- I wasn’t sure about posting yesterday’s note, which was rather limited, mostly because of having a super busy day. But I thought the practice of publishing even short notes is a good one to keep up with
- dxw’s onboarding approach for new staff
- Social media is doomed to die
- A rather lovely vertically scrolling website, taking you on a tour of the atmosphere
- I finished the Falco book a couple of nights ago. It was ok, 2/5 stars. I think the reason I didn’t enjoy it was because I just didn’t understand the main character. I get that the aim is that he’s a cynical, Marlowe style gumshoe transported to the Roman era. But while Marlowe is believable, and his occasionally idiosyncratic responses to things make sense for the character, I just didn’t find the same to be true of Falco. He just seemed a bit of a berk. Maybe I’ll give book two a go in the future, but I won’t be rushing to, I don’t think.
- Next up is March Violets by Philip Kerr
Dave
Daily note for 19 April 2023
- No time for notes yesterday, was interviewing all day. So impressed by the calibre of people wanting to work in digital and tech roles in local government. The sector has a bright future if it keeps investing in people like this.
- This guide to content audits looks pretty useful
If you have literally nothing better to do, you can browse the archive of these daily notes.
Daily note for 17 April 2023
- Blog formats from Giles Turnbull. Just terrific.
- Super interesting discussion about content moderation and specifically Substack. The use of internet platformsto spread hate speech is a problem as old as the internet, but it’s clearly not good enough for those stewarding platforms to stand back. The ‘Nazi bar’ analogy is new to me but it’s a good one I think.
- I’m a member of a couple of Discord communities, but I have absolutely no idea how to navigate them.
- Had the misery of watching most of Forest v Man Utd yesterday afternoon. The centre of midfield seemed completely absent for most of the game, I am really not sure what Danilo and Freuler bring to the party. Surridge came on up front and didn’t really demonstrate he is up to Premier League quality. It all felt a bit random – perhaps due to the injuries and size of the squad. But I think, especially given Bournemouth’s good form, we have to be likely relegation candidates unless something remarkable happens.
- I do wonder how much the double @ sign in Mastodon addresses puts people off. I know it does me. How can you trust something where such a key element is so ugly?
Daily note for 14 April 2023
This is a(nother) thing I am trying to get back into the habit of blogging regularly, recording and reflecting.
- I’m using Obsidian as a text editor for these notes. It has a connector to WordPress which means I can publish them at the end of the day with a single click. Having an offline space to be typing into seems to make it easier to leave things unpolished
- I attended OneTeamLocalGov for the first time this morning. Nearly 30 folk there I think, some interesting things discussed – lots around training and skills, as well as re-using tech in councils (so difficult!) and making change happen
- Getting back to reading Dave Winer regularly. So dedicated to blogging, openness, better comms, news and sharing. An inspiration!
- I have read 20 books this year so far, not bad going. Mostly thriller type things and historical fiction (Sharpe, etc). But also some history and literary stuff. Currently on the first Falco novel by Lindsey Davis. Not sure it’s for me.
- I found the discussion between Tom Holland and Paul Kingsnorth pretty gripping. I enjoy the former’s work on The Rest is History podcast hugely, although I find his books a little too broad-brush for my liking. Kingsnorth I am endlessly fascinated by.
Interesting links, 20 April 2022
Things I’ve seen that are worth sharing.
Exciting next steps for Local Digital and Cyber – Local Digital Collaboration Unit
The Local Digital and Cyber teams are going to be making some exciting changes over the next few months, backed by multi-year funding to the tune of £85 million.
We’re developing an enhanced approach that will allow us to support the local government sector to achieve even more brilliant things, as well as fix the core problems.
Read on to find out about our plans, how we got here, and what this means for local government.
Product design: when private beta isn’t the next step – Lindsay Green
We know that not all projects move from alpha to private beta. But there’s an expectation that it’s the next logical step… then to public beta, then live.
So, when we realised our project wouldn’t make it out of alpha, it felt a bit sad. Almost like something had gone wrong.
We won’t be the only team who find themselves in this situation and we wanted to share what we have learned and more importantly, how it’s actually been a positive thing.
Back to the Future of Twitter – Ben Thompson
The vast majority of commentary about the Musk-Twitter saga has focused on the first three paragraphs: what does Musk mean by making Twitter more free speech oriented? Why doesn’t Musk believe he can work with the current board and management? Does Musk have the cash available to buy Twitter, and would the Twitter board accept his offer (no on the latter, but more on this below)?
The most interesting question of all, though, is the last paragraph: what potential does Musk see, and could he unlock it? For my part, not only do I agree the potential is vast, but I do think Musk could unlock it — and that itself has implications for the preceding paragraphs.
Thanks to the mistrust of big tech, the creation of better tools for developers, and the weird and wonderful creativity of ordinary people, we’re seeing an incredibly unlikely comeback: the web is thriving again.
From the Made Tech content factory:
How to build a stress-free Slack experience for your whole team – Kim Kaveh
In your Slack workspace, you can work with your team, connect software tools and services, keep up to date with announcements and find the information you need to do your best work. Managed without care, it does have the potential to be distracting – and even a source of stress. It can affect productivity and mental wellbeing.
But there are ways your organisation’s leaders, Slack administrators and team can use Slack to minimise distraction and ease stress levels to help your team make the most of their working day. In this post, I’ll talk you through some helpful strategies.
Podcast: Product management and STEM Diversity, with Karl Dickman
What do STEM ambassadors do? Learn about product management and diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.