Week 2 at POST

Mon

After my first weekend making the most of being in London: an amazing trip to “Matilda” at the theatre on Saturday and finding a cyclingclub on Sunday, I headed in for my second week at POST.

On arrival, I discovered a flurry of e-mails confirming that Lydia and I would be interviewing some academics from Warwick Business School tomorrow at 10am! I arranged to meet with Lydia to discuss what questions we would plan to ask. I’m quite glad I had my first interview alongside someone else, acting as a nice stepping stone! I spent a while researching the expertise of the academics, so I knew what the best thing to ask them about would be. After discussion with Lydia, we knew what the main questions we wanted to ask were, and because I’d looked up their research, I was responsible for asking them about that.

I also had a go at drafting my scoping document, although I was planning on waiting until after the interview to finalise what was going to go in to my POSTnote. The scoping document is a one page summary that you send out to interviewees, giving them an idea about what you want to cover in your note and therefore an indication about what you might want to ask them.

After finding out about a Big Data Masterclass in York, I sent a few e-mails and managed to arrange an interview with the speaker once the masterclass had finished. Two interviews booked already!

Computing Summit are holding a Big Data Summit on Thursday in London which I’m going along to, so I looked at the list of speakers to see who I would like to speak to.

Alongside this, next week is “Heritage Week” in the Houses, so I had a look at which of the events we might go along to.

Tues

There was no need for me to be nervous about my first interview! Both of the academics were extremely talkative and helpful. Lydia and I learnt a lot and the conversation really helped to give me an idea about what might go into my note. I then had to write up my scribbled notes so that they can be saved officially on the SPIRE database. This means that anyone in the future can look and see who you’ve spoken to and what was discussed.

Instead of eating lunch with the other POST fellows today, I went over to a restaurant on the estate and met a friend who knows people who are working for MPs.

After lunch, I met with Lydia to discuss my scope, and we decided that instead of focussing on one sector, the note might follow a story of the lifetime of a product, and how big data can influence the process at each stage. After our conversation with the Warwick academics, we decided that the financial services should be included.

I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing writing up the interview and searching the parliamentary records for any mention of big data, high performance computing and storecards! This is so we can see what issues parliamentarians are discussing, and therefore what they might want to hear about in the note.

Wed

I finished my first draft of my scope today and sent it off to Lydia for a read through. I then spent the rest of the day finding more details about different companies using big data and trying to get contact details from those who might be interesting to talk to. Moving from the area of academia, where you can find someone’s e-mail address very easily, I soon discovered that finding contact details for industry members is next to impossible!!
I spent my Wed evening at the Science Museum "Lates" - I saw a science comedy show and had a great time playing on the exhibits with some friends from Oxford. I will definitely be going back!

Thurs

On Thursday I went to the Hilton Tower Bridge for the Computing Big Data Summit. This was a great event for me to go to, as the range of speakers gave me an overview to the potential applications and the challenges faced by a variety of businesses. I used every break to meet as many people as possible, collecting a lot of business cards and e-mail addresses! This gave me a nice list of potential interviewees who I could send my scope on to.

Fri

I began by updating my contact list with all the contacts I’d made the day before. I then was able to assess the list, dividing the people up into people I can and want to contact, those who I would love to talk to but can’t get information for, and those who actually might not fit into the scope of the note.

I met with Lydia and Abbi to discuss the latest version of my scope, and had a discussion about the areas that might be covered by other notes, and also who I had met on Thursday who might be interesting for other people to talk to.

I also booked a tour to go up Big Ben next week! The tours start at the bottom of the tower, and get you to the top just in time to hear the “bongs” by the bells. I’m booked onto the 11:15 tour – so maximum bongs!!

After 2 weeks at POST, I’m having a great time - massive thanks to the EPSRC for giving me the opportunity. It’s interesting to be researching a completely new area, and seeing how broad the applications of using big data really can be. This weekend, I’m off to BeFitLondon: a women’s fitness event which should be fun!