It’s the end of December, and we’re about to enjoy the company of dear friends to bring in the new year. This means it is time for my annual year in review posting, the ‘Tadaa!’ list.
Eight years ago I started writing end-of-year blogposts listing the things that happened that year that gave me a feeling of accomplishment, that make me say ‘Tadaa!’. (See the 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 editions). I am always moving forwards to the next thing as soon as something is finished, and that often means I forget to celebrate or even acknowledge things during the year. Sometimes I forget things completely. Although I have worked on improving that sense of awareness over the past few years, it remains a good way to reflect on the past 12 months. So, here’s this year’s Tadaa!-list:
- The Smart Stuff That Matters unconference and bbq party in honour of Elmine’s 40th birthday was an awesome event bringing together so many great people from our various contexts. Thank you to all who were there, from right next door to halfway across the globe, and so many different places in between. It is a great privilege you came together in our home.
So much fun having you all at STM18! Of course we had the mythical German sausages again….
Peter made a sketch of our house, sitting in the garden - Being witness and officiating at our dear friends’ Klaas and Amarens wedding in Tuscany.
Dinner al fresco / Thirty years of friendship (images by Elmine) - Presenting Networked Agency during a keynote at State of the Net in Trieste. A great opportunity to create a better narrative to explain Networked Agency, and present it to a much wider audience. Also great to see Paolo and Monica, as well as many others again.
Our friend Paolo opening State of the Net, enjoying the beautiful city of Trieste - Working in Serbia, Italy, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium.
- Creating a measurement framework for open data impact, that allows for different levels of maturity, embraces complexity, and aims to prevent gaming of measurements.
- Getting tremendous feedback by the funder of a client project last year, that it was the most exciting thing they funded.
- Getting asked back by multiple clients
- Joining the board of Open Nederland, the Dutch Creative Commons chapter as treasurer
- Joining the board of Open State Foundation, the leading Dutch advocate for open government, as its chairman, after having been one of the initiators of the very first event in 2008, that later turned into this great organisation
- Taking the time to just hang out with other geeks at IndieWebCamp in Nürnberg
- I spent every Friday at home to be with our daughter. A joy to watch her develop.
- Giving the opening key-note at FOSS4GNL. I especially enjoyed writing the narrative for it, which ties local data governance to geopolitics and ethics.
the Dutch open source geo community, and during the keynote (images Steven Ottens) - Got to be there for friends, and friends got to be there for me. Thank you.
- Sponsoring the Open Knowledge Belgium conference with my company The Green Land, and participating in the conference with our entire team, and providing two sessions.
- Finding my voice back in blogging. I’ve written more blogposts this year than the preceding eleven combined, and as much as the first 5 years of busiest blogging combined. As a result I’ve also written much more in-depth material than any other year since I started in 2002. This has created more space for reflection and exploration, useful to shape my ideas and direction in my work. It was inspiring to renew the distributed conversations with other bloggers. As a result I am revisiting much of my writing about information strategies and the workings of human digital networks.
- Working with a client to further detail and document both Networked Agency and the ‘impact through connection’ project we based on it.
- Making day trips with Elmine and (not always) Y, e.g. to BredaPhoto, Eddo Hartmann and Fries Museum. Making good use of our more central location.
- Started to make better use of the various spaces our house offers, like the garden, the attic studio, and my own room. Room for improvement in the next year though.
- Avoiding feeling hurried, while keeping up the level of results.
All in all it was a rather unhurried year, with more time for reflection about next and future steps. I worked 1728 hours, which averages out to about 36,5 per week worked. This is not yet getting closer to the 4 day work weeks I actually have, compared to last year, but at least stable.
I’ve read 69 books, at a steady pace. All fiction, except for a handful. I’m looking to create the space to start reading more non-fiction. That likely requires a separate approach.
Elmine gave me an amazing sculpture for my birthday, called “Strange Bird Totem”. The artist Jacqueline Schäfer’s work is described as “showing a positive vibe for life in a complex modern society“. That sort of feels like a great motto for the next year. Ever onwards!
Nog een paar uur en 2018 kan worden opgeslagen en gearchiveerd. Ik heb normaal niet de gewoonte om een terugblik te schrijven op mijn blog. Maar geïnspireerd door onder andere de Tadaa lijst van Ton en omdat ik dit jaar best een flinke sprong heb genomen in de tijd en energie voor deze site, een korte kijk naar het jaar dat was en wat er komen gaat.
Code
In februari heb ik mijn Facebook account verwijderd, ik heb het sindsdien geen moment gemist.
In de zomer nam ik eveneens afscheid van Google Apps.
Ik heb NodeJS geleerd, hier wil ik zeker mee doorgaan in 2019
Mijn diepe duik in het Indieweb was heerlijk. Ik probeer nog steeds webmentions beter te snappen…
Ik ben begonnen met een eigen (gehuurde) Mastodon server.
Waarna ik netjes uitleg hoe je een Mastodon account verhuist.
Onverwacht heb ik me meer moderne webtechnieken met SCSS en HTML meer eigen gemaakt.
Community
2018 lijkt het jaar van de social backlash.
In het voorjaar vond een keukentafeldiscussie plaats bij Ewout Wolff. Hoe het internet anders zou kunnen…
Ik vond het te gek om weer onderdeel te zijn van een online community en deze te ontmoeten op de IndieWebCamp Nurnberg.
Nog zo’n mooie community gevonden op de Smart Stuff Unconference van Ton Zijlstra.
Ik heb tijdelijk iedereen ontvolgd op Twitter.
Ik ben lid geworden van Team Human.
Content
Ik voel een terugkeer van het ritme van schrijven.
Ik schreef een serie over GDPR en het Indieweb.
In het najaar hield ik een presentatie bij Amnesty International over digitale vrijheid.
Core
Drie concerten van Pearl Jam afgelopen zomer. Met mijn lief en goede vrienden genoten van de band die door mijn hele leven loopt.
Het hardlopen heeft een vaste plek in mijn ritme gekregen, waaronder het lopen van de Singelloop in Utrecht.
Ik heb eindelijk een betere thuiswerkplek.
Zowel Finn als Tess zijn op een nieuwe school gestart, wat ze veel plezier en groei geeft.
Coming in 2019?
Maar wat gaat 2019 dan brengen? Eerlijk gezegd… dat is nog een groot mysterie. Ik zou kunnen zeggen dat het allemaal doorkabbelt en we ons best doen er weer een mooi jaar van te maken. Dan zou ik echter liegen. De laatste maand is er enorm veel gebeurd in ons gezin. Of eigenlijk in ons professionele leven. Mijn vrouw heeft na een periode van een burn-out recent weer de draad opgepakt om te gaan werken. Dat bleek echter een verkeerde draad te zijn. De proefperiode bij deze nieuwe werkgever bleek voldoende te zijn om gezamenlijk tot de conclusie te komen dat ze niet bij elkaar passen. Dus 2019 staat voor haar in het teken van mogelijk een zelfstandig professioneel bestaan.
Misschien dat dit voor ons beiden gaat gelden. Ik ben per 1 februari 2019 weer beschikbaar. Mijn werk bij Olisto zit er op. Na een enerverende drie jaar bij deze start-up is het tijd voor nieuwe horizons en nieuwe uitdagingen. Wát ik ga doen, dat weet ik eerlijk gezegd nog niet. Ik geef mezelf de ruimte om daar eens rustig over te denken, wat ideeën te onderzoeken en te zien waar de mogelijkheden liggen. Mogelijkheden die mij en mijn gezin financieel ondersteunen maar die me eveneens weer veel positieve energie en plezier brengen.
Dus vind me gerust op LinkedIn of op Mastodon als je eens koffie wil drinken en ideeën wil uitwisselen. Ik heb op dit moment nog geen vastomlijnd plan, alle opties staan open.
Nu is het tijd voor de oliebollen en eindejaarsplezier met familie en vrienden. Tot aan de andere kant van deze door de Romeinen arbitrair gekozen tijdsgrens!
It’s the end of December, and we’re about to enjoy the company of dear friends to bring in the new year, as is our usual tradition. This means it is time for my annual year in review posting, the ‘Tadaa!’ list.
Nine years ago I started writing end-of-year blogposts listing the things that happened that year that gave me a feeling of accomplishment, that make me say ‘Tadaa!’, so this is the tenth edition (See the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 editions). I am usually moving forwards to the next thing as soon as something is finished, and that often means I forget to celebrate or even acknowledge things during the year. Sometimes I forget things completely (a few years ago I completely forgot I organised a national level conference at the end of a project). My sense of awareness has improved in the past few years, especially since I posted week notes for the past 18 months. Still it remains a good way to reflect on the past 12 months and list the things that gave me a sense of accomplishment. So, here’s this year’s Tadaa!-list:
Visiting Open Knowledge Belgium to present the open data impact measurement framework I developed as part of an assignment for the UNDP in 2018. The way I accommodate in it for different levels of maturity on both the provision and demand side of open data and look at both lead and lag indicators, allows the entire framework to be a sensor: you should see the impact of actions propagate through indicators on subsequent levels. This allows you to look backwards and forwards with the framework, providing a sense of direction and speed as well as of current status. I’m currently deploying those notions with a client organisation for more balanced and ethical measurement and data collection.
When my project portfolio stabilised on a few bigger things, not a range of smaller things, I felt restless at first (there should be more chaos around me!), but I slowly recognised it as an opportunity to read, learn, and do more of the stuff on my endless backlog
Those few bigger things allow me to more deeply understand client organisations I do them in, and see more of my work and input evolve into results within an organisation. The clients involved seem to be very happy with the results so far, and I actually heard and accepted their positive feedback. Normally I’d dismiss such compliments.
Found a more stable footing for my company and in working/balancing with the other partners. We now are in a much better place than last year. Organisationally, as a team, and financially
We opened up offices in Utrecht for my company, meaning we now have space available to host people and events. We used some of that new opportunity, organising a few meet-ups, an unconference and hosting the Open Nederland general assembly meeting, but it is something I’d like to do more of. Set a rhythm in making our offices a hub in our network more.
Got to be there for friends, and friends got to be there for me. Thank you.
Visited Peter, Catherine and Oliver on PEI for the Crafting {:} a Life unconference. The importance of spending time together in unhurried conversations can’t be overestimated.
Gave a keynote at Coder Dojo NL conference. It turned out to be a more human and less abstract version of my Networked Agency keynote at SOTN in 2018. Helping me to better phrase my own thoughts on how technology, agency and being human interplays.
Organised 2 IndieWebCamps with Frank Meeuwsen, basically bringing the IndieWeb to the Netherlands. I enjoyed working with Frank, after having been out of touch for a while. Meeting over dinner at Ewout’s early last year, blogging about independent web technology, Elmine’s birthday unconference and visiting an IndieWebCamp in Germany together all in 2018, reconnected us, leading to organising two successful events in both Utrecht and Amsterdam, putting two new cities on the IndieWeb map.
Kept up the blogging (for the 17th year), making my site(s) even more central to the way I process and share info by doing things like syndicating to Twitter and Mastodon from my site, and not treating Twitter as a place where I write original content.
Enjoying every day still how much more central in the country we now live, how so many more things are now within easy reach. Events I can visit in the evening in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam or The Hague, without the need to book a hotel, because I can be back home within an hour. How it allows us to let Y experience she’s part of a wider family, because it’s now so much easier to spend time with E’s brothers and cousins and my sisters. How comfortable our house is, and how I enjoy spending time and working in our garden.
Celebrated the 50th birthday of a dear friend. We all go back at least 25 years, from when we were all at university, and room mates in various constellations. M said she felt privileged to have all of us around the table that night, that all of us responded to her invitation. She’s right, and all of us realised it, it is a privilege. The combination of making the effort to hang out together, and doing that consistently over many years creates value and depth and a sense of connectedness by itself. Regardless of what happened and happens to any of us, that always stands.
Finally attended Techfestival, for its third edition, having had to decline the invitations to the previous two. Was there to get inspired, take the pulse of the European tech scene, and as part of the Copenhagen 150 helped created the Techpledge. Participating in that process gave me a few insights into my own role and motivations in the development and use of technology.
Getting into an operational rhythm with the new director and me in my role as the chairman of the Open State Foundation. Working in that role opened up my mind again to notions about openness and good governance that I lost track of a bit focussing on the commercial work I do in this area with my company. It rekindles the activist side of me more again.
Working with my Open NL colleagues, yet another angle of open content, seen from the licensing perspective. Enjoyed giving a presentation on Creative Commons in Leeuwarden as part of the Open Access Week events organised by the local public and higher education libraries in that city.
Visited some conferences without having an active contribution to the program. It felt like a luxury to just dip in and out of sessions and talks on a whim.
Finding a bit more mental space and time to dive deeper into some topics. Such as ethics with regard to data collection and usage, information hygiene & security, AI and distributed technologies
Worked in Belgium, Denmark, Canada and Germany, which together amounts to the smallest amount of yearly travel I have done in this last decade. Travel is a habit Bryan said to me a few years back, and it’s true. I felt the withdrawal symptoms this year. I missed travel, I need it, and as a result especially enjoyed my trips to both Denmark and Canada. In the coming year there should be an opportunity to work in SE Asia again, and I’m on the lookout for more activities across the EU member states.
Presented in Germany, in German for this first time since years. Again something I’d like to do more of, although I find it difficult to create opportunities to work there. The event opened my eyes to the totally different level of digitisation in Germany. There’s a world to gain there, and there should be opportunities in contributing to that.
Hosted an unconference at the Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede, in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the industrial design department. Its head, Karin van Beurden asked me to do this as she had experienced our birthday unconferences and thought it a great way to celebrate something in a way that is intellectually challenging and has a bite to it. This year saw a rise in unconferences I organised, facilitated or attended (7), and I find there’s an entire post-BarCamp generation completely unfamiliar with the concept. Fully intend to do more of this next year, as part of the community efforts of my company. We did one on our office roof top this year, but I really want this to become a series
Spent a lot of time (every Friday) with Y, and (on weekends) with the three of us. Y is at an age where her action radius is growing, and the type of activities we can undertake have more substance to them. I love how her observational skills and mind work, and the types of questions she is now asking.
Taking opportunities to visit exhibits when they arise. Allowing myself the 60 or so minutes to explore. Like when I visited the Chihuly exhibit in Groningen when I was in the city for an appointment and happened to walk past the museum.
This post is not about it, but I have tangible notions about what I want to do and focus on in the coming months, more than I had a year ago. Part of that is what I learned from the things above that gave me a sense of accomplishment. Part of that is the realisation E and I need to better stimulate and reinforce each others professional activities. That is a good thing too.
In 2019 I worked 1756 hours, which is about 36 hours per week worked. This is above my actual 4 day work week, and I still aim to reduce it further, but it’s stable compared to 2016-2018, which is a good thing. Especially considering it was well over 2400 in 2011 and higher before.
I read 48 books, less than one a week, but including a handful of non-fiction, and nicely evenly spread out over the year, not in bursts. I did not succeed in reading significantly more non-fiction, although I did buy quite a number of books. So there’s a significant stack waiting for me. Just as there is a range of fiction works still waiting for my attention. I don’t think I need to buy more books in the coming 4 months or 6 even, but I will have to learn to keep the bed side lamp on longer as I have a surprising number of paper books waiting for me after years of e-books only.
We’ll see off the year in the company of dear friends in the Swiss mountainside, and return early 2020. Onwards!