Weeknote 06/2017

This week I’ve been:

• Fighting off more attacks on my websites. It would seem that it’s not just this site, but the web is in a bit of turmoil at the moment. I’m not sure why, but I’ve learned a lot about securing WordPress and how .htaccess files work…
• Replacing the back-end of my Discours.es blog with WordPress, related to the above (and the fact that Ben Werdmuller has moved on from working on Known)
• Sending out Thought Shrapnel, my weekly newsletter loosely structured around education, technology, and productivity. Issue #245 was entitled ‘The Long and Winding Road’.
• Travelling to and from Geneva, Switzerland. As part of Safer Internet Day, I ran three 90-minute sessions for 72 students each in Years 10 and 11, and then for just over 90 in Year 12. Afterwards, I presented to, and had a bit of a chat with, around 20 members of staff. The resources I used can be found in this post.
• Listening and advising in a critical friend role for a client. I very much enjoy these sessions, as they’re almost as beneficial for me as they are for those who pay me to help them!
• Discussing potential work with people and organisations in Ireland, London, Gateshead, Nairobi, and Toronto.
• Switching to Brave, a web browser created by the company headed up by ex-Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich (you know, the guy who invented JavaScript). Firefox is almost unusable on Linux for some reason, it’s so slow. Brave is great, and cross-platform. It has lots of tracking protection and privacy features built in by default.
• Securing sponsorship of a new offering from me and my colleagues at We Are Open. This will launch next Wednesday, so stay tuned!
• Making final preparations for the Open:2017 conference next week.
• Enjoying my ‘Doug day’ on Friday by going out for a walk with my wife (and a pub lunch) in the snowy hills of Northumberland. I had to squeeze in a bit of work, but most of Friday was spent outdoors, which is good.
• Writing:
  • (But What If) We’re Wrong. (Discours.es, 9th February 2017)
  • Safer Internet Day 2017 resources (Open Educational Resources, 7th February 2017)

Next week, I’m working from home on Monday and Tuesday before travelling to London on Wednesday for meetings in the afternoon. I’ll then be at the Open:2017 conference on Thursday and Friday.

I make my living helping people and organisations become more productive in their use of technology.  If you’ve got something that you think I might be able to help with, please do get in touch! Email me: [email protected]