netherlands – Cubicgarden.com…

Society 5.0 Festival: Creativity, Care, Connect

Its been a busy time but I have the pleasure of going back to the Amsterdam once again for the conference/festival Society 5.0.

The tickets are all sold sorry to say but it looks great and its good to see a festival with core themes at the heart of it.

We are on the verge of a fifth societal revolution, driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotisation and extended reality. How can the creative industry help to guide these innovations towards the well-being of the planet? And what role can creative professionals, like designers, (policy) makers, artists, technologists, hackers, and researchers play to ensure a society based on public values and positive impact?

I’m also hoping to drop into the Impakt festival too, there are still tickets!

Dying daylight in Utrecht mix

I had the joy of going to Utrecht in the Netherlands for a Storyjam. On that plane ride I started a mix, which I thought was good. Then did it again during of the nights in the Airbnb recording it live to my external recorder. It was good but then on the plane ride back I let rip and the results is what you hear in the mix.

Ayla (Veracocha mix) – Ayla
Crazy for you – Greg Downey
Daylight (Frainbreeze remix) – Saad Ayub & Cristina Soto
Go Fast! – Orjan Nilsen
Doppelganger – Niels van Gogh
The Great Escape – Rank 1 Vs Jochen Miller
Carte Blanche (David Gravell Remix) – Veracocha
Apocalypse – Yuji Ono
RAMsterdam (Jorn van Deynhoven remix) – RAM

You can hear the whole mix at full quality on my mixgarden or on peertube.

Not so easyjet

I have just spent 15 days in the Netherlands, on the whole it was great but after 5 hotels and a generous friend it was hard work. A bunch of things happened which are hard to explain without a lot of detail, which I can’t go into. However…

There was a bunch of problems with my flights which had a knock on effect.

Sunday 18th June, I was booked, packed and had my boarding pass ready to get on my evening Easyjet flight to Amsterdam from Manchester. I just got back from the Northern Quarter after having brunch with a friend. Funny enough she asked me when my flight is and I joked it was 90mins from that moment.

On the walk back from brunch, I received a text message fr0m Easyjet.

We’re really sorry that your easyJet flight 2167 from MAN to AMS on 18-06-2023 has been cancelled due to poor weather. We understand that this will be disappointing news and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to make new plans.

What the hell I thought then when I got home I saw the email. 3 options were available.

Switch to a new flight for free.
Choose a voucher for the full value of your ticket
Request a refund

I picked option 1 but there were no flights available to Amsterdam till late the next day. Meaning I would miss a lot of the first day of Mozilla House. With some authorisation and time running short, I triple checked KLM were still flying and booked that one for about a hour or so later than the original Easyjet one. I can’t even explain how stressful this was because I couldn’t leave till I had the boarding pass on my phone & gdrive. With a small amount of time I could only get a Uber to the airport check in with my cabin luggage (I can’t do 2 weeks with a small amount of luggage), get through security and board the plane.

When I finally got to Amsterdam, the hotel was completely automated by email, which I never answered due to the change of flights. Luckily one of the team saw my signal messages after midnight and let me in so I could actually check in.

2 hotels later and a great Mozilla House event in Amsterdam (more on this in another blog post). My plan to visit a friend in Rotterdam was thrown into chaos with Rotterdam upgrading its railways. This meant booking another hotel very last minute but I did end up going to Walibi Holland still.

Goliath x8 (not steel dragon 2000, but similar in construction)
Untamed x10 (first time I been on a RMC steel converted woodie and it was brutal)
Speed of sound x3
Loss of gravity x15 (not the smiler, but same maker and track style, not enough inversions)
Xpress platform 13 – x1

As I wasn’t spending 4 hours getting back to Rotterdam, I got to do a bunch of other stuff including watching the Flash with Dutch subtitles.

Anyway back to flights and travel. On my return to Manchester on Easyjet, I got to the Airport with plenty of time. My partner had joined me after the Publicspaces conference in hotel number 5 and we had booked flights a long time ago just incase. I spent a long time (30+ mins with the messaging system) cancelling my part of that flight and then moving my new flight seat next to my partner on the return. Worth noting Easyjet wouldn’t cancel my extra luggage, although I wouldn’t be on that booking any-more.

I get to the Amsterdam airport and try to check in to find my boarding pass isn’t valid. We try different ways to check if I’m on the flight but none of them work. I call Easyjet and the company who booked the flight. Its a long story but by the time I understand what happened, my options to leave were fading away to zero. I even considered the Eurostar and almost booked one of the last business class seats on KLM but they couldn’t guarantee I would make it to the plane in time.

Luckily my good friend Si had offered following me a room after having to book a hotel due to Rotterdam.

Finally after 15 days, 5 different hotels and 2 conferences; I was back in Manchester again.

The thing I learned is Easyjet cancels both flights even if you request to cancel only the outgoing flight.I gather this isn’t true for every airline but I don’t think they are the only one. Easyjet insists they sent emails to me but as I wasn’t the booker, it didn’t get to me. Although they did have my mobile number and email address. Right now we are going through this all to see what went wrong.

Dont get me wrong I had a amazing time in Amsterdam, worked really hard throughout but got the right blend of work and pleasure. However my credit card looks pretty damaged although I will get back the flights, some hotels are on me.

Publicspaces: You are not alone, join us…

I have been asked by friends and family what I do and I reply with a number of research questions. One of them boils down to researching what is the public service internet? When you start to break this down, theres a number of aspects including the physical network, protocols, apis, etc. But theres also the network of collaborators.

One of the collaborators I work closely with is the mainly Dutch publicspaces collective. I’ll be honest they are a amazing group of people and recently worked directly with them on the publicspaces conference as mentioned previously.

I share the interview with GJ which was filmed just before the conference, as a nice summary of Publicspaces but you should read the manifesto.

The Publicspaces conference kicked off in fine style. Originally Thursday 11th March was the European conference with Friday 12th March being the Dutch one. However things changed, which worked well. Heck I even learned a tiny tiny amount of Dutch during the conference, while managing a panel and taking part on another one.

The conference was excellent and you can see all the videos for all the sessions by clicking the one which sounds interesting. Some of my favor sessions include the keynotes chaired by the incredible Marleen Stikker, building connections, failed encounters and meet in the middle.

One of the main outcomes of the conference was for it to be a start of journey, in the Mozilla/Mozfest words… Arrive with an idea and leave with a community.

I personally have reached out to a few of the speakers and people in the community since the conference including Melanie Rieback. The community came together and we are now hanging out on Matrix.org under #PublicSpacesInt.matrix.org. We also started putting together the map of the network, which is ongoing work. There is also a special meeting happening on the 9th of April following the panel around the need for a digital European publicspace.

Found any of this interesting? Join a growing worldwide community on matrix (not just the Netherlands or even Europe).

Publicspaces conference: towards a common internet – March 11-12th – tickets now available

I previously blogged about the publicspaces conference.

On March 12, 2021, PublicSpaces, Pakhuis de Zwijger and Waag are organizing a conference to save the internet.

This event will happen mainly in a virtual form of course, however there might be something in person in Amsterdam’s Pakhuis de Zwijger. The conference will make up part of the Mozilla Festival 2021, also in Amsterdam and mainly virtual currently.

Now we can reveal more details for the conference and you can get your tickets now. The conference runs from late afternoon (5pm CET/4pm GMT) of Thursday March 11th (English speaking) and Friday March 12th all day (partly English mainly Dutch speaking).

I’m really happy to say I’m one of the people behind Thursday evening and we have some great keynote speakers presented by the amazing Marleen Stikker of Waag. Paul Keller of the Open Future foundation, Katja Bego of Nesta and Eli Pariser of Civic Signals; will all present short keynotes followed by a communal Q&A.

After a short break there will be several community announcements, followed by a panel discussion on an open letter launched by the SDEPS calling for digital European public spaces. Before a summary and plans for the Friday.

On Friday (10am CET/9am GMT) which is mainly Dutch language but has English tracks, the conference continues with 4 tracks.

Track 1: Towards an ethical internet

Most of the essential applications on the internet have turned into vehicles for political control and economic profit, in which citizens are no longer subjects, but objects. How can public organizations reclaim again the internet as a public space and offer their audiences services that embody public of which they subscribe the ethical values?

Track 2: The Digital Public Spaces Ecosystem

We are seeking to build digital public spaces that are in line with our common values: we want them to be open, democratic, and sustainable. Many initiatives exist that work on alternatives that can be part of this ecosystem of change. In this track, we will get both an overview of what organisations and projects are already out there, get a sense of how they can work together, and build new connections between initiatives and networks that operate in this ecosystem. Central to this track is a map that we are working on and build on during the sessions in this track. We invite participants to join us and add to this map as well as to find new potential collaborations so that together we can make these digital public spaces a reality. Ian Forrester, BBC R&D, will moderate the sessions in this track and invite you to join us on the shared ‘map of change’.

Track 3: Meet the disruptors

Silicon Valley and the world of venture capital revolve around the notion of radical disruption. Those ideas that change the world instantaneously. The question: ‘what comes after the break?’ is deliberately postponed until a later date. First, innovate, then improve is the device. In order to move towards a better internet, incremental change is not enough. In fact, it may actually be the mentality of ‘ship first, fix later’ that may have led to the problems that we are currently facing. In this track, we want to highlight the trailblazers that aim to create a different form of disruption. People that do not only want to change the world for a moment but those that have the stamina and patience to persist.

Track 4: Matchmaking track

In the matchmaking track, supply and demand come together and new alliances are forged and partnerships are built. The purpose of the round table sessions is to bring new parties from different disciplines together around one topic. The conversation serves as an introduction and starting point for a workgroup or collaboration, also after the conference.

Sounds great? Go get your tickets now.

Publicspaces conference #1 towards a common internet – March 11-12th

How can we achieve public spaces on the internet?

On March 12, 2021, PublicSpaces, Pakhuis de Zwijger and Waag are organizing a conference to save the internet.

This event will happen mainly in a virtual form of course, however there might be something in person in Amsterdam’s Pakhuis de Zwijger. The conference will make up part of the Mozilla Festival 2021, also in Amsterdam and mainly virtual currently.

Of course I will be organising, joining the conference and the pre-conference on the evening of the 11th March (more details will come soon)

Conference 2021

The internet is broken, but we can fix it and replace broken parts. In this conference we will look for ways how we can make the internet a healthy public space again. With a day program for professionals from the public sector looking for a way out of big tech, and for developers of alternative systems for a safe, open and fair internet. We conclude the day with a talk show for everyone about the dangers of the current model, but also the concrete possibilities for a future internet without surveillance capitalism, and with healthy alternatives that we can use immediately.

Together we answer the impossible question: how do we create a public space on the internet?

Mark it down in your calendars… and expect more details soon.

My new years resolutions for 2021

Its been quite a year and everybody is looking for a better year in 2021.

Following my review of last year… here’s my New Years Resolutions for 2021; which follows on from 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 ones.

Live in another country for a short while
Regardless of the pandemic, I’m still keen to spend a serious amount of time in Europe. I know we just left Europe (don’t get me started) and its now even harder to do what I had planned last year. Regardless I got to try and apply for the Estonian digital nomad visa.
Head further a field with the scooter
A follow on from the last lot of resolutions, even with Covid19 and Brexit, I’m holding out hope that I can find a way to either the Netherlands or Ireland. I almost went to the Netherlands over the summer but the rules changed meaning I would need to self isolate for 14 days after coming back.
Take better care of my skin.
This is a follow on from last year, my sleep, alertness, etc are great but I for decades have neglected my skin. Since I was young, I would use petroleum jelly on my face and hands. I only really noticed the issue with this while shaving. But I was convinced by my barber to stop doing this and use proper face moisturisers. My family were amazed my skin turned out as well as it did we 30+ years of petroleum jelly. So its time for something new and less harsh?
Step up my gratitudes
My lovely ex-colleague Nicky told me about a book shes been using, called the 6 minute diary. Last time we talked about my gratitudes. So from new years I’ll give it a go. It will likely the most I have handwritten in a long time. Thanks Nicky again and look forward to seeing what hits the paper.
Host more film nights and dinner parties
This is a repeat of the last year but even with Covid19, I’m going to put this on the list, as I could do much better. Heck I got enough Chocolate to do a tasting night every month right now.
Spend even more time with the Diabolo

The pandemic has given me so much time with the Diabolo. Its amazing to see how fast I have improved in the community garden. A while back I wanted to learn the Vertex and now I’m getting confidently doing it but got a long way to go before I start throwing genocide vertex’s. Although I feel I can watch a video on youtube and pick it up within a week or two now. However I still don’t get the infinite suicide, it should be easy but it never works for me.
Send a email out to friends and family once or twice a year
I’m slightly preparing to spend even less time in Facebook and looking at the alternatives to substack and medium. Most likely I will selfhost it now I’m running yuno host on a raspberry pi4. Either Writefreely or something with Activitypub.
Self host and move to more decentralised/fediverse services.
Its something I’ve been doing for a while but its time for the big push. As I’m spending more time at home, I got more time to learn and now my main services are running on the NAS. The RaspberryPi is a great platform for self-hosting. While thinking about the previous one, I posted something on Mastodon.
Someone suggested this Github project and someone suggested Friendica might have what I need.
Find an alternative to the pebble watch

My friends have been really good to me, giving up their old pebble smartwatches to me. But as I’m now on my last pebble, its time to move over to something else. I enjoyed not having to pull out my phone to read a message and to even reply directly from the watch. But I can’t buy another one now. I had pinned my hope on the hybrid smartwatches but they don’t seem to have the ability to send a reply. Anyway, no more pebble after this one dies.
Listen to a Audiobook every month.
Another advantage of being at home is the amount of audiobooks I’m listening to. Right now I’m listening to one every week but 12 is a basic target and should be do able with the sheer amount of podcasts I’ve been listening too. This also fits with Audiable’s monthly subscription.
Take a more political & strategic view on the status quo

There’s been a number of books and podcasts, which have led me to the fact people around me think things are generally ok. Yes with the pandemic, they changed their minds for this year but I hear again and again – “Next year things will go back to how they were and all will be ok.”
No I’m 99% sure it won’t and frankly how it was, was not good enough. We need to fight harder for a better future for all. Its also clear to me the right has found a formula which is working but its easily broken by taking a active role in our democracy. May this year made this ever so clear to me.
Finish my dating book
Yes that book is being worked on between myself and Hannah. The latest draft is looking great. Honestly it reads like a real book! I’m now considering writing a epilogue but unfortunately my relationship ended during this year. Meaning a rewrite and rethink how to end it as such.
There are other considerations like photography/artwork, formats, checking for consistency, where to publish, how to publish, etc, etc. Any thoughts do get in touch (like to avoid Amazon if I can and it makes sense)Here is a tiny sneaky paragraph from a draft chapter (Hannah is such a great writer and editor, you should hire her!)

…I studied her face to see what her intention was. Maybe it was a spontaneous comment that didn’t really mean anything. Perhaps she was playing to the cameras that surrounded us?

The longer I looked, the more smug her expression became. She might have been pretty before but that dirty grin said it all. If she was trying to push my buttons she had found them alright. What happened next was not my finest hour.

Maybe the combination of divorce, Mr Tango and the button pushing had something to do with what happened next. It felt like I was thinking it but it came out.

Regardless, I do take responsibility for what happened next…

Bet you are dying to know what happens next right? Hopefully this year you will know.

So that’s the 12 for 2021 (still no real reason why its 12, it just is). Its a tough one because I wanted to include things like visit a new country but I decided its unlikely this coming year. I was also going to add one about getting the Covid19 vaccine/jabs but I just learned one of the ingredients includes pea protein? So it might be a even longer wait for me to get the vaccine.

Have a good new year all!

Can I travel around Europe with Estonia’s Digital Nomad Visa?

I spent a bit of time tonight looking at the Estonia’s Digital Nomad Visa requirements and I do believe the idea of applying for a Estonian Nomad Visa then heading over to the Netherlands is possible.

From the Estonia Digital Nomad Visa FAQ.

17. How long can a DNV-holder stay in other countries in the Schengen Zone during their visa period?

This depends on whether you have a short-stay or a long-stay visa.

For example, during the validity of an Estonian long-stay visa, the holder can stay in other countries in the Schengen area for 90 days within 180 consecutive days.

I looked at the Schengen area and found the above mapping. I’m sure its obvious for most but I hadn’t actually looked at what countries were included and not. I can imagine a base out of Tallinn, Estonia and a month or two out of the Netherlands?

The other restrictions look good to me although I’m also interested in the short 90 day Nomad visa too.

Brexit: Stay or go and to where?

Facing no deal and the abuse of democracy which is happening in the UK. I’m rethinking again my plans for the future of living in the UK. I think its getting to that point when I need to think about cutting my losses?

It doesn’t seem on paper not too horrible but of course there’s a lot more to it than just the logistics…

After much thought, it seems these are the biggest things which are stopping me. Not to say family, friends, my partner, etc are not a big consideration.

Career progression

If the right company/public service organisation got in touch and offered me a position/career similar to my current role but in Europe. I would seriously think long and hard about it; then in this Brexit climate likely accept the offer. Its hard to say, as I love what I do for the BBC and there are great people I work with; but there is no way I can ignore whats happening in the wider country. I’m sure colleagues, management, etc would understand and wish me the best.

Language

I’m not totally sure why but languages don’t come easy to me. I have been to many places in the world, and each time I struggle to remember even the basic stuff (please, thank you, etc). I read there might be difficulty being dyslexic with learning languages. However I’ve never let it hold me back and in a Brexit climate, I believe its certainly worth the struggle/effort!

Looking across

… and where?

Where would I go is a little more fun to think about, but realistically the freedom of movement means I could be flexible… Ideally it would be somewhere with a lot of interest in technology but with a strong public ethos. Somewhere with its own strong creative sector and well thought out public transport system. It would be a place of eventfulness and cosmopolitan culture.

If I was pushed to name a few places, the cities in the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and even France? After visiting Antwerp, I have to say the second cities are quite attractive, just as Manchester is to London. (Yes I know Birmingham is the 2nd biggest but thats only one type of metric).

I was reminded that I have friends in many cities who could be extremely useful to ask practical questions and visit sometime.

Danger in the Hague mix

About a month ago I went to the Hague for the first time. The journey included a flight to Amsterdam then a train to the Hague. It was a lovely place and of course I had my pacemaker device for the journey.

Quite a interesting mix going very trancy near the end, with some of my favourite tunes.

Enjoy the mix

Super Cool – Tempo Giusto & Jace Headland
Capoeira (Maori remix) – Maori
Rewind (Mikkas remix) – Emma Hewitt
Dalmatia – Estiva
Nitric (Division One remix) – Hybrid system
Running up the hill (Jerome isma-Ae Bootleg) – Placebo
Hidden light – M6 and Klauss Goulart
Drive – Abstract vision
Tears (Protoculture remix) – Markus Schulz presents Dakota
Labyrinth (Paul Keyen remix) – Lee Cassells
Homeward – Ferry Corsten
We are one (instrumental mix) – Dave 202
Carabella (Galen Behr versus Orjan Neilsen remix) – Galen Behr versus Hydroid

Update Danger in the Hague mix has hit 81st in the Tech Trance chart