Weeknotes 20

Ben Proctor
Sep 9, 2018 · 3 min read
“honeycrisp apple fruit near books and chalk Google Home Mini smart speaker” by Thomas Kolnowski on Unsplash

What surprised me?

It really felt like we were back to work after the summer lull. The full team (of five… yes five (we’ll be introducing our newest recruit next week) were up and running). Luke Piper and I got ready to do a survey of councils for their website stats. I wrote a report into the use of local government websites back in 2015 and the results were both interesting and (I think) useful. But it was administratively inconvenient because FOIA requests involve A LOT of emails and, to be honest, I didn’t plan the 2015 survey that well.

This year I think we’re better prepared and also, sensibly, we’re not surveying the whole of the UK in one go. We’re just going to do Wales in the first instance. I had been looking for sponsorship to fund this 2018 survey and though I had positive conversations I never managed to get to a deal. So we’re doing it from our own resources but it feels good to be doing something rather than talking about something.

What did I learn?

Had a call with Tom and Neil from ODI-Leeds to find out more about what they’ve been doing with transport open data. (tl,dr; A LOT of cool things). We worked with them over their recent DfT Bus Open Data / Accessibility regs and we’re hoping to work together more. Transport is big news in Wales and it would be great to be able to bring resources from the ODI network into Wales.

Also had a chat with Elinor from IWA about the Understanding Welsh Places project. Giving communities more data about their own areas is 100% the right direction. Though I think we (in Wales) should also be looking at how we can make sure communities have the skills and capacity and how the wider system (I’m looking at you local authorities and health boards) can develop the right culture to engage with communities fuelled by evidence.

There is a definite correlation between my general mood and motivation and how much time I spend getting stuff done.

Also EMFCamp seems an age away but it was only last weekend. I learned so many things. I gave a talk on emergencies (UK and global) which is available on something called “YouTube” if you are so minded. It turns out the talk that I watched that has stuck with me most involved Merkle Trees, PKI and Certificate Transparency. Not my comfort zone at all.


We encourage reflective practice and we have a carefully curated set of questions to help. We will happily send a copy of these questions to you if you ask us. In the post. On a real postcard.

Our reflection questions. Now also available on bits of dead tree.

Please clap if you liked this, it gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing.

And please do follow me on Twitter.

I work at The Satori Lab we also host ODI-Cardiff.

We provide an exciting range of data services.

We’re on LinkedIn and Facebook too.

Ben Proctor

Written by

Working with The Satori Lab to learn how we can deliver awesome public services in the connected age. Interested in digital, data, dogs, democracy, & DADGAD.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade