Weeknote 27/2023

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!