Weeknote 27/2024
I’m composing this weeknote while watching Wimbledon on TV. Usually it’s warm and sunny here at this time of year and… it’s really not. I got absolutely soaked walking back from the gym earlier, and it seems to rain and be colder than usual every day at the moment.
Despite this, I’m happier today than I was earlier this week: after the General Election we’ve finally got some grown-ups in charge of the country. Look what our new PM said in response to a question from a journalist:
Look, the thing that’s changed already is the mindset of government; it’s a mindset of service, of “country first, party second.” That’s not a slogan, that is the test for all of our decisions. So when submissions come to me from the cabinet when I’ve had to take decisions — which I’ve already had to of course — the the principle is “country first, party second” and that’s the driving principle. So that change has already happened.
Keir Starmer – first news conference as UK Prime Minister
Other good news this week included the England men’s football team reaching the semi-finals of the EUROs, and WAO getting some new work in helping Jobs For the Future (JFF) and International Rescue Committee (IRC) with Verifiable Credentials.
The latter should ease some pressure on the job front, as although I’m still in the running for one role, I wasn’t offered the senior product manager position. The feedback was good, but a bit odd as they said they’d be back in touch if they needed another group product manager (i.e. one level up). Ah well.
We’re finishing off our work with the Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC) at the moment, which involves putting together all of the assets we’ve created over the last eight months into a ‘playbook’ which links them all together. I’m hoping that we get to work on DCC projects again, as the storytelling and comms stuff we’ve done with them has been interesting.
A quick roundup of some other things:
- Matt Linaker, who I know from my time consulting with Totara back in 2017 invited me onto the podcast he hosts. The episode is now available and involves me talking about Open Badges and digital credentials. It’s fairly introductory, so if you’ve ever heard me talk about this stuff it probably won’t be anything new.
- I’m a bit behind with my MSc in Systems Thinking study, but now have a complete VSM model for my system of interest.
- David Van der Velde introduced me to Prof. Toby Lowe about some potential work. Toby is a proponent of Human Learning Systems which is a form of systems thinking applicable to civic society and public institutions.
- I had further tests after starting new medication a few weeks ago for migraines. As expected, everything came back fine — especially as I’m only taking 4mg. The only change I’ve noticed really is that my smartwatch is telling me that I’m stressed more often!
- My son and I continued our visits to open days for universities to which he’s potentially interested in applying to do either Geography or Environmental Science. This week it was the turn of the University of Sheffield, where I met my wife and his mother when I was only a year older than he is now! Crazy.
- While we were in Sheffield, we visited the sports facilities where the American Football team were immediately interested in recruiting him. One thing led to another, and today he ended up going to a two hour training session for the Gateshead Senators. They were great with him, and he seemed to really enjoy it. We’ve not allowed him to play rugby since an injury to his neck four years ago, but the padding that American Football players wear should enable him to play.
- While we were in Sheffield we stayed at the new Radisson Blu and I think we were in a brand new room which no-one had stayed in before. We went out for dinner with my sister and nephew, as they live not too far away.
- My son and I have started swimming again, going twice last week. We’ve both swum competitively before, and you never lose the muscle memory, only your water fitness!
- My daughter got back into Sunderland’s Emerging Talent Centre (ETC) for next season. The ETC is one level lower than the Academy, but they do the same drills and exercises. It’s good for her at the moment, as it means she gets to play for her grassroots teams on a Saturday and Sunday as well. She also got back into the regional East Northumberland team, which you’d expect given that she was captain and got Outstanding Player of the Season…
- I’ve sorted out the travel insurance, hire car, and airport for Team Belshaw’s holiday to the Azores at the end of the month. I’m really looking forward to going! It’s somewhere I’ve wanted to visit since I was about my daughter’s age.
Next week, we’ll have our internal kick-off meeting for the JFF/IRC work, continue finishing off the DCC project, and perhaps run the first of three workshops if we get enough sign-ups! It’s my daughter’s sports day, which will be the last we get to go and watch as parents as she heads up to high school in September. I’ll continue to do some business development and work on my MSc, and then next Saturday we’re at Flamingo Land for a football tournament in the morning, before having a chance to visit the theme park in the afternoon.
Image: Firth Court, University of Sheffield
