ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

My 2009

I was prompted to write this list after a friend I hadn't heard from asked me about our move out of London. So here is a very brief review of what happened . . .

Dec 08 Move to Bath following long discussions on where would be best to bring up a family. New Cross not great, suburbs dull, decent parts of London too expensive. Roisin is from Bath so we thought what the hell and did it. Plan was to move late 09 but Autumn 08 saw housing market slide and we thought it would take an age to sell the house. It didn't. I was going to change career (slightly) so I could be based in Bath but recession but a stop to that.

Jan Start commute to Sutton - Mon to Thurs in office working at Travel Weekly. Roisin pregnant - that wasn't the plan, not just yet. Due July. Very tough being away from family most of the week.

June Start a new job at XpertHR - user development editor - new role and a bit more flexibility. No direct reports so less emphasis on being in the office. Start building works on house - a family friend does the job. Due to be finished by 15 July (baby arrival date) but works take four months and we are still stuck in legal wranglings over payments.

July - Rosa Couzins born (hurrah)

September - Lewis starts school. He looked so cute in his uniform.

October - start working three days in office, two from home. Makes a huge difference. Means I leave on Monday morning and return on Wednesday in time for children's bed time. Dad dies. Unexpected, shocking, upsetting. Mum had a mild stroke a few weeks earlier so we were concerned about her. Dad dying was not in our thinking. He died quickly in his own bed. The best way to go. Mum is coping very well and my brother gave a lovely eulogy at the funeral.

We have also had an ongoing planning application problem which is now at appeal stage.

Roisin and the boys have coped remarkably with so much change. We are all healthy and are looking forward to getting a loft conversion (hopefully) so Rosa can have a room!!

Task setting for your annual appraisal

Yesterday I had my task setting session for 2010 as a part of my annual appraisal and for the first time in my career (all 16 years of it) my manager shared with me his tasks/targets.

This was quite a watershed because for the first time in my career I could see how my actions would impact on his targets and the aims and objectives of the business. It really was very refreshing.

And by seeing what he had to achieve we were able to have a good discussion about how my tasks would impact on his.

The result was a very useful discussion and a set of very interesting and engaging tasks. I also left the meeting feeling very motivated.

We also have also scheduled monthly meetings to look at my progress. This will be particularly useful for me as some of my tasks could change as a result of the shifting nature of our business - ie development requirements and priorities.

If, as a business, we could all see how our tasks relate to one another's then surely we would become more focused on outputs against business objectives? 

My reading list for 2010

This will be the place where I add new books that I want to read in 2010. Caveat: these will be the worky/professional books and not the leisure reading list, although I'm not sure there is any value in making such a distinction as the books I enjoy reading at the moment tend to be work/job related.

That said, I will have to read fiction so I can switch off.

Big area of interest for me is some of the wider thinking around technological developments, especially the psychology of web behaviour. I think we have come (me especially) from a fairly one dimensional view of how the web works but this has been blown apart by networked communication (platforms, hardware etc). So here are some books I have been recommended . . . I'll keep adding to the list as the year progresses.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz

The Nature of Technology: What it is and How it Evolves by W. Brian Arthur

The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind by Marvin Minsky

Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas by Richard Ogle

Design for persuasion slideshows

Last year I attended a great conference on design for persuasion. I meant to load the presentations but note I didn't do it - so here they are.

I particularly like Amy Shuen's focus on the ROI curve (slide 6 onwards).

Brussels Design For Persuasion Web 2.0 Talk

View more presentations from Amy Shuen.

Picture: Igloo in the making

Video: Chris Brogan talks Square, Twitter and real time search

Parkatmyhouse.com - what a great idea

Had to mention this as I thought it was such a good idea. Parkatmyhouse enables people with car space and those who need it to get in touch and book car parking.

It works because parking in certain busy locations can be so tricky and those that have unused parking spaces are now easily able to offer their 'space' to needy drivers.

So simple, but so clever. The site looks simple and easy to use. And those offering spaces are also providing add-ons such as drinks, car wash etc.

The site takes a 10% cut of the parking fees.

If you have the space and drivers have the need, then get on there now.

Note of caution: I hope people do not start paving over front gardens in order to make some parking cash. We need to save our front gardens!

Building audience with social media tools

Great post here including a case study of a small arts organisation. Step-by-step guide which gives a falvour of the simple steps you can take to build engagement.

Hyperlocal blogs - what am I (we) waiting for?

Thanks to @adders for pointing to this. Ex Birmingham Post editor Marc Reeves has set up a community blog for Harborne - I lived near there once - in Birmingham. 

Marc says he has been thinking of setting up such a blog for a while and it is something I have thought about lots. Having three young children and working away from home is too much of an obstacle at the moment but it is great to see Marc's project get off the ground.

Such blogs should surely be on the radar for journalists on local papers/websites. As Marc says, all you need is a netbook, web connection and a little technical knowledge (which cab be learned).

Good luck with it, Marc.

What I learned about online shopping this Christmas

A few thoughts as I did more shopping online this Christmas than I have done in previous years.

1 Read (and act on) the product reviews - I bought a laptop bag that I had to return due to the fact that it had six holes (a design feature, not damage) in one of the compartments. This snippet of information was in the reviews. I should have read and thought before I purchased.

2 Amazon has a neat returns system. The said bag (point 1) had to go back and Amazon makes it easy by providing the labels. All I had to do was queue for ages in the Post Office (arguably the weak link in the internet shopping supply chain).

3 You can get bargains on ebay just before Christmas. Maybe it was the fact the items would not get to me until after Christmas, but I managed to pick up some antique crockery my wife is collecting for the initial bid. Amazing. Maybe it is a good time to buy - you won't get it before Christmas but it will be bought before unwanted presents hit the site. And no, I wasn't being scrooge - the crockery was not a Christmas present.

4 The Argos 'store reserve' feature enabled us to buy a present we forgot to take with us on our Christmas break to London. That made one little boy very happy. It also ensured we did not have a wasted Christmas Eve visit to the shop.

5 Finding cheap holidays for a family that are not packages is difficult. Hours casting around websites was pretty fruitless. I did get some help from Twitterers though. Still have not sorted the holiday.