Weeknote 14/2025
Bullet points because it’s been a relatively-busy weekend. So, this week I’ve been:
- Setting up the AI Literacy research project that we’re running for the Responsible Innovation Centre for Public Media Futures, hosted at the BBC. I have added a lot of articles, web pages, and other resources to a new Zotero group.
- Onboarding myself to to the Amnesty International UK community platform project, which is being led by Laura.
- Attending the launch event for the report on digital and micro credentialing that Laura and I wrote for the NDLN, and relatedly…
- Publishing a couple of things over on the WAO blog:
- Publishing three blog posts here:
- Publishing 10 posts over at Thought Shrapnel:
- The Ghibli crisis is just the beginning
- The vaunted first amendment guaranteeing free speech has become a bitter and twisted joke
- We create more than ever, but it weighs nothing
- The future of the many diasporas which already characterize our present
- To cope, the brain improvises
- I warned that LLMs would be used for dumb things that would affect lots of people
- The Great Democratization Cycle
- The cost of inaction is higher than the cost of transformation and adaptation
- No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away
- Three clear predictors of impatience
- Doing plenty of exercise. According to my Garmin smartwatch, 324 intensity minutes, which is more like it! Beta blockers are the best, and have allowed me to get back to alternating weights and running six days per week.
- Hosting Dimitris Tzouris and his wife in my home town of Morpeth, as they were over here for a conference up in Edinburgh. I took them for Sunday lunch and showed them the sights, including Warkworth Castle (shown in the photo). It was sunny, as I assured them it always is in Northumberland!
- Enjoying four virtual coffees with various people. It’s always good catching up with folks.
- Having a chat with Abby Lupi about Coach and the work of the non-profit, CareerVillage. Abby came to the first couple of FAAFO sessions (although no-one came this week…)
- Exploring potential collaborations with Nate, Skills Development Scotland, and the DCC.
- Continuing to watch this excellent Contrapoints video on conspiracism while on the treadmill, as well as listening to a fantastic episode of Dan Carlin’s Common Sense podcast about how we got to this place in American politics over the last few decades.
- Booking our smaller car into an automotive repair shop after my son reversed in a holly bush.
- Pressure washing the weeds out of the gaps between the stones that make up our patio, putting weedkiller down, and then sweeping kiln-dried sand in between them. Enough to make my middle-aged back hurt!
- Taking my daughter to various football training sessions and a match which her team only won narrowly against a team who parked the bus. Fair play, though, as last time her team battered them 9-0.
- Reading The Stone Raft by José Saramago which I discovered last year when looking for books about The Azores, where we went on holiday last summer. I not only like the subject (the Iberian peninsula floats off across the Atlantic) but also the style of writing reminds me a lot of The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker.
Next week I’ll be continuing with the Amnesty and BBC projects, preparing for a UNESCO collaboration, having a few more virtual coffee chats, and attending at DigComp 3.0 stakeholder consultation. I’m also having an echocardiogram to figure out what’s up with my heart, and we’ve got Northern Powergrid coming for a site survey before they upgrade our electricity supply ready for the installation of our heat pump.