I recently posted this on linkedin. It came from an email conversation with Alex DS and my experiences with applying for jobs recently.I’ll say it again, Alex is extremely smart and been a fantastic person to talk with about so many things, especially the rights and wrongs of the tech industry.
A month ago, I remembered something fundamental: my network matters far more than applications sent into the void of public job boards.
Thanks to Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino for the wise words again and the nudge!
I’m finally putting this into action…
I’m seeking roles inspired by four core strengths I bring to the table:
🔹 Declarative Development – xHTML, CSS, SVG, #XML, RDF, #Linked Data, Semantic Web. I’m a declarative coder at heart, specialising in this space. Data privacy and management are non-negotiable.
🔹 Project Leadership – Planning, leading, and nurturing projects from early development, through securing funding, all the way to public launch.
🔹 Real-World AI Advising – Beyond the hype! I combine academic rigour with hands-on experience running local, private #AI systems on regular open-source systems. I’m also a strong advisor on technology, design, and data-related projects.
🔹 Leading, Lecturing & Teaching – #UX research and future media development (object-based, adaptive and perceptive media). I’m passionate about shifting from #HCI (Human Computer Interaction) to an #HDI (Human Data Interaction) mindset, with a focus on alternative metrics grounded in human values, sustainability and good human incentives.
If you know of opportunities, teams, or conversations that align with any of these areas, or if you’d just like to connect and exchange ideas (especially around digital legacy, ethically connecting people or the digital public space), I’d love to hear from you.
Open to remote, hybrid, or in-person opportunities.
Feel free to comment or send me a DM. And if you think someone else should see this, I’d appreciate the re-share…
Its clear this post connected with quite a few people, and I have booked in talks with quite a few people…
My loving supportive partner Alison while Japanese whiskey tasting
Its been around 4 months since I officially left BBC R&D. Its been a while since I did a catch up of where I am and a lot has happened.
First of all I have setup a limited company, one of the main reasons is to seriously pursue how to build the public space as an viable alternative to commercial and government space.
A large part of this is working with others on the notion of a digital public space. One of the leaders in this space is New_Public and I’m really excited to announce, I am going to be working with them to achieve their open source plans. As most of you know, open source isn’t just about the code but about the community and everything which surrounds it. Hence my time running BBC Backstage, is certainly useful.
On the digital legacy front following on from the Republica panel discussion with Identity 2.0 and Linn. I have been thinking about the letter of wishes and how it could actually work in line with HDI (human data interaction) and public values? Its actually something I felt a public service company like the BBC could transform, as it screams public value but it wasn’t to be.
To this I entered my thoughts into a call for participation with the Mydata conference and happy to say they really liked it as a workshop. Which means in September, I will host a workshop around the notion of a machine readable letter of wishes. I am hopefully going to be joined by a fellow digital legacy collaborator but prepared to run it alone.
Been seriously thinking about how to make this real and a standard format seems the best way to go. What software/services which can read and execute this fungible document, is something for others; but a prototype is perfectly possible. Even if it scratches my own itch, it could also help me play/learn with some of the new declarative (React, Vue.js, Xproc) or even object-originated programming languages/frameworks (Rust).
In a similar space, of me rethinking what a public service company could do to be more relevant in the age of endless scroll, enshittification and a loneliness epidemic; as touched on in the future of social report recently.
With all this, I have been writing my own book about this all and pretty much finished. Can I also say how amazing Librewrite has gotten for editing complex books like this…
In the last few months I submitted my book to Conduit Books and signed up to a course by Kenyon author services. Mainly to rethink how I proactively encourage people to buy the book or at least read it. Considered going through the publishers and agent book again but I just don’t have the time, plus I have a plan of action which includes a online dating manifesto, potential podcast and maybe a potential dating service which clings to public values and the HDI principles mentioned before. Some of this might come sooner than expected, as I actually mentioned the dating manifesto (borrowed heavily from Julia) and even showed the cover & title (tbc) to my book at the PublicSpaces conference, during the lunch break.
The manifesto which will be collaborative, will feature at the end of the book and is something Mydata is interested in because its very related to HDI and use of data. I did put it in as a session but it may work better as a short workshop. Watch this space…
I have had a long relationship with Mozilla via the festival (Mozfest), which this year goes global in Barcelona in November. Unfortunately the call for participation has closed and the wrangling part has started. The spacewrangler role is very important, as we are the face and hearts of the festival. One thing which concerned the spacewranglers was the price of the tickets compared to 2019 ticket prices in London. Yes that was a while ago ,a lot has happened including a pandemic and global inflation. However the wranglers have pushed back on the Mozilla foundation. Mozilla have listened and replied with a number of changes including community badges which are a similar price to the ones in London in 2019!
Lets be honest this is a deal, especially with all the challenges Mozilla is facing right now. I would grab your community ticket for €45 now and join us as we write the internet’s next chapter.
Running a limited business comes with a bunch of administrative challenges including accounting. Originally I thought I could use something open and self host it but, the realisation that no accountant will use it and even if I transfer it to something like Xero, Freeagent or Quickbooks. They would need to run through the whole thing again. So I am using Quickbooks for now and seeking a good accountant which isn’t too expensive, can deal with international clients (I have spent far too much time trying to understand and fill in the W-8BEN-E form) and manage my lack of interest in taxes. The notion of a portfolio career keeps coming up, but its really not me… However I do generally have quite a few projects going on at once. This post is testament to this.
In the meanwhile, I have been travelling a lot, my carbon footprint isn’t great but I did recently go to southern France. Somewhere re-reading my school report I wanted to live. Crazy eh?
In the background, I have made a lot of changes to my self hosting setup. I still need to fix quite a few things including my Yunohost Pi server which was broken due to the Debian bookworm update. I decided my mixgarden should just be a Peertube instance which makes a lot of sense. I certainly need to sort out my docker setup because that would make things so much easier. In the meanwhile I have finally settled on Anytype for my personal knowledge store and Vikunja for tasks and kambam. My Framework laptop is going well, especially with a 64gig of memory now, however Ubuntu is doing strange things with the keyboard while using Wayland.
Considering blogging more and setting up separate spaces for the publicservice internet notes, business stuff (which I really need to sort out) and a few other things.
Another strange thing, I just started is baking my own Sourdough bread. Its early days but will attempt my first loaf tomorrow. Yes I know its years after everyone was doing it during the pandemic but hopefully I’ll get into it.
There is so much more but not for public blogging right now. I’m still seeing friends when ever possible, mainly in the UK but when I’m out of the country, catching up with international friends.
I’m very fortunate to have a loving, caring and understanding partner, who is helping me through all this insane amount of change.
These user interface changes I have lots of thoughts about them from a design and UI point of view (most which has been said elsewhere). However my biggest thought is the underlying problems of our smartphones and our tired notions. (especially since finishing the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and the The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher.
After all the hype and attention, I did fiid the book reasonable. There are parts I did question and frown at but generally it’s not as ground breaking as the press made out.
It strikes me, these are the horrible phase of a pig with a touch of lipstick.
The whole way we use smartphones is broken, I’m not that excited about glassy or blobby elements but it feels like were not getting to the root of the issue. Abuse of user/owner data, lack of user/owner agency and the mass surveillance of millions of people through their smartphones can’t got on as its has…
I’d love to see a new paradigm in the same way both companies have tried to tackle the huge rise in smartphone thief’s. Its not like we don’t have the technology to provide advanced protections for user data but rather each one (Apple & Google) benefit from access to the data. I know people will say yes Google but Apple protects user data access? Likely they do but then become the gatekeeper to your data means they can also offer it to trusted parties?
However this isn’t about that question, I’m questioning why so much work has gone into the UI and not into how to make reconsidering the problems of how we use them?
Although old, this still feels clunky and could be done much better with better integration with the operating system
Using the scoped storage as a example. This limits an application to a certain space on the file system. iOS and now Android support this, but its a little clunky and almost encourages the owner of the phone to just accept all (This old tread highlights the problem).
Android recently put more emphasis on modes (basically profiles, which have been tried over and over again). It wouldn’t be difficult to tie modes to permissions too? The difference could be the user interface? I don’t have solid answers but I think about when (rarely) my Pixel goes into power saving mode when the battery is less than 20%. There is a visual UI clue but also it restricts the background data use too. I have heard about people turning on extreme power saving mode always for many reasons.
Some of you might say so what? This isn’t permissions and data but ultimately its the combination which is important. Its almost like their aim is just shift more new phones, regardless of the result… Of course! Some of you may say hey Ian, what would you change and how? My answer is simply I could rethink a bunch of things and I’m sure some of their teams already have but as usual its so low on the list as it doesn’t sell phones. Or even maybe they are waiting for regulation to force them to make the change?
I reflect on the AI/Gemini changes in Android and Google services, maybe I would like to use it for a limited scope of things and accept the results won’t be as great. But my only option is accept or decline. In 2025 this is bad and needs changing, heck I love for designers to take up the challenge of making this all seamlessly work with the ability to negotiate and change the scope at any time.
Really need to see Human Data Interaction replace Human Computer Interaction now because its become unacceptable in my eyes. Worst still it limits whats possible and leads to a outcome which doesn’t empower the owner/users.
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“
Ian thinks: There is so much about the worldwide outage due to Microsoft and Crowd strike. Zitron zooms out and points fingers at shareholders supremacy , recent tech layoffs and the silicon value of move fast and break things.
Ian thinks: In this thoughtful discussion Hickel outlines a number of key concepts of degrowth including, the assumption the rich countries should continue to increase growing for the rest of the century. Plus the metric of growth based on GDP, was never developed for this purpose warned the creator of it.
Ian thinks: This talk from Republica is raw and will caused a lot feelings. Deep down under the skin of the talk is the underlying understanding Tante has some very good points including the fact “we let tech take the politics out of innovation.”
Ian thinks: This video builds on the huge data privacy problem of modern cars. There is a huge problem of negotiability with the contracts you sign. Access to emergency service is important but that shouldn’t mean data being shared with an unknown amount of data brokers. Its time for a change.
Ian thinks: This short documentary about John Lewis and Waitrose is quite telling as their business model feels so obscure now, especially in the face of stakeholder capitalism or as others call it Shareholder Supremacy. You can see the same of public service broadcasting and likewise their are lessons and difficult decisions which need to be made before its too late.
Ian thinks: Interesting but sweary rant from a senior data scientist about the AI bubble and C-suite’s fascination with it. Good points made counting the business narrative of you need AI for everything.
Ian thinks: While watching this video about keeping contacts private, I couldn’t stop but think the whole notion of how apps, services and platforms interact with our personal data must change. Human data interaction is a step towards this but it needs standardisation and adopted very soon, because putting the burden on users through scope storage, permissions or installing GrapheneOS isn’t sustainable.
Ian thinks: The notion of a digital afterlife will either fill you with dread or joy. But what ever side you come down on, it’s clear existing power laws like enshitfication, surveillance capitalism, etc will be in full effort. Legal reform in this space to give agency to the user is essential and must come soon.
Ian thinks: The story of Kat Torres is a hard one to watch but a important one to see. There will always be influencers but could human scale social networks change this, I wonder?
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“
Ian thinks: You may have heard of “Pig Butchering” in relation to romance/crypto scams. In this pretty dark episode of Darknet diaries which deals with violence, scams and death. You realised how deep and dark the scams go.
Ian thinks: I have noticed a general exhaustion/ignorance to the problem of bias in AI. This short video from Channel 4 is a timely reminder of how it manifests and for us all to take some responsibility.
Ian thinks: The post office scandal is simply awful all over. People have lost the faith of their communities, family and even lost their lives. All due to a not fit for purpose computer system (Fujitsu’s Horizon). What makes things worst is all the people who sided with the computer system over the huge evidence of the post office masters/mistresses. Also interesting it took a TV show to push the whole scandal into the public conscious.
Ian thinks: I liked this for many reasons but the distraction technique used by many people who con others is somewhat clear to see across a lot of the AI stories I see. I did wonder if I was the only one?
Ian thinks: The podcast industry is feeling the pinch due to advertisers wanting to know more about the listener. Spotify’s has always offered a closed platform and rejected RSS for this reason. However, Apple will start supporting the open Podcast namespace around transcripts.
Ian thinks: I recently shared this video with a few people who have started drinking the cool-aid about privacy is over. Its something of a timely reminder at the top of the year, of the importance of privacy for everyone.
Ian thinks: I recently read the hype machine by Sinan Aral. I expected most of the points but I did find the influence on society points, stronger than I imagined. The depth of the arguments are worthy of reading and of course acting on.
Ian thinks: There is renew interest in new/alternative user interfaces and although AI is all the rage, our smartphones are fighting back (as the video shows). When I think about this all, I can’t help but wonder about the infrastructure. Leaning on Human Data Interaction guidelines, many of them mask the data from the human.
Ian thinks: Congrats to Cory on a word which sums up so much about the current internet business model but also doing something about it. I remember Cory being quite critical of surveillance capitalism and emphasising the problem of monopolies, lack of agency and interoperability.
If you are at Mydata, our event is in Hall H from 14:00 – 15:45 on the opening day of Wednesday 25th September.
More and more people live their lives online, and we are encouraged to view the internet as a public space. However the personal data we bring to this space can be used in many inappropriate ways: Instagram stories are scraped to target advertisement; faces in family photographs are used to train the ML systems that will scan crowds for suspects; the devices we thought we owned end up owning us; and our browsing histories are stored and scanned by governments and private companies. This creates a tension for public service organisations as they try to deliver value to audiences and users online.
In this session experts from the BBC Research & Development, Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, and PublicSpaces will consider how to resolve these tensions, and look at some specific interventions aimed at providing value to audiences and communities through the responsible use of private data in online public spaces.
The format will be four brief talks and a round table discussion.
Chair: Rhianne Jones (BBC)
PublicSpaces and an internet for the common good: Sander van der Waal (PublicSpaces)
The Living Room of the Future:Â Â Ian Forrester (BBC)
How public service media can engage online; Aleksi Rossi (YLE)
Data Stewardship and the BBC Box:Â Â Jasmine Cox/ Max Leonard (BBC)
I’m one of those people who look at terms when using services or purchasing IOT devices. I also dont accept the cookie warnings unless I’m actually happy to use the service. This does make looking at any Oath/Yahoo site a pain for a while, as they use to have accept or nothing else (this changed).
Very sure a lot of the companies deliberately put up painful cookie notices to mislead their users. If this isn’t a dark pattern it should be?
Recently I noticed this cheeky one from the three mobile app. You can assume the sliders when grey are not active and the purple one on? But there’s no actual clear sign to say what is active/on and whats inactive/not. Its also interesting that the grey ones are the default, which you would assume are active/on in every other example you have experienced of this.
It was clear to me back when I first spoke to Nottingham University about the databox project, it was something different, a possible way forward following the newly established HDI principles. It was tricky to understand (and you get that sense in the Gizmodo piece) but the box infrastructure kept everything honest. If you told me 4 years later after I first published the ethics of data videos.. I’d be debating with Tim Burners-Lee about the merits of Databox vs Solid at Mozfest 2018… I wouldn’t have believed you.
I look forward to seeing where things go next with Databox/BBC Box, this for me is the BBC embracing the change and doubling down on its public service. But lets not forget the other experiments using databox at their heart as they are also part of the change.
If you’ve so far withstood the temptation to install a smart speaker in your home, worried about the potential privacy pitfalls and a bit embarrassed about the notion of chatting aimlessly to an inanimate object, brace yourselves. This Christmas, the world’s biggest tech giants, including Amazon, Google and Facebook, are making another bid for your living room, announcing a range of new devices that resemble tablets you can talk to.
“It’s very clear what they’re trying to do: sell you more stuff through third-party use of your own information,”
The fear about whether or not such devices are actually always on causes some users to relegate their smart speakers to corridors. “Think about where in the home you want to use these things, particularly if you think they might be listening all the time,”
I think the only thing missing from the article is a link to Mozilla’s buyers guide, which charts in a friendly consumer fashion whats actually going on underneath the surface of the iot devices we may get over the holiday period.
