you a simple question. Who are your community leaders?…
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