PinnedOpen By DefaultI think principles are important, very important. So important I started both The Good Ship and Data For Action on little more than principles. Principles act as a guide for how to act, on what you will and won’t do. …Open3 min readOpen3 min read
PinnedMember-onlyLaunching the Open Maker CommunityNew year, new plans. The rapidly approaching end of year is often a catalyst for people setting out plans for how next year will be different, and we — Tom Watson and Tom French — are certainly one of those cliches! …No Code3 min readNo Code3 min read
Nov 29People as CodeThe world as we know it is built on a series of rules. Some of these are defined by the foundational principles of the universe, thermodynamics, gravity. They are unchanging. We observe them, our understanding may change, we may push against them, but we do not change the rules. But…Data6 min readData6 min read
Nov 5Grant funding for digital and data in the UK charity sector -a year on have things changed and perhaps how they could change for the better Yesterday I was looking through some old blogs, and came across this blog I wrote just over a year ago which looked at funding for digital and data work in the UK charitable sector. It…Digital5 min readDigital5 min read
Nov 3On psychological safetyLast night, I got caught in the train meltdown. Cue lots of confusion, lots of panicked people. It was something I was able to navigate through calmly with minimal stress. But why? Well maybe it was because I have been in enough british train related melt downs to have experienced…2 min read2 min read
Jul 12Why AI*?* this should be read as if you are from the North East of England A rambling attempt at explaining AI in a North East England theme. I don’t know why except I thought the title was funny, and once I’ve started I’m committed….. Note — There’s only so far…AI8 min readAI8 min read
Jun 13The questions we’re trying to answerAs we wrote about here, we’re just starting out on a project as part of Joseph Rowntree Foundations Insight Infrastructure work.. One of the key elements will be to centre questions from the start, to guide us all and ensure this work is tangible and practical. We’ve written here about…Data6 min readData6 min read
May 17The Power of a Question-Centered Approach to Data“Imagine if the secret to mastering data lies in our capacity to ask the right questions? In the process of developing Data for Action, a question-centered approach to data became one of the foundations. …Data3 min readData3 min read
Apr 24Is it the CRM?One of the sneak peak headlines from the Charity Digital skills survey sprung out to me this week and it was this 53% say their database or CRM (Customer Relationship Management System e.g. Salesforce, Dynamics, Lamplight) is causing significant challenges for their organisation. While that 53% might seem high, it’s…Data5 min readData5 min read
Apr 21A new direction, a new focus and a new company.I read something a while ago about learning to live and act more in tune with the seasons* and it really resonated with me. Mainly the point about Winter being a time to recharge, reflect, consolidate, and Spring to be a time of action. …Data5 min readData5 min read
