Weeknote 45/2025
I'm writing this in my hotel room in Barcelona while I'm streaming Man City vs Liverpool via VPN on my Pixel Fold. Last night, I used the same setup to stream Sunderland vs Arsenal. I'm still in shock that my team (Sunderland) are in the Champions League qualification places in the Premier League!
The reason I'm over here in Barcelona is for the Mozilla Festival, and more specifically for the Mozilla Alumni network event that preceded it. I'll perhaps write a separate post about that but just to say it was so good to reconnect with people, and also meet those who worked for Mozilla at other times.
As you'd expect, there was talk about old times, future plans, and also stickers and swag! I ran a brief unconference session on AI Literacy. There was a lot of talent, experience, and energy in that room.
That evening, we all went to a paella making class which was great fun. We started with sangria (my group's was non-alcoholic) and generally had a fantastic, fun time. Highly recommended.
MozFest itself wasn't like those held in London pre-pandemic. A bit more conference-like, with talks and panels, it still had a fantastic vibe, even if it was less participatory. The venue, Poble Espanyol, had some magnificent rooms, but also some quite small ones and navigation between them was a bit confusing.
There was an AMA session with Mark Surman (President) and Helen Turvey (Chair of the Board) which was just for MozAlums. That included some very direct and plain speaking which, I think, was very much appreciated by everyone.
Scrolling back in the week a bit, I got the train to Edinburgh and then flew from there to Barcelona. I had most of Thursday to explore the city, ending up going to the zoo which was great. There was hardly anyone there, and it was warm enough for me to walk around in my shorts and t-shirt!
Barcelona is a city I've visited many times, by myself (especially when I worked at Moodle) but also with my family. We'll actually be back here in February half-term which I'm already looking forward to!
Other than that, I learned on Thursday that our CivTech 11.9 proposal has been successful in getting to the interview stage, which will be held next week. I did some work with Laura on the Amnesty International UK (AIUK)community platform project, as well as some business development.
My post Things change (or, Montaigne and the Open Web) went live as part of the Reclaim Open conference and I published the following over at Thought Shrapnel:
- It's worth considering the glass to be half-full
- Ambiverts, travel, and 'hermit mode'
- Words that don't translate
- Rewilding the Open Web
- Life is not a series of well-designed problems
- Low-carbon website showcase
- Random finds
Next week, I fly home late tomorrow night, meaning I've got more time to explore Barcelona. I've got a bit of work to do, but I'm going to try and make the most of my time here. Then, I'll be preparing for the CivTech interview, doing some AIUK work, meeting about the Skills Development Scotland digital credentials work, putting in a proposal with Tom for the Catalyst Kindling programme grant, and doing more bizdev.
Photos taken by me in the last week. Collages created in Google Photos.