Earlier this month the open knowledge community celebrated a big milestone as Wikipedia turned 25! I blogged about it on the Reclaim Blog, and had the pleasure of joining a lovely line up to celebrate:
Recording of Reclaim’s “Wikipedia @ 25 stream, with Autumm Caines, Lorna Campbell, Jim Groom and Taylor Jadin.
It was inspiring to have a conversation about open knowledge, particularly in an age of information abundance (read Dave Cormier’s book on that subject in case you haven’t yet!) . Incidentally, the book’s subtitle, “The Community is the Curriculum” would have made an excellent theme for the live stream, as we mainly talked about people and community.
Communities that support the creation, sharing and storing of open knowledge. Communities that add, edit, and provide governance for open knowledge (“Wikipedia contains over 65 million articles across over 300 languages”). Communities that are underrepresented, or don’t have a voice in open knowledge projects, and communities that build open knowledge creation on the kind of open source software and infrastructure that Reclaim has long championed.
We also shared our personal experiences of how we encountered Wikipedia and its sister projects in our own education, at work, for research, as parents and professionals. It was surprising to me, someone who has had little formal involvement with Wikipedia itself, how much each of is had to contribute, from using it day to day for looking things up, hobbies or research, to using it as a tool in the classroom, to teach digital skills and literacy or for institutional initiatives.
Our stories, our activities, form only a very small part of the overall engagement and use with this incredible platform: “Wikipedia is viewed more than 15 billion times every month.”.
These statistics shared by Wikipedia as part of the celebration are all incredible. The one that made me pause most however is this one: “Wikipedia is edited 342 times per minute.”.
That means that whilst I was writing this blog post, over 4,000 edits have been made. And whilst you have been reading this, hundreds more have been added. There’s another one. And another 10. And another 100.
Our conversation on the stream, and I hope you’ll watch the recording if you missed it live, was an opportunities to tell stories and share perspectives about our journeys from a world in which Wikipedia didn’t exist, to one in which we can’t really imagine life without it. It made me reflect on how it became what it is today: a project in which thousands of editors participate in every minute of the day, producing this source of open knowledge.
Happy Birthday, Wikipedia! Here’s to the next 25 years of human knowledge in the open!
One of my fellow coaches, Helen, a wonderful executive coach for Headteachers, recently shared online that her word of the year for 2026 is ‘analogue’ and that was music to my ears. As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of all things analogue, and the post prompted me to re-read The Revenge of Analogue by David Sax. Although the book was published ten years ago, and some of the research it mentions has been superseded, it’s central argument holds fast and the industry case studies of how industries were revived not for nostalgic reasons, but for business reasons are even more relevant today.
As in my previous post about using a Done List as an antidote for that pervasive sense of always having to get even more done, I’m blending my long days of digital productivity and working online with analogue activities, to make space for strategic thinking, reflection and planning. One of the questions I get asked the most on training days however is just how to carve out the time and actually create some offline head space when the pace of digital productivity feels simply relentless?
One strategy I find very effective is to add an analogue work bag to your toolkit.
From analogue to analogue (work) bag
If you haven’t come across the term, a so called “analogue bag” is a bag or basket filled with everything needed to engage in analogue activities and stay offline (I came across an interesting article recently that explains this phenomenon further). In the context of being at home and avoiding loosing valuable hours of attention to (doom)scrolling, you might fill your bag or basket with things like craft supplies, knitting needles and yarn, pen and paper, a journal, books or puzzles. In short, whatever supplies you find engaging and stimulating to engage in analogue activities.
In order to translate this approach into a work context, all you need to do is to swap the contents of the bag or basket. Here is what that might look like:
pen and paper for making notes
post-it notes for reminders and planning
coloured pens/whiteboard markers if you have a bigger surface available
a planner or diary for longer-term perspectives
printed trade or research journals to catch up on what’s new
a book, such as a technical manual, non-fiction or a biography for inspiration
You’ll likely already have such things around your work space. The purpose of the bag (or basket, desk drawer, dedicated shelf or similar) is to make sure all of these are easily available to you, rather than lost in a forgotten drawer somewhere. Use the bag to offer inspiration and practical ways to get started with planning, reflecting, strategising or research as soon as you step away from the screen.
January is usually a time for planning for the year ahead. Whether at work or at home, there’s a whole year of goals yet to achieve stretched out in front of us, and I find that can be a little bit overwhelming. Whilst I am a fan of planning ahead, with so much to do, and only a finite amount of time and energy to do it with, I find I need an antidote to the madness of January’s resolutions and good intentions. In short, I am looking for a source of fresh inspiration and motivation.
I first came across the concept of a “Done List”, in this article by Oliver Burkeman: What if you’re already on top of things? . I’m a fan of his thinking on productivity, and this sense that often we start the day (or year) with a sense of what he calls productivity debt, which he describes as “this vague sense that I’m falling behind, and need to claw my way back up to some minimum standard of output. It’s as if I need to justify my existence, by staying “on top of things”, in order to stave off some ill-defined catastrophe that might otherwise come crashing down upon my head.”
The other aspect of a “Done List”, a list of things already accomplished, which only grows as the days pass, is that it helps you notice what you achieve before moving on to the next thing. I came across this interesting article which goes more into it: Forget To-Do Lists. You Really Need a ‘Got Done’ List in Wired. So, for me, keeping a Done List has become a great strategy for bringing a little more joy into the start of the year, and also helps foster more reflective and creative thinking, and that in turn often helps me get the more important things done more easily.
How to…
If you’d like to give this a go for yourself, just use whichever tool you usually use for making a to do list, whether that’s a notepad, a digital document or dedicated app.
Some productivity apps automatically disappear a completed task, which is helpful when you have a lot of different priorities to juggle, but it also means that you don’t get to see everything that’s been ticked off the list already. So in order to try this approach, you’ll need to make sure that everything already accomplished remains on the list and legible, instead of getting struck through or hidden away. Instead of having a list that looks something like this: Things I have accomplished!, you are looking to create a list more like this:
Things I have accomplished!
Started a DONE list
Made a folder in which I keep positive feedback
Filed CPD certificates
Made a list of how I volunteer as a reviewer, mentor or conference committee member
You can start with things you have done today, things completed this week or even keep a running list of things that are DONE throughout the year. In the podcast episode about this tool I share more examples of how I have used the tool, why I find it valuable and how it inspires my leadership practice.
If imposter syndrome or low confidence insert themselves and you worry that you may not have anything worth adding to your list, then try this strategy: instead of thinking about what might qualify as good enough to add to the list, add everything you have done today or this week. This list is just for you, after all, and no one else needs to see what you add.
Once you start listing activities, just keep going and make a list as long as you can, adding everyday things you have done. Even things that don’t feel like an accomplishment take energy and time to do, and thus they can be added to the list.
Here in Wales the start of the year has been very cold and this morning we even had a light dusting of snow. So close to the coast it rarely snows a lot, but the ice on the roofs I can see through my window as I sit at my desk is a good reminder that winter is here.
In a few days, I’ll be back to work as usual, but for the time being my other interests take up the majority of my days, alongside the daily dog walks: namely reading, running and art.
Reading
For the first time ever I am trying to keep a record of what I read (using StoryGraph), and I am curious to see how that goes. I’ve always loved to read and I read a lot, widely across genres both fiction and non-fiction. I tried previously to blog about books I’ve read, mostly from a coaching perspective, but that didn’t stay with me for long and so it’ll be interesting to see if and how this interest shows up on the blog this year.
Given how much I love reading and how much time I spent reading I’d like to find a way to represent that particularly interest in this space.
Running
Running is continuing to make progress, and training for the Half Marathon in Vancouver in May is growing more intense. I am not particularly into going to races, so every time I do it feels like a big adjustment to be running with people. Thus, I have finally signed up for Parkrun and am looking forward to going to my local race on one of two Saturdays each month and get more comfortable running in company.
We did Parkrun on Christmas Day, which was a wonderful morning out, if bitterly cold with an icy wind, which offered me more inspiration to give this a go. Barcode tags ordered. Here we go!
Art
I’ve also spent a lot of time painting over the holidays, and the house is starting to fill up with seascapes and coastal landscapes in various shades of blue. After experimenting with a lot of different creative pursuits last year, this feels like a good fit for something to focus on and to deepen my practice.
I’m also looking forward to seeing more art and exhibitions this year, and spending more time on exploring creativity.
This blog has always reflected my various interests, mostly professional ones, and this year I want to try and sprinkle some of my interests from outside of work through my posts, to reflect more of what inspires me and what brings me joy.
You might find it also shows up in my newsletter, so look out for the first edition next week 🙂
This is the last post of the year, and this one is for my most trusty office buddy, Posey!
Posey turns FIVE tomorrow, and her adventures over the past year have been a big source of joy for me each and every month. I always dreamt of having a dog when I was little, and I am happy and grateful indeed that I have been able to fulfil that dream now that I live a life that can offer a dog a happy home.
As a morning person there is nothing better than waking up with these rascals every day, greeting the morning tea in hand. We walk 3-5 miles each day and that keeps me active and outdoors more than any other activity ever has. Their company makes working from home a lot more sociable and coastal walks more fun, too.
Cuddled up next to her favourite blanket.Exploring the dunes.Beach time with her brother Teilo.Posey in full shark posing mode.At the local pub after a visit to the castle.Summer play in the garden.
Happy Birthday, Posey! Here’s to many more years of adventures together, and wishing everyone, humans and dogs (and cats and other creatures, too, of course) a Happy New Year 2026.
I love writing these end of year posts and I have been doing it for quite a few years: 2024 focused on gratitude, 2023 on my (then new) business venture, 2022 I looked back at 10 milestones, 2021 – the year of the PUPPY – had a lot packed into it and 2020, well, you will remember your own 2020. I wrote two posts in December that year: 2020 #altc – the year forged in fire and 2020 – My year in blog posts, on radio and in drawings .
So what about this year?
I’ve used these close up photos of paintings I’ve been working on this year as a theme for my post, a triptych of a post if you like, to capture the three themes of my year: Joy. Creativity. Focus.
HorizonSeascapeBeach at sunset
Joy
When I think back to January 2025… I probably wouldn’t have guessed that joy would be one of the themes to come out of my review post at the end of a year filled with unhinged politics, unfettered use of AI and so much upheaval everywhere you look. And still, the joy is undeniable. I’ve done much this year that has been so rewarding, from regular beach trips and travel abroad to getting married again and spending time with family and friends. My year as a pen pal has been prolific and one of the greatest joys of the year was the house filled with postcards and letters from friends all across the world wishing us well on our wedding day.
I’ve accomplished a long-term goal to get back into running, and managed to complete several 10k races over the last 12 months. This in turn brought about a spontaneous decision to fulfil a big dream of mine next year: running the Vancouver Half Marathon. Come May 2026, my husband and I will both be standing on the starting line, hopefully with quite a few friends joining us, too. I’ve been meaning to return to Vancouver ever since my first visit in 2019, and I can’t wait to be in BC once again.
These moments of joy have been so precious, and I am grateful indeed for the friends, family and four-legged creatures that have shared those moments with me (even very early in the morning).
Creativity
As you have no doubt gathered already from my posts this year, I have been having an exceptionally creative year, from analogue adventures in painting, drawing, crafting, embroidery and model building to digital creation, writing, making and designing. I have flexed the skills I gained in art school, and put the DIY tools my dad gave me to good use. I also commandeered a second desk (my so called “weekend desk”) so that I (finally) have a space to be messy again, to leave things to be picked up and continued later. I can’t tell you how good it feels.
To give you a sense of what these projects have been, here is a summary of some of the things I have made this year: a book nook, a flower shop model, a garden shed model, hand embroidered Christmas stockings, acrylic paintings on canvas, watercolour drawings on paper, several dozen digital artworks, an illustrated digital story, started a new book (non-fiction), wrote several short stories, a year long (12 module) postcard based coaching subscription complete with custom made postcards that I sent all across the world, many talks, presentations, workshops, blog posts, podcasts, radio shows, playlists, a vinyl yoga practice, lots of new recipes and even more DIY in the form of newly painted rooms, garden furniture and… well, I think you get the idea.
Suffice to say that I have poured a lot of creative energy into the world, in an effort, to “let creativity eat the darkness“. I have done much to shape the world with my imagination and to populate my world with things that are made by me. Which is why the title of the post refers to the handmade year of 2025.
Focus
The year has been filled with joyful moments and with a lot of time devoted to creativity. It has also been a year of clear focus and much progress. Focus on my business and my professional practice. Now in its third year of being my full-time job, my business has evolved and become more robust and tangible.
Like everyone else I’ve found the uncertainty level in Higher Education and every other sector I work in rather dampening, making it harder to find work and putting everyone under pressure. That said, my efforts in developing my offering and my company of one have paid dividend and building in more focus and flexibility has proven very effective, too.
I’ve had many professional highlights this year, including an unexpected but most welcome award of Honorary Life Membership from ALT, a community which means so much to me. Being part of the ALT Wales Member Group and continuing my work as a Senior CMALT Assessor enables me to keep up with current practice in Learning Technology and Open Education, and connect with this wonderful network.
Also, I am excited to have become a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts this year (and can how add “FRSA” to my list of post-nominal letters on LinkedIn ;)). It’s such a rewarding and interesting community to be part of, and I am looking forward to getting stuck in as a mentor in the mentoring network and start to connect with more fellows in the new year both here in Cardiff and elsewhere. If you are also a member, look me up on the Circle platform 🙂 .
My work continues to be varied, which is a joy for someone like me with many interests and aptitudes. Teaching, training and coaching continues at the University of Oxford, and Sereniti as well as internal cohorts at organisations. Whilst I continue to do some executive coaching with individuals, the bulk of my work has been with leadership teams and groups.
Consultancy projects with Reclaim Hosting, especially the innovative Reclaim Open conference, have been an inspiring part of my year and I deeply appreciate working with such a wonderful team of people.
I’ve also continued work in the digital heritage sector, building on a number of projects I worked on in 2021-2023 as part of the Towards a National Collection and Digital Heritage initiatives. Digital heritage and digital humanities is becoming more of a focus for my consultancy work, and I am looking forward to working more in that space in 2026.
One of the things I reflected and focused on this year was how I work, not only what I do. The values that inform my work have shaped my practice, what I bid for, and what I strive for. So to close this post I wanted to share a the notes I scribbled below, which helped me articulate how I embody the values of my business and why.
Here’s to a more open and blended, ethical and meticulous 2026, continuing to give back in gratitude to the amazing communities I am part of.
