Week #16
Up North
Data for the Board
I gave my first presentation to our data board, explaining the basics of corporate data management and why it matters. This involved sneaking in medical nerdery from my previous job and the phrase “the being run over by a bus problem”. I was overwhelmed with questions, which was a good sign, although some of them highly scrutinising.
I think that good data management simplifies and reassures, while there is always a risk to overcomplicate and add just-another-layer-of-badly-designed-software. When I start on the drawing board (as I will need to formalise some proposals), I want to keep myself fully aware of that.
Studying transport in Leeds
I spent two fantastic days at the Institute for Transport Studies in Leeds where, alongside a cohort of 25 Department for Transport colleagues. We were guinea pigs in a pilot for a transport policy course they will launch soon.
We focussed on transport policy, but with a geeky twist that involved touching upon the basics of current transport modelling practices, and economic appraisals. This included several hands-on activities about data-driven policymaking and appraising business cases from well-known real endeavours.
The course was unbelievably interesting — I must admit I was curious but not hopeful, and I’m very happy to declare I was wrong: keeping my attention for two days in a row, 8 solid hours a day, is no easy feat.
In Leeds I also managed to catch up for an evening of drinking local ale and walking around town with Tom and Chris. It was my first time in Leeds and I really liked it.
Procurement, data, people
I had a good chat with Harry and Poss of dxw digital to hear what they had to say about procurement — dxw has recently released a report on how well presented tenders are on the Government’s Digital Marketplace — or, how they call it, the DOS Armchair Audit. As I’m dealing with procurement quite a lot at the moment, it was really helpful to hear from them.
On the data wizardry side, we hosted a meeting with colleagues from DEFRA, who showed us how they are building dashboards to help policymaker become more data-driven. I also attended a session on NATCOP, which is the national car ownership model, something that my team is keen to understand more and support develop.
On the personal side, I had lunch with Ṣeyi after a few years that we haven’t met. We nerds are like that — we totally enjoy chatting and then years go by without seeing each other in person. I also had coffee with Alessandro, who’s a software developer at DIT. He’s from my same province in Italy, but what’s really quirky is the way we met: at Heathrow during a legendary 24-hour-delay which involved a few funny adventures. We then sort of lost touch until we met by chance at Windsor House: we work in the same building. Call it a small world.
Weekend!
I’m about to attend a… pasta-making workshop :-) #stereotypes
If you like the idea, and want to learn how to make orecchiette (they typical pasta shape from Puglia, my home region), a friend of mine runs the workshop. Say hello!
