It’s a world wide web out there. There’s plenty of room for everyone. And I, for one, love reading the words of others.

Jeremy Keith

I have been very lax about writing anything of substance on here recently, apart from the end of year lists. I must try harder.

Obviously, open by default is the new fashionable, but I’m pretty sure it’s no longer enough for organisations to be “open” because no matter how hard you try, eventually that just becomes PR and marketing fluff. Much better to aim to be porous. For people and conversations and ideas to flow in and out irrespective of departmental and organisational boundaries. Rip down the barriers to conversation and collaboration internally and externally.

Michael Smethurst

Well, the less said about the state of 2016 in general, the better.

However, it’s been another inspiring year for music and film, so here are my picks of 2016. In no particular order, and as it’s my house I didn’t limit them to ten.

Albums

• Wussy - Forever Sounds
• Stephen Steinbrink - Anagrams
• She Makes War - Direction Of Travel (As I mentioned last year, it was always going to make a second appearance)
• Gitta de Ridder - Feathers
• Sad13 - Slugger
• Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
• Martha - Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart
• Julia Jacklin - Don’t Let The Kids Win
• Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation - Mirage
• Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass
• Angel Olson - My Woman
• Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Denial
• Cavern Of Anti-Matter - Void Beats / Invocation Trex
• Emma Pollock - In Search Of Harperfield
• Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion

Films

(If you want to see what I picked when limited to ten films, then you can have a look at my Letterboxd Top Ten for 2016)

• Arrival
• Deadpool
• Zootopia
• Sing Street
• Hail, Caesar!
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople
• The Nice Guys
• Swiss Army Man
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Midnight Special
• Captain America: Civil War
• Jungle Book

Don’t make up your mind about Progressive Enhancement by reading reductive blog posts or presentations that gloss over or outright ignore the details and nuances of actual web work. Read up on the individual tactics used. Judge them in terms of how effective they might be at solving the problems you are tackling. Every tactic strikes a different balance. Unless you plan on only solving one kind of problem, again and again, throughout your career, you owe it to yourself to study the tactics that lie outside your comfort zone.

Baldur Bjarnason

So here is my rule of thumb. If someone comes to me with an idea, even if my immediate reaction is very negative, ask at least three questions about that idea to make sure you really understand it and appreciate it.

Leisa Reichelt

The service is of the internet, not just on the internet. The team has used the internet to rethink how the service of sexual health testing is delivered to users. By focusing on user needs and working in small, agile teams, you can transform a public service.

How the Sexual Health: 24 service used GOV.UK patterns

Atomic design is a mental model that enables designers to create both the parts and the whole of a UI design system concurrently. It is not a rigid system that dictates a particular process, but rather a framework for building design systems efficiently and consistently.

Vitaly Friedman - Taking Pattern Libraries To The Next Level

Around 5 years ago I had to put my belongings in storage due to a pending move.

5 years later I finally got them back, and while unpacking my cameras I realised that the Coronet 6-6 still had a film in it.

Yesterday I got the film back from the developers.

As best as I can remember (comparing them to existing digital shots from the time, plus when I received the camera), they were taken in Cornbury Park, during the winter of 2010, while I was working at Torchbox.

This camera was a present from Auntie Marie, who is now sadly gone. So although the memories are bitter sweet, it’s a nice reminder of the power of photography.

Everyone has an idea about how to make it easier to find needles in the haystack, but no-one bothers to ask what all this hay is doing here in the first place.

Rich Harris