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Month: January 2017

Weeknote 02/2017

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

This week I’ve been:

  • Inundated with requests to run workshops, deliver keynotes, and become a critical friend to projects. From London, to Rome, Toronto, Belfast, and a place I’d never previously heard of in Germany, it would seem that everyone’s back to work and wants my services.
  • Putting together proposals for the above. Pricing is hard, especially when the client only sees the delivery and not the preparation.
  • Getting back into rhythms, including sending out the latest issue of Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter. I was delighted when so many people kindly bought me a coffee in recognition for the value they get from it. Dai Barnes and I also recorded the first episode of the Today In Digital Education (TIDE) podcast of 2017.
  • Trying to take it a bit easier, partly because I’m still getting up-to-speed after Christmas and my digital hiatus, but also because I’m travelling on and off for the next few weeks.
  • Helping a client through our ongoing relationship where I provide critical friend services. I find these conversations extremely valuable, and it seems my clients do, too.
  • Finalising the details of the I HAVE A DREAM ABOUT BADGES webinar we’re running with Educators Co-op next Monday at 16:00 UTC. Details can be found on We Are Open’s webinars page.
  • Following Nigel Slater’s spiced lentil soup recipe, which actually turned out quite well. Along with practising the piano most days, I’m trying to cook at least once a week this year.
  • Celebrating my grandmother’s 93rd birthday and my daughter’s 6th birthday. They were quite… different in the energy levels required, shall we say!
  • Making minor tweaks to my Dynamic Skillset website.
  • Planning an upcoming ‘Badge Bootcamp’ workshop that We Are Open is running in London on February 15th. We’re not officially launching this until Monday, so I can neither confirm nor deny that clicking here will help you get one of the Early Bird tickets.
  • Trying to retain my Zen-like calm when dealing with PayPal, who have placed obscure, Kafka-esque restrictions on our co-op account in recent weeks, for no apparent reason. We’ve finally got it sorted. Hopefully.
  • Creating a ‘what is a co-op?’ page for our We Are Open website. I need to update the placeholder kitten images, but you can see what I’ve done.
  • Re-drafting the script for Chapter 3 of #uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity. I actually wrote the original back at the end of November, but Google Keep lost it due to a syncing conflict. Suffice to say, I am now no longer using Google Keep.
  • Writing:

Next week, I’m working from home on Monday at Tuesday, travelling on Wednesday, and then working with Victoria College in Jersey on Thursday/Friday.

If you’ve got something that you think we might be can help with, please do get in touch! Email addresses below:

Image CC0 Christoffer Engström

Weeknote 01/2017

Posted on by Doug Belshaw

I had a great hiatus and have begun the year fully refreshed and ready to get on with stuff. December is an important month for me each year, as it not only features my birthday and Christmas, but my self-imposed absence from usual routines means I get to reflect more deeply on who I am and what I stand for. I’ll write more about what that means in practice (if I don’t, nudge me!)

Anyway, this week has been a four-day week due to the public holiday in England on Monday. I’ve been:

  • Re-connecting with people, both on Twitter and in our Slack channel. It’s been good to be away, but it’s also great to be back among familiar faces.
  • Sending out Issue #240 of Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter. I’d considered changing the frequency of this, but I settled on just changing the layout and format a bit. It includes links to posts I wrote on other people’s sites during December.
  • Selling lots of stuff on eBay, as I transition away from proprietary, locked-down stuff. Gone is my Chromebook Pixel (eBay), my Mac Mini (eBay), Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (to my son), and Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (to my wife). In their place I’m using a OnePlus One (as it has an unlocked bootloader), a bq Cervantes Touch Light (Linux-based, accepts SD card to store my DRM-stripped Kindle purchases), and my trusty Lenovo X220 Thinkpad until I decide which Linux laptop to get next…
  • Putting together Badge News, a brand new, bi-weekly newsletter from We Are Open Co-op. It’s made possible thanks to some foundational sponsorship and includes the latest updates on the Open Badges specification, featured articles from the community, and details of upcoming events. The first issue went out today!
  • Collaborating and planning with Educators Co-op for an upcoming webinar on badge platform/website design (16:00 UTC, January 16th).
  • Testing out and finalising an automated Open Badges course that Laura Hilliger and I  started after the We Are Open Co-op meetup in December. More on that soon — we don’t want to launch it at the same time as Badge News, as that would just confuse people. We’re also discussing the possibility of sponsorship for this, too.
  • Attending the first community call of the Open Recognition Alliance.
  • Discussing potential work with a UK government department. More on that soon, hopefully.
  • Finalising plans for trips to Jersey, London (I’m at BETT on the Friday afternoon and Saturday), and Geneva over the next month. I’m hopefully heading to Canada towards the end of April, too.
  • Changing the avatar I use online, as I do at the start of every year. You can see it on my Twitter account or start here page if you’re interested. Whereas the one I used in 2016 was ‘business Doug’, this one is ‘on top of a mountain Doug’.  I also took the opportunity to update my description of what I do: “help people and organisations become more productive in their use of technology”.
  • Writing:

Next week I’m at home for my grandmother’s and daughter’s birthdays. I’ve got plenty of stuff to get set up for this year, and from the week after I’m travelling every week for a few weeks.

I’m very much looking forward to this year! April will mark two years of my becoming a consultant, and 1st May will be the first anniversary of We Are Open Co-op. If you’ve got something that you think we might be can help with, please do get in touch! Email addresses below:

Image CC0 Neslihan Gunaydin

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