In less than a fortnight Kidical Mass returns to Norwich! Sunday 17th May, meet from 12:30pm in Chapelfield Gardens, ride leaves at 2pm. A family-friendly fun ride with a serious message - streets should be safe for kids. #KidicalMass #KidicalMassNorwich

A good assumption is that any software you use will be hacked. That goes for Canvas or the Linux kernel. The model of software development might help mitigate, but it is entropy. It's about the practices & culture of software you put around your organisation, not just did you pick the "right" tool.

The other side of postcodes being good for precision. Which one of these am I looking for? They are the same contiguous road so listing by postcode to decide which is the right one doesn't feel like the right design pattern.

It's going to be hard for any councillor to demonstrate the competence that voters expect as there is no money commensurate with wished for service delivery. That hits basically everyone.

Had a really good day at Camp Digital today. Love people having space to explain what's in their heads. I'm coming away thinking about what we take on as individuals, as groups and when things are oppositional or mutual. Also about permission for imagination.

Mr Bread himself. @dasbarrett.bsky.social

Sometimes tech talks can sound a hell of a lot like describing industrial conditions where you could do with collective security from trade unions.

This hotel always makes me think of the cover of OK Computer.

Didn't connect the "Thursday 7th" that I'd be in Manchester with the "Thursday 7th" that the polling stations are open. This is personally heartbreaking as I actually have a streak of voting in _every single_ election I have been eligible to since 2008.

What I want is a thing that frames all skeets as burgers. In a chronological timeline. Anyway, here's mine for today.

I can‘t figure out why, but I have never seen news stories about how oil rigs hurt whales. Only wind farms do that. And only solar panels have a recycling problem. Gas stations are fine.

Eating an entirely ultra-processed food* lunch. *homemade soda bread fresh from the oven

Real week for avoiding nicotine. This place has had days of continuous stories about cigs and their smokers & then one of my UR participants offered me a smoke the other day. 6.5 years without a single puff though.

A reminder that if your guitar sounds like absolute dreck: change the strings. It'll probably do the trick. One simple trick etc.

Love that ten years after publication, the Speakers Commission on Digital Democracy report is just one more dead link.

This is the future liberals want.

FRT tech will always be misused by police or the private sector. Despite concerns raised by regulators for over a decade. The stark failure to adopt specific legal safeguards first before spending more public money to further deploy this powerful surveillance tool across the UK continues.

#maythefourthbewithyou #starwarsday

Day out at the Museum of Food! Which feels a bit on the nose for the first picture.

"I believe in the value of the horse and the stable door, even if there has been a recent irrevocable uptick in bolting".

Hello! There is a new @neverpo.st today, in which I chat with a German Bureaucrat about the great lengths they are going to in order to stop using commercial, US-developed software (and other technology services) to run their government.

Another beautiful day of doing research on The Trains.

New blog post: NHS Goes To War Against Open Source https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/ The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories. Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed …

A reminder that this is a bad methodology. It might be "good enough", but the government of 2010 literally wrote and passed legislation to release candidate gender data for candidates _AND NO SUBSEQUENT GOVERNMENT EVER IMPLEMENTED IT_. www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/1...

Out and about on the trains again today.

Could you spare half an hour for a chat? We're keen to speak to youth groups of all types about collaboration, outreach and how (or if) you use data. Find out more - and please pass this on to your network - thanks! www.mysociety.org/community/yo...

I maintain that this is very interesting stuff. I wish there were many more of these agencies making many more of these strategic investments.

There's a house I cycle past in the mornings with placards and window posters up for both Greens and Labour. I always wonder "what must that household be like?" then I log on here.

Bureaucracy. Usually spell it "beauracracy". This is possibly the third most used big word in my thesis. Have to remember it by thinking of Coogan's pronunciation of "bureau de change" youtu.be/WjjXTr9F77g?...

Has New Transport always done this with underlines?

Been trying to write a section in the PhD about the place of alcohol in Westminster and Whitehall, incorporating experiences of bars in the Palace and pubs surrounding it. Reeking of booze at midday was not the worst I saw, but it was more common than any other workplace I've been in.

Day out at the community gardens.

Joining @edent.tel's dark side of "document orientation" monitors.

"The story of digital government".

"Why don't diabetics get an infinite prescription card to bypass this nonsense" Part 94

I see the What3Words pitch on Crowdcube has gone live, let's see what the potential investors think of it...oh... www.crowdcube.com/companies/wh...

I cycle a heavy cargo bike every day, I ride my road bike less regularly, I have never cycled more than 50 miles in a day. I can't find any clubs between "we'll go 5 miles and take 2 hours to do it" and "average pace 20+mph, 60 mile route, if you get an injury you're on your own".

It'll make a change from Simpsons pins.

I'm not sure my French is good enough to understand the full subtleties of Libé's review of the Michael Jackson biopic

What's the name of that aphorism about intranets/information management being a crystalisation of an organisation's neuroses?

fine critiques of 'bullshit jobs' out there but you get the gist from knowing Graeber started a journal (with a Māori name) for other elite rebel white guys that quickly became a viper pit that burned through students because there were no rules and procedures--which are for chicks-- besides NDAs

"It's also possible that I am capable of obstinacy" is a lovely line.

Ah, there it is bsky.app/profile/paul... …could be worse?

Is the Norfolk transmitter down or is my radio broken?

Went into the pub wearing one of my more ostentatious cameras the other week and the barman struck up a chat and asked "what kind of thing do you take photos of?" and despite the obvious urge to do a Brian ("anger, pain, fear, aggression") the best I could come up with was "mostly, like, light".

Any anthropologists/sociologists/human geographers able to recommend writing about participants aging/life-situationing out of the culture under study?

It's "4 films back" day. Fighting a massive light leak in my semi-new (to me) Praktica which has spoiled some and added character to others. Now also slightly cheating by using a Canon with autofocus/everything.

I feel like time-travel screaming "looks like Social Anthropology _is_ an in-demand and business relevant subject eh?" at my school's career advisor.

It’s been 10 years since I published Building Successful Communities of practice…. To celebrate I’ve published a second edition. Currently at a special price to pre-order (UK only) hellotacit.com/building-suc...