making complicated things easy
Arrow keys or W and S to steer, space fires, Esc stops. On a phone, drag to steer and it fires while you touch.
I make complicated things easy. These days the complicated thing is owning your own data and algorithms.
I started in the dotcom days, building web systems that joined content, commerce and customer records. I moved to Free Software because it let me give small organisations what the large ones were paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for.
Most of that work was with Drupal. Along the way I helped councils start sharing their code, which became LocalGovDrupal, and I was the first director the community elected to the board of the Drupal Association.
What I am building now takes that further: shared tools that people use to shape their own lives, form their own groups and work together, built peer to peer so that each person can own their own data and algorithms. I am autistic and ADHD, and I am building it first for neurodivergent people like me.
The Sun and Moon symbols for today have not arrived yet.
Today's headline on BBC News: Schools, GPs and businesses hit by global Microsoft outage as company scrambles to solve issue, with problems reported in more than 70 countries.
This is why digital sovereignty is key. Everyone on Microsoft is like every truck in the world having the same key.
I think I heard Eben Moglen say that in a talk once, or some other Free Software luminary, perhaps Richard Stallman. I can't quite remember.
Steve is one of those few people you come across in your working career that is a pure pleasure to work with. Both technically and commercially savvy whilst being a true gent. I'm looking forward to a project where I can work with Steve again in the future!
Through a discussion with Steve I managed to cement a few ideas that had been running around my mind, slightly out of control. I recommend chatting to Steve if you are looking for direction - and actually if you aren't looking for direction, speak to him anyway because he'll probably inspire you.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Steve. His wide ranging knowledge of the industry is commendable and the genuine enthusiasm he demonstrates for all technology streams makes him a valued member of any team.
Steve has the true spirit of the ancient samurai. Once you and him are aligned, there is nothing that can stop the two of you from achieving your goals.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ~Confucius
Steve is simply *the* man to talk to if you want to know anything about open source. He is friendly, helpful and highly knowledgeable. Steve is highly recommended.
Win Steve's trust and you will have an advocate who is second to none.
A visionary and entrepreneur, Steve's ideals of freedom, liberty, and sharing will revolutionize the way people work together in the digital world. Driven to succeed, he inspires everyone he meets.
Steve is tenacious in his quest to bring open source to the world...
I met Steve at an Ecademy BlackStar event in London January 2005 and here's a man with a passion for what he does (and does well). I recommend Steve highly for his wits, thoughts and attitude to life and sharing.
Steve did a great job designing our www.linuxvar.co.uk website. The site has received much acclaim from some of our key vendors and he delivered on time and at a great price.
Steve has an exceptional understanding of the world of open source! I have found him to be resourceful, open, honest and dedicated to finding innovative solutions to business needs.
Steve is a true professional, dedicated and persistent. His work in the area of open source is a blessing and helps many others. As a networker he contributes and helps other with his contacts.
Steve is a gifted individual. He's technically very strong but can both see and articulate his vision in clear and simple terms. He strikes me as an individual you could place significant trust in to get the job done. He is someone who will try to exceed his own high standards and your expectations.
Excellent networker who isn't afraid to cross the chalklines. Technical gifted and building the foundations for something that will benefit to all of us. Steve, keep on doing what your doing !
My commitment is to my freedom, which in itself requires the freedom of every other human / hue-man.
My 'values' are equality for all, hence my focus on freedom - I don't see me being any more or less 'worthy' than any other human, animal, plant, etc.
It all fits into the grand vision - which is being able to communicate with others in any shape or form, not limited by language - especially useful for gestalt language processors like me, non-verbal people etc.
Free Software [and data], Free Society.
The end of the citation, the award, the haka, and Lillian's speech. Filmed at the New Zealand Open Source Awards, 23 October 2018.
In 2018, whilst completing my Entrepreneur Mentor Certification online with the Entrepreneurs Institute, I met Lillian Hetet-Owen, who runs the Hetet School of Māori Art in New Zealand. She had been trying for years to get their online weaving training into women's prisons, but had problems with security, as things like WordPress plugins all used third party systems.
I said Drupal could do it. I built the site, including modules such as H5P, which enabled them to self-manage their course materials.
The project meant women prisoners could stop the revolving doors of prison and learn a tradable skill, so they could earn on release instead of ending up straight back inside.
On 23 October 2018 it won a special award at the New Zealand Open Source Awards, "for using Open Source to support Freedom". Lillian took the whole family to the ceremony, and in the middle of it they all got up and did the haka. I watched from the UK and cried. So yes, I'm officially an award-winning web architect!
By far the project I’m most proud of, the work we began over a decade ago is now a public digital asset, saves millions of taxpayers pounds, and is called LocalGovDrupal.
After two years of both attending and organising meetings bringing councils together to encourage them to share common code, I was approached by Jack McAngus from Brighton & Hove City Council to help them migrate from an old system based on Cold Fusion to Drupal.
I was keen for them to be introduced to the community, because I knew if they went direct to any other digital agency, the agency would simply sell them their employees time, and it is highly unlikely we would be in the position we are today with the existence of LocalGovDrupal. I may not have a big house and fancy car, but I do have the knowledge I did what I felt was the right thing to do.
I was deeply saddened when I heard not long after that Jack had passed away due to a brain tumour. In memory I have posted here the short promotional video featuring him I produced from a small amount of funding I received from the Drupal Association in order to run a local event which we didn’t end up needing because we managed to gain sponsorship to cover costs.
My ex-BBC friend who helped create the video said Jack was like a rabbit in headlights as didn’t want to be in front of the camera but knew how much it meant to represent the public sector so did his best and we were all very grateful for his input.
I also make a cameo appearance, although I was about twice the weight I am now in it…
The Drupal Association is the non-profit organization focused on accelerating the Open Source Drupal project, fostering the growth of the community, and supporting the project’s vision to create a safe, secure, and open web for everyone.
In 2012 they opened up two seats on the Board of Directors for members of the community, one of which I was honoured to win as due to my community involvement I gained much support and received the most votes!
During my time on the board I focused my efforts on setting up the Drupal Marketing Group. I also enjoyed the opportunity to tick off a life goal by visiting San Francisco as one of the board retreats was held there where we shared our experiences and helped shape the future goals of the association.
There was a time when you couldn’t while away the hours choosing between peacock blue and cherry blossom paint, along with figuring out what the different upholstery materials were for your new car - all you could do in terms of interaction was order a brochure. Volkswagen broke the mould by creating what is now the mainstay of every car manufacturer’s website.
I remember the pitch clearly - sitting between two sales reps from large consultancies explaining how our integrated, modular, scalable, web application framework would be perfect for the project, likening it to the engine of a car.
Pointing out the only solution the consultancies could offer were packaging other peoples products, each with their own associated licence fees plus costly, time-consuming integrations which couldn’t easily adapt as requirements grew and changed, I managed to convince digital agency TribalDDB we were the partners to deliver this groundbreaking project. And we did.
This was the first web project I controlled from beginning to launch, which was crucial to deliver on time no matter what due to the huge advertising spend with non-movable dates.
I’m very honoured and proud to have been a part of this project and web history here!
Straight out of university, I connected with a small software house in London through an online business networking forum, joining as the sixth person in the company.
My career in IT begun in computer retail, then, following my dream of being a software developer, a short period of relational database programming - RPG/400 for IBM AS/400s - before deciding to attend university as a mature student.
Joining at the height of the dotcom period; we grew quickly to sixty people before the crash, when my million dollars of share options then vanished into thin air.
I worked on some pioneering projects, including the company’s own product, RemoteApps. This was the first modular, scalable, web app framework with integrated Content Management, Commerce, and CRM functionality.
Another project of firsts, this was also a lesson in entrepreneurship for me. Commissioned by on course bookmakers to build the first online horse racing site which paid out once the race ended with no human interaction required, much of my involvement was in designing the integrations, and learning domain-specific algorithms like Rule 4 for horses not running.
From visiting the SIS studios (Sports Information Systems) where there’s rows of screens and people typing in all the information as it happens so we could gain an understanding of how the data feeds are produced; to designing the first Java language interfaces with the payment systems - WorldPray and Datacrash as we called them back then - I enjoyed the more analytical side of the project than just producing code required to display products in a catalogue.
During the project we received a call from one of the big betting shop companies saying their main competitor had publicised the launch date of their online site so they had also done the same. They were, however, very behind schedule and had heard we were quite close to having a working product and wanted to do a deal. The on course bookmakers declined with the belief the technology was their competitive advantage, whereas brand equity along with vast resources is more often than not the winner. This is especially true on projects like this where there is no particular IP, and those who own any you may require talk to the highest bidder. Which is why we don’t see the 2bet site around today, even though technically it was first past the post.
Being a big fan of brutalism and theatre, it was an honour to spend some time assisting the national treasure that is the National Theatre.
Their ticket booking workflow was built in Drupal and I helped them understand what was going on underneath the hood so they could adapt it to their growing needs.
I enjoyed seeing behind the scenes at the iconic venue, and even got to see a show which was broadcast live to other theatres as part of a new initiative increasing accessibility of the arts.
PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is one of the most recognised project management methods and practitioner certification programmes in the world. The Prince2.com website provides a range of training programmes in various formats to many countries, and I built the backend which powers this high-profile multi-regional commerce website.
Quite a complicated site, the data for the available courses comes in from external feeds and is then converted into products in order to be made available for sale through the website.
For the in-person training, attendee registration functionality is created and appropriate information is sent out in a timely manner for attendees.
The site automatically detects which country the site visitor is from, showing the relevant products available. The commerce process also varies widely according to regions and taxes.
Working alongside another Brighton digital agency, I was involved in the Toonix project for the Cartoon Network. An online environment where players could create their own characters and customise them, Drupal powered the backend and I provided the integration design between Drupal and the front end.
As more digital agencies began to use the Drupal framework for their projects they often needed assistance when it came to more complicated technical challenges.
One such example is when Disney Screenings wanted to give free tickets away to readers of a national newspaper, printing unique codes on each copy of the paper. They also wanted to be able to track the usage of these codes.
This was my first opportunity to use the native Drupal Commerce functionality, which had grown out of the Ubercart project, and now powers sites such as Lush cosmetics and Cartier watches.
Utilising the coupon module I solved Disney Screenings problems, they were able to see which coupons were used and where, and thousands of people enjoyed a free trip to the cinema!
Another fun project, providing the backend to an interactive web application for children with Drupal playing the role of content, and asset, management, as well as interfacing with a postal service.
With an integrated parental approval process, this colouring app posted a printed copy of the line art, along with the colouring in the children had completed online, to their home address.
Data security risks meant Drupal was the ideal solution, with its worldwide security team comprising of community members from business and governmental institutions. They ensure standards of the highest level are adhered to, as well as collaborating effectively, dealing appropriately with issues as they arise.
A decade before Apple PR their AR (Augmented Reality), I delivered the technology which powered AR for PR to celebrate the launch of Grrr!, the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary greatest hits album, the world’s biggest music AR campaign to date.
As well as seeing a virtual 3D animated gorilla when pointing your phone at one of thousands of locations around the world, I built the Drupal back-end which served the content to Universal Music’s uView mobile AR application where you would also see the tongue and lips logo in 3D when pointing your phone at the Rolling Stones magazine.
“Decoupled” Drupal, as it is referred to when it is serving as a back-end content management system, is a particular strength and powers many large projects including the New York MTA signs. With Drupal, the MTA can now use the same system that powers its website to push content and data to 1,800 digital signs in more than 400 stations in New York City.
Launched in 1980, the UK’s leading, independent children’s book magazine, has reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children. Sir Philip Pullman, CBE, FRSL called Books for Keeps “The most important periodical in the world of British children's books.”
With over 12,500 reviews and more than 2,000 articles including interviews with the top children’s authors and illustrators, Books for Keeps had a big problem. Although they were the first to ever star rate children’s books, which caused a certain amount of uproar at the time, they did not have much in terms of funding to keep up with the times and move their database completely online.
I learned another hard lesson in business here because even though I did know the budget, I decided to take on the project anyway because I believed it was important for this to be online.
For decades, the founder had typed in all the details of the thousands of books they had reviewed. This ended up taking months to clean up, however I am very proud of the end result, which still powers the site many parents and school teachers use on a regular basis.
When I landed in Brighton I went to every networking meeting I could find, and was particular about saying I was a “Drupal guy” as opposed to “Web Developer”, because in Brighton you didn’t have to look far to find the latter!
With the rise of Drupal and its more in-depth technology, Drupal people were harder to find, so I also founded the local Drupal User Group in Brighton, which became the largest in the UK.
Through my efforts I was asked to deliver the rebuild of celebrity gossip magazine HolyMoly! from Java to Drupal.
More complicated a project than I could handle alone, I subcontracted another more advanced developer, and thus begun my journey into growing a business larger than just myself.
I’d started to use and talk about the Open Source Drupal framework, and through my networking efforts I was contracted to develop a Facebook application for Mazda with a Drupal backend.
Due to the amount of networking meetings I’d attended and organised where we always seemed to end up in the back room of a pub with dodgy internet connections, or in coffee shops with all the noise around, I’d had a “vision” of creating a network of Open Source Coworking Cafes which could also act as a “home” for the largely invisible world of Free/Libre Open Source Software.
This project provided me with the funds to move to Brighton where I believed it would be an ideal place to start such a venture with its mix of technical, artistic, and alternative cultures.
By now I’d become a huge advocate of Open Source Software as it gave me the ability to provide enterprise level software functionality to small businesses, levelling the playing field.
I was honoured when asked to build the informational site LinuxVAR for the UK retail market and whilst I built it using the XOOPS Open Source framework, it’s actually the site which ended up making me move to Drupal!
A couple of years later I saw the site had been rebuilt in Drupal, which finally made me look “under the hood” of Drupal - which wasn’t a system many could gain an easy start with - and realised immediately how powerful it was, outstretching anything the system I provided back in the “dotcom days” to clients paying hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Living in Essex I was close to Stansted Airport and at a time where many companies rented out fields from farmers which they would use as car parks, picking them up and dropping people at the airport so the customers had a smooth trip and never saw where the cars were parked.
Through the networking group I met the owner of one of these businesses, and had teamed up with another member who did graphic design, and thus my projects began to look a lot nicer!
Now back in Essex, I decided a good way to find projects would be to organise the local Ecademy networking meetings, the online business forum I was an active member of.
My assumptions were correct and led to me learning my first hard lesson in self-employment - always ask what the budget is! Supamax were an oriental food ingredients supplier who had stalls at universities and colleges, with foreign students being their main customer base.
Whilst I’d seen Drupal in action on the business forum, I’d also discovered there were many of these Open Source frameworks, and the one I backed at the time was called XOOPS.
They also wanted to sell online, which given the large amount of products and processes they had would’ve been quite the task. Knowing life is defined by what you say no to, and not feeling confident enough in the equity deal he offered I declined the opportunity, built them what they needed to hopefully grow to the next level and gain more resources for such an entrepreneurial endeavour, and moved on.
Apparently there’s a time in every web developer’s life when they “roll their own” Content Management System, and this was mine! After redundancy a friend introduced me to an ex-Olympic Swimmer and entrepreneur who had a nightclub promotion business.
In an industry where the turnaround of staff is high, he had problems maintaining and growing his mailing list. I created a system which staff had to use in order to send invites, and to receive payment for their work. This solved his problems, and in return I remember quite a few times enjoying his clients establishments… even dancing next to Naomi Campbell!
After this project finished I decided to return to Essex and rejoined the online networking forum where I’d met my previous employer. I discovered its funding by the DTi had ended, and a company called Ecademy had bought it. They’d rebuilt it using an Open Source framework called Drupal, a system, and community, I ended up becoming very familiar with over the next two decades!