Guest lecturing

Guest lecturing is a first for me.  It is something that I have been thinking about for some time yet the opportunities don’t always arise.  I thought it was a way of giving back to society by helping more students to think about digital as a career.  It is funny how these things work out.  … Continue reading Guest lecturing

Forget about me

The right to be forgotten, as part of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), is exercising my mind.  It's not really called that, it is actually called ‘The right to erasure’.  The broad principle underpinning this right is to enable an individual to request the deletion or removal of personal data whether there is no … Continue reading Forget about me

Data assets

Data assets are hard to get your head around. They not like physical assets such as PCs or laptops or services or buildings.  I mean electronic data assets here.  They hide in the ether.  Just like that thing called love ‘You can't see them with your eyes, hold them in your hand, but I like … Continue reading Data assets

A0

I've been trying to get our ICT strategy onto a page.  A single page.  It is proving to be quite difficult because of all the complexity and the enormous list of things we get involved in.  I've tried words and I've tried pictures.  I would really like it to be like an infographic, all modern … Continue reading A0

Random benchmarking

Is comparison with another organisation ever worthwhile?  I am not so sure.  Every now and then the question of benchmarking raises its ugly head.  Ugly to me that is.  Tom and I have ended up having a conversation over its merits. Benchmarking in itself is not bad.  It is what is done in the name … Continue reading Random benchmarking

A rollercoaster

Life is filled with ups and downs.  Like grandma said in ‘Parenthood’ it's like a rollercoaster ride.  There are highs and lows.  Sometimes you feel like your underwater, inundated with too much work, and then you rise to the surface to gasp for air only to find the sun is shining.  Once more everything is alright … Continue reading A rollercoaster

Cumulating

The cloud will be the saviour of all mankind if you believe the hype. It will feed the hungry, liberate the poor and satiate our warring bloodlust. The world will be a better place thanks to the cloud. But how can a simple hosting arrangement, the rewriting of software or a transfer of revenue make … Continue reading Cumulating

Stick to the rules

What do you do if someone breaks the rules?  Discipline them?  Perhaps, but you can't go down this route unless you expect to carry it through which means ultimately, the threat of dismissal.  People who break the rules should expect the threat of the sack. That may be fine if it is something big, such … Continue reading Stick to the rules

Just stop it

I have a to-do list.  I put all of those action points from the notes I take every day into a task within Outlook.  I transfer those which relate to bigger prices of work into separate tasks and so what is left are the miscellaneous bits and bobs. They are the detritus of my quotidian … Continue reading Just stop it

Apprentices again

I applaud the government's position on apprentices.   This is not a political statement.  I'm not permitted to make them in my current role.  Anything that gets more young people into employment is fine by me. Even better if they are in a technical arena. The government stance is in providing skilled people for real jobs … Continue reading Apprentices again