Reads, Takes and Links

Reads, takes and links. Posted here, before I forget them.

  • What if BPB ran service like whotargets.me for Germany?

    We’ve had a number of elections in the last 18 months where digital has been cited as one of the key tools used by the winning party to win. In the US, after the electoral upset of 45 being voted in, we saw a clutch of stories about the massive database used to suppress turnout among…

  • Coming across the Pacman rule

    I’ve been running events and meetups since around 2010, but I haven’t come across the ‘Pacman rule’ before, as blogged by Eric Holscher. It’s a simple rule to follow, to make it easier for new people to join groups, and generally help make events feel nicer for first timers: The rule is quite simply stated:…

  • Worth a watch – Clean Architecture in Python

    I’m experimenting with ways to start posting regularly here, and one way I think might work is to share a link each week to a talk, or video I’ve watched, and why I found it worth watching. As of summer 2017, Python is my primary coding language, and this talk by Brandon Rhodes from 2014…

  • Testing formats for planet friendly web workshops

    I realise I never blogged about some exercises I did as part of thinking through what I’m calling the ‘Planet Friendly Web’, and given that I’m applying to conferences to explore this in more detail through talks or workshop activities, it seemed worth writing about here. Late last year, I ended up spending a day…

  • Planet friendly web development with Python – a transcript

    Over the last few months, I’ve spoken at a few conferences and meet-ups around Europe about what I’m calling the “Planet-Friendly Design” or “Planet-Friendly Web Development”, to a mixture of UX focussed audiences, and developers. The slide decks I have used for each conference are available online at speakerdeck (mainly because I’ve been updating decks…

  • How to search better with Atom

    I’ve been using Atom as my text editor for longer than any other text editor now, after using Textmate, Sublime Text, and Vim for a couple of years each. In this post, I show a little tip I’ve discovered to help make searching more powerful. Using Atom? I like using Atom as an editor. It’s free, open…

  • Reviewing the options for setting up a small website, and ending up with WordPress

    After spending a frankly depressing amount of time trying out various options, I’ve recently set up this blog, and a recent project blog, the Amateur Wardley Mapping User Group, to run on WordPress.com. For my future self to check as much as anyone else, I’ll explain my reasons for doing. I have a fair few friends who don’t have…

  • Handy snippets – Python without the .pyc cruft

    I maintain a huge workflowy file of snippets and tricks and, I suspect some of them will be handy for others to use too. I’m going to sharing them regularly, when I’m not sure what to write, mainly to keep the habit of blogging, until it comes naturally. Part of my professional life, involves me…

  • Value Chain Mapping by example with Growing Communities

    Through my company Product Science, for the last three years I’ve been working with Growing Communities a non-profit organisation set up in the 90s to get good, fairly traded, organic food to people in a neighbourhood, in an environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable way. In the summer of 2015, during a strategy planning workshop together we used…

  • Ganzeer. My new favourite writer

    I’ve been a subscriber of Ganzeer’s newsletter Restricted Frequency, and a fan of the Solar Grid for a good few months, and as I try to get into the habit of writing more, it seemed worth sharing why in a quick post.

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