I write these pieces every 6 months, usually for the Centre for Social Informatics’ all-centre meetings. (I’m usually incapable of speech by the time it’s my turn to report.[1]) Click this link to see all the pieces in this series.

Academic/Napier

en route	Platform to Platform, investigating changes in reactions to a historical diary as it moves from a textual platform to an audio platform (podcasts). Podcast-creation is effectively complete; podcasts were launched at an event in May. (Mastering and adding sound design are in progress). Empirical data-gathering will be complete by the time this post is published. By the end of July I will have completed analysis and written a full project report, a basis for public outputs. Scheduled outputs include a presentation to the Archives and Records Association conference and a round-table at the BBC at 100 Symposium. I’m PI; Hazel Hall and Iain McGregor are Co-Is. Podcast production and website work were undertaken by 3rd-year students Alex Gencs, David Graham, James McLachlan, Andras Peter, and Michael Suttie.
en route	Heritage organisations and podcasts: scoping study, investigating the research landscape on the role of podcasts in the work of heritage organisations. This is the flip-side of Platform to Platform, which is investigating the impact of heritage podcasts on listeners. Data-gathering and analysis are in progress; a project report will be completed by the end of July. I’m PI; Hazel Hall and Iain McGregor are Co-Is; Marianne Wilson is researcher.
en route	Information Literacy Impact Framework, reviewing relevant literature to create a framework of information literacy impact. We’ve completed literature searches and delivered an interim report. Final reading and report-writing will be complete by the end of July. I’m Co-I; Peter Cruickshank is PI; Marina Milosheva is researcher.
en route	Animation and games legacy collection of Scotland, addressing gaps in the documentation of the Scottish animation, visual effects and games sectors. Interviews have been undertaken and analysed; design of a website and report-writing will be complete by the end of July. I’m web-weaver/Co-I; Jon Mortimer is PI; Ingi Helgason is Co-I.
en route	Community Councils online 2022, surveying community councils’ online presences. This follows up on the 2012 and 2014 surveys. Data has been gathered; cleansing, analysis and output writing are in progress. I’m Co-I; Peter Cruickshank is PI; two MSc students gathered data.
Success	MSc supervision. Three of the five Business School MSc students mentioned last time chose to submit in April rather than December 2021, but one withdrew for personal reasons. The two who submitted passed. I’m still curious why supervisors mark their own students’ dissertations in this programme.
en route	Information avoidance and diabetes. Despite a lot of help from Hazel and very helpful anonymous internal reviews, my first attempt at a paper was not accepted for ISIC (Berlin, September), so we are now aiming for publication in Health Information and Libraries Journal. Gemma Webster is PI; I’m researcher.

Non-academic

Success	Minutes secretary and web-weaver for 3 Edinburgh community councils: Leith Central, Leith Harbour and Newhaven, New Town & Broughton
Success	£eithChooses participatory budgeting: publishing, IT, web, admin, working with Edinburgh Council to enable online voting. We are now trying to work out how to combine in-person and online voting.
Success	Community Councils Together on Trams: taking minutes and asking important impertinent questions
en route	Still trying to get through probate for my late mother. Dealing with the part of her estate that she received from my father is seems to be making progress; the part that she left in trust for my sister is arse-grindingly slow and complex.
anticipated	My wife and I have still not had our cycling holiday to a hobbit-house in the Netherlands. (It was planned for April 2020!) However, covid, Brexit and my legs permitting, in August we’ll cycle from IJMuiden to Kiel, take a ferry to Oslo, spend a couple of days with a friend, take the ferry back to Kiel, take a train from Kiel to Osnabrück or to Düsseldorf. We’ll then have three days to cycle at least 170 miles back to IJMuiden, although once we are in the Netherlands, wimping onto trains should be easier.
Failure – but maybe not my fault	In September 2020, it became possible to ‘re-acquire’ the Austrian citizenship I would have inherited from my mother if she kept her own. (She was born Jewish in in Vienna in 1930, and only just escaped in 1938.) I’ve just not had (made?) the time to apply yet. However, I am getting lessons in Austrian-accented spoken German from Kerstin Steiner.

The main barrier to all of the above is ongoing can’t-be-arsed-itis.

[1] by Dorothy Parker

I wish I could drink like a lady
I can take one or two at the most
Three and I’m under the table
Four and I’m under the host.