On #PrivacyDay #DataProtectionDay 2019, I am honoured to announce that I have been selected as a Mozilla Open Leader for my work in support of the cross-CMS privacy working group.
The era of sociopaths is over
It is intellectually inconsistent to preach about a disruptive, billion-dollar vision and imagine it as being free from regulatory considerations. It fascinates me how often entrepreneurs lack a basic grounding in the regulatory hurdles they may face. Hemant Tajena, 'The era of move fast and break things is over'
What I’ll be working on in 2019
Better late than never – I blame the Scottish winter darkness – I would like to share what I will be working on this year, who I will be working with, and what I would like to focus on.
How to defend the open web: a policy primer for open source projects
Open source projects can use our influence to shape the laws and policies which impact our work, and we can do so while defending ourselves, and each other, from the unintentional consequences of project misuse.
Lessons from the road: raising awareness of data protection and privacy in open source projects
In late November I was honoured to be asked to speak at the annual conference of the National Association of Data Protection Officers in London. My slides are available to …
Talking Brexit and a11y at Accessibility Scotland
I was honoured to be invited to speak at this year’s Accessibility Scotland conference on Brexit’s implications for web accessibility. The video of the talk has now been posted online, and it is fully captioned.
Money’s short, times are hard, here’s your Brexit Christmas card
Sometimes the medium is the message and the backstory is the story. Here is one.
Quoted in The Register
Heather Burns, an internet law expert who helps firms work towards compliance, said that GDPR has drawn a stark line in the sand between certain kinds of businesses. “It’s made …
Facts are stubborn things
You might think that privacy and accessibility are universally respected concepts and values. They are not.
Talking about the future of the open web and open source
Yesterday I had the absolute privilege of joining Dries Buytaert (Drupal), DB Hurley (Joomla! and Mautic), Barb Palser (Google), and Tim Lehnen (Drupal Association) for a panel discussion on the future of the open web and open source at Drupal Europe in Darmstadt, Germany.
Read moreTalking about the future of the open web and open source
On speaker travel expenses, or, why enough is enough
A couple of months ago my life fell apart in a morning. Being self-employed, I had two figures in the bank, which wasn’t enough to be able to afford a …
Read moreOn speaker travel expenses, or, why enough is enough
Pulling the plug on legal compliance plugins
I’ve worked to amend the WordPress.org plugin guidelines so that plugins can no longer claim to make a site legally compliant in any regulatory requirement.
Emergency appeal
It’s absolutely killing me to have to air my dirty laundry in public but I’m starting to think that if I had aired it sooner, I wouldn’t be in this …
Behold the pinnacle of slactivism, digital solutionism, and GDPRubbish
All weekends, holidays, and shore leave are cancelled until the summer due to GDPR. And I’m loving that. Supporting agencies and software developers to adopt the principles of privacy by …
Read moreBehold the pinnacle of slactivism, digital solutionism, and GDPRubbish
Professional organisation: mission accomplished. Over to you.
To me, we have already achieved something I would not have imagined a year ago today: it is possible for developers and coders across a range of ages, levels of experience, employment scenarios, and political stances to realise that we have more in common than that which divides us.