So what started as a bit of a joke now appears to be an annual thing that people expect (well a handful of them anyway) and who am I to disappoint my audience.

Blogger(s) of the year

There were a lot of wonderful people blogging a lot this year — Team #weeknotes had another great year, Amanda wrote some amazing stuff during #NaBloPoMo, Cassie Robinson. used her job change as a spur to publish a series of brilliant posts and has continued her momentum at Big Lottery with her weeknotes.

That said though my Blogger of the Year is Will Myddelton. He isn’t the most prolific but everything he writes is an epic that is required reading for anybody with the slightest interest in user research in and around public service.

Blogpost of the year

Here are a couple of posts I wanted to feature →

View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com
View at Medium.com

..but the winner is

https://media.giphy.com/media/ogGmxeqA8L3sA/giphy.gifView at Medium.com

Dan Hon’s post is one I have returned to more than once over the course of the year and as things are clearly not getting any better I believe the call to action is more urgent than ever.

Surprise of the year

The whole Parliament data thing came as a shock for a whole bunch of reasons. Not least the timing and manner in which the decision was communicated. It was a bit of a gut punch to the team of course but also the wider linked/open data community in public service. This was/is a team that is widely admired for their knowledge and approach so I suspect it has made a lot of people nervous.

As ever there will be layers and layers to these things and politics to play out within the institution that few if any of us will ever be privy to but I hope everyone involved lands OK.

The Semantic Web award for tech for techs sake award

I’m going to ‘plead the Fifth’ on this one this year. I have an opinion, Unfortunately I currently have something of a professional conflict of interests!

Talk of the year

I wasn’t at ‘Agile Australia’ but this talk from Martin Fowler (one of the original signatories to the agile manifesto) is easily my favourite talk (in fact it is probably my favourite post full stop as I actually initially read the transcript). It totally encapsulates my approach and attitude towards agile. Especially my ‘agile not Agile™’ angle.

I really cannot recommend it enough.

Event of the year

I was lucky enough to attend a number of great events this year — I got to attend a Delib Practical Democracy day in Wellington, the Ethical Tech Summit in New York, Service Design in Government in Edinburgh and more but it is safe to say that one really stands out.

OneTeamGov Global really was a spectacular achievement — a truly international event that really encouraged a spirit of collaboration and ambition. I’m looking forward to finding a way to attend the next one in Canada!

Tweet(s) of the year

Not a single tweet but the ongoing #adayisnotenough series of tweets from Audree Fletcher spotlighting amazing women working in and around digital has been a triumph that deserves celebrating.

Team(s) of the year

This is a joint ‘award’ because in my head their successes are somewhat intertwined. So this year I would like to shine a light on dxw and the Digital Marketplace team.

The analysis of the ‘armchair audit’ that dxw did on DOS, the consistent drive to encourage improvement and the generally constructive approach to it all really provided a cause for many of us to line up behind and support when previously it had been scattered at best. The really great thing was to see the Digital Marketplace actively engage, open up and really start to change the conversation around procurement. There is still a lot to do but I was really impressed.

Plus dxw opened an office in Leeds which means it is a little easier to add roles in Yorkshire to my jobs newsletter 🙂