The skeleton & House of Lords Reform….

Another week closer to the end of "Q4". More notes on progress and lack thereof from @anyaso.bsky.social and I ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

We have DORA metrics for measuring team performance, but what if teams can’t execute on strategy because leadership is poor? What would it look like to measure leadership health? A thought exercise in what accountable leadership might look like. visitmy.website/2026/02/11/l...

A thing I did not discover until today but somehow makes perfect sense: in the 60s local papers would report their own local record charts, by the same method as the national ones: ring up the shops (sometimes, shop) and ask what's selling well.

Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work. “Ah, amazing, now we know. So … have you updated the documentation?”

This is another reason why I think the information retrieval push, even pre-LLM, to shift from 10 Blue Links to retrieving contents, answering questions, etc. may be a mistake. We lose important things when we unmoor information from authorial & organizational grounding (and cites aren’t enough).

Quite clearly we’ve all got other things to read and worry about right now. Nevertheless, first weeknotes for 2026 from @anyaso.bsky.social and I ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

ARTE

well well well

I’ve published a short briefing on the US’s capture of Nicolás Maduro I’m sure it will need updating soon… commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

In which @anyaso.bsky.social straps on her Joanna Lumley wig and Young @robert-brook.com and I don our Little and Large costumes for one of those scripted unscripted year in review type shows ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Yeah, yeah, facilitated workshops (to the the tune of Industrial Estate). More weeknotes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I: ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Sunday thoughts on small acts of maintenance. medium.com/@niacampbell...

I’m not one to argue with scientific Americans, but I’m not convinced today’s outage shows the internet to be empheneral. If I had a boat in this race, I’d probably make a point about single points of failure being endemic to a version of capital with little competition

Still holds

The House of Commons Library Open Day returns in 2026! Come and learn about what we do to inform democracy and take advantage of a rare chance to tour the Commons Library space. Full details are on our website and applications close 24th November commonslibrary.parliament.uk/training-and...

Michael Rush and the Database historyofparliament.com/2025/10/15/m...

A fine early autumn afternoon. Why not take a break from watching the boats go by at a riverside pub and read these weeknotes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I? ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Just been made aware that the new documentary The Librarians is available for free on BBC iPlayer for the next 12 mths. It investigates what librarians in the US are going through right now as they unite to combat book banning & defend free speech. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

here's an important thing about deterministic tools: when they fail, they fail predictably you can learn how to use them *for your own purposes* because they behave in consistent ways even if they aren't 100% optimal AI tools add a layer of ambiguity so you're 100% never sure what the output means

In which we bid farewell to Professor Michael Rush. A kind, generous and gentle man. More notes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I: ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Had two very good days.

A wee bank holiday treat for you guys. More week - well, fortnight - notes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I. In which we approached ramming speed, only to collide head-on with documentation buffers. Rescued in part by the kindness of strangers ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Our psephological efforts now come complete with by-elections from Parliament 56. Or the one following the 2015 general election, as normal people might say electionresults.parliament.uk/parliament-p...

New bot alert: if you’re the kind of person that likes @commonslibrary.bsky.social, you may also wish to spend a follow on @post-parliament.bsky.social. All the latest research from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

every team should have a little bit of internet to call their own, where they can publish texts, images, ideas, experiments, etc it doesn't sound like a lot to ask. but in most organisations, it's very hard to make happen.

Another week where we once again failed to 'ship excellent product'. Though we came damned close. More weeknotes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I ... ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

In marked change from our usual wall of text in the form of rambling paragraphs, this week’s weeknotes see @anyaso.bsky.social and I opt for a wall of text in the form of a list. Do enjoy. Or try to enjoy ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Who is responsible for public services in my constituency? https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/public-services-in-my-constituency/

365 questions in search of an answer question-checker-27df5d070358.herokuapp.com Nifty

"Sinn Féin is a tricky party to explain to people outside of Ireland. They are now just a centre left party with a bit of cultural baggage. Unattended suspicious baggage. With an unsettling ticking noise." glorious guest post by @grainnemaguire.bsky.social today

House of Commons Library guide to designing effective charts https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn05073/

It's far too hot to leave your sofa. Why not empty a sack of ice into your nan's Radol Footspa and treat yourself to ten minutes with more weeknotes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

"When you outsource the thinking, you outsource the learning." deplet.ing/the-copilot-...

Welcome to Bluesky! Before we begin, you may want to familiarize yourself with the concept of jokes. Don't fall for them! Jokesters abound on Bluesky and they all want to murder you in your sleep

If I could open the windows any wider I would and also the house might become unmoored. Which I would not resist.

GOV​.UK is now GOV·UK Brand Guidelines www.gov.uk/government/p... (152 MB PDF. Start as you mean to go on, GDS.) #govtech #govcomms #designwank

The origin story of this thing is a long one. A proper labour of love , curiosity and camaraderie. api.parliament.uk/egg-timer/hu... (Always the eggtimer to me )

Sold a map to Andrew Sachs and a London Gazette to Tom Baker.

I honestly think this is where things started to go wrong with the old misinformation and whatnot. I imagine complaints were made to management. Tim would have been furious. Which is why the internet is full of pumpkins now. And no news

No Wuthering Bytes this year?

Story after story finds a long way of saying that ChatGPT is both far less accurate and 100% less responsible than an actual expert, but please keep using it [jazz hands] *critically*, for… reasons Meanwhile its adoption drives out the expertise that makes [jazz hands] “critical” use possible

A few months ago, a senior leader visited. In advance of his visit, he asked everyone to write down “what is one thing you would change” to improve the organization. My answer was to set aside talk of AI. Instead, focus on providing us with basic, functional software on a server of reasonable speed.

So then ‘there’s no algorithm on Bluesky’ might mean something like ‘there are enough control and actual personalisation options here that any algorithm that may be here does not pass the threshold of being annoying’

A teatime treat for you guys. Yet more weeknotes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I: ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m... All the latest news from the cutting edge of the procedural pedantic web. But don't let that put you off. If you think they're a hard read, try writing the blasted things

‘Here, in an arena where the Sugababes recently performed, is a crowd bursting into applause as a spaniel steadfastly ignores a rabbit decoy streaking across the astroturf.’ Rosa Lyster at Crufts: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

On the 20th, we're launching a new annex to TheyWorkForYou to provide richer voting information - sign up for the launch event to hear more www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/on-the-rec...

THE POPE'S MOM WAS A LIBRARIAN

A bank holiday treat for you all. More weeknotes from @anyaso.bsky.social and I. For some definition of ‘week’ ukparliament.github.io/ontologies/m...

Briefly in DC for a work thing, a city I love, what museums should I go to before being seen near them is a deportable offense* ha ha ha sigh I hate everything * "Dan, they don't need a reason" yeah I know