I've been spending this morning partly trying to set myself up on Mastodon. I'm not necessarily jumping ship from Twitter, but I'm just interested in checking out the potential lifeboats. What the experience has so far instilled in me is a deep respect for the engineering marvel that is modern-day Twitter. To deliver a service … Continue reading Twitter and technocracy
This week I have learned: that we now have a teenager in the house. How quickly time flies... I remember when he would spend the evenings puking up all over the place, and I am expecting that that might become a thing again in the next few years... that I'm really fortunate to know so … Continue reading Weeknote 608: teen
This week I have learned: although I have experienced migraines since my mid-childhood, they still have the ability to shut me down entirely. We don't really know what causes them (for me it's usually a trigger of tiredness), there's no real cure, and remedies can be a bit hit-and-miss. the best hacks are the simplest … Continue reading Weeknote 607: blinded by the lights
I've been thinking about teams recently, and in particular the types of teams that are brought together where nobody really knows anyone beforehand, but where they are expected to start work and be productive pretty much immediately. Take, for example, flight crews on aircraft, particularly with bigger airlines. Everyone has a role to perform: pilots … Continue reading Model teams
This week I have learned: certain Tory peers can only be described in the sort of language that Channel 4 news presenters use off-air. that you can get involved in open source even if you don't code. I had a fascinating day at the OpenUK Thought Leadership event on Monday, which is my stand-out memory. … Continue reading Weeknote 606: Drumatix
Over the past few weeks, I've been writing about how internal technology teams, whether IT, Digital or other permutations, might look at themselves though a service value lens to better understand what they do in the eyes of their "customers". If you haven't seen the articles, they are here, here and here. Last week I … Continue reading The tech team value prop – field experiments
This week I have learned: the Boston Robotics dog is a sinister thing. I got the opportunity to be face to robot grab arm with one at the Dorset Festival of the Future event. Whilst it's "just" a remote control device, the movement (which is more horse-like than dog-like) is proper "uncanny valley" stuff. the … Continue reading Weeknote 605: pareidolia
This week I have learned: ultimately it's about the people. We can get fooled in the world of technology into thinking that not only it's only about the tech, but that tech people themselves are somehow more machine than human. It's not and they're not. Chris was off sunning himself at a conference this week, … Continue reading Weeknote 604: people, innit?
Twenty-six years ago I started working at the BBC just as the corporation was entering into its first big phase of digital transformation. The world of broadcast media was changing as the production and distribution of television shifted from analogue to digital technologies. Shifting from analogue tape to first digital tape and then hard drives … Continue reading The digitally-transformed office
This week I have learned: I've been obsessing about metaphors about teams like flight crews, film crews and international football teams. I've then also extended the metaphor to talk about roles mismatching, tribalism and the psychology of the narcissism of small differences, topped with the mention of a small tea shop in the Cotswolds. Ultimately … Continue reading Weeknote 603: Fake coffee
