Bowling in Kazakhstan

There are some really cool jobs in the public sector and I’ve been lucky enough to have had a few of them.

Work in the civil service took me Washington DC, the Shetland Islands, Manchester, Hong Kong, Dacca and points in between. A desk job in isolated and less than cosmopolitan North Devon, nevertheless, is not a come down. But that’s another story.

Back in Whitehall I had three years representing my country in international trade negotiations. One of the plum jobs at the Department for Transport used to be in international aviation, responsible for bilateral talks with foreign governments, the European Commission and the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the UN agency managing global aviation treaties.

My patch included some exotic locations in the former Soviet Union. I have a host of stories, some apocryphal, about arrests, attempted bribes, bullying and numerous mind games by some eccentric and possibly dangerous adversaries.

If you were to believe the airlines, for whom – one way or another – we acted as proxy, the actions of governments on the other side of the table were, at best, breaking treaties, at worst, indicative of Mafia activity. (I’m not naming names.)

Mongolian roads

Of course, outside of the negotiating room, all of us had some fantastic experiences in places untraveled by western tourists. Central Tblisi is a fascinating mix of Stalinist concrete and earthquake damaged Tsarist public buildings. Lunar boulder fields are probably smoother than the roads in Mongolia. One of my lasting memories of Mongolia was an off-duty policeman manning a lonely crossroads, extorting “tolls” from passing drivers.

And, I’ve been bowling on the steppes of Central Asia. Well, it was a tenpin bowling alley in the middle of Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan. Unless you fancy a Mafia run disco with watered down beer, bored prostitutes and 70s music, bowling is your best entertainment in Almaty.

All in the name of Queen and country.

…for the Weekly Blog Club

Awesome t-shirt

In the spirit of other #ukgc12 bloggers, here’s a list of things from Friday nothing earth-shattering I’m afraid, followed below the fold by the original post I was writing.

1. Obviously, awesome t-shirt

2. I still heart London

3. Setting out at 5.30 am for a big event with a chest cold on a Friday in January is not a good idea.

4. Quiet coaches are the way to travel, especially at silly o’clock

5. Missed day two :-(

6. Cookies: we’re all in it together

7. Go Social!

8. Lots of neat little toys, toys aren’t the answer: it’s people, but toys can grease the wheels

9. Nice people to talk to: @saha_taylor @abeeken @alncl @allyhook to name but a few

10. @soulsailor does lovely mind map/wordle things

11. Lots of folk from Scotland

12. Circle Line is pants

13. More regional camping. Let’s do #swgc!

14. Ads: ad hoc, no real groundswell.

15. beta.gov.uk looks nice – can we have for localgov one too?

16. Too much to do, not enough time.

17. Can’t wait for #ukgc13

Agenda

Cookies

I had the pleasure of leading a session to discuss the so-called EU cookie directive. Having led discussion back in the office, I wanted to share the fruits of my research and bits of our internal conversation.

Hopefully my slides will get you up to speed. If not, please have a look at the highly recommended guidance (pdf – opens in new window) from the Information Commissioner’s Office. Since the ICO have to enforce the law, then their advice is probably worth reading!

The session concluded that the legislation affects the perfectly benign uses of cookies when the policy intention was to stop the invasive use of cookies by third parties.

For most in the public sector, the issue is the effect on analytics. Most of us use Google Analytics to measure web hits. Whilst we could arguably live without the raw numbers, analytics is equally about drilling down into customer journeys. Losing analytics is, therefore, a problem for designing online services. The ICO and others who’ve implemented opt-in/opt-out on landing pages have already seen a measured “loss” of 90% of visitors. Other analytics solutions are out there, but these may also cause problems.

Without knowing what the “big beasts” like the BBC are going to do, a lot of those around the table reckoned that holding fire wasn’t a bad idea. At the very least, we all need to carry out audits and post information on cookies that our sites set. Some of those who’ve spoken to the ICO say that it’s unlikely to come down heavy on transgressors in the first instance. The ICO may well look to work with them to find solutions. But, nobody wants to the be the first to be prosecuted.

Social intranets

Social intranets

There’s a lot of organisations out there with rubbish intranets. On the other hand, there’s people out there who want to fix broken intranets.

Is a “social intranet” the answer?

Social can be the answer, but a lot depends upon culture and willingness of everyone to take part. Though on the latter, there is a good case to have 90% on board: not everyone will be “social” with or without a “social intranet”.

Social probably works best if developed bottom up though impetus from the top helps.

Not much love for gamification.

JFDI?

Better engagement

Some excellent work on community nurturing by MacMillan and others. Not really my field though I’m keen to learn more about using analytics to measure success. Difficult not to feel some frustration that poor external reputation sometimes precludes the ability to build, nurture or tap into communities.

Ads on websites

Unfortunate that the session was too much a sales pitch. Not much to convince me to pursue advertising. Is a small revenue stream really worth the effort? And, will the local press appreciate a further erosion of their dwindling advertising share? We could, in theory work together. This issue is not, however, top of the agenda.

Content strategy

Disruptors in action

The best, at last (not that the rest of the day wasn’t engaging). @SarahLay and @CarlHaggerty leading the way on how to turn ten years of web content strategy on its head. As Carl said, most web content on local authority sites is the legacy of e-Gov. If you had a website before e-Gov then it was probably a good one.

Developing a new strategy means dealing with important issues like deciding what content is relevant, allowing micro-sites where appropriate but setting standards across all sites.

I think there is a hope that the work Carl and Sarah are undertaking could establish a new broad template for council website governance. What’s essential is buy-in from both the top and officer level.

In some ways, looking forward to Monday!

Credits: Awesome t-shirt by Anne Kempster licensed under Creative Commons. Otherwise, my stuff (all licensed to reuse under CC)

“…this is a terrible place…”

The words of Captain Robert Falcon Scott on realising that the race for the south pole had been lost.

It’s 100 years ago this week that Scott and four others arrived at the bottom of the world.

But, Scott was a month behind Norwegian Roald Amundsen.

Scott’s failure from triumph has become legend or myth, even. By March 1912, the five Britons perished as the Antarctic weather fatally delayed their return to safety.

In marking the “triumph”, Scott’s supporters have been keen to emphasise that expedition’s scientific aspects. Both Scott and his contemporary Shackleton are rightly seen as pioneers in arctic research. To get the sizeable funding needed for antarctic adventures it was necessary to add on the scientific part. However, particularly in Scott’s fateful journey, this made the whole venture large and unwieldy.

The positives aside, almost as soon as news filtered back to civilisation of Scott’s death, doubts arose about his reputation as a leader and polar expert. In more recent times, several authors undertook forensic study of Scott’s character and preparation for the expedition.

I can’t remember exactly why, but I picked up Roland Huntford’s “The Last Place on Earth” scathing dissection of Scott about 15 years ago. My only previous reading on he subject was a Blue Peter annual in my childhood which maintained the Scott mythology and bravery.

Huntford had little sympathy for Scott who he described as more or less a bumbler, certainly no match for the better prepared and experienced Amundsen.

Huntford’s study was controversial and caused great upset for the Scott family. Scott’s name lives on in the polar research institute at Cambridge. He still has many vocal supporters, not least of which is polar explorer Ranulph Fiennes, who managed a (Jon) snow job on Channel 4 news the other night.

Scott suffers badly from comparison with Amundsen. The latter had the advantage that he was not encumbered with the logistical and scientific baggage placed upon Scott. Amundsen learned much from the most famous of Norwegian explorers, Nansen. Scott failed to learn any lessons from the Norwegians. He insisted upon man-hauling, the grueling technique of harnessing men to sledges laden with hundreds of pounds of supplies. In contrast, Amundsen’s men used skis and supplies were loaded to dog pulled sledges.

In almost every aspect and with 20-20 hindsight, Scott’s preparation was bad. Amundsen’s was professional and avoided using untried or discredited techniques.

Scott almost certainly helped in his own downfall. Despite the triumph of reaching the pole, he did so at great cost. Instead of the planned four man team, he inexplicably chose five. This is the sort of on the hoof decision that Amundsen would avoid.

In the end, a combination of factors both human error, failing equipment and poor weather delayed Scott’s team on its return. So, the legend takes over. Brave men, stuck on the ice shelf in appalling conditions, short of food and other supplies. One man dead, others suffering from the cold and open wounds. Death was inevitable.

If the pole was a terrible place, what was Scott’s tent?

The controversy will live on. In part, because it is such an enthralling story – which is why I am blogging about it – brought to life by the diaries of Scott and his party. Amundsen’s writings pale in comparison. (And, why aren’t we celebrating Amundsen’s success?)

Scott remains a hero. Perhaps more a hero because of his human frailties and flaws.

Credit: photo by Rita Willaert, licensed under Creative Commons.

(As an aside, social media has changed my life. It’s opened my eyes up to a wide range of online material thanks to my brilliant, eclectic circle of friends, acquaintances and …well, probably you. I love the links I pick up from Twitter.)

Anyway, odd little post. Not so much for the rant about WordPress, which suffers as much from fanboy attitudes as any shiny piece of kit.

No, what intrigued me was a blogger disabling comments.

Okay, to each his or her own. But, it seems strange to me that if you’re going to stick your neck out and opine, why not make your opinions part of a constructive conversation as almost every online newspaper and journal now allows. That’s always been an attractive part of the internet for me, from newsgroups to forums to blogging to Facebook. Leaving aside that narcissist element of self-publication, the most rewarding part of posting is getting a reaction, starting a dialogue and even changing a view based upon an online chat.

As for using off-the-shelf, open source, nearly idiot proof content management system (CMS), I’ve had quite a bit of success using WordPress for small projects at work where blogging seemed like the best way to facilitate a conversation. And, in every case, the authors have taking to WordPress and its concepts like a duck to water. Our call centre now uses one deployment of WordPress to keep all the agents up to date: replacing their clunky, static, not-fit-for-purpose intranet pages.

To my surprise, one of our senior managers has just agreed to launch a blog to cover engagement with a small community over a highly sensitive and controversial issue. The idea of using a e-newsletter just seemed the wrong approach – one-way communication, updates constrained by the calendar. Going the blog route means we can update residents immediately and facilitate, hopefully, a civilised, adult conversation.

Getting back to WordPress: no, it’s not perfect. But, if you think it can’t work as a true content management system, then have a good look at the Defra and the Department for Transport sites. Built with WordPress: warts and all.

Oh, and a note to the author: it’s worth pointing out that our corporate enterprise CMS doesn’t have many of WordPress’s “missing” features, including WYSIWYG editing (highly overrated, in my opinion – I usually use Notepad for all my writing). Also, you might want to do an HTML validation and accessibility check on your site.

@iamadonut

…hello to the weekly blog club.

New year resolutions are not for me.

Too many of resolutions fail before Groundhog Day. Indeed, there’s a bit of Groundhog Day in making resolutions.

“This is the year I’ll get fit.” (after I finish my next pint…)

“Day one of the abstinence starts on 1 January.” (just one more for the road…)

Maybe it’s the cold weather. Perhaps it’s the lack of focus, willpower or, more likely, it wasn’t a well thought out goal in the first place.

Anyway, enough of the procrastination.

2012. I will post once a week. I will share my thoughts and experience of nearly 25 years in the public sector. Gosh, 25 years. There’s been the good, the bad and the Kazakhs.

Over the last three years, mostly through Twitter, I’ve lurked at the edge of a great pool of talent working in the public sector. Now, I’ll try to give something back. Sharing is great and part of the enjoyment will be to read what everyone else writes.

Admittedly, it is going to be difficult to find a topic to write about every week. Some posts might, therefore, be shorter. I like lists. So there might be some lists. And, I’ve got an uncompleted series on technology that must be completed.

This is not my first blogging resolution. I failed miserably in 2011 with WordPress’s #postaday. That was always a big ask. But, before decanting to North Devon, I did manage several years of posting a photo a day. Maybe there’ll be inspiration from that field.

Whether these posts fit in with my regular allotment blog remains to be seen. For now, I’ll host them over at Allotment 5 1/2.

As a sidebar, I have also started using Tumblr for thoughts, ideas, inspiration and a general dustbin. It’s a sort of virtual collection of post-it notes. Check out webcontentmanager* if you’re interested.

Perhaps next time I should introduce myself…

On a chopper bike, Long Island, NY, USA, 1971

Hello, (weekly) bloggers!

—

* – the day job, in case you wondered

The selection was based upon a short list of vegetables I’m comfortable growing and plant varieties which have either been successful in past years or which present a challenge for the coming year.

A quick run through:

Potatoes, Robinta: for the first time since moving to Devon I’ve dropped Desiree from my list. Whilst we love the big red tubers, I opted for a variety coming in a smaller quantity. We’ve had a lot of wastage due to mice helping themselves during colder days. Robinta is another main crop red with fleshy tubers. It remains to be seen if I can reduce worm and slug damage.

Pea, Ambassador: not being able to find a true petit pois, I chose what looks to be a near equivalent. There are left over seeds from previous years though given an iffy strike rate in 2011 I’m not sure I’ll get much out of the old petit pois. “Tolerant of bad weather” it says in the catalogue. Ideal for north Devon, then!

Runner bean, White Emergo: an excellent cropper in 2011 despite wind damage to my canes. We were feasting on beans through October.

Broccoli/calabrese, Fiesta: a slight punt on an F1 hybrid. I can’t remember what I’ve sown before, but I’ve had great success the last two years. The trick in 2012 will be to stagger the plants so I’m not stuck with several kilos of head all at once.

Cabbage, Drago: a winter variety with a pointed head. This should be interesting. I’ve only grown summer cabbages before so not used to harvesting in the dark, wet days of December.

Brussels sprouts, Doric: success in 2011/12!

Tomato, Zuckertraube: a small, sweet, salad tomato that has been supremely pants in terms of cropping. But, the taste is a tease.

Tomato, Mirabelle Blanche: a yellow version of Gardeners’ Delight. If it crops like GD, then should be good. But, does it taste good?

Cucumber, Tanja: I didn’t have much luck with Marketmore in 2011 so decided to try a difference variety. I usually transplant the fruits to an outside plot though under a cloche. The cloche is knackered so I may have to keep the plants in a crowded greenhouse.

That’s it apart from the usual selection of mixed leaves and sprouting seeds. I may have to get some red onions to join my yellow onions, ordered several months ago. Not yet decided whether to buy some chilli plants as I’ve repeatedly failed to get all but a handful of fruits from seed grown specimens.

Finally, what’s the betting my 4 year old Gardeners’ Delight germinate yet again?

I can’t wait to get sowing!

Boxing Day: Brussel sprouts

First attempt at Brussel sprouts harvested this afternoon: some mighty big sprouts for tea!

Picket line at the Barnstaple Civic Centre

Thankfully sunny!

Everyone deserves a decent pension

Brother Nick

Why I went on strike today

Everyone has the right to a decent job, a decent wage and a decent pension.

Are we all in it together when the top 1% live off the other 99%? Is it fair that the bill that you and I pay for others tax avoidance is £35 billion a year (pdf)?

The £3 billion or so that the government wants to “steal” from the pension funds to help reduce the deficit is one-quarter of  what bankers are paying themselves in bonuses this year.

Times are tough. We’re all suffering from high inflation, low/no pay rises, insane increases in fuel and food prices (driven by speculators).

The government’s own figures show that there is not a pensions crisis. Public sector pensions are affordable. Some schemes are self-funded by employees and employers. Government acts as guarantor. Despite the economic crisis most schemes are healthy.

We’re not asking for the world. Just a little bit of fairness.

Thanks to those colleagues who listened and took a leaflet. Special thanks to those councillors who stopped for a chat. One supplied us with sweeties.

Not a political statement

Apropos of nothing, here’s a variation on growing vegetables.

I’ve never grown a successful beard or moustache though I haven’t had a serious go since student days.

Be prepared for some potentially hirsute photos over the next few weeks. Or not.

P.S. – broad beans planted.

My allotment

It’s been a mixed growing year on the allotment, in the garden and the greenhouse.

As I’m sure every gardener complains, the weather has not been co-operative this year. Spring was a mixed bag. It arrived early and promised a bumper year of fruit and veg. But, warm March turned to soggy, cool May. Summer in these parts never kicked off.

Tomatoes and cucumbers got a jump start, but as summer went dull, cold and windy my plants were reluctant to fruit. I can count the number of cukes on one hand: that from two wind swept specimens. (Just a quick word to the neighbours’ cats: can I grow my veg in your litter trays please?)

That early springs was a good news for the onions and garlic though garlic Sprint suffered from a mysterious mould that wiped out a third of the crop. Sandwiches are still getting a good kick from strong and sweet Red Baron.

Slugs and worms once again got to the potatoes before I could lift them – rain in June and July. Yet, there’s still two bags of salvaged tubers sitting in the shed.

As seems to have happened every year since moving to Devon, the summer brought the odd game that blew for a week or so. That did for the peas and September winds clobbered the runners just they were heavy with beans. But, overall I picked about 20 lbs of runner beans and 8 meals of broad beans. Not so successful with the peas which got hit by the full house – slugs, heavy rain, wind, weeds and rot.

So, to the winter.

Strawberries (and weeds)

I’ve moved strawberries – which went beserk in my home raised bed – up to the allotment. After a few weeks of bedding in, they’ve produced a couple of fruits. Not bad for some cast-offs and runner.

Raspberries

The strawbs are not the only cast-off. I’ve been donated some raspberry runners. About 2/3 have taken. I have no idea of the variety and raspberries are new to me, so it’s going to be yet another experiment.

Sprouts

Netted sprouts

Yet another experiment: a dozen brussel sprout plants. I’ve tried out netting them which seems to have had the effect of stunting their growth. There’s a lot of leaf damage, yet I’ve got a reasonable number of sprouts on each stem. The stuntedness might not be a disaster as it probably reduces the chance of the plants getting blown over. F1 Doric if you’re keeping score at home.

Cabbage

Further adventures in brassicas with my cabbage selection. I’m growing Myatts which should be ready about June or July. There’s a bit of slug damage, but all 10 plants look like they’ll form heads.

Four rows of garlic

At the back of the allotment I’ve got four rows of garlic. I’ve gone for Thermidrome which has been a success the past few years. Instead of Sprint, I’ve got Vallelado on the go. Another experiment.

Finally, at ground control I’ve just sown 16 broad bean seeds – Bunyards Exhibition. They’ve got a temporary home in the greenhouse hopefully away from mice and other critters.

Busy days.