A regular week, which is fine by me. I am nearing my summer time off, and this time around there’s not much in terms of ‘this must be done before I leave’ which in most years has been a source of last minute frantic work. There’s a few things I need to arrange before I leave, mostly to ensure the financial operations of my company can go on without me having to try and do banking sitting on some campground depending on shaky French country side connectivity. But no work on last minute deliverables.

This week I

  • Did the final work to create a pension insurance for our employees.
  • With the team participated in the third and final training session on asking better questions, and having better conversations
  • Felt less fit at the start of the week, with low level but long lingering headaches
  • Bought VueScan, giving my Fujitsu Snapscan feeder scanner an extension on its useful life. With the switch to 64bits and then M1 on my Mac there were no longer any supported Fujitsu drivers or software. I have been aware of it for a time, and multiple people had suggested VueScan back then. VueScan just let me plug-and-play the device. Well worth the money, compared to the price of the device.
  • Had the weekly client meetings
  • Participated in a European Commission workshop on a new set of themes for which mandatory open government data will be legislated in a year or two
  • Was able to use the early mornings for some notes writing which felt good
  • Had a conversation with a Ministry on how to approach the implementation of the proposed mandatory EU open government data list presented last month. There’s an emerging need for centralised support for some of the data concerned.
  • Had a nice conversation with representatives of the National Police on AI and ethics. This follows up on work we did in the past months on a self assessment tool wrt data and ethics. It also nicely connected to work I did for the National Police some 16 yrs ago, both in terms of the issue at stake and some of the people involved.
  • Presented to a strategic government committee on geo-information about the incoming EU legislation, presenting the start of a research project I’ll be delivering by the end of the year to the same group
  • Met with Y’s teacher, with both E and Y, a final conversation before she goes to the next group after the summer. Such a change in two years.
  • Spent an evening in Rotterdam for the general assembly of the Open Netherlands association of which I’m the treasurer. The meeting was in the Nieuwe Instituut, in my favourite architectural part of Rotterdam around Museumpark.
  • Did some of the monthly invoicing, to be continued next week
  • Had a lovely conversation with Beverly Trayner and Etienne Wenger, about potentially joining their BEtreat with part of our team. We go a long way back, and it’s great that my team may be exposed to Bev’s and Etienne’s expertise and learning.
  • With E checked our camping gear and the newly arrived replacements needed
  • Took Y to her weekly swimming lesson, and took her to a nearby skatepark for her to skate and use her roller
  • Visited the 50th birthday party of an old university friend, with E. Y had a sleepover with a friend, so we had the evening off. It’s been a long time since we returned home well after midnight.
  • Picking up Y after her sleepover enjoyed some live music in the garden of a random house in the neighbourhood. Today was the twice per year ‘Strolling Through The Gardens’/’Peeking In At The Neighbour’s’ event. Musicians and local bands set up in somebody’s garden and give multiple performances in the afternoon, while neighbours drop in and listen. We heard and saw a cover band perform, whose drummer turned out to be our next door neighbour.
  • Bought some more tubes and parphernalia to extend and improve our garden irrigation system. So that when we are away later this summer the plants will be ok. We’ve had a moisture sensor and controller for the tap since we moved in here, and it’s extremely useful while also reducing the use of water (drips not sprinklers)


Y and her friend walking into the garden of a house in our neighbourhood to go see the music playing.

The band about to start playing, after being interrupted by a short strong rain shower

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  • 💬 Peter Rukavina