Ben Boyle lives here!

Here at the very end of all things (on this blog)

Blogger are disabling FTP publishing. I use FTP publishing, this blog is hosted at the fantastic Server101 and I've no wish to move it. Appears I have not really much wish to publish to it either, reviewing the woeful stats for the last months. I blame Twitter, Facebook and Left 4 Dead for taking up my valuable time. And when I say blame, I mean thank. I love Left 4 Dead!

So here I am writing a final post that is not so final, for publishing shall continue, somewhere else. I am downloading WordPress which I have long wished to tinker with. Though tinkering is bad for the spare time too …

My last post about cold bytes leads nicely into this. I have rejoined the Communities web team, though it is much different to when I left it, with over double the staff it had then and impressively named Business Innovation & Web Services — within which I job share a team lead role for a Strategic Improvement group. 3 days a week and it is going to be awesome. I still code two days a week for Smart Service Queensland. A good balance.

There is much to celebrate this year. A change in the workplace is refreshing — and even the development team is moving out of the darkness into some natural light — and this year marks the 10th year anniversary of my marriage and moving to Caboolture. A decade! Such were the naughties. Let's leave blogging back there. It’s time I got back into publishing and content/media creation. More creativity, I must have more! We’ll see what the year brings …

Labels: gaming, work

Go fish!

We talk about fishing a bit at work — we did refresh the website for purchasing stocked impoundment permits (SIPS, they are for recreational fishing in Queensland dams) early in the year. Isn't that form pretty!?

In July, I started some wireframes for a new potential website: an online fishing diary. At the moment, recreational fishers can opt in to the diary scheme and keep a logbook of species they catch. These volunteers contribute meaningfully to fisheries management, as I understand it. Nice work citizens! We had hopes this would be an interesting new service. It has some relationship to the SIPS of course, but even more potential as a citizen engagement (or e-engagement, e-government, social networking etc.) For anglers. Smart Service is big into egovernment and engagement, particularly on the GetInvolved website. Yes the online fishing diary seemed ideal.

Here's some of the mockups, showcasing the initial exploration I began around collecting the diary entries:

A bit like surveys, but trying to really engage, you know? Rather than simply recording data, making it a bit more fun and competitive, maybe even educational. Does data have to be dry and dull? Can you see people that love fishing enjoying typing data into websites? Let's take a leaf from gaming — people love stats and achievements!

Sadly it was canned. Boo hiss! I've been meaning to write this eulogy since then.

Alas ye online fishing diary, put aside before you truly had a chance to shine.

Labels: design, government, UX, web, work

• The chance for comments is gone. Shame, 0 is never enough.

Late night career musings

Here’s a photo of me yesterday, taking notes for a job application. In true style I procrastinated until the last minute and consequently am awake here at 4 am having just emailed my application, resume and other attached documents.

I am applying for a position of "Analyst programmer" with the local shire council. Thus the career musings. I think my explanations in the cover letter describe it best:

This is an unusual application for me. Currently, and for the past 7 years, I have worked web and information management roles in the Queensland Government (Brisbane). I have a well established reputation there, within the web sector, and a higher wage than this position offers (approximately $70,000 pa).

You may think it strange I would apply for this position. It is temporary, it is lower pay, and I will need to rebuild my reputation from scratch. All of this is true, and yet there are reasons I wish to pursue this avenue for my career.

Foremost, I live in the shire and working locally would save over 10 hours per week in travel time. Time I could better spend with my growing family—my wife and I have three kids and are expecting our fourth later this year—or on pursuits of personal interest. The distance also limits my participation in simple things like flexing, overtime and even social activities. We believe the family budget can be managed—this option is not without some financial gains (almost $2000 pa in commuting costs)—and I think it worthwhile to build a career here.

Furthermore, my observations of web development in Queensland Government have given me cause to doubt it as a long term career for me. The web is relatively new and the industry lacks people with long experience in web—nobody has spent thirty or forty years (an entire career) mastering the web. Appreciation of the web medium remains low, and positions at all levels routinely suffer from a deficit in skilled applicants. Limited professional development is on offer, and I find increasingly few options for advancement that do not lead to management. All of this fosters a culture that frequently inhibits the pursuit of innovation with web technology.

I wish to be involved in developing products of the calibre that differentiates us (be it shire or state) from our competitors: utilising tools and technologies to produce solutions that make life easier (even small ways make a difference). That is no longer happening in my current job.

I have hopes that this position offers such an opportunity: working in an established discipline where quality practices are well understood and pursued with great diligence. From the structure of the Technology Services Unit (in the PD), it is obvious there is room for career advancement; without sacrificing a love of technical work for purely managerial duties. I am firmly committed to pursuing a professional and technical career. I believe in good management, I just believe that technical people are needed to fill technical roles. It is still relatively early in my career, perhaps my attitudes on this will change over time. For now, I wish my duties to remain technical.

My experience is primarily in web design and development, tempered with an understanding of programming, information management and visual design disciplines. It is what I enjoy and what I can bring to your team. Web technology is rapidly merging with traditional IT tools and services and I believe my strong skills in that area would be asset for this position. Naturally I hope you agree, and look forward to discussing further in an interview.

Now, on the off chance someone from work reads this and is offended (sounds like a good reason to get my blog blocked!) let me just say that everyone I’ve had the fortune to work with has been dedicated to their work, and worked hard. Not to the exclusion of having a life (most of you!) Regardless, this is how I feel about our industry. Do you feel differently? Maybe I just felt it was time for a career limiting post like this ;)

Anyhow, my application is in. Wish me luck! Last time I got offered a job (well, a secondment), my branch rejected it. I could use a little extra luck this time.

And now I need what sleep I can grab. Hope today is not stressful. At least I’ve had breakfast already! ;)

Labels: work

•  Andrew said:

  Good luck! You'll make a very good programmer. And if you have to work with .NET, then at least you'll be able to fix its standards-broken components ;)
  PS You will be sorely missed.

•  Andrew said:

  This the OTHER Andrew.
  
  Congratulations on the decision and I hope it goes well.
  
  :-)

•  googly said:

  It is only the Nice that makes you think everyone you encounter at work is diligent. If that were true, I doubt you'd be looking to get out. I think there's too little care in our field, and that's what gets me down.
  
  There's always a career back in govt for you if you can learn to sit in a room, nod, say "Microsoft;Enterprise;Server;Portal" all separately (like meta keywords) and sound like you mean it.
  
  Your blog is blocked where I work!
  
  Sorry for the mostly cynical comment. For your and your family's sake, I hope it goes exceedingly well.
  
  [ Blogger - let me use <cite/>! ]

•  Julie said:

  You're hired! A very well written letter, and you are not wrong in what you say :)
  
  Very best of luck Ben (as much as it pains me to say it), I hope you get the job. I am being selfish :) and we will all miss you heaps if you leave state government...but hey...we might be able to grab a cab voucher and have a coffee meeting eh?

• The chance for comments is gone. Shame, 4 is never enough.

Remember the Nice!

What is the Nice!? I am not sure myself. I think it is like “the Matrix” in that noone can be told what it is. It's a phrase used on me at work, and I think it relates to the practice of being polite and courteous when trying to shift others' perceptions. The way it's said, I suspect some people would rather I took a sterner approach.

But I'm with everclear on this one: too many haters. Today I had a chance to remember the Nice! once more. I recently sold a baby monitor on ebay, mistakenly talking up its abilities as an intercom. I thought the parent unit (receiver) had a talk button that could be used to talk to the baby monitor (transmitter). Turns out that button is on the transmitter. Why? Makes no sense.

Well the buyer isn't happy but hopefully I have smoothed things over. Perhaps they will remember the Nice! when they reply. Perhaps we should all remember to be nice.

Labels: ebay, everclear, nice, work

• The chance for comments is gone. Shame, 0 is never enough.