I’ve not left the BBC, a company I am very proud to work for, but instead of working for the GEL team (part of Platforms, in turn part of the Online Technology Group), starting tomorrow and for the next 12 months I will be joining Gareth Ford Williams and Henny Swan on the Future Media Accessibility team as a Senior Accessibility Specialist.

For some time now I’ve been considering the possibility of working full time within the web accessibility field and I’ve been very fortunate in being offered that chance at the BBC.

It’s going to be a big change for me. For the last 13 years I have been a full time web developer. For much of that time I’ve been interested and involved in web accessibility. Now the roles are reversed. I will be working in accessibility full time, my technical skills being the main contribution I make to the team. I’ll be writing a lot less code. None of the code I do write will be for complete features or go to production, except via developers. I’m also going to miss working with a team of developers, particularly those I’ve been with for the last 2 years. I’ve got 12 months to decide if this is right for me, and then I will either go back to my web development job or I can try and make the change permanent. Either way I’ll be giving it my best shot.

I can’t think of any job I’d rather do or anywhere I’d rather work right now. I’ll be on a team with a couple of great people who I have a lot to learn from, helping very smart developers make what in my view is one of the most important collections of sites on the web today as accessible as possible.

In other words, I have my dream job.

Thank you Henny and Gareth for making this possible for me.

• WCAG Guidelines – What about the Users?
• Be the Fireman and not the Cop
• Agile and Accessibility: Theory and Reality
• Accessibility in Firefox for Android
• Infographics – Making Images Speak
• Implementing Accessibility Testing At The Enterprise Level
• Mozilla Firefox OS – Mobile Open Web Platform
• Plain Language: Usable Content for Everyone

WCAG Guidelines – What about the Users?

Speakers

• Birkir R. Gunnarsson
• Hinni Hreinsson

Screen reader usage and trainer

• Many users run multiple screen readers
• 21% of users had formal training with screen readers
• 80% use their screen reader webpage summary feature

Familiarity with landmarks, headings, and table navigation

• 1/3 are familiar with and use landmarks
• 60% are familiar with and use headings
• 61% are familiar with and use table navigation hot keys to browse tables

Web page exploration strategies

• 80% of users use tab and arrow keys to explore pages
• 8% of users use TAB and arrow keys exclusively
• Large part of the user base rely heavily on TAB and arrow keys to navigate a webpage
• Most also have other means of navigating

Suggestions for improvements

• Web developers: use markup clearly and efficiently

Be the Fireman and not the Cop

Speaker

• John Foliot

Current problems

• Lack of accessibility planning / pre-planning
• Stakeholders already on the defensive
• Tight deadlines
• No budget allotted
• Content being developped without web acccessibility in mind

Resistance to change

• Confrontation
• Rejection
• Avoidance
• Insincerity

Finding the champions

• It takes a cultural shift
• Key is good communication and communicators

The law of the few

“The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell

• Find:
  • ‘Connectors’ – know everyone, have done everything within the company
  • ‘Mavens’ – tech gurus, hardcore geeks
  • ‘Salesman’ – promoters, persuaders

Communication skills

• Be likable, stay positive – all the time!
• Connect – find mutual points of interest
• Solve problems and build trust – teamwork starts with you
• Create positive experiences – make learning fun
• Identify and recruit the few

Establishing the systems to get you there

Tackle technical challenges

• Standardise CMS use so you can solve problems in one place
• Track bugs
• Use frameworks to get accessibility built in
• Create custom tools for internal use
• Standardise evaluation tools

Tackle cultural challenges

• Provide detailed expectations of outcomes, not dictate the solution – encourages creativity
• Set realistic goals and expectations
• Lay out the efforts as challenges not consequences
• Don’t worry about the pursuit of quality – don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
• Set timelines and milestones
• Foster empathy and understanding
• Brownbag events – invite actual users with disabilities

Addressing financial challenges

• Be honest about how much it will cost
• Scaled question – the longer you delay the more it costs

Transition towards a team based approach

http://www.w3.org/community/wai-engage/wiki/Accessibility_Responsibility_Breakdown

• Identify the responsible people
• Identify bottlenecks in each group independently

Establish training and internal resources

• Motivation – internal awards, recognition, etc.
• Document knowledge – wiki etc.
• Aim for consitency of implementation

Legislation, policy, and best practices

• Accessibility is a governance issue, and a shared responsibility
• Appeal to pride instead of fear
• Create a policy: work with existing standards, avoid re-inventing the wheel
• Lose legal threat as a last resource

Measuring success

• Avoid checklist mentality
• Avoid apprearances of making concessions and sacrifices
• Avoid overly long and complex accessibility reports
• Make accessibility more than a QA process
• Work with milestonesL test early and often
• Be specific with what you ask for but generous with what you accept
• Celebrate successes, both great and small

Agile and Accessibility: Theory and Reality

Speaker

• Karl Groves

Waterfall approach of accessibility

• Accessibility is a thing that intrudes at the end of every phase
• If accessibility isn’t specified as part of a phase then accessibility isn’t going to get handled for that phase
• Accessibility isn’t part of the discussion, it is an approval step

How do agile and accessibility work together?

• Definition of Done
• Inherently user focussed
• Inherently quality focussed
• Inherently collaborative

Tools and techniques

• Test-driven development
• Daily stand-ups
• Definition of Done

Case Study: Fortune 100 Healthcare Company

Some Design Up Front (SDUF)

• Spec work on what pages should look like
• 95 initial reenderings (snippets of UI elements)
• 9 page types
• 10 sub-layouts

Traditional scrum

• Accessibility team members assigned to several scrum teams
• Before each story was considered complete it had to be cleared by accessibility team member

Deviations from the process

• Underestimated scope
• Underestimated resources
• Untrained resources
• Executive staff unwilling to adjust to meet evolving needs
• Agile-fall!

Lessons learned

• No project management system will assure success without knowledge and skills required to be effective
• Accessibility can be integrated into any process
• You must follow the process to realise the benefits
• Time spent up front building accessible componenets and patterns is good accessibility ROI (still expect to refactor later)

Accessibility in Firefox for Android

Speakers

• Marco Zehe
• Eitan Isaacson

Android versions

• Android upgrade is slow
• Most common version is Gingerbread (2.3)
• Latest version, Jelly Bean (4.1 and 4.2) is 3rd most common

Android accessibility

• Jelly Bean has very good support
• Gingerbread and earlier have very basic support

Firefix for Android

• Each version has improved support for native navigation options
  • D-pad navigation (2.3+)
  • Explore By touch (4.0+)
  • Gesture navigation (4.2)
• Additional navigation options built in to Firefox
  • Keyboard quick navigation (2.3+)
  • Gesture quick navigation (2.3+)
• Firefox adds support for native navigation options to earlier versions of Android
  • Explore by touch backported to 2.3
  • Gesture navigation backported to 2.3

Infographics – Making Images Speak

Speaker

• Ted Drake

Longdesc

• Poor support
• Hidden content for most users
• Allows for good structure

WAI-ARIA

• aria-labelledby or aria-describedby
• Removes structure, treats content as a string

aria-describedby

• Announces element as image, reads alt text
• Can still use content hidden with display: none;
• Long pause before content is read, easy to miss

aria-labelledby

• Does not label element as a graphic up front, replaces content with transcript
• Announces element as a graphic at the end of the transcript

Include transcript

• Allows for good structure
• Repeats content in the infographic
• Can be visually hidden with CSS clipping

Toggle transcript

• Provide a structured transcript
• Hide content by defauly
• Add control to show the content

Transcript link

• Add visible link to transcript

Implementing Accessibility Testing At The Enterprise Level

Speakers

• John Foliot
• Mitchell Evan

Testing matrix

• Prioritise Assitive Technology / Browser combinations based on likely use and instance of problems

Test plan for each feature or page:

• How to test
• Expected results
• Actual results
• Notes

Successes

• Use a bug database, not monolithic reports
• Browser / AT matrix

Template for future projects

• Kickoff: confirm the plan, meet & greet
• Ground rules for visual design
• Collaborate with UX design
• Visual accessibility analysis
• Collaborate with developers
• Test

Mozilla Firefox OS – Mobile Open Web Platform

Speakers

• Marco Zehe
• Eitan Isaacson

Operating system

• Written entirely in HTML, CSS, JS, including apps and even the web browser
• Open source
• Linux Kernal
• No SDK required for development

Goals

• Get the next billion people on to the web
• Initial launch in Central and South American countries
• Hardware somewhere between feature and smart phone specs for affordibility

Accessibility in Firefox OS

• Bad news: first version won’t have a screen reader
• A screen reader is coming soon…
• It will share the same core accessibility engine as desktop and Android versions of Firefox

Plain Language: Usable Content for Everyone

Speaker

• Angela Hooker

Common content problems

• Language that needs explanation (Shakespeare)
• Unusual structure of language (Yoda)
• Sometimes institutions (such as government) dictate the content
• Overly wordy content
• Jargon that hides meaning
• Slang or regional terms
• “Pedantic content” – big showy words where simple words will do
• Forgetting the audience

Plain language is…

• writing content that people can easily understand the first time they read or hear it
• usable and meets users needs so they can act on it
• not forcing your users to read content several times to understand it

How can plain language help?

• Your users will be loyal
• Will widen your site’s appeal, audience, and influence

WCAG 2.0 principles of accessibility

• Plaing language supports POUR
• Plain language is ‘Understandable’ in ‘POUR’
• Plain language makes your content accessible for all

Plain language is not…

• dumbed down content, it’s meeting the needs of your audience

Don’t forget…

• People with low literacy skillls
• Pleaople with low language proficiency
• People with cognitive impairments
• People with dyslexia
• People who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing
• People who are aging

What you can do

• Write for your specific audience
• Write for the average reader
• Dont’ be clever, make it simple
• Assume audience is intelligent but don’t assume they’re familar with your topic
• Inverted pyramid method: put the most important information at the top and the background information below
• Be concise – cut out excess / filler words
• Use minimal text and short sentences
• In print people write to tell a story, but online we should write about topics so users can complete their tasks

Mechanics

• Write in active voice, avoid passive voice
• Use simple verb tense and base verbs (present tense)
• Avoid ‘hidden verbs’ such as ‘provide assistance for users’ instead of ‘assist users’
• Use complete sentences
• Use words and terms that your users are familiar with
• Provide direct insturctions
• Talk with your users: use personal pronouns
• Avoid jargon, or explain it when necessary
• Use ‘must’ instead of ‘shall’ in requirements

Quality

• Test with users
• Conduct A/B testing

Summary

• Always consider your users’ needs first
• Your users want to complete a task
• Talk directly to users
• Use everyday terms
• Don’t follow trendy content practices
• Each medium (mobile, dekstop, app, video, podcast) may require tailored content
• Read your content aloud
• Test your content
• All of these help you incorporate accessibility throughout your project lifecyle

I don’t think I’m a web accessibility expert. I don’t think that I should stop talking, writing, or trying to improve the knowledge of others about web accessibility.

There are many people I admire who know a lot more than I about web accessibility. Collectively they are a community of sorts. Sometimes I get to be a part of that community, and that’s nice. It would be nice if more people were included, that having an interest and desire to learn were the prerequisites, not an existing level of knowledge. I try to foster that in my own communities, such as at the place I work. There are other people who do the same, and I respect them more for it.

There is often a lack of knowledge of the fundamental aspects of web accessibility outside of the community. Lots of attempts to change that have been made by the community. It hasn’t really worked very well.

I don’t know what the answer is.

Maybe some of the people who are considered experts in mainstream web development could talk about it a bit more, perhaps not talk about it as esoteric knowledge, but as part of the normal set of skills a web developer is expected to have. They’ll probably get things wrong sometimes. They could have their content peer reviewed before they publish, but perhaps if they are getting things wrong then most developers are also getting things wrong so maybe it’s worth starting the conversation anyway.

The people who consider themselves web accessibility experts as well as those people who just have a bit of knowledge could join the conversation, perhaps take advantage of the larger audience and help more people learn.

It’s been a long time in web terms since I started out as a web developer. I was very bad at it at first. I got a lot of things wrong, and I didn’t even know it. I read articles by people I respected. I learnt that there was a right way to do things. Sometimes more than one right way. Other people I respected, and some that I hadn’t heard of but who had something to say, would discuss the benefits of each and knowledge was shared. I don’t remember reading a lot of HTML blogs, or JavaScript blogs, or CSS blogs, or accessibility blogs. They existed of course, but mostly I just read web development blogs. It seemed to work. I got better at my job.

Sometimes those people made mistakes. They still make mistakes. I know I do, even with all of the knowledge they’ve shared with me. Perhaps I, and others who have benefited from a better, more knowledgeable industry that still has a long way to go should help them in return. Yes, I should do that a lot more. I hope I’ll do that in the same way they did when they educated me: with patience and encouragement, not exclusion and criticism.

I’ve met quite a lot of the people who taught me how to do my job the right way over the years. Some of them I know well enough to have a drink with. A few of them I consider friends. I haven’t thanked them enough. I’ll start doing that more.

It has been exactly a year since my last blog post, but I thought I should carry on the routine of writing about the year that has gone and the one to come as an aid to my own memory rather than the expectation of anyone reading this.

I’ve had basically the same goals for the last few years, so to start let’s take a look at them.

• I’ve lost some weight. After losing some towards the end of 2011 I slowly put it all and more back on, reaching probably my heaviest ever weight. Since that point I’ve lost 15.9kg / 35lb / 2 stone 7 pounds, and that is after a fairly indulgent Christmas. Hopefully I can keep this weight off and lose more this year.
• I’ve finally found a flat to buy. Contracts have been exchanged, and completion will be on the 8th January.
• I’ve not started playing bass again, but have taken up the violin.
• Another new hobby is fencing (the bladed weapon variety). I’ve completed a beginners course and plan to do a lot more this year.

Not bad going really. I have a few new goals for this year, which I’ll hopefully be able to (and have the will to) write about at a later date.

The highlight of the past year was my sister’s wedding, which was the best I have ever been to (a completely unbiased opinion, of course), and it was wonderful to be able to play a role in it.

Professionally, I find myself involved more an more in accessibility work. This is a very good thing, and I hope to carry this in to 2013. I’ll be speaking at the CSUN conference for the second year in a row, this time on the subject of Accessibility and the Web Development Process. The last year has seen lots of good work in my day job at the BBC, and I plan to write a bit more about that in the coming months. I’ll have been working at the BBC for 2 years come the end of January, and there is lots more I want to do there so I guess I’ll be sticking around for a while longer.

So long, 2012. Bring on 2013. Happy New Year!

In January I started a new job, web developer on the Frameworks team at the BBC. Five years or so ago I came up with a list of three companies I would like to work for. Yahoo! was one of them. Tick. BBC was one of the others. Tick! I’m pleased to say that my expectations have been exceeded, I work with a great bunch of people and enjoy (almost) every day. Starting on Tuesday, my first day back after a Christmas break, I’m going to start work on a very exciting accessibility related project, making my job for the next month or so even more interesting.

In March I co-presented ‘Inclusive Design: Creating Beautiful, Usable & Accessible Websites’ at SXSW Interactive, and the following week had the best conference experience I’ve ever had at CSUN 2011. This year I will be attending again, and also speaking on the subject of Cyberethics and Accessibility.

In July, my first book was published. I’ve had enough time away from writing it to think that I’d like to have a go at the 4th edition, but this time write it from scratch instead of revising a previous edition.

After all that the second half of the year seemed quite quiet, but passed just a quickly.

This year there is one other big occasion I am looking forward to, the wedding of my sister at the end of April.

So, what else has been going on?

• I finally started to lose weight, still a long way to go, but I’m getting there. My sisters wedding is a big incentive to lose a lot more.
• Still no place of my own, but I’m a bit more hopeful of buying somewhere this year.
• I attended a few more gigs in 2011 than I did in 2010. Best of them were: Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden (saw them twice in just over a week), Within Temptation, and Terrorvision (the second time I saw them, although they were good the first time as well).
• On a related note, I’ve not picked up my bass for an entire year. I really need to buy a new one, but that has been the case for years.
• Now I’ve started to lose weight I’m hopeful that I can take up Judo again, without damaging my knees every time I play.

So, life is good, and I hope yours is too. Have a great year, everyone.

Richard gets author credit on the 3rd edition because this a revision, albeit one with lots of new stuff, rather than a rewrite. When Wrox offered me the job of creating the 3rd edition they let me make the decision on whether to revise or rewrite – I choose to revise it as I had no idea of what I was getting myself in to and figured it would be easier than starting with a blank page. In fact I found editing another persons words harder than writing the original copy in the book. If there is a next time, I’ll know better.

The process of writing / revising a book was interesting, a combination of frustration, hard work and satisfaction. I spent over 6 months knowing that whenever I was doing anything in my spare time other than writing that I had something I should be doing. At the same time browser vendors don’t have the good grace to stop working on their products (not even Microsoft!) so that the book doesn’t get out of date so quickly. While everything I wrote applies perfectly well to the latest versions of browsers, the deadline for the last chapter was just before the release of both IE9 and Firefox 4, and I knew nothing about IE10 or Firefox 5.

When I was done it was a great relief, but only a few weeks after I was already missing it, and couldn’t stop myself working on a chapter outline for another book. Whether I’ll ever write it is a different matter.

For now I can only hope that someone, somewhere, learns a thing or two about CSS from this book, and that they go on to enjoy creating websites as much as I do.

I will be working as a web developer on the Frameworks team, part of the Future Media and Technology Group. The BBC have long been on the list of organizations I wanted to work for (a list that included Yahoo! incidentally) so I am very excited about this new job.

I’ll be on the same team as one former colleague from the Yahoo! Front Doors team, Andrew ‘Bob’ Brockhust, and will hopefully get to work with other former Yahoo!s Neil Crosby, David Dorward and Mike Whitaker, who have also joined the BBC over the last few years. I’m also looking forward to meeting many more smart and talented people, and to having the opportunity to develop some great things with them.

While 2010 was another great year for me it feels as if it has been a lead up to what I hope is an even better 2011. Some of the good stuff has been as a consequence of writing on this site, so let’s start there.

As with the previous year I started strong with the quantity (and hopefully improving quality) of my posts, with 3 posts in January receiving favourable reactions. Arguably more important in terms of my future however was a post titled Accessibility is a human right. This led to Sandi Wassmer getting in contact with me, asking if she could quote me in an upcoming presentation. Of course I agreed, and eventually we met and found that we have a common cause. Thanks to Sandi I have become involved in the Department for Business Innovation & Skills e-Accessibility Forum. You can read all about it on the site, and I will write further on this in the future, needless to say I am excited to be involved.

Even more exciting is that Sandi and I will be co-presenting at SXSWi on the subject of “Inclusive Design: Building the Web for All“! This is a topic that Sandi proposed, so it is an honour to be asked to work with her on it. Right now it’s hard to believe that this is happening, in time I expect that feeling to be replace with abject terror.

On the subject of conference speaking it was a great pleasure for me to talk at Think Visibility back in September. I think the small number of people who made the decision to miss one of the main attractions to hear me talk enjoyed and appreciated what I had to say about web accessibility, which is not bad going at a conference predominantly about SEO, so it was a very enjoyable and useful experience for me. Thanks Dom.

I also spoke at London Web on the subject of accessibility in large companies as warmup for a presentation from Remy Sharp. Remy is a seriously nice guy and I sincerely hope that 2011 treats him better than 2010.

During the year I started working on my first book, revising Beginning CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for Web Design for its 3rd edition. I must thank my former colleague Nicholas Zakas for suggesting me to Wrox for this work. It has not been easy at times, but it has been another great experience. There is still plenty more to be done on it, but it should be released sometime in May.

In August I said farewell to Yahoo!. Working for Yahoo! was a life changing experience. None of the great things I have already talked about would have been possible with out my time there, a list which I must add my evolvement in the W3C Education and Outreach Working Group. I’ll have more to say on my career after Yahoo! very soon.

Looking back on my goals for 2010:

• I’ve not written a whole lot more (although having Opera publish an article on “Web accessibility for cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties” was quite satisfying);
• I’ve still not found a flat;
• I’ve not lost any weight, although I did briefly take up Judo before it became clear that my knees can’t take the strain, I need another way to lose weight first unfortunately;
• I’ve met many people I’ve only previously known online;
• If anything I’ve spend less time with offline friends, but more time with new and previously online friends;
• I haven’t bought a new bass guitar yet, and my old one is beyond the point at which it is playable;

So although I’ve achieved rather a lot in the last 12 months it is not what I expected. I think most of these goals will remain in 2011, but with the added excitement of SXSWi, a book release, influencing government policy and who knows what else!

FInally let me wish you a very happy new year. Many thanks to everyone who has helped me or offered me opportunities this last year. If there is anything I can do for you in 2011, just ask!

Today is my last day working for Yahoo!

Rather than write a farewell email to my current colleagues I thought I’d write a blog post that former colleagues could also read and comment on, and also serve as a place to give some of my thoughts about working for Yahoo! in general.

I started working for Yahoo! on the 24th of September 2007. Before this I had worked for a small agency style company in the North of England for 7.5 years. It had taken me a long time, but I was excited to be working for a company like Yahoo! for my second ever full time job.

It was clear from day one that I was going to be working with very smart people and while everyone was very welcome it was also clear that I was going to have to prove myself. I think I was able to do that, and soon settled in the job.

I have worked both on Spirit, the previous version of the Yahoo! front page, and also Metro, the current page. On the Metro project I was able to experience working with a large international team on one of the most visited page on the web.

Over time I was able to get involved with YDN who do really fantastic work which is often not appreciated by developers, and the EU Accessibility Task Force which is a group of developers in the Yahoo! London office who have a strong interest in web accessibility. While I don’t think we changed the world we certainly made a nuisance of ourselves within the company, and this group inspired other task forces to be set up around the world, notably in Sunnyvale and Bangalore.

Later I became a representative for Yahoo! on the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Education & Outreach Working Group which I will continue working with as an Invited Expert for at least the next 6 months.

Working for Yahoo! has also led to opportunities outside of the office, conference speaking, book writing and government advising amongst them. More on all of this another time.

The point of all of this trumpet blowing is that it is only because I have worked for Yahoo! that any of this has been possible for me. Regardless of what anyone may say about the company it is a truly great place to work. I can honestly tell you that I don’t regret a single minute of my time here. It opens doors for developers, and would advise any web dev who wants to make a name for themselves to spend part of your career here.

At the time I started it was possible to make a strong case for the team of web developers in the London office being the best in the world. Sadly many of the people who made it such a joy to work here have moved on, either to other companies or to the Yahoo! mothership in Sunnyvale. Trust me, the quality is still here but we are losing the quantity, and currently there seems to be little desire to build up the team again. This is why I have decided to move on, and seek a new challenge somewhere else.

To everyone who I have worked with over the just-less-than 3 years I have been here, both in London and in the US, I thank you for everything you have done for me and the friendship you have shown me. I hope that many of you will be lifelong friends and that we will work together again in the future.

I am genuinely saddened to be leaving, but the time is right. Maybe one day I will be back.

Thanks again,

Ian.

p.s.

On Monday I start work at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. If it is only half as great as Yahoo! I will be in a good place.

The biggest news I have is that back in February my employers, Yahoo!, nominated me as a participant in the W3C Education and Outreach Working Group. I’ve been interested in joining this group for some time so it is great to be accepted. As I said at the beginning of the year ‘Education and sharing of knowledge is increasingly becoming important to me’ so this is definitely a step in the direction I want to take.

March marked my tenth year as a professional web developer, a job that I love and can’t imagine not doing. I don’t remember the exact date I started that first job unfortunately, but I can remember how bad I was as it back in March 2000! Luckily for me what we consider bad code now seemed perfectly normal in those days (although there are still people coding like it’s 1999). Since then I’ve gone through several stages of improvement, to the point that I think I can consider myself pretty good at making more internets. There is always room for improvement though, always new things to learn – this is part of the reason that it remains interesting.

Goals update

I had talked about a few other goals back on January 1st:

Speaking more

So far I have been to one BarCamp from which I have had interest to speak at a conference later in the year. Not a bad start, I hope the conference works out.

Write more

I made a good start on this, for some time I managed to post every week. Unfortunately I only managed to keep this up until the 3rd week of February. What I did blog about received favourable responses which is very encouraging. I’m hoping this post will kick start another writing spree.

Flat hunting

Unless I want to live next to a train line (with trains at 3-5 minute intervals) this has not gone any better this year than last. Oh well, nothing to do but carry on looking.

Lose weight

Maybe. Trousers are certainly looser than they were, but I haven’t weighed myself so I could have just changed shape somehow. I haven’t started martial arts training yet, which is a bit disappointing, but I’ll try and find the time over the coming months.

Meet up with people I follow on Twitter

Last week I was able to meet up with David Sloan in Dundee. He is a nice chap, and I hope I’ll get to talk to him in person again sometime soon. Who’s next?

Spend more time with offline friends

If anything I’ve spent less time with people outside of work than usual. This should improve in April as I’ve got plans already.

Learn to play guitar.

I’ve listened to lots of guitar playing, does that count?

Q2 and beyond

I still have plenty to do to succeed with my 2010 goals, although overall I’m quite pleased with progress so far. Writing seems to be key to success for several, so it is where I should focus most of my efforts. There are several pieces of work that I need to complete for other people, so they need to be my priority, but this web log needs attention as well.

Other than that life is, as usual for me, taking care of itself.