Sustainability and the climate change emergency

Notes from an event at the Royal Geographical Society, 9 October 2019. Using data to build public and decision-maker awareness of climate change. (My sense was actually that the event showed that stories are more powerful than data in getting people to care about this kind of thing) Sophie Adams, Ofgem Ofgem is working to …

Audio Experience Design

Dr Lorenzo Picinali, Senior Lecturer in Audio Experience Design at Imperial College London, visited GOV.UK to talk about his work. He works on acoustic virtual and augmented reality. He’s recently worked on 3D binaural sound rendering, spatial hearing, interactive applications for visually impaired people, hearing aids technologies, audio and haptic interaction. Vision contains much more …

Open standards- a cross government technical architecture workshop

My notes from a cross-government Technical Architecture community workshop on 29 July, hosted at Government Digital Service. Open Standards are publicly-available agreements on how technology will work to solve a particular problem, or meet a particular need. The Open Data Institute has a useful definition of standards, open standards and open data. Open Standards are …

Kate Manne: Down Girl – Summary

Patriarchy is supported by misogyny and sexism Misogyny is a system of hostile forces that polices and enforces patriarchal order. Sexism: “the branch of patriarchal ideology that justifies and rationalises a patriarchal social order”Belief in men’s superiority and dominance. Misogyny: “the system that polices and enforces [patriarchy’s] governing norms and expectations”Anxiety and desire to maintain …

What’s new in the new Service Standard

The Government Digital Service recently launched a new version of the Service Standard. What’s changed? It’s now called the Service Standard, not the Digital Service Standard. This reflects the desire to create end-to-end services. This is better than creating digital services, and then (if you’re lucky) considering assisted digital as an afterthought. People are encouraged …

Being a Product Manager is good training for life

Being a product manager helps you live a good life: You become confident in dealing with different domains of knowledge and different types of truth, and arbitrating between them. You can imagine and weigh up possible futures, and sell and fight for the one that seems best. You make decisions with imperfect information. You lead …

Innovation in Transport – TfL Access all Areas

Notes from a panel discussion I attended at an event on accessible transport, hosted by TfL. I attended because I wanted to learn about TfL’s strategic approach to innovation and accessibility. Individual introductions Mike Brown, Commissioner, TfL The high-level vision for accessibility on London’s transport: Everyone needs to be able to travel across the capital …

The value of opening up government data

I presented at the British Library’s event “Open and Engaged” as part of Open Access week on 22 October 2018, on the value of opening up government data. Here are the slides, which I’ve adapted into the following post, with a post-script of additions generously suggested by the ever-excellent Steve Messer. Why has government opened …