In 2025 I looked at why digital projects fail, in 2026 I'm exploring the hidden labour of digital work. Of course every role involves *some* hidden labour- the necessary but often invisible work that keeps things moving. In digital roles that hidden layer is often vast www.ashmann.co/my-2026-rese...

How Gen Z is 'fighting back against brain rot' (tl;dr by trying to spend less time on their phones) www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

Enjoyed this from the brilliant Tash Willcocks “in any sector grappling with AI and systemic complexity, the problems we face aren’t solvable by single experts. They need collective intelligence, diverse perspectives willing to collide and recombine.” - tash-willcocks.medium.com/psychologica...

One of my favourite website discoveries this year was Clickens, which - as the name suggests - is a website that has lots of paintings of chickens on, it's silly and beautiful: clickens.chicken.pics/passionate/1...

I've written a report on digital failure in the cultural sector, & it's released next week. I'll be hosting 3 webinars to unpack & discuss the report's findings, and I'll be joined by the very insightful @chrisunitt.bsky.social and @tashwillcocks.bsky.social - join us www.ashmann.co/beyond-the-p...

Here are some podcasts I've recorded recently. One about content, audiences and working with creators at the National Gallery digitalworkspodcast.buzzsprout.com/841957/episo..., and one with @mkeating121.bsky.social on AI policy digitalworkspodcast.buzzsprout.com/841957/episo...

Digital is more crucial than ever for how we operate, engage audiences, & sustain our work. But digital projects in cultural orgs often fall short of expectations, and we rarely talk about why. I'm gathering responses to try to identify patterns & common pitfalls: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

In May I'm going to run 500km across Sweden, which should be fun/difficult/etc www.ashmann.co/run-across-s...

The Duolingo tone of voice is so weird and emotionally manipulative "You spent x minutes learning this year, but was it enough to keep Duo happy? It’s time for your Year in Review. Open the app to see it now!"

points 3 & 4 on this slide are the ones I see cultural orgs struggling with most consistently, understanding who the audience actually is & delivering something that is genuinely valuable to that audience will almost certainly require doing things v differently than the way you usual do #MuseTech24

This new(ish) thing from Public Service Broadcasting is very lovely www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUh1...

I got to compare & contrast the different ways European train orgs send you your tickets. From a pdf attached to an email (Deutsche Bahn) to including your qr code *in* the email (SBB), a link to a page with your tickets (Trenitalia).