For some years now I've been using the analogy of the music industry to explore how digitalization can have varying stages. It goes a little something like this. Prior to digital, music was distributed by performance, then printed sheet music, then through vinyl (and to some extent tape). The first wave of digital saw the … Continue reading The evolution of digital work
I don't blog as much as I used to do. It's that Chris Weston's fault. Since he and I set up WB-40 on a whim back in 2016, podcasting has become a pressure valve for some of my work and some of my thinking and, quite frankly, some of the things that really get on my … Continue reading Weeknote 400
This week I have learned: The August Bank Holiday week is odd, and mildly depressing. The slight chill in the air in the mornings. The "last break until Christmas" feel. When the rubber meets the road, as the saying goes, is when you start to realise how badly the wheels have been fitted. Safety. We … Continue reading Weeknote 399: autumnal
There are three things converging in my working life at the moment: Government client work on delivering modern IT services is at last at the point where we are starting to deliver actual technology into the hands of actual people who aren't in the technology team. My work has been to help shape the activities … Continue reading Workplace Safety
This week I have learned: big, adventurous, active holidays can be more relaxing than sedentary, chill out by the pool ones. coming back after a big adventure is a bit weird. even more so when you come back in what must be the slowest week of the year in the UK bar Christmas. there are … Continue reading Weeknote 398: home
This week I have learned: There's a limit to how much heat I can stand. New clients are like buses. You wait around for ages and then three turn up at the same time. The power of association. "It's in the next release" will be the perennial excuse of evergreen computing. Dominic Raab reminds me … Continue reading Weeknote 397: Heatwave
Things that I have learned this week: Building products is fun. Building products with other people is even more fun. Building products that aren't software is even more fun than that. There's something about the eyes sparkling, moment of revelation thing that's addictive when you are able to inspire it in others. It's why I … Continue reading Weeknote 396: Football
Another review and reworking of hints gleaned from the book Remote for a client I'm currently working with, here are some handy hints on how to support working when you don't have everyone in the same office at the same time... - make sure there is time-overlap as to the hours that people work/work in the … Continue reading Agile/Flexible/Smart working tips
Whether you subscribe to the view that data is the new oil, or maybe think it's the new nuclear waste, there is no doubting that there is an awful lot of the stuff floating around organisations these days. The massive volume of data stored in most businesses is probably less to do with more quantitative … Continue reading CIO Priorities 30 – Use Data Better
Ideas about Service Design have started to permeate into the world of the IT department. For most it's about the approaches necessary to develop customer-facing digital services. But for some it's also being applied to improve the way in which technology is delivered to people inside the organisation. And by that I mean the customer … Continue reading CIO Priorities 29: Improve User Experience
