Tag: work

I’m in Boulder, Colorado after quite an eventful week. On Monday, we sold our house and had an offer accepted on the house we’ve been after. Our daughter sliced open her toe during a school trip to the beach and it was bad enough that we had to make two trips over Wednesday and Thursday to two different hospitals.

On Thursday, I finished off most of my WAO work, and then on Friday packed for my trip over here. I flew on Saturday and, crossing timezones going west meant that I ended up having a 23-hour day. At least I got a bit of a nap on the flight and got to do some reading and play on my Steam Deck!

It’s my fourth visit to Colorado, which is a state I really enjoy visiting. Boulder itself is magnificent and this time around we’re staying (thanks to Participate) closer to the downtown area. This morning I walked up to Panorama Point and took the photo which accompanies this post, among others. Then this afternoon, a few of us went to Boulder Falls which was refreshing given the heat!

Tomorrow sees the beginning of The Badge Summit at The University of Colorado, Boulder. I’m helping with the unconference, then doing a short ‘Badgesplaining’ session about Open Recognition with Laura right before the keynote. On Tuesday I’m in conversation with Sheryl Grant about the history of badges, etc.

There’s another session on Wednesday about creating an organisation in the US to further Open Recognition, then I’ve got the afternoon and Thursday morning before heading home. I’ll fly overnight and arrive home on Friday late afternoon after a connecting flight via London Heathrow. Then, I’ve got a day to do some packing, and then heading on holiday in the Netherlands and Devon, and doing the second half of The Pennine Way with my son.

So, we’re now properly into July. I’ve got quite a lot to do, think about, and prepare for in the next couple of weeks. As a result, this week’s update will comprise mainly of bullet points.

This week I’ve been:

• Recording a couple of episodes of the Tao of WAO podcast, which I co-host with Laura. My son, Ben, is currently gainfully employed by WAO to add transcripts to previous episodes. He’s finished Season 1.
• Responding to a UNESCO Call for Contributions around AI Literacy. You can read what Ian O’Byrne, Tom Salmon, and I came up with in short order via this blog post.
• Continuing to carry out user research interviews for the workers.coop Member Learning group.
• Preparing with Ivan for upcoming Bonfire prototype testing and user research, which starts next week.
• Taking our daughter to a couple more football trials. She’s been coming down with a cold all week and has been tired. I would never force her to perform, but she insisted and got through the final Newcastle Utd callback dosed-up on ibuprofen, paracetamol, and Lucozade.
• Finishing and transferring another free email-based course, this time giving an introduction to the concept of Open Recognition. We’ll launch it soon.
• Planning for Badge Summit with Sheryl Grant, with whom it’s always a pleasure and privilege to talk. Weird to think I’ll be in Colorado in a couple of weeks’ time.
• Configuring an instance of Discourse for WEAll, as they’re testing it starting next week. We’re confident it will suit their needs better than Hylo.
• Running every morning with Ben. I’ve also added the ‘tranquility spa’ to the gym subscription my wife and I have, so I can chill out a bit.
• Continuing to work on our ongoing projects with Participate. I’m looking forward to seeing their new platform continue to evolve.
• Getting ready for a presentation I’m giving next Wednesday. More on that next week.

As I’ve alluded to above, it’s only a couple of weeks until I fly to the US. After that, I’ll be on holiday in the Netherlands, then staying near Hannah’s family in Devon, and then planning to walk the second half of the Pennine Way with my son for company.

Team Belshaw was heading to France, but we cancelled our Airbnb after realising that no wifi or TV was perfect for adults, but not so much for the kids — especially as the Women’s Football World Cup is on at that time. So we’re driving east instead of south-west from Calais, our destination being a Center Parcs near Eindhoven!

Well here we are, halfway through the year! I’m composing this at lunchtime on Monday, as Hannah and I went away last night after our son’s debut for his new basketball team. They absolutely destroyed the other team in a friendly, and he scored a 3-pointer on the final buzzer, which was pretty special.

The reason we went away was ostensibly it being 21 years tomorrow since I proposed to her on Prince Edward Island in Canada. That was half a lifetime ago for both of us, and we have fond memories. It’s also two years tomorrow since her mum died, so there’s sadness mixed in there too.

The kids stayed with my parents for the first time in a year. Our son doesn’t really need babysitting as he’s 16, but it’s only fair that he goes along with our 12 year-old daughter. It seems they had a good time. Hannah and I certainly did, basically replicating what we did last time we went away: getting an upgrade at the Crowne Plaza and going for dinner and cocktails at Khai Khai.

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Last week, my son started doing some work for WAO, ensuring that we have transcripts for all of our podcast episodes. He’s doing a good job so far. We’re recording another couple of episodes today for Season 7, with Laura currently releasing episodes of Season 6 we recorded over the last couple of months.

I started doing some user research for the workers.coop around Member Learning group. We’re following-up on responses to a survey which asked people for their learning preferences, etc. so that we can create targeted, relevant offerings. In related news, I updated a consent form for Bonfire user research, taking into account Hannah’s feedback (she’s a user researcher for NHS England).

WEAll, one of our clients, decided against using Hylo after testing it in May. This was mainly based on our recommendation due to the lack of effective moderation tools. Now, they’re planning to test Discourse, which is a much better option. So John and I were scoping that out.

Anne’s still finishing off her dissertation and final year of uni work, but she’s rejoined us for a couple of days per week. This is good as she’s very organised (not that the rest of us aren’t!) and brings a different angle and energy to our work, particularly with Participate.

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In other news, we’ve had more house viewings but no offers yet. Everyone’s expressed how lovely they think it is, but I guess the housing market is a little slow at the moment. I just hope we don’t miss out on the place we want to move to.

This week is the last one of a crazy few weeks of football trials for my daughter. She was offered a place at Sunderland’s ETC with the final trial for Newcastle’s ETC being on Friday. It’s her choice, but I’m keen for her to join the former as she’ll be mixed with girls a year up, and it’s a more established setup. She was in Newcastle’s ETC this last season, and if she’s offered a place and opts to stay there it’s no bad thing.

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So this week I’ll be continuing with client work, doing a bit of business development for September, and considering whether to respond to UNESCO’s call for contributions r.e. the definition of algorithm literacy and data literacy. It’s a tight deadline, but Ian O’Byrne and Tom Salmon have expressed an interest in collaborating, so we’ll see. Ideally, I would have read Kate Crawford’s Atlas of AI this weekend, but… I didn’t.