Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
It was during a slack conversation with colleagues, that the concept of a kind of advent calendar came to mind. A diabolo advent calendar, 1 trick per day mentioned on my blog with a brief description.
I will try and record something new everyday but I doubt it will be possible with the winter season. I have recorded some bits in advance just in-case.
So look out for them…
Scotland becomes first nation to provide free period products for all
Lennon said: “This will make a massive difference to the lives of women and girls and everyone who menstruates. There has already been great progress at a community level and through local authorities in giving everyone the chance of period dignity.
“There has been a massive change in the way that periods are discussed in public life. A few years ago there had never been an open discussion of menstruation in the Holyrood chamber and now it is mainstream. MSPs have enjoyed being a part of that, and it has encompassed the menopause, endometriosis, as well as the types of products we use and their sustainability.”
Period poverty – the struggle to pay for basic sanitary products on a monthly basis – has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, according to charities
Its about time…! Massive throw down to the rest of the nations around the world. How much do you want to bet Finland, Iceland and New Zealand are next?
Little note, who on earth votes this down on Youtube?
The end of free movement between Europe and the UK was signed and passed recently. To make things clear I found this video helped explain what I imagined 4+ years ago before the vote.
There is a lot to say but I’m just too tired…
I was very happy to hear Biden and Harris’s speeches trying to unite right and left in America. Likewise I was impressed with Bill Maher’s restraints on hearing the democrats win, but they are both right. Civil war is the worst outcome for all. There was a lot worries this was inevitable (it might still be)
Its time to heal the nation and you can’t do that by shout down people. Bill’s comparison of leaving a cult is actually apt. Reminds me a long time ago when I tried to talk around a Scientologist called huggs. I tried to get her to think for herself not simply recite what shes been told to think. Of course it was just a late evening in London but with care, understanding and patience it really can help. All the things needed right now.
A little while ago I mentioned the work myself and colleague Lianne have been conducting around the BBC R&D Human Values project.
I can happily say they are all uploaded to the BBC’s 2LO Soundcloud account, thanks to Bill. All of them are a good listen.
Episode 1: Human value discussion
What is the human value framework, and what are the intentions behind it?
Episode 2: Applying the human value framework
How is the human value framework used?
Episode 3: Exploring the underlying philosophy
A discussion of the philosophical model that underpins the framework
Episode 4: Measuring success using the framework
Are human values the new way to measure success and value in a digital age?
Episode 5: The impact of Covid-19 on the Human Values Framework
Considering human values in the current pandemic, and in the longer term
The BBC R&D blog post has updated details for each episode and who is in each episode. But I wanted to thank again our guests.
You may have seen the previous blogs and the summer follow up.
This week we got the above PDF email/letter from Waterside places.
It seems there was a lot of support for the latent defect work but not enough to make it so. Although the actual figures don’t seem to add up or they were looking for 100% of residents to get in touch?
As you can imagine this has caused a lot of distressed. I made my position clear.
I said No to access to my flat before I got the answers back from Waterside places. They had planned to use the shared garden as workers yard for 2 years. Because of that I stuck to the original date sent off my reply 5 days before the original deadline to make sure its was registered.
Waterside places did push the deadline back and I engaged with them over email saying I will change my vote to yes if they can insure garden access throughout the 2 years. They never confirmed this over the multiple emails and because of this I had no real choice.
I had a lot of problems with the whole thing but Waterside places never made clear the garden position. The committee also made clear that if they could confirm the garden, most residents would change their position.
The engagement with the residents I feel has been mishandled (maybe deliberately?). The options on the table were poor then follow ups have been slow and brief.
Of course I do honestly feel for all the flats which are heavily affected by the latent defects. Its awful news, but something else will happen as the latent defects are clearly there and the court case with Laing o’rourke did end in a settlement. Still love to know how much?
My last pebble 2 smartwatch suffered a number of button problems. Luckily I was able to fix it with Sugru moldable glue. The pebble is showing a lot of wear and tear.
I’m still looking for an alternative to Pebble smartwatches, but the there is simply nothing close, even the new Fitbit is LCD based. Although I’m considering maybe now I have the Oura ring, maybe I could rely less on the health and tracking parts?
Ummmm right…
I get Apple are more private about data than others like Google (which pings Android phones so much people are suing for data charges) but there is something about misplaced trust with Apple which always bugs me. These latest adverts and recent news stories say it all.
Downloads outage down issues which is all around Apples Gatekeeper privacy and Apple’s latest OS update Big sur network traffic bypass.
Of course this is all clear reasons why I’m very much in the open source camp. Maybe I won’t understand the code, but someone will and can inspect it or track down the issue without signing an NDA. I urge for people to not blindly trust. Always look out for open code, zero-knowledge security, no logging, transparency, etc
Just enough internet…
I have been listening to a lot of audiobooks recently and my latest one being the inner level. While I heard the mention of the Swedish word Lagom.
The direct translation of the word lagom is actually moderate but it also roughly its used to say, just enough/right. A reminded of the great Rachel Coldicutt’s (OBE!) keynote speech during Mozhouse last year.
Still a real shame we never wrote up that event…I did, finally!
I heard the true story of the Mangrove Nine but to see it play out over a 2 hour TV show is just amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect but with the great director Steve McQueen, I had a sneaky suspicion it was going to be (8/10) great. Its almost so great to see UK black history on the screen, as its usually displaced by American black history.
Really looking forward to the other episodes.
Recently we released a number of podcasts surrounding the human values work from BBC R&D. Almost all the human values podcasts are available on BBC Design & Engineering’s 2LO Soundcloud account, as mentions previously.
There is much more to whats happening within the new forms of values work as you can see in the videos we recently put out. But another critical part is the work around the human values framework.
The framework is exactly that and is made to aid and support more a more human focused outcome. Of course this can’t be done alone and it was always made to be used alongside other frameworks. Frameworks such as Agile, OKR’s, Lean Canvas, Double Diamond, Doughnut economics, etc.
How this exactly works is the research we are looking for creative people to help with. People like you!
Because of this we are opening up virtual workshops to explore how human values can sit with with the frameworks you are currently using or have used in the past. You are the experts by experience and we want to learn and collaborate with you all.
You can register your interest by going to our event page on tito.
Hope to see you in one of the workshops soon!
I attended IndieWebCampEast over the weekend and met some good people furthering the web. Like all IndieWebCamps, its well documented thanks to the amazing hosts Chris Aldrich and David Shanske.
I used the time I between the time differences (there was about 5 hours difference between GMT & EST) to make serious changes with my yunohost raspberry pi. Seeing how I mentioned how I wanted to understand more about micropub, indieauth and kinds. A good staring point is my own gratitude diary, as changing my blog is a bit more tricky.
So long story short, I setup wordpress on my Raspberry Pi, got IndieAuth working and was able to post from another micropub server. The most tricky part I found is actually replacing the placeholder image, which I had to SSH into the raspberrypi to replace as there seemed to be no other way?
Not bad for a weekend while locked down during a pandemic.
Massive thanks to all I met at IndieWebCampEast and the knowledge I learned and can now share.
Thanks to Chris Aldrich, I became aware of IndieWebCampEast
After the first one I attended in Berlin, it seemed like a good time to attend. Especially as I’m at home locked down like all of the UK right now.
When I first saw east, I did worry if it would mean a early morning start but of course its east as in America (GMT+5), meaning I still get my nice long sleep in. Whats not to love?
I have been wondering about the Indieweb community, especially with the increasing use of the fediverse and what decentralised models can provide to the public & civic space. Its also perfect timing as I had planned to have a play with Yunohost on my new Raspberry Pi4 on the weekend anyway.
Artists, Illustrators, Film makers, Musicians, Technologies, Writers, Educators and Community organisers using a neurodiversity lens in your works.
Last year the Neurodiversity space was brand new and it was a fantastic space full of good sessions.
The deadline is Monday 23rd November and Mozfest as mentioned previously, this year will be a hybrid conference but mainly online.
I heard the news about Gina Martin and up-skirting (or really sexual abuse) a while back but her Tedx talk is very powerful, especially her questions to all men near the end.
I was quite taken by this slide.
Theres a lot of parallels with many other things including black lives matter, transrights, disability rights, feminism, etc. All transcends party politics and the endless squabbling; this is a question of human rights and human dignity…