08 Mar 2026 5 min read

Monthnote, February 2026

Highlights and goings-on from the shortest month of the year.

Beach art, screech art – photo taken on Portobello beach, Edinburgh.

What is this?

This is my monthnote for February, a post where I reflect on my previous month's work, alongside other life stuff.

What I've been working on

February was fairly relentless on the work front (in a positive way!) with half-term thrown in for good measure. It certainly felt like any residual festive sluggishness was blown out of the water once and for all.

Here are a few work, and work-adjacent, tidbits from the shortest month of the year:

The big highlight of the month was a chance to get my whole team together in Glasgow. It's been a looooonnnnng time coming, but for reasons of geography and timing and disparate projects (excuses, excuses) we've never quite achieved it. We spent the day at The Social Hub, a very convivial and comfortable place to think outside the day-to-day box. It was part getting to know you, part nailing down what our service offering is, and it felt open, honest, respectful and productive. And fun too! Adam covers it all very nicely here. I'm very lucky to work with such a fabulous group of people.
There's been a lot happening on our internal technical infrastructure, with information architecture revisions, new data classifications, cyber security accreditation, and crucial support considerations all taking shape. I naturally gravitate towards the externally-facing digital world, but I'm growing to fully embrace the structure and rigour required to scale and sustain everyday operations.
Reflecting on the point above and acknowledging that there is, indeed, a lot happening, there's also some necessary work bubbling away to build in clearer decision-making processes and allocate resource accordingly across projects and programmes. In my last monthnote I was dwelling on incremental change at Research Data Scotland. Part of the organisation's maturation is about calling it when stuff that worked when there were ten employees starts to really creak when there are nearly 40 of us. That's not always easy – everyone gets stuck in their ways to a certain extent – but we've benefitted from some excellent leadership and straight talking in this area.
We had a really informative session with people who work across the 'data for research' network in Scotland, including representatives from Public Health Scotland, National Records of Scotland, Smart Data Foundry, DataLoch and the Health Informatics Centre. AI was one of the main topics, and discussions included useful reflections on how to narrow the definition of 'AI' and the variety of safeguards and well-established processes already in place in the context of Trusted Research Environments. I'd tabled an AI discussion paper which I've now refined and am taking to our Board v soon.
Some initial discussions with Nexer Digital about options to better signpost and direct traffic to the key organisations offering access to sensitive data in Scotland. It's looking like I'll be playing a much more hands-on role than usual, which is hopefully not terrible news for everyone involved.
There was an energising call on the emerging plans for this year's GovCamp Scotland, with some of the old guard and a clutch of new and keen volunteers. It was really gratifying to hear people's positive reflections of last year's event, and the enthusiasm to get things rolling this year.
I went to see Nicola Sturgeon in conversation with Sarah Wynn-Williams, discussing Sarah's book Careless People, an account of her time as a Meta executive (which I wrote about when it came out last year). It was an excellent discussion – as much about learning from mistakes of the past as solely focused on Meta's godawful track record and long list of harmful practice. What took it a notch above your average event was the chance to witness Sturgeon's political mastery and oratorical skill in action. It was also lovely as it pulled in former colleagues (thanks for the heads-up Jen!) and a sprinkling of peeps from the Edinburgh wing of the Society for Hopeful Technologists. More on that soon.

Listening, watching, reading

The things that have been filling my cultural plate.

🎧 Listening – top three tracks

This list is only half true. My most listened-to tracks were all by Take That, following a binge of the Netflix nostalgia fest documentary, so this is my slightly edited list of newer music. Patience is still one of the best songs of all time though (don't @ me).

Where’s my phone? by Mitski. The lead single from her stunning new album doesn’t sound like any of the other tracks. It’s not about cats or dogs, for instance. Madcap video, wonderful cacophonous ending.
Dancing2 by Keli Holiday. Seems to be some controversy as to whether this is an homage or a rip off of LCD Soundsystem's All My Friends. Either way, it's a barnstorming track; turn up the volume for the final minute.
Always Everywhere by Charli xcx. The Wuthering Heights soundtrack crossed my path before I saw the film, and they're both emotional tours de force.

Bonus: Self Esteem continues to be jaw-droppingly amazing.

📺 Watching

Wuthering Heights. There's not much left to say, is there? Gazillions of column inches have already been filled with analyses of Emerald Fennell's film, from every possible angle. My review: I loved it.
Crime 101. It was OK, but not as clever as it thinks it is. Halle Berry is the best thing in it, Barry Keoghan feels hopelessly miscast. Fails the Bechdel test despite a supposed patriarchy-fighting sub plot. 🤨
The Track. A shout out to the ever brilliant Storythings newsletter for linking to the trailer. The full film is a beautifully-shot, heart-wrenching tale of the Bosnian skeleton team struggling to get recognition and funding. My parents lived in Sarajevo in the mid-noughties, so I know the city a little bit (visit if you can, it's like nowhere else I've ever experienced) and have explored the eerie decimated remnants of the 1984 Winter Olympics. Thirty years on from the end of the civil war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, the film doesn't offer easy answers or shy from the struggles still present in modern-day Bosnia, but it does contain hope, humour and touching snapshots of life as the main characters search for their calling.

📖 Reading

Imagination by Ruha Benjamin (thanks for the recommend Rachel!). An inspirational and hopeful read. One of the many points that caught my attention is how often grassroots, community-led, slightly rough around the edges technology projects are the ones that have an impact on lives, not monolithic 'visionary' projects by tech giants.
I loved Nick Foster's Could, Should, Might, Don't and its different ways of thinking about the future. There's a nice synopsis of its themes on The RSA website. In common with Ruha Benjamin's book, it shines a light on the extremely narrow world view of billionaires preoccupied with sci-fi and space travel.
By a country mile the best post I've read about AI (and so much more) this year is Flood fill vs. the magic circle, an incredible piece of writing by Robin Sloan. "The paper will jam, over and over again."