3.05 —weeknotes — actually a bit of space to think this week and our work on ITV News!….
A bit of a quieter week this week, which has been well received, I actually had some space in my diary, actual gaps with nothing in them, obviously I was so shocked with this time that I just sat at my desk rocking.
Over the last couple of weeks as part of our work on connectivity, Nick and I have been working with Michael Snaith on mobile connectivity in the borough. Part of this work is to ensure we have a dialogue with the mobile operators to have a connected borough. We have had a couple of meetings with providers over the last couple of weeks. It has been really interesting to hear the journey that they are on to provide 5G and good connectivity. Interesting that coverage is very good in the Borough but lots of room for improvement with capacity.
A lot of this week has been about the planning, prioritisation and resourcing of the projects and programmes we have going on at the moment. There is so much on at the moment it really is a challenge to get everything listed and lined up.
This is the thing that has probably used the most thinking time this week, trying to align the internal processes with simple ways of presenting the work and not getting ourselves tied up in bureaucracy and not actually delivering anything.
Would welcome any thoughts or comments from anyone who have cracked the presentation and prioritisation of complex transformational programmes.
Our first phase of recruitment has now come to a close, and we are just in the process of getting offers and paperwork out to people. Really excited to get some new colleagues into the team, it is going to make such a difference! We still have posts that we will be going out for over the next couple of weeks — a mixture of posts not filled this time and new ones that we couldn’t squeeze in this time!! Do have a look at https://hounslow.digital/careers/ and we will post over the next couple of weeks. As always if anyone wants a chat drop me a line.
One of the projects that is drawing to an end is the work with FutureGov on our Technology Blueprint, this is an important piece of work as part of our Digital Community Experience work and beyond. This blueprint gives us the building blocks for how we want to design the architecture and infrastructure over the next five years or so as part of the digital strategy. The aim is that we ensure we buy the right technology that means we can serve our communities in the best way possible. The real work for this is only just starting…
Really proud to for some of our work to be featured on the news this week on ITV London — https://twitter.com/i/status/1357054248463314945. The Leader spoke about the laptops we are providing to schools — was awesome…
Another couple of runs this week, no more 10k but a couple of 6ks including one on Saturday morning where is started raining, so say I was a tad grumpy at the end of the run is an understatement — still nice to be outside!
Got the car serviced on Friday — all very odd considering that it has barely moved this year — needless to say there were no issues with the car! A couple of lovely sunsets this week as well (random sentence to ensure that I can include a nice picture…)
Next week: We have the Share National Socitm meeting on Accessibility — really looking forward to that on Tuesday. Also looking forward to a session with Bradford Uni on Monday on Digital Inclusion.
Tune of the week: I do like random tunes as you know and I like a bandwagon — Sea Shanties do appear to be popular at the moment! Sea Shanty — Wellerman (Official Music Video)
