Most of the last two weeks has been drafting my POSTnote, interspersed with my last few interviews and some events. Combined with fighting off a cold, it's been pretty hectic, but I've sent my note off to internal review now, so I can finally write up what I've been doing!
Week 7
I spent most of this week putting the initial draft together and reading about the new EU data protection regulation. I went up to York for a big data masterclass with the intention to interview the speaker after the event, but he became unavailable at the last minute. Luckily the talk was useful, and gave me some good case studies. I also managed to meet my sister for lunch and filled the gap when the interview would have been with coffee with a friend, so it wasn't all bad!
It also appears big data is seeping into everyone else's consciousness too, as one of my friends posted a link about someone trying to avoid companies finding out about her pregnancy. An interesting article and illustrates a lot of what I have discovered during my time here.
When a new group of fellows starts, POST hold meetings where each fellow gets the chance to speak for 5 minutes on the topic of their note and what they will be covering, with 5 minutes afterwards for questions if people have them. These are good for pointing out areas that might have been overlooked, or duplicated. With only 4 pages, the last thing you need is to duplicate information written in someone else's note! Because of this, I have spent a while working out the best way to link the "Big Data in Social Media" note with mine.
Week 7 finished with a trip to the city (my first) with an interview in the Willis building followed by a late finish discussing my first draft with Lydia.
Week 8
Mon
Another bank holiday Monday spent on my bicycle was a great start to the week.
Tues
I went to an event at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council on the topic of big data in business. This was a great opportunity to hear from the research councils about what they are offering businesses to help them use their own data or access research data. I spent most of the breaks re-working the comments Lydia and I had discussed into my draft.
Wed
My day of re-drafting was broken up with an opportunity to go to Prime Minister's Question time - this was a great experience! The commons is much smaller than it seems on television, so the atmosphere can get quite rowdy and it seems like a school teacher calming the student down when the speaker has to get involved. If you want to go, you just need to write to your MP for tickets, but they are usually booked months in advance.
In the afternoon, Lydia and I had a really useful interview with a data protection lawyer, hearing his perspective on businesses' use of personal data.
Thurs
I went to a Westminster e-forum on the topic of data protection in the UK and EU - I learnt a lot about the new EU regulation that has been proposed and views from businesses and regulators on the effects of it coming into force. I then spent the afternoon trying to re-shuffle the structure of my note to introduce all the information on data protection that I had learnt about over the past few days.
On Thursday evenings, the fellows tend to head for the sports and social bar in the palace of Westminster. With training, I never seem to end up there, but today I made my first trip! I went from this to a "Women in the Media" event organised by Jesus College celebrating the introduction of women into the college 40 years ago. It was interesting to hear views on how things have changed (or not!) in the industry over the that time, as science in the media is a possible future option for me...
Fri
Today I finally had my tour of Parliament! It was really informative: I learnt so much about the history that I didn't know before. I would encourage people to go on one: you just need to contact your MP and they can book you on to a free tour. We then had our second session of fellows talks and then I spent the rest of the day working on my draft, getting it into a reasonable state ready to send to internal review at the end of Monday.
Week 7
I spent most of this week putting the initial draft together and reading about the new EU data protection regulation. I went up to York for a big data masterclass with the intention to interview the speaker after the event, but he became unavailable at the last minute. Luckily the talk was useful, and gave me some good case studies. I also managed to meet my sister for lunch and filled the gap when the interview would have been with coffee with a friend, so it wasn't all bad!
It also appears big data is seeping into everyone else's consciousness too, as one of my friends posted a link about someone trying to avoid companies finding out about her pregnancy. An interesting article and illustrates a lot of what I have discovered during my time here.
When a new group of fellows starts, POST hold meetings where each fellow gets the chance to speak for 5 minutes on the topic of their note and what they will be covering, with 5 minutes afterwards for questions if people have them. These are good for pointing out areas that might have been overlooked, or duplicated. With only 4 pages, the last thing you need is to duplicate information written in someone else's note! Because of this, I have spent a while working out the best way to link the "Big Data in Social Media" note with mine.
Week 7 finished with a trip to the city (my first) with an interview in the Willis building followed by a late finish discussing my first draft with Lydia.
Week 8
Mon
Another bank holiday Monday spent on my bicycle was a great start to the week.
Tues
I went to an event at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council on the topic of big data in business. This was a great opportunity to hear from the research councils about what they are offering businesses to help them use their own data or access research data. I spent most of the breaks re-working the comments Lydia and I had discussed into my draft.
Wed
My day of re-drafting was broken up with an opportunity to go to Prime Minister's Question time - this was a great experience! The commons is much smaller than it seems on television, so the atmosphere can get quite rowdy and it seems like a school teacher calming the student down when the speaker has to get involved. If you want to go, you just need to write to your MP for tickets, but they are usually booked months in advance.
In the afternoon, Lydia and I had a really useful interview with a data protection lawyer, hearing his perspective on businesses' use of personal data.
Thurs
I went to a Westminster e-forum on the topic of data protection in the UK and EU - I learnt a lot about the new EU regulation that has been proposed and views from businesses and regulators on the effects of it coming into force. I then spent the afternoon trying to re-shuffle the structure of my note to introduce all the information on data protection that I had learnt about over the past few days.
On Thursday evenings, the fellows tend to head for the sports and social bar in the palace of Westminster. With training, I never seem to end up there, but today I made my first trip! I went from this to a "Women in the Media" event organised by Jesus College celebrating the introduction of women into the college 40 years ago. It was interesting to hear views on how things have changed (or not!) in the industry over the that time, as science in the media is a possible future option for me...
Fri
Today I finally had my tour of Parliament! It was really informative: I learnt so much about the history that I didn't know before. I would encourage people to go on one: you just need to contact your MP and they can book you on to a free tour. We then had our second session of fellows talks and then I spent the rest of the day working on my draft, getting it into a reasonable state ready to send to internal review at the end of Monday.
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