Please skip Hardin, just focus on Ostrom

A few weeks ago Aljazeera published this opinion piece on "AI and the tyranny of the data commons". It's not very good. The core observation can hardly be disputed: "platforms" have hoovered up data for their own benefit. Most recently through AI. Nothing much to disagree with there and nothing you can't find in a … Continue reading Please skip Hardin, just focus on Ostrom →

UK Energy Flows 2022

Last week the UK government published the latest version of the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES). These are annual National Statistics that describe how the UK is producing and consuming energy. There's lots in there which I'm still reading. But one diagram in particular has caught my attention. Energy Flow Chart 2022 Energy Flow … Continue reading UK Energy Flows 2022 →

First impressions of the Octopus Home Mini

For the last couple of months I've had an Octopus Home Mini in the house. I thought I'd share some first impressions. Firstly, what is it? It's a small pink device that is designed to give you a more detailed view of your current energy usage, as measured by your smart meter. It does this … Continue reading First impressions of the Octopus Home Mini →

The Public Charge Point regulations and other examples of open data and standards in UK legislation

This week the UK published some new draft legislation: The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023. You can read a summary of what the legislation covers elsewhere, but what caught my attention was that it purports to require that operators of electric vehicle charging points must publish open data about their charging points. But I was … Continue reading The Public Charge Point regulations and other examples of open data and standards in UK legislation →

Reflecting on 2022

I've decided to keep doing the annual end of the year reflections, iterating further on the structure I used in 2021 and 2020. What follows is a mix of personal reflections on the year, as well as a brief lists of the things I've enjoyed watching, reading and playing. Working This year I've split my … Continue reading Reflecting on 2022 →

Round up of some current energy sector data infrastructure projects

Now that I work in the energy sector I'm trying to pay closer attention to how the data infrastructure in that area is evolving. Here's a round up of some current and recent projects that I've been keeping an eye on. Along with some thoughts on their scope, overlaps and potential outcomes. Ofgem review of … Continue reading Round up of some current energy sector data infrastructure projects →

Gardening Retro 2022

I've written a reflection point about growing vegetables for the last two years (2020, 2021) so I'm going to keep going. It's useful to plan ahead. And it's nice to think about the spring and summer when it's so cold and dark outside! What did I set out to do this year? My goals for … Continue reading Gardening Retro 2022 →

Useful resources for designing data rich pages

One of the big projects we've currently got under way at Energy Sparks is redesigning the collection of pages that present the results of our detailed analysis of their energy data to school users. The existing pages have been around for a few years and our metrics and user testing has shown that they aren't … Continue reading Useful resources for designing data rich pages →

Recreating sci-fi terminals using VHS

I heard about VHS recently. It's a tool for creating recordings of command-line tools, so you can create little demos and tutorials about how to use them. You can write a script to run commands, manipulate and theme the terminal and produce output in a range of formats. I started thinking about how I could … Continue reading Recreating sci-fi terminals using VHS →

Viewing historical maps of Bath in Google Earth

I've been tidying up some of my online presence this week, including getting rid of a server I wasn't using any more and moving some project around. One of those was a project I did a few years ago to digitise some historical maps of Bath, georeference them so they can be overlaid onto current … Continue reading Viewing historical maps of Bath in Google Earth →