I budgeted wrong and used all of my social energy up on Monday, day 1 of this 5 day conference.
Feeling fancy that my agenda for today involves lunch in London and dinner in Paris. The rest of my agenda involves spending the entire weekend on trains, to get from Fife to Sevilla for W3C TPAC. Pretty sure I'm not going to be able to fit in any meals tomorrow at all.)
First terrible mistake of the trip: getting the time of my eurostar wrong. Realised in time to not miss it, but not in time to eat the delicious lunch I'd just ordered at Thenga which I'd been looking forward to since I woke up at 5 ;_;
Bread and butter pudding at the Community Kitchen. Summer fruit jelly at home, with the leftovers from bottling.
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Bottled the absurd amount of produce from the garden. Tomatoes, courgette. The blackcurrants have been waiting in the freezer for the apples - made gallons of compote.
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A few days in Birmingham with the co-operators. Good food, good people. More work to do, always work to do.
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Looking for hallway decor inspiration in Rejects. Patching up the inside of the cupboards with plaster and R's help.
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Five days in Sevilla for TPAC. Reconnecting with old friends and colleagues, and making new ones. I didn't do much touristing, but did manage to find decent vegan tapas. An exhausting but worthwhile week.
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Despite the hiccup in Gibraltar, I managed to get to Malaga in time for the 7 hour train to Barcelona. This ran late, quickly eating up 25 of the 31 minutes I had to catch the last train to Cardedeu. Barcelona Sants is huge, and I had no idea where to go; Renfe staff were no help at all. I did a bunch of research on the station to work out where the regional trains were likely to be, and decided I get a taxi to Cardedeu rather than sleep in the station or walk into town for a very expensive hostel. Off the train, dodging slow pullers of suitcases, I saw no signs to the regional trains, and had to pause to ask someone. I sprinted in the direction pointed, to be met by a wall of ticket barriers, too robust to climb over or squeeze through. My interrail pass never opens barriers, and there were no staff in sight. Fortunately a nice lady let me tailgate behind her. I continued to run, unable to see the train I was expecting on a screen, but aware it was an R2 (but there are 3 R2 lines, all going to different places, and I didn't know the end destination). I saw a train that was a candidate, ran down the wrong stairs, back up again, down the right stairs, determined it was my train as it began to pull away.... I kept running in desperation, onto the platform... and it stopped. And opened the doors. Eternal thanks to that driver, and thank goodness this thing is run by human beings and not computers. So I made it to Cardedeu to stay with B, very late, and woke up E. But it was wonderful to see B. The next day we had coffee, walked around the town, and got tasty food from a market stall. And then I set off again. Back to Sants for a train to Latour de Carol. This train was slow, winding through beautiful mountains. A busker in the carriage made it feel like a dream. The journey reminded me of my 2013 interrail through Austria. The night train to Paris was waiting, and I found my bunk straight away. Another great train sleep. Another walk across Paris, this time in torrential rain. My Eurostar was delayed by an hour and a half. Thank goodness for LNER being flexible about interrail passes. I made it to Edinburgh about three quarters of an hour later than expected, which is not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
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Chocolate chip raspberry muffins at the Community Kitchen. Seitan pepperoni for pizza. Acquired some vegan cheese, so had some exciting toasted wraps on my new grill pan. Had a handful of raspberries and blueberries from the garden, so I put them in scones. Processed a load of other berries into mixed fruit compote.
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Prince coming up in Ravenscraig Park, but the slugs got them before I could. A little flush of oysters in the oyster woods, in defiance of dryness and heatweave.
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The journey to TPAC begins. An early train from Edinburgh to London, Eurostar to Paris, then an afternoon of wandering around Paris in the scorching sun. Cake at Cloud Cakes, and dinner and supplies from Land & Monkeys. I had to walk from Nord to Austerlitz station, but had many hours to do it in. I wandered along the Seine, and found a sculpture park, and platforms by the water with people dancing. After dark I waited in Austerlitz, for the night train to Toulouse. The night train was way more comfortable than I expected. The bed was comfy, the temperature in the cabin was perfect, my cabinmates were silent, and the train sounds were very soothing. Better night's sleep than I'd have had in a hotel in Toulouse, if I'd taken a fast train earlier. Definitely recommend. From Toulouse I took a local train to Narbonne, and then from Narbonne the long distance Renfe train to Madrid. I'd hoped to reserve a seat on the next available train from Madrid to Seville and arrive at a reasonable time, but after being passed between three different Renfe ticket offices (after taking a number and waiting in line each time) I was told that the next available train wasn't until 8pm. So I waited for three hours, and arrived after midnight. At least I made it.
The ferry from Tanger to Tarifa arrived quite late. In my wisdom, I decided to get the FRS bus from Tarifa to Algeciras because it's included with the ferry ticket... but that left very late too. Then I got lost in Algeciras (which as a whole did not leave a good impression on me) between the port and the bus station, and missed two buses to La Linea, setting be back even further. The bus I did finally catch from Algeciras was fast, and the walk from the bus station at La Linea to the border is short and straightforward. There were no crowds or lines. When I got to the hostel I had to wait around for someone to arrive to let me in. So my whole prospective afternoon in Gibraltar was gone, alas. I went for a wander, and stopped for motivational ice cream. I was trying to work out whether I should take the cable car to the top of the Rock (expensive) and walk down (dark soon?), or if I should just walk up in the morning (is it accessible? How long would it take?). Taxi drivers trying to sell tours to the top insisted that walking up was impossible, which if anything made me more determined to try it. I did agree with them that the cable car pricing is extortionate, however. And then it's another £20 on top of that to get into the nature reserve. Hmm. I approached the botanical gardens, which were open until sunset, but was accosted by a taxi driver trying to fill a car he already had a couple of takers for. In the moment, still undecided about my itinerary and wanting to make best use of my very limited time, I conceded, and joined a French couple on the ride to the top (for 25eur). I'm glad I did. The taxi driver (Ryan) was lovely and related a little bit of history but more day-to-day life and economics of Gibraltar, all of which is new and interesting to me. He introduced us to some macaque friends, and we talked about Scotland as well. The ride took about an hour, and gave me a good preview of the top and convinced me that it was definitely climbable at sunrise the next day... He also pointed out that going up before 9 means I don't have to pay the entrance fee to the nature reserve. I had dinner at a slightly fancy place by the water, then ran to Morrisons in time to get supplies for my early morning adventure, before bed. I got back to the hostel to meet an aggressive cat, and find I was sharing my dorm only with one other person.
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I woke up early and climbed the Rock before sunrise. It was very doable! I went via the Moorish castle, and was high up on the west side by sunrise, but not over the top. Then I wound my way through the nature reserve, detouring around paths that looked interesting, and avoiding big roads, not that there was any traffic. I found the suspension bridge, but didn't cross it due to intimidating macaques whom I didn't not want to jump on my head over an enormous drop. The day got hotter and I met a few runners and nature reserve staff. There are some steep steps running straight down the middle in one area, linking various horizontal tracks together. Generally all of the tracks are very accessible, most are for vehicles. My route down was via the mediterranean steps, which was absolutely gorgeous. Over the east side of the Rock, it was suddenly quiet. The steps were scrambly and wild, and there were lots of caves. I got back down later than expected, and couldn't take a bus back to the town center because they didn't take card or give change! So I walked, fast, in time to check out from the hostel. I wanted brunch and a nice sit down at a tea shop, but decided realistically I needed to march straight back over the border to La Linea bus station. It's a good job I did, because I discovered that the bus I wanted to get to Malaga was full. Somehow not at all panicked, I jumped on the next bus back to Algeciras, and texted K to help me buy a ticket for the next Algeciras-Malaga bus in the meantime, in case that was full by the time I got there. Phew.
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More beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette... all I'm eating. Nice little escapees from my footpath garden in the local area..
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Arrived in Tanger at lunchtime. Got lost for an hour looking for my hostel in the old town. This got decreasingly fun as it was very hot and I was carrying my backpack, GPS wasn't working and I went around in many circles. Eventually I discovered the hostel was at the end of a street that was in the process of being dug up and I'd walked past it several times already. Feeling a bit claustrophobic in the old town, I had lunch (tagine) on the promenade, then wandered along to the beach, and into the main part of the city. Tanger is a lot bigger than I expected. I caught a tour bus outside the train station, and stayed on it for a ride out along the coast in the evening. I saw the sunset near Cap Spartel lighthouse, and stuck my head in Hercules' cave, which was packed full of tourists and junk. Dinner was couscous at a nice local-feeling-but-actually-had-lots-of-tourists-in restaurant (Ahlan) near the Grande Mosque. Hostel Riad is lovely.
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For a nice change of pace, it rained pretty heavily all day in Tanger. I visited the castle museum (mostly outside, so wet, and very small), wandered around Place 9 Avril between showers. Stopped for bissara at a place called bissara which only serves bissara after walking round the block several times to work up to it. It was a tiny very local place, so I observed for a while to see what the sitting/ordered etiquette seemed to be, and had to wait for a table to free up as well. Despite initial anxiety, I managed to eat bissara (white bean breakfast soup) and bread and Moroccan tea and that all filled me up for the entire day afterwards. For about £1. I enjoyed the American Legation Museum, and learnt a lot of history I didn't know. I was very inspired by the Ibn Battouta museum, which is well worth the visit. I got on the tour bus when I spotted it with the ticket I already had, and rode it for most of the route despite wet seats. Jumped off at Cafe Hafa for coffee and managed not to get rained on too much. Wandered until I found the Roman ruins, which was mostly just a really good viewpoint where lots of people were taking selfies. Managed to catch the bus back into town. Rain was tapering off by the evening, so I went for a wander in the old town, and decided to have dinner based on where I happened to pop out. This took me to a Syrian place called Abou Tayssir which was incredible, especially the kibbeh. And lovely vibes.
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I went to the beach to catch the sunrise, but apparently this is a weird thing to do as lots of people were asking where I was going and I got weird looks when I sat down. I returned to the hostel for breakfast, and there I met two lovely people who became my friends and travel companions that day. We wandered in the old town, then caught the tour bus to Cap Spartel. This time we went into the grounds and museum which had lots of interesting lighthouse and historical information (albeit all in French). There were lovely gardens, and extremely expensive juice. We walked to the beach and the rock of Hercules, before hopping on the tour bus back. Back in town, we went straight to Abou Tayssir and ordered everything vegan on the menu between us and had a fantastic time. Socialised some more in the hostel with lots of Germans, before the three of us headed out again for tea in the old town, and watched the world go by. Meeting these two made a huge difference to my trip, and helped me to find a new perspective on Tanger!
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A relaxing final morning in Tanger. I had considered leaving much earlier, but my new friends kept me longer. We ate bissara, went to the market, and drank lots of tea in a quiet courtyard. A helped R with Arabic writing, and they both added something to a postcard to my Mum. I finally boarded the ferry back to Spain. It departed quite late.
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A night in Edinburgh, to catch the early train to London. Snuggled with my darling Tara.
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An evening bus from Sevilla to Tarifa; food and a wander around the small old town and onto a pitch black beach. As I approached the sea and heard the crashing of the waves, I almost cried. I can't believe how much I missed the sea after a week inland! The next day I went to see the same places again in daylight, and swam in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Tarifa is lovely, I'd come here again. Then I caught a ferry to Tanger.
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The Social Web CG meeting featured old faces and new. I hadn't looked at the agenda beforehand, and Evan seemed keen to focus on practical things and make it a working meeting. I think it's tricky to balance this at TPAC, where many curious observers without necessarily deep background sit in, and it's harder for the usual community members to attend (remote is an option, and technically anyone could just dial in, but it's theoretically gated behind a registration, which again, has an option to ask for the fee to be waived, but does imply that most people should have a paid ticket). It turned out that the audio in the room was not great too, so remote participants had trouble taking part. I minuted it here. Some of the interactions gave me a tight-chested panicky feeling, a throwback to five or more years ago when I was deeply involved in this space, emotionally invested, and having a hard time dealing with all of the conflict. Time constraints aside, I'm hesitant to get more than peripherally involved again for this reason, though I do want to see the work progress. Thoughts about rechartering the Social WG have been floating around for a while, and we had the first minuted conversation about it. There is a lot of enthusiasm for it from the W3C side - it would be a shame to lose the momentum currently in the fediverse, when we could use it to fix up at least the ActivityPub standard. Meanwhile there's a diversity of projects and spinoffs in a community that's so large I can't keep up, and people there are naturally worried about being excluded. I think this is a combination of people who weren't around for the first time, and see it as an exclusive group that only reps of large companies can be involved with, along with people who were there for the first time round and had some bad experiences with the difficult group dynamics, and are not keen to see that repeated. Personally, I'm not opposed to a WG rechartering, but I'm not strongly advocating for it either. I carry the concern of the latter group, and take seriously the worries about exclusion. W3C process can be completely opaque to most people, and even when they are inclusive on paper (eg. Invited Experts don't need to be part of a W3C member company) this opaqueness as well as tribal knowledge and strongly held assumptions by "insiders" can similarly cause exclusion. To mitigate this, I think it's safe to charter a continuation of the Social Web WG when we have: A tightly scoped charter, focussed on "maintenance" of (errata and clarifications) the ActivityPub and ActivityStreams 2.0 specifications alone. A set of criteria for selection of two or three co-chairs of the group (see eg. this self-review draft from csarven). The W3C Team ultimately nominates chairs, but we can make recommendations to them, and I'd advocate for their decision making process and rationale to be completely transparent. A set of criteria which Invited Experts should meet. We should enable people who have stewarded communities and moderated instances in the fediverse or similar to participate, as well as current implementers, and implementers who plan to integrate AP into exisiting software in future. We should make the criteria as open and inclusive as possible so we have a meaningfully diverse set of voices in the group; and it will also help us to transparently justify every group participant, and help others understand the perspective each person brings. A clear process for individuals to self-nominate as IEs. Ultmiately the chair(s) decide who can join as an IE, and it's always a worry that they approve people they know and reject people they don't. If we have a clear set of criteria, then people who are not known to someone on the "inside" can apply on solid ground and feel secure that their application is considered on its own merits. A clear participation process. We should know when a meeting is "quorate", how we make decisions (in more detail than "consensus"), and enable async participation in decision-making as much as possible. A clear, documented line of communication/coordination between the WG and the CG. There will certainly be membership overlap, but someone(s) explicitly responsible for feeding information in each direction will be important. It typically takes ages to get a WG chartered, although I think there's a sense in W3C that this could happen (relatively) quickly for the Social Web, as it's a continuation of an existing group. The biggest impediment are the hangups in the community, old and new, and the emotional reactions people have when they're in disagreement. I get it - I've been there, and still have the scars - but ultimately a majority of potential participants are striving for the same goal, and I really hope there's enough unity in that. Many of us have been burnt, or burned out, but it's a different world now than it was in 2016-2018. We can do things differently. The disagreements are broadly between people who are doing work as well, who all have opinions and experiences that should be weighted heavily. I understanding wanting to just get stuff done but the price of this shouldn't be ignoring people with a different perspective. I understand having serious concerns, but these can and should be a constructive way of improving the situation for everyone, not stop-energy or a weapon. I hope we can slow down just enough to hear each other, but not so much that we spin our wheels forever. It's a tricky line to walk. I don't know how involved I'll be. I've already borne witness to public and private blowups about this in the week since the meeting and I don't have a place for that energy in my life. On the other hand, if we can get some more cooperative and inclusive dynamics in place, I'd be more inclined to spend some time.
Social Web Incubator Community Group - face-to-face meeting at TPAC 2023
The sound of The News is so distinctive (at least UK TV and radio but I think it's pretty universal) and after having avoided it diligently for some years now whenever I hear it in passing I get such a visceral horror reaction.
Stuck in Madrid for three hours longer than planned/ideal. I couldn't make the reservation that needs to go with the interrail pass for the Madrid-Sevilla train except in-person (myself - tried to send agents in advance, no go) at the station. After standing in line at two different renfe ticket offices before being told "not this ticket office" I waited for 30 minutes at the third to be told the last seat on the 5pm train went to the person in line before me. I blame the massiveness of Madrid station. So my only next option was first class on the 1958, which gets me in way past my bed time. Alas. At least first class was only 3eur extra. And I have discovered that there are free toilets after the baggage security check. The WiFi at Rodilla cafe near platform 15 works, and the nice person at Rodilla filled my water bottle with ice cold water for me.
I was on the fence about attending TPAC right from when the idea first entered my head, to the journey there. I'm glad I went though. It was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and colleagues from the web standards world, and to meet some wonderful new people as well. The covid precautions taken by the organisers reassured me a lot. It was a four to five hundred person conference, with attendees from all over the world. In spite of relaxed standards taken across most of the rest of the world at this point, we stayed masked, ate outside, and they handed out as many tests as people needed to encourage testing every day. I know a few people who tested positive early on, and attended remotely from their hotel rooms; I hope everyone was so considerate. Last I heard there were a handful of cases reported, and a week later I've avoided it. While wearing masks during a heatwave in Spain for five days running was uncomfortable, I'm glad these were the requirements and I think it was worthwhile. I probably wouldn't have attended without this. The food was rubbish though; apparently consistently for everyone, not only the vegans :) The first two days were the most exhausting, and I used up pretty much all of my energy upfront. I attended the Social CG meeting. I went to the AC meeting, and sat on stage for a TAG panel. I was anxious about this the whole time, as I had carefully arranged my life to avoid public speaking since I left academia, and don't do well thinking on the spot in front of a crowd. Fortunately none of the questions were about anything I had a strong opinion on, so nobody was expecting to hear from me in particular. I didn't attend many breakouts as I had a few co-op meetings to fit in. I did join the Privacy Task Force breakout, which was a completely packed room, and a surprisingly (sorry, perhaps I'm too cynical) positive discussion. Seems like we're on a good track with the Privacy Principles (though much editorial work remains that I'm on the hook for but not on top of). At various points I sat in on the RDF Canonicalization and Verifiable Credentials WG meetings. I'm a bit out of the loop, and these meetings were not quite enough to get back into it, but tensions seem high as various pieces of work near completion. I felt like everyone in that room is well overdue a holiday. In between all of this I spent time in the "hallway track", having excellent conversations. I was so happy I got to spend time with half of the TAG (Dan, Hadley, Tess, Sangwhan, Lea); as well as Evan, Tantek, Arnaud, Brent, Joe, Juan, Michiel, Amy, Sam, ... ; and Dmitri and Manu however briefly. I also made some amazing new connections, including Lola, Elena, and a bunch of people from Igalia who I was keen to talk about co-ops with. There were plenty of people there I wish I could have managed to see more of, too. It was an intense week, and I haven't really looked at my email since, but I suspect I have a lot of things to follow up on. I took the scenic route back, via Morocco and Gibraltar, in an attempt to decompress before my whole-co-op meeting next week...
Unexpectedly amazing sleep on the Paris to Toulouse night train. Probably because I tired myself out stomping randomly around Paris all afternoon. But comfortable couchette, silent co-passengers, dark berth, reasonable AC and soothing train noises certainly helped!
Went to W3C TPAC onseveral trains. Didn't do much touristing in Sevilla. Fit Co-op work in the gaps. Headed to Tarifa, then on to Tangier. Spent a rainy day of touristing in Tangier.
Had a lovely day of touristing in Tanger with new friends followed by a restful morning before the ferry back to Spain and buses onwards to Gibraltar. Climbed the Rock of Gibraltar at sunrise. Then got back on buses and trains, to Barcelona then Cardedeu to see B. Another one and a half days of trains, a brief stop by the Prewired 10 year anniversary celebration, and home. Finished A Fire Upon The Deep. Harvested the garden.. Swam in the sea. Tried to catch up on life.. Dad and Ruth came.
Week two off work. Dramatic skies. A trip to Linlithgow market, and theatre and dinner in Glasgow. Removed the builtin hallway cupboards, finally, but the person who asked for them changed their mind after actually bothering to measure their space, so now they're taking up space in the stairwell >:( R helped me to plaster the gaps. Harvested... and resorted to fermenting everything. Made chocolate raspberry cakes at the Community Kitchen; seitan pepperoni at home for pizza; raspberry and blueberry scones; a ton of summer fruit compote.
Week in review: 28th August - 3rd September
A few oysters but no ceps yet. Made bread and butter pudding at the Community Kitchen, and fruit jelly at home. Braw sunrises and walkies with Max. Headed Edinburgh to stay with Tara for the beginning of my trip to Spain for TPAC.
A trip to Linlithgow market, mainly to eat delicious food from The Tiffin, but also to enjoy the lovely weather by the lake. Lowenna turned up eventually, but not long before I had to leave. On to Glasgow to see The Ocean at the End of the Lane in the theatre (my first ever theatre trip!) and then a magnificent fancy dinner with F and M.
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