I find it funny how a Leap Day does feel a bit different somehow - when of course it isn’t. I used the cheesy “why not use the extra day to apply for this opportunity” line in a tweet (X post) today and almost rolled my eyes at myself. It is as cliched as the “new year, new you” messaging.
What I’ve been doing
This week we had a Governance Board at which I notetake and support the collation of papers. There was a couple of proper governance bits on the agenda this time, as well as strategy planning and as always it was great hearing the Board making suggestions and challenge. They’re a great Board with different perspectives that are complimentary and certainly support us as an organisation.
We launched a new project to fund (with stipends and expenses) a cohort of community campaigns about data. Part of my role was getting it out on social media and wrapping the project management infrastructure around it. The timelines are tight so it’ll be one to keep an eye on - on a pretty much daily basis at the moment. Do share the opportunity if you know anyone wanting some support around a campaign about data and/or AI.
We’ve also got an event next week (free and online) ‘Involving the public in AI policymaking: lessons from the People’s Panel on AI’ and I’ve been helping organise the speakers for that.
What I need to take care of
I’ve made a bit of a shift in 2024 to try and be more useful around project oversight and delivery. This has (kind of inevitably) led to some organisational bits dropping down the TODO list. I need to move them up a bit and plan to try and block a day a week for head down work on them.
In addition to the project above we’ve got another couple of projects I should be standing up in the next couple Keeping progress on track with Luminate and two other projects standing up in the next couple of weeks so I need to be “on it”.
What I’ve been inspired or challenged or moved by
I’ve made the effort through the years to keep an awareness of screen reader accessibility but when pondering a new document we launched this week and how it would read I found myself coming across a new resource with learning I hadn’t come across before including:
- The word “Click” is not inclusive of people who can’t use the mouse. Use the word “Select
- Screen readers do not know what the – symbol represents (minus, hyphen, en dash or em dash) so screen readers will not read it, replace it with a word (e.g. 3-4pm becomes 3 to 4 pm)
- Do not create PDF files directly from Google Docs. Saving a PDF directly from the platform creates an untagged PDF, which is inaccessible for screen reader users.
What I’ve been reading
I hadn’t heard the term “speculative fiction genre” until recently and now I’ve been reading it! Maria from our team has written (and we’ve now published) a piece of speculative fiction that works like a ‘create your own adventure’ story - “Grab A Byte” - all about data and AI. Well worth a read IMHO.