Where Everybody Knows Your Name (and other metadata)


A group of people in a video call waving at their cameras. Each has a name under their video.

I've made no secret of rather enjoying this enforced period of remote work. Sure, it has had its challenges - but there have been so many fringe benefits. Less commuting! No crappy-canteen lunches! More time to sleep in! And, today, I was reminded of another benefit. I am terrible at remembering names. Many a time someone has bumbled up to me in a corridor, asked my opinion on something, and I've said "could you email me and I'll send you more detail" because I didn't want the mortifying…

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All Good Things


Paul Mcgann as Doctor Who.

Well, that was a whirlwind! After 18-months at NHSX, my 6-month temporary secondment has reached its end. It's always hard when a job finishes. The secondment was twice extended, and that let me carry on defining open technology standards for the NHS. Now it is over and I'm a bit sad. The pandemic seems to heighten all emotions, doesn't it? I'm luckier than most. I'm still employed. The whole point of a secondment is a short-term loan to share skills and experiences. I'm returning to my home …

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New T-Shirt Idea


A t-shirt which says Dunning and Kruger and Gell and Mann.

Some days, I want everyone on the Internet to wear this t-shirt: Designed using Guillaume Chabot's tool after the original 2K by Gingham - which has been parodied many times. Explaining the joke The Dunning–Kruger effect is - simply put - when people of low ability are over-confident in their ability. The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is less easy to put simply. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no u…

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A holiday is a great way to prevent a messiah complex


A woman sat on the beach reading a book.

Last Monday was a Bank Holiday in the UK. The Tuesday was a "Privilege Day" - a day off for Civil Servants for the Queen's birthday. Thursday was my wife's birthday - which I had booked off ages ago. So I decided to cash in my TOIL and take Wednesday and Friday as holidays as well. Including weekends, that made for nine days off in the glorious British sunshine. Stuck at home, sure, but nine days where I didn't have to think about work. I love my job and, if truth be told, probably get a…

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You've got to show up to make a difference


Jean-Luc Picard saying " It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."

Eleven years ago, the BBC announced plans to encrypt all of its free-to-air digital TV channels. The technology world was aghast! I saw thousands of Tweets from hundreds of people, angry blog posts, mailing lists erupting with fury. There may even have been a petition. The regulator, Ofcom, announced an enquiry and solicited for feedback. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentDespite all the retweeting & blogging, only 90 people bothered to respond to Ofcom's consultation on BBC encryption…

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When part of your job is *not* caring


Black and white photo of a little Lego clown. He is sad.

Many years ago, when I worked at Vodafone, we had a senior network engineer give us a talk about keeping the network stable in the hours after the 7/7 bombings. He was completely dispassionate. He spoke about analysing network traffic, predicting demand spikes, routing around damage, physically securing sites, supporting the emergency services - and all the minutiae that goes in to running a complex system during an emergency. He then explained that his wife worked in Central London and his…

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Week Notes - COVID19


Teamwork makes the dream work. A shoal of fish have formed into the shape of a large shark.

What started as a fairly ordinary week, quickly transformed into something extraordinary. Large swathes of NHSX were suddenly told to de-prioritise their day-to-day work and focus on COVID19 response. I probably can't talk specifically on what I've been working on, but it has been one of the most intense working weeks of my life. As is customary, here are The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of my week, The Good We have an amazing team of committed professionals. A wide range of skills and…

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Why I make my work calendar public


A weekly calendar showing lots of overlapping meetings.

If you'd like to set up a meeting or call with me, chances are, I've sent you a link to my calendar. It's a public website where you can see when I'm available. One important note, before we go any further, this public calendar only shows my free/busy status. It doesn't show the names of the appointments, details of people I'm meeting with, locations, or any other data. It's literally just "this is when Terence is busy". There are two primary reasons why I do this. Make it easy for people …

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Weeknotes: A year at #NHSX


Terence Eden speaking at a conference.

A year ago, I swapped my comfy job at GDS for a new role at the Department of Health and Social Care. So, this is a sort of informal end-of-year review. It has been a fun and challenging year. Some of the things I've tried have worked, others less so. The Good Helped kickstart NHSX. I think that counts for something! A bit of that was procedural stuff like obtaining the domain name and convincing Twitter to give us the @NHSX name. Some of it was sitting in rooms while senior people turned to …

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The Corridors of Power


Terence Eden standing outside Number 10 Downing Street.

These are the lyrics to my constant earworm: Sometimes my life it feels like fiction Some of the days it's really quite surreal George Harrison - Pisces Fish I occasionally find myself having meetings in the Palace of Westminster with People From The News. I want to talk about what that's like. I'm waiting to go in to an office, quietly rehearsing what answers I'm going to give. Sat over there is a senior politician chatting with their junior (but still recognisable) colleague. The…

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Weeknotes - Mid-year Review


Terence Eden standing outside Number 10 Downing Street.

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. This has been most useful. I looked though my record of achievement and picked out the highlights. This isn't a new tip - but one I'm glad to have rediscovered. …

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UK Gov Camp Weeknotes


Edent Shouting into a microphone.

I'm finally feeling like I'm settling into my new role. I spent my Saturday at UK GovCamp - an unconference for Civil Servants. I ran a session on Acronyms in the Workplace. It was hillarious listening to people try to introduce themselves without any abbreviations. "I am the Chief Paperclip Office for the United Kingdom's Department of Stationery and Supplies" doesn't take much longer to say that "CPO for DSS UK" but you can certainly hear the mental gears crunching. The overall output was…

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