Hopes and Fears

First Some Context

Power to Change is funding my time to work for Solidaritech and build usage, uptake and functionality of our SolidCRM. As part of that work we’re also being taken on an interesting journey towards ‘Open Working’, which as I understand it is a pretty radical approach to doing more, if not all, of your work in the open.

Giles Turnbull worked for the Government Digital Service (GDS), a part of the Civil Service which carried out the huge task of rationalising and centralising the thousands of government websites that existed in the 2010s. This isn’t all that they did, they did huge amounts of work to change the culture and practices of the whole civil service too. And this amounted to Open Working. Obviously the competition isn’t hugely high, but I do think that this is genuinely the best thing that the government have done in the last fifteen years.

Now Actual Thing

So based on the above, and the idea of dipping into the whole ‘Open Working’ concept I wanted to jot down some of the concerns I have about taking this new approach. Appropriately, or perhaps inappropriately, I wanted to do this in the open.

When I was a Civil Servant — seven years spent in ‘The Regions’ — everything was a very long way away from the whole idea of Open Working. I spent a lot of my time then developing websites for the organisations I was working for, largely because they had very little else in terms of Web Native people. I think that back then, the idea of Open Working would have given lots of people palpitations. Since those heady days I’ve gone on to found a business — Totaal — and found a non-profit, Solidaritech.

So I’ve changed, things have changed, so this post is an attempt to work that through.

The Concerns

The Right to Privacy

At Solidaritech we work with migrants, generally Asylum Seekers or Refugees. Some, if not all, of these people are fleeing some sort of oppression or persecution, so it’s understandable that they want to have their right to privacy. So I want to start this off with a red line to say that this will not change. It’s part of our duty of care to our clients, many of whom are also volunteers, colleagues and friends.

Me, on the other hand, I’m fair game.

This Extends to The Team

I think this also applies to the people who work with me at Solidaritech. 60%+ of Solidaritech’s working hours are carried out by people with lived experience of the migrant journey, with all of that entails. Also, we are humans and humans do *go through stuff*. We all do.

I’ve committed to this thing though, so you’ll be hearing from me, I’ll just keep my team out of it for the time being.

Do People Really Want to See How The Sausage Is Made?

This is a big concern of mine. Our project is about getting computers to vulnerable digitally excluded people, people with amazing stories that would tug on the heartstrings of even the most ardent brexiters if they heard them. But, as I’ve committed to their privacy we’re ultimately left with a white guy talking about computers. I have some concerns around how entertaining or enlightening that will be.

I’ll try and be as entertaining *and* enlightening as I can be, honestly I will, but I cant promise it will be laugh-a-minute. Sorry.

Resources, We Don’t Have Them

I don’t want to plead poverty here, but Solidaritech is a small thing. One of the things that jarred, and made me think of my time as a Civil Servant quite a lot, was the fact that our landscape is very different to that of a government department, even now, post-austerity. Solidaritech has been run on a shoestring since we formed in 2017. We wanted to make everything as sustainable as it could possibly be.

Practically this means that Solidaritech makes huge demands on both my time and my money. I could earn more money making websites for people, and I invariably work more than (perhaps double) the hours I am supposed to. It started as a passion project and it still is, in many ways.

So we don’t have “editors”, we don’t have a press team and we don’t have the time to construct fabulous diagrammatics of what we do. This blog will be simple, it’ll be pared down and it will probably have a fair few typos sitting alongside my torturous similes.

At Solidaritech it’s very rare that we’re doing one job. Our Technician doesnt just fiddle with computers, he works with volunteers, he translates Arabic to English and he gives tech advice. Sometimes he’s the delivery driver too, as am I.

Again, sorry. This extra resource will be drawn from my sometimes dry well.

Hoisted by Our Own Petard?

This one is all me, and relates to my own myriad neuroses. Honestly, I’m a very good actor, but at heart I am a neurotic nebbisher.

What we do at Solidaritech — we take donated technology, wipe it, reinstall an Operating System (OS), and then donate it out to digitally excluded people — is actually pretty innovative. We’re taking waste, things that would otherwise be recycled, thrown away or just be furniture, and we’re giving it to people who need it.

It’s not complicated, it’s mostly just kind, but if I’m committing to share my successes alongside my hopes and fears then I think that also has the potential to either a) annoy people, or b) to open us up to being imitated, or possibly even blown out of the water by a big, well resourced organisation that does what we do at scale.

So I think my resolution to this fear is that I should take the advice I wrote in my notes:

“Embrace the fears and learn from the mistakes”

I promise it says that :)