Interdependent Thoughts | by Ton Zijlstra

April 26, 2012

First Step To MiniFabLab

Yesterday I took a first step in a new experiment: I bought a desk top milling machine (Roland MX-15, see pic). At 750 Euro (compared to 3000 new), this second hand machine is price competitive with anything else currently on the (DIY) market. I bought the machine from Hanne van Essen, one of the founders of the Dutch FabLab Foundation (and on which board I currently serve).

Hopefully it is a first step to creating a ‘mini FabLab’ at home. An idea inspired by Bart Bakker who showed you can set-up a FabLab at home for under 3500 Euro, the great guys at FabLab Amersfoort who bootstrapped themselves into existence for 5000 Euro, as well as my own notions of a ‘Maker Household‘ and turning the home more into a productive unit (in terms of both energy as well as actual production), and creating more resilience in the context of our networks and our connected world.

Other elements that in time will be added to this miniFabLab:

a laser cutter (the true work horse of any ‘making’ set-up. There’s a wonderful open source project LaOS. Cost will be 1500 Euro or so)
a vinyl cutter (about 300 Euro)
a micro electronics workbench (the next thing to do probably, some stuff I already have)
a 3D printer (but they’ve got a way to go before they are truly useful at household level, currently last on my wish list)

The biggest challenge will be finding a space for all this in our home. The utility room would be possible but also needs to fit other things such as the washing machine and dryer, so it’s a challenge space wise. The shed might work space wise, but probably the big variations of temperature over the year in that space (it is not insulated from the outside) are probably detrimental to any equipment.

The experiment has started at least. Next up: planning time in my schedule to figure out how to work with the machine.

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March 10, 2012

The BBQ at the End of the Universe

In two months, on Saturday May 12th, I will turn 42. All of you towel carrying readers of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, will be aware that 42 is the precise Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

So at this crucial age, I will simply have to throw a big party. You, and your family, are therefore kindly invited, to

The BBQ at the End of the Universe

(or Enschede as it is more commonly known).

The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything
In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, although the answer is known to be 42, it remains unclear what that Ultimate Question is. We and some of you who were at Reboot 7 in Copenhagen seven years ago, have a pretty good notion of how to phrase that question, however. In the easier to understand words of a dear friend, “it’s the path you journey on that matters more than the destination”. It’s the path we travel that allows us to make sense of things.

The question to which the answer is 42

Share part of our path
Our path will take Elmine and me to walk up a French mountain to help raise funding for cancer research, in June. See my blog posting for the reasons behind this.

My birthday party is therefore also meant to raise funds for the good cause. In place of birthday gifts, I am asking you to donate something towards our effort for cancer research, sharing part of our path that way. Either by donating on my action page (if you have a Dutch bank account), or by donating to my PayPal account (which I will then transfer to my action page in your name), or by putting something in the donation box at the party itself. (Next to donations, you or your company can also hire us, and we’ll donate your payment to cancer research)

Bring books that matter, find books that matter more
Elmine and I own a lot of books. Some still get taken of the shelf regularly, and will remain with us for some time more. Other books have given us their meaning and worth, and are ready to move on to a new owner, which might well be you! Likewise you probably have books that are ready to leave you and find another mind to fill with their ideas and stories. It’s not the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy alone that can serve as a guide to the galaxy after all.

During our BBQ at the End of the Universe we will also hold a book market. We’ll offer our books up for sale, and you are invited to also bring books you want to find a new host for. At the same time you are welcome to browse all the books on offer, and take those that appeal to you back home. All proceeds will go to the good cause.

Ever been to a BBQ that’s also a book market?

In summary
It would be great if you would join us for my 42nd birthday party! Bring your family and your kids (we’ll have room for kids to play)! Please do RSVP (per e-mail) so we know how much people to cater for (and remember, when it comes to good food and drinks, I take BBQ parties very seriously).

It will be a day of celebration and fun, in the company of good old friends and new interesting people for you to meet. On top of that you have the opportunity to contribute to a good cause, as well as return home with new great stories to read.

Should you need a place to stay, here’s a list of options. We also have two rooms on offer (especially if you’re on a tight travel budget).

I am looking forward to welcoming you on May 12th!

Where, when, what time:
Ton & Elmine’s in Enschede
Saturday 12 May 2012, from 14:00 until the last guest leaves.
Please RSVP via e-mail!

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March 10, 2012

Hire us to help fund cancer research!

Last year on September 8th, 2011, our friend Marijke lost the battle against cancer, aged 44. Her husband, my very dear friend Klaas was left behind. I’ve known both Klaas and Marijke for over 22 years, ever since Klaas and I lived in the same student dorm.

Since a number of years, before Marijke was diagnosed with cancer, Klaas has been taking part in Alpe d’Huzes, a big yearly cycling event raising money for cancer research. Last year June, Marijke walked up the 14km long 800 meter climbing road to Alpe d’Huez in the French Alps, the same route Klaas was cycling 6 times that day, to meet him at the finish. This year, Marijke cannot be there to meet Klaas at the finish, but a group of 30 friends and family members, including me and Elmine, will be cycling and walking with Klaas to make sure he’s not alone at the finish.

Klaas will again cycle up the mountain six times in one day, something he spends months training for. Elmine and I will walk the same route once. Physically that’s not the biggest challenge you can think of, but still we want to raise some serious money for cancer research. So it’s likely we need to do a little more than simply ask you to donate through my ‘action page‘ (if you hold a Dutch bank account), or through my Paypal account (if you don’t hold a Dutch bank account), even though every single Euro is welcome and counts! That’s why Elmine and I are also offering our services, not in exchange for our regular day rates, but in return for a donation to sponsor our walk up Alpe d’Huez.

There are various things we can offer, like

Workshops and training on Social Media, or Open Data
A presentation or guest lecture on networked learning, open data, social media, FabLab, knowledge management or one of the other topics I work on.
Creating a simple website for you
A video on a topic that matters to you
Facilitating a session using one of the Cognitive Edge methods, Elmine and I are both trained in.

Or maybe you have another idea on how we could create value for you with our professional skills?

We’ll not charge our normal rates for ourselves but transform that into a donation for the Alpe d’Huzes fund raising for cancer research.

Contact me, to discuss what we can do for you. (Already two of Elmine’s clients have committed to a project with donation)

Also don’t hesitate to recommend us to others, even if you don’t see a way of hiring me or both of us yourself. We very much would appreciate it if you could spread the word. You’ll be helping us to raise money, but at the same time, you’ll be helping yourself, your family and friends. Cancer touches all our lives after all.

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February 26, 2012

Open Data Challenges

I have been visiting the World Bank the past days to discuss various open data projects, e.g. in Kenya, Moldova and Tunisia.
During one of the meetings, an informal one during lunch, we discussed the challenges we see for open data in the coming time.

These are the challenges I mentioned as seeing become (more) relevant at the moment, looking forward.

Turning open data into a policy instrument for government bodies, so that government needs open data for their own policy efforts. This is putting open data forward to:
- cut budgets
- measure impact
- stimulate participaton
- have others through app building contribute to policy aims
- re-use data of other PSB’s
Increasing the skills and ‘literacy’ of citizens and re-users around open data. The original open data activists have the data they wanted, so we need to grow the group of people who wants data. That means also increasing the number of people who can (or see how they can) work with data.
Getting government bodies to work together across borders the way citizens already do. Coders are networked across the EU, and work together. Public sector bodies are bound to jurisdictions, and connections are routed through higher hierarchical levels, not at operational level, where practical matters are at hand, and where open data could be brought forward.
Stimulating corporations to open data, in contrast or complementary to published government data. Stimulating citizen generated or citizen shared data.
Measuring policy impact in two ways: by making impact visible in connected data sets, that exist before, during and after policy implementation for non-open data policies, and by collecting stories plus their metadata around open data related policies to measure the non-economical impact of open data.
Making sure that the notion of what ‘real’ open data is remains intact when the technology becomes less visible as it disappears under the hood of the applications that use open data and where users of those applications may not realize it is based on open government data. (much in the same way it is necessary to keep the importance of an open and free, dumb at the core, smart at the edges, internet in the awareness of people, because that is what drives the affordances we value in much of the things we do over the internet.

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January 10, 2012

Looking Back On 2011: Quite A Ride (again…)!

Last year following my client-turned-friend Ernst Phaff’s lead, I posted a list of things that in 2010 gave me a sense of accomplishment, the Tadaa!-list. As I wrote then “As a ‘knowledge worker’ the boundaries of work have become all but invisible, and over the course of a year I work on so many different things that it is easy to forget I what I actually did. The “TaDaa!”-list is a way of resurfacing the things that happened [..]” and listing for myself what was accomplished, what I enjoyed doing.

Doing this, going through my calendar looking at what happened in the past year, already last year struck me as very useful: you simply forget so much along the way, as you respond to new things, and get inundated with new stuff. In 2011 I worked 2372 hours, way too much to my liking, a number that guarantees I loose track of the details of the things I did, obscuring the accomplishments behind a list of still-to-do’s and things to improve.

I decided then to do this again for 2011 and put it on my ‘yearly review’ task list. So, in no particular order, and sticking to professional things mostly……. Here’s my Tadaa!-list for 2011.

The Dutch national government data portalI wrote the plans for in 2010 got formally launched in September 2011, after being in beta since January 2011.
I helped write an Open Data Motionfor my home town, and saw it adopted by the City Council nearly unanimously.
I helped bring a FabLab to my home town, and had the honour to speak on behalf of the Dutch FabLab Foundation at its official opening. (I must admit to not having used their facilities yet to make something myself, but Elmine sure has)
Spent a week working from and sightseeing in Berlin with Elmine, where I also gave a well received talk at the Cognitive Cities Conference, on Spicing Up Your City With Open Government.. It was an inspiring event bringing many new sparks.
Ton Zijlstra at Cognitive Cities Conference from Cognitive Cities on Vimeo.
Edited and published the second edition of the FabYearBook.
Made a living for the fourth year being self-employed, while working in what is basically a new market (open data consultancy). Studiously ignored the sensationalist headlines of impending global economic doom, spending energy instead on helping build the structures, scaffolding and systems creating new and alternative ways forward. Sphere of influence and all that Jazz….
Started working as Community Steward of the ePSIplatform, creating awareness for open government data around Europe
Gave presentations in Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, and of course in the Netherlands, on open data mostly
Worked a week out of Helsingør and Copenhagen with Elmine, visiting our rockstar-consultant friend Henriette and Thomas, having meetings with various organisations and inspiring people on open data, social media, complexity management, and FabLab
Presented at a great Spanish conference on digital citizenship in beautiful Donostia (San Sebastian), where I further explored a train of thought I started at Reboot in 2008 on attitudes and skills in dealing with digital disruption, this time in order for our public institutions to survive, as survive they must albeit changed.
Created the OurServices website, showcasing examples of collaborative e-government services, from around Europe
Visited our friends Paolo (who turned 40) and Monica in Italy with Elmine, this time without just using their office to write a project proposal like the time before, but simply enjoying hanging out with great people and enjoying the countryside
Gave input to a Dutch guide on how to ‘do’ open government data for local governments
Did a project together with Elmine for the European Commission, running a video competition for the Digital Agenda Assembly.
Enjoyed working for a client in my home town, in the midst of all the travel around Europe. A rare but pleasant treat to be able to cycle to a workshop session, and not taking a plane or train.
Did most of the work in putting together the new ePSIplatform portal
Took the time to attend Brigitte’s opening of her new osteopathy practice in Switzerland
Got to be there for friends in times of need. Thankful they let me be there for them.
Sat on the jury of the OpenDataChallenge.org, that saw 430 entries.
Mused about speeding up my actions, extending my range, while taking it very slow for three weeks in the French Alps.
Enjoyed the heck out of the e-reader Elmine gave me for my birthday. I lost the life long habit of avid reading for a while in 2010, this got me back into it. Thanks dear.
Started to work with Paul, Marc, Frank as a network to land Open Data projects together, and immediately saw it result in collaborating on project proposals
Spoke at the EU Ministerial Conference on e-Government in Poznan Poland, on ‘making open data work‘ for government itself.
Started working in earnest with Harold, Niels, Erwin, Tony and others, on projects around making sense of complexity.
Brought together a dozen Dutch city governments to exchange their experiences on opening up government data, and experimenting together in bringing it forward.
Did three sessions at the Open Government Data Camp in Warsaw, one on how open data is an opportunity for local government to reinvent itself, save money and crack complex issues.
Got to work with long-time fellow Reboot-friend and co-shareholder of the Coworking Boat PAN, Peter Rukavina on a project for a client. It’s great to work with people like that.
I lost 15kg, bringing me back to a weight I haven’t had in 20 years
Elmine and I published an e-book “How to Unconference Your Birthday” and sent out special cards to all that attended my Birthday Unconference the year before. We asked the cool people at BuroPony in Rotterdam to do the design. Find the download link in the book’s Facebook page.
How To Unconference Your Birthday, The Book

View more presentations from Ton Zijlstra

Creating the book and having it in our hands, giving it to all the awesome people who were there in 2010, was so much fun and rewarding. An Epic Sh*t Multiplier, as we called it on my birthday then, and in the book now.

That’s the list. I got to work on cool projects, travelled to new places before returning home, and above all got to work with the people I want to work with. More importantly, 2011 was a year that reinforced the notion that it’s your relationships that count, and that the journey is its own goal. Whether it’s grieving together, celebrating together, or even both at the same time, those are the moments I find intense beauty in being with friends. Onwards!

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October 24, 2011

Making Local Open Data Work for Local Government

At the Open Government Data Camp in Warsaw on 20 and 21 October I hosted a workshop on ‘making open government data work for local government’.

If open government data is here to stay then only because it has become an instrument to government bodies themselves, and not because government are releasing data only because of compliance with transparency and re-use demands from others (central government or citizens).

This workshop started from the premise that there is opportunity in local governments treating open data as a policy instrument to find new solutions to the issues local communities face, amongst others in coming up with new ways of working in light of budget cuts.

Contributions were made by the local open government data initiatives of the cities of Berlin, Munich (Germany), Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Enschede (Netherlands), Linz and Vienna (Austria), who all shortly presented the current status of their initiatives. It was great to be able to have seven cities take the stage after each other to explain their work in and with local government on open data, and it shows how much things have changed in the past year alone.

Slides of the introductory presentation I gave are available, and are embedded below.

How to make the case for local open data?

View more presentations from Ton Zijlstra

After the introductions, the workshop participants worked in little groups on identifying local issues where open government data could be used towards new approaches by local government and citizens.

This was done in three steps:

Identify issues that are currently relevant to your local community.
Try to define which datasets might be connected to these issues.
Discuss what new steps are possible, using the datasets mentioned.

The collective output of the workshop has been made available as a document I wrote for the ePSIplatform.eu (download PDF), and is embedded below.

Making Local Open Data Work

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September 23, 2011

Data Is A Social Object

In the Open Data arena people often ask if ‘the people’ are actually ‘ready’ to deal with the availability of data. Do we have the statistical skills, the coding skills, to make data useful?

In my presentations over the past 8 months I’ve positioned data as an object of sociality: it becomes the trigger for interaction, a trigger for the forming of connections between people. Much like photos are the social object of a site like Flickr.com, and videos are the social object of YouTube, or your daily activities are for Twitter.

The current best example of how data can be a social object is something John Sheridan showed at the Vienna Open Data Conference last June. All legislation information in the UK has been made available as linked open data. This makes it possible to reference specific paragraphs in laws.

In general law is generally regarded as boring and decidedly un-hip, but the availability of all this legal data as linked open data has a surprising effect: people are referencing specific paragraphs in their on-line conversations, for instance on Twitter. This is what you see in the screenshot below, where people link to specific parts of UK legal texts in the course of their conversation. From boring and useless texts (other than to legal minds that is), to the social object around which everyday conversation can revolve.

Data is a social object. It is a trigger for citizen participation that way, a new way for people to engage with their community. And, the other way around, participation (e.g. existing participatory processes, existing conversations) is a path to data use. From this basic starting point any newly needed skills will grow.

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September 20, 2011

How To Unconference Your Birthday, The Book

Last year, when I turned 40, Elmine and I organized an unconference to celebrate (of course we also had a bbq party!), and we invited people from our various circles. The topic was ‘Working on Stuff that Matters‘, ‘WSTM’. Some 40 people participated in the unconference, some 20 workshops were held, and it was an event that is still giving us energy almost 18 months later.

We always wanted to create something tangible as an outcome of the event, to create an ‘Epic Sh*t Multiplier’ as we called it on the day. We created an e-book, explaining ‘how to unconference your birthday’. The text was written during the summer of 2010. A professional designer (BUROPONY in Rotterdam, hire them, they’re great!) created the book itself in May/June this year. In the past days we sent out cards to all participants of the unconference to allow them to download the book. We’ll publish the e-book itself on-line later. Right now it’s a gift for those who attended. A small token of our appreciation for the big gift they gave us by attending the unconference, and the energy and inspiration that is still generating for us. Thank you.

Below are some pictures giving you a sneak preview.

During the design process

First edition

Sending out cards to participants