Week 5
Mon
Looking at my calender this week it appears very empty - most people are out of the office this week before Easter and so scheduling interviews has been a no-go.
I started the week by writing up the last of the interviews
from last week. I then made summaries and compared them with those from all the
other interviews: trying to see if I could draw patterns from what had been
said. In some way, I acted in the same way as the data scientists I've been
reading all about: collecting large amounts of data and then finding the
important trends. The final product is similar in both cases: presenting a lot
of information in a way that makes it accessible to non-specialists.
I also spent a while today looking into any regional
differences, as MPs are interested in what is going on in their constituencies,
any focus point on a particular area is worth mentioning. I then read through
some government documents: picking out new councils, initiatives, alliances and
clusters that might be relevant: so many buzz words!!
Tues
After finding all the government initiatives from the
documents, I then went about researching them to see whether they were actually
relevant, or if people from the organisations would be useful to speak to.
We then had a really useful Big Data meeting. As it is a new
concept to have a theme of POSTnotes, no-one really knows how to manage it. Now
the latest group of fellows have started, we have our full “Big Data team” and
so were able to discuss what was going into each of our notes to make sure that
we knew where overlap might occur and so who to keep in touch with when we
start writing.
I then had a meeting with two of the advisors to have a
think about the themes I’d found from the interviews and comparing these with
my original scope: coming up with a plan for how the note will shape up. This
was really useful, and it’s interesting to see what things we had thought would
be important actually aren’t and vice versa.
There are some really helpful documents in our shared drive
about how to write a POSTnote – from the technical use of Microsoft Word to
stylistic points. I used this afternoon to have a look through them to see how
to frame the information I've collected.
Wed
After reading a few articles in the last week in the Evening
standard about high frequency trading, I thought it might be useful to find out
more about the industry. After some reading and drowning in terminology, I
managed to find a useful blog post from PwC about the industry and its
regulation. I got in contact with the author and have arranged to meet him. The
hope is that after that I will know enough to be more informed as to whether it
goes in the note.
Today was obviously a day for people to organise things, so
I ended up finalising quite a few more interviews: from academics and industry.
I then used the new plan for my note to put together some questions that would
inform the structure. I also heard about a conference hosted by STFC, which is
aimed at linking small businesses with research councils working with Big Data,
so I've registered for that!
I then had a rather lazy afternoon: my mum was having a
meeting across the road, so we had some ice cream in the glorious lunchtime
sunshine! I got back from this just in time to catch the other fellows having a
mid-afternoon tea break on the terrace, and would have been rude not to join
them… I did, however, go back to my desk and do some more reading up on high
frequency trading, so I would be able to get the most out of my interview with
the financial expert next week.
Thurs
Maundy Thursday today, so it’s basically a Friday! The
office (and the rest of London) is pretty empty…
I spent some time this morning adding in my project and
contacts into the CRM database, allowing other people in POST to see who I have
contacted and what their area of expertise is. This is especially important for
those of us working on the big data theme, as it ensures we don’t contact the
same people twice. It also means we can read the interview notes if someone has
been contacted, and I spent the rest of the morning reading through some which
were relevant to me but had been carried out by other fellows.
I then had a really useful phone interview talking about the
use of Big Data in sport – an area which will make quite an interesting
addition to the “managing assets” part of my note.
As it’s the last day for one of the fellows, we had a
mid-afternoon trip to the pub round the corner: returning with enough time to
write up the interview and finish a few things off before the long weekend! As
some of the fellows have moved to London for the placement, they are heading
off all over the country for the weekend. I’m spending tomorrow in London
catching up with friends, before heading back up to Birmingham for the fencing
open on Sunday. I've also entered a cycling sportive for Monday – and I’m doing
that with one of the girls I met at Twickenham cycling club: it’s great that
just 5 weeks in London and I've already found people to cycle with!
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