Rawkes

Join 250 others in the Open Data Community on Slack

2015-03-30T00:00:00.000Z

This is a cross-post with the ViziCities blog.

This is a short and personal post written with the hope that it encourages you to join the new Open Data Community on Slack – a place for realtime communication and collaboration on the topic of open data.

It's important to foster open data, as it is to provide a place for the discussion and sharing of ideas around the production and use of open data. It's for this reason that we've created the Open Data Community in the hope of not only giving something back for the things that we have taken, but to provide a place for people to come together to help further this common goal.

The Open Data Community is not ViziCities; it's a group of like-minded invidividuals, non-profits and corporations alike. It's for anyone interested in open data, as well as for those who produce, use or are otherwise involved in its lifecycle.

In just 2 days the community has grown to 250 strong – I look forward to seeing you there and talking open data!

Robin - ViziCities Founder

An introduction to visual programming using NoFlo

2015-02-03T00:00:00.000Z

I recently stumbled upon NoFlo during my quest for a better way to manage the realtime processing and transformation of data within ViziCities. I was dubious about this bizarre JavaScript framework at first, initially casting it aside as a fun distraction. In fact, it was only after spending a full day experimenting with NoFlo that I began to comprehend its full potential. And boy does it have potential!

So what actually is NoFlo? And why would you want to use it? No one wants yet another framework to learn, nor another pitch for the Next Big Thing™ in programming (a.k.a. “I didn't like anything else so I half-baked something new that no one will use”). I'm a grumpy cynic at the best of times, usually casting aside all the new crap as a fad (it usually is), but NoFlo is different. It has inspired me and filled me with a kind of excitement and energy that I've not felt for a long time. More specifically, the concept that NoFlo is created on has the potential to change the way you approach programming, forever. I'm deadly serious.

Let's unwrap this magical concept that NoFlo is based upon.

Flow-based programming

Back in the 1970s, a man by the name of Paul Morrison decided it would be a good idea to invent a new way to construct computer programs. It's called flow-based programming, or FBP for short.

Computers were so large in the 1970s that you required an army to use them!

Based on dataflow programming, the theory of FBP is simple — break a computer program into a series of repeatable individual components and network them together.

In Paul's own words:

FBP defines applications as networks of "black box" processes, which exchange data across predefined connections by message passing, where the connections are specified externally to the processes. These black box processes can be reconnected endlessly to form different applications without having to be changed internally. FBP is thus naturally component-oriented.

Easy peasy! Now I don't know about you, but I find it easier to understand something by doing it. Technical descriptions end up confusing me, then as soon as I think it's started to make sense I become even more confused.

Fortunately, you need only understand the gist of FBP (that it's about breaking things into components and writing little if no code) as the benefits will become obvious as you start to use it. If you do want to dig deep into FBP than I suggest taking a look at Paul's fantastic website on it, including a wiki overview of the core concepts.

Why FBP over, you know, normal programming?

Good question! There's my own personal opinion and then the opinion of the FBP hard-liners. They will say that you should always be using FBP, that once you open your eyes to its majesty then you'll never want to program “normally” ever again. I actually agree with that, partly.

On the flip-side, the grumpy cynical side of me says that you should continue doing things how you do them now, but that you should try out FBP and see what sticks. You might end up using it in its entirety, or even a mix of both, or perhaps you'll never want to look at it again. Any of those options are fine.

Specifically, FBP does introduce new ways of thinking about things and it does make things a lot better in certain areas. None of them are unique to FBP, though together they combine to create a rather powerful offering.

For example, FBP fosters the concept of compartmentalised logic and processing. In fact, it forces you to break things down into processes that ideally take a single expected input and use that to produce a single expected output. These components can be reused amongst other areas of your application, or you can even take components written by other people (think NPM), requiring absolutely zero new code to be written. A perfect FBP application could be created with existing components without writing a single line of code. That's pretty amazing.

This compartmentalism (pretty sure I just made that up) means that your application is inherently more robust, more reliable, more testable, more everything-able! FBP literally allows you to create applications faster, and that speed only increases the more you use it and the more components you create (or become available elsewhere). That's an unavoidable fact, not a promise.

So why not FBP?

FBP isn't all shiny (like every single thing ever, apart from perhaps those mirrors they put in space telescopes). I mean, it really is a fantastic concept and its benefits far outweigh the downsides, but those downsides will rule it out for some situations and that's ok.

One example is that you can find yourself duplicating similar processes in FBP. If you need to run multiple transformations on an array of data then you may find yourself looping over that data multiple times across different components. This introduces extra processing time to your application.

Then there's the overhead of sending data between components. This is an unavoidable part of FBP and it means that every single time you send a message you require a tiny amount of processing time to do that. This can add up when you start sending 1000s of pieces of data around the system.

Fortunately, you can learn to notice and avoid both of these situations. Once you've got used to FBP you'll begin to notice common approaches and optimisations. For example, you can avoid the previous situations by carefully thinking about the right component for the job. There are many ways to achieve the same result in FBP, which is both a blessing and a curse.

FBP's magic bullet — visual programming

The crown jewel of FBP is the ability to construct applications using visual tools. This completely changes the way you look at a computer program, allowing you to get a much better idea about the entire structure and flow of your application.

Instead of needing to comprehend thousands of lines of code across countless files, with visual programming using FBP you instead need only connect the dots, quite literally.

This approach means that the application itself visually shows you how it works, rather than requiring prior knowledge of the entire system before understanding how it all fits together. This not only makes more sense to the creator of the application but it also means someone new can look at it and comprehend it nearly immediately. Even if they aren't a programmer!

This kind of visual programming isn't new. Apple's Quartz Composer has done this for years, as have Max MSP, vvvv, NodeRed and many others.

Creating applications in this way is incredibly powerful as it allows you to focus on getting to the final result rather than writing the intermediate code and logic. It's a strangely liberating feeling to create an application in a graphical tool without writing a single line of code.

Enter NoFlo

It's at this point that NoFlo enters the fray, the hot new thing in the world of FBP and visual programming. Let's save that story for another day.

Leaving Pusher to work on ViziCities full time

2014-10-12T00:00:00.000Z

On the 7th of November I'll be leaving my day job heading up developer relations at Pusher. Why? To devote all my time and effort toward ensuring ViziCities gets the chance it very much deserves. I'm looking to fund the next 6–12 months of development and, if the opportunity is right, to build out a team to accelerate the development of the wider vision for ViziCities (beyond 3D visualisation of cities).

I'm no startup guru (I often feel like I'm making this up as I go), all I know is that I have a vision for ViziCities and, as a result of a year talking with governments and organisations, I'm beyond confident that there's demand for what ViziCities offers.

Want to chat? Send me an email at rob@vizicities.com. I'd love to talk about potential options and business models, or simply to get advice. I'm not ruling anything out.

Leaving your day job. Are you crazy?

Probably. I certainly don't do things by halves and I definitely thrive under immense pressure with the distinct possibility of failure. I've learnt that life isn't fulfilling for me unless I'm taking a risk with something unknown. I'm obsessed with learning something new, whether in programming, business or something else entirely. The process of learning and experimentation is my lifeblood, the end result of that is a bonus.

I think quitting your day job without having the funding in place to secure the next 6 to 12 months counts as immense pressure, some may even call it stupid. To me it wasn't even a choice; I knew I had to work on ViziCities so my time at Pusher had to end, simple. I'm sure I'll work the rest out.

Let me be clear. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Pusher, they are the nicest bunch of people and I'm going to miss them dearly. My favourite thing about working at Pusher was being around the team every single day. Their support and advice around my decision with ViziCities has really helped other the past few weeks. I wish them all the best for the future.

As for my future, I'm absolutely terrified about it. That's a good thing, it keeps me focused and sharp.

So what's the plan with ViziCities

Over the past 18 months ViziCities has evolved from a disparate set of exciting experiments into a concise and deliberate offering that solves real problems for people. What has been learnt most over that time is that visualising cities in 3D isn't what makes ViziCities so special (though it's really pretty), rather it's the problems it can solve and the ways it can help governments, organisations and citizens. That's where ViziCities will make its mark.

After numerous discussions with government departments and large organisations worldwide it's clear that not only can ViziCities solve their problems, it's also financially viable as a long-term business. The beauty of what ViziCities offers is that people will always need tools to help turn geographic data into actionable results and insight. Nothing else provides this in the same way ViziCities can, both as a result of the approach but also as a result of the people working on it.

ViziCities now needs your help. I need your help. For this to happen it needs funding, and not necessarily that much to start with. There are multiple viable business models and avenues to explore, all of which are flexible and complementary, none of which compromise the open-source heart.

I'm looking to fund the next 6–12 months of development, and if the opportunity is right, to build out a team to accelerate the development of the wider vision for ViziCities (beyond 3D visualisation of cities).

I'll be writing about the quest for funding in much more detail.

You can help ViziCities succeed

This is the part where you can help. I can't magic funds out of no where, though I'm trying my best. I'd love to talk about potential options and business models, or simply to get advice. I'm not ruling anything out.

Want to chat? Send me an email at rob@vizicities.com.

Help me throw myself off a 17-story helipad for charity

2014-05-24T00:00:00.000Z

On the 22nd of June (less than a month) I’m going to climb 17-floors to the very top of London's Air Ambulance helipad. I’ve decided it's going to be a great idea to then throw myself off the edge and abseil 56 metres back down to the ground, without a wall or anything to hang onto! Just me, a rope, and the ground.

You can support me by donating right now, or read on to find out a little more.

Are you crazy?

Probably. I'm doing it partly because it’s going to be absolutely terrifying, but also because I didn’t realise London’s Air Ambulance was a charity and relied on donations (less than 30% is funded from the NHS). What I also didn’t realise is that London is the only major city in the world with a single medical emergency helicopter. That’s just nuts. Donations help them raise funds for the new helicopter and also ensure they have all the day-to-day equipment needed to save lives in the city.

Support me and London's Air Ambulance

I’m trying to raise £500 and it’d be great if you can help me get there. I promise to take as many photos as I can of me looking terrified as a dangle over the East London skyline.

You can support me through my JustGiving page. Please don't wait for others to donate first. As Tesco would say, every little helps!

It would be even more amazing if you could share this with your friends and help raise even more money!

More about London’s Air Ambulance

It's been running since 1989, serving 28,500 missions to date
They provide life-saving medical interventions, such as open chest surgery, blood transfusion, and anaesthesia, all at the roadside!
They serve the 10 million people living and working within the M25
It's a charity that relies on donations to keep running
Less than 30% of its funds come from the NHS
London is the only major city with a single emergency medical helicopter, hence needing a second one

You can find out more on the official website, and don't forget to support me by donating!

Photos are from London's Air Ambulance website and Twitter account.

ViziCities release roundup

2014-02-23T00:00:00.000Z

Last Saturday evening, ViziCities was finally released to the public as an open-source project. Ever since then things have been absolutely crazy and incredibly hard to keep up with.

Have an idea for ViziCities, or just want to get in touch about it? Email us at hello@vizicities.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Statistics

Let's start with a roundup of the raw statistics from the past week. They may not mean much to you but I think they're interesting and it can't hurt to share them and use them to track progress in the future.

Mailchimp

Launch email sent to 4,528 people
- 58.6% open rate (industry average is 19.6%)
- 5,647 total opens (includes multiple opens per person)
- 32.5% click rate (industry average is 2.6%)
- 2,521 total clicks (includes multiple clicks per person)
- 38 bounces
- 43 people unsubscribed
Subscriber count at beginning of week: 4,528
Subscriber count at end of week: 6,422

Google Analytics

8,985 unique visits to the ViziCities demo over the week
- 65% using Chrome
- 17% using Firefox
- 9% using Safari
- 4% using IE
10,042 unique visits to ViziCities.com over the week
- 59% using Chrome
- 15% using Safari
- 14% using Firefox
- 7% using IE

GitHub

874 stars
96 watching
74 forks

Coverage

The Next Web

On Tuesday evening, The Next Web posted an article about ViziCities on their Insider channel.

ViziCities is one to watch for sure.

Of all the coverage this week, The Next Web was the only one to trigger a huge influx of tweets related to the project.

Daily Mail

Wednesday morning saw the Daily Mail run a piece about ViziCities on their website. For those who don't know, the Daily Mail website currently has a daily unique readership of around 11.8 million people. In other words, anything put there gets read by a shit-load of people.

A pair of developers from London used open source data to build an interactive 3D map of the tube network, complete with moving trains. The visualisation was built to showcase the ViziCities project. Its creators have made the code behind the project available for anyone to use.

We enjoyed a huge amount of traffic and interest from the Daily Mail audience, helped in part by ViziCities being featured as the headline article on the front page for most of the evening. I've no idea how we managed to get on the front page for so long, though I'm certainly not complaining!

Of all the coverage this week, the Daily Mail has been the most surreal and the one that has provided the most follow-ups. It's also been the only coverage this week that presented ViziCities in a way that the general public will be able to understand and take interest in.

The flip-side to being featured by the Daily Mail is that you have to endure a particular section of their readership, who provided an eloquent commentary on the project (displayed unedited for your pleasure); such as:

well that's 2 minutesof my life I'll never get back :(

And this thought-provoking statement…

My hardworked taxes towards yet another frivolous vanity project. How is thins gooing to benefit ME?!!? The only help I need I can get from the big brain between my ears.

I'm afraid we can't divulge where we spent all your hard-earned taxes, sorry. I wish we knew!

This was another…

WOW this is amazing, in actual 3D! trains are soooo interesting!! i could just watch them all day..... NOT

It really did seem like everyone loved ViziCities…

What a silly and pointless thing to create

It's a real eye-opener of a project…

Wow i just fell asleep there watching it. It's not very exciting is it?

And my personal favourite…

For a moment I thought wow that's interesting, but its passed now.

We aim to please. I'm just glad we were able to achieve that!

Seriously though, we're incredibly pleased to have been given the opportunity to be featured on the Daily Mail. 99.9% of the response has been positive and we've been absolutely astounded by it.

One of the weirdest moments from the Daily Mail coverage was when the daughter of a long-time family friend and old neighbour got in touch with me on Facebook for the first time ever, letting me know that her mum had seen the article and had phoned her about it. That alone proved to me the value of this coverage, that friends and members of the public who don't follow technology were finding it and actually reading it — all because it was on the Daily Mail. Insane!

ITV

On Thursday, ITV News ran a piece on ViziCities on their website.

It's a new and exciting way of looking at the London Underground. For the past year Peter Smart and Robin Hawkes have been working on a 3D map that brings cities to life using the power of open data and the Web.

We were hugely excited about being featured by ITV as they're a huge media organisation within the UK. Interestingly, we received next to no traffic as a result. This was likely because the article didn't have any links back to the project for a while, but even then it didn't seem to do much.

Our experience with the ITV coverage taught us that just because you're on a big website with a large audience doesn't mean anything. In a way it's analogous to the number of Twitter followers not being representative of how many people will click links in tweets you post.

For a good few days we were on top of the JavaScript sub-Reddit, and even enjoyed a good response in other sub-Reddits.

HTML5 Weekly #125

A WebGL-powered 3D city and data visualization platform. It’s flexible in its operation but can do things like let you visualize the London Underground train network in real time.

Web Design Weekly #127

ViziCities is a 3D city and data visualisation platform, powered by WebGL. Its purpose is to change the way you look at cities and the data contained within them. It is the brainchild of Robin Hawkes and Peter Smart.

Codrops Collective #104

ViziCities is a 3D city and data visualization platform powered by WebGL. A fantastic project by Robin Hawkes and Peter Smart.

Response

We've been overwhelmed with the amount of people who are excited about ViziCities and want to see it succeed. It's actually a little unbelievable.

Since launch there have been 3 merged pull requests from the community and a significant fork looking at adding physics to ViziCities. Seeing people actually want to help out is incredibly weird.

Another thing that's taken us by surprise is the amount of people sending in screenshots of ViziCities showing their local area.

View of Toronto within ViziCities

View of Amsterdam within ViziCities

View of NYC within ViziCities

View of Portland within ViziCities

Also, the number of organisations and data providers reaching out to us about visualising their data in the project has been amazing. We already have the future of some key features confirmed thanks to people like Plane Finder and Network Rail. We've so much more to catch up on!

What's next?

I think it's safe to say that the first week of ViziCities going open-source has been amazing and overwhelming, but we're not going to stop there. Now that the project is finally out in the open we're able to focus on refining things and getting them working as best as we can, ideally with help from the community.

Even in the past 7 days I've been able to hack together experimental support for 3D terrain and live, 3D air traffic.

Watch this space…

Have an idea for ViziCities, or just want to get in touch about it? Email us at hello@vizicities.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

ViziCities released as open-source

2014-02-17T00:00:00.000Z

That's right, ViziCities has been released as an open-source project on GitHub.

It's been a long time since ViziCities first started, about a year in fact! It's been an exciting journey, one which Peter and I are starting to see the results of. We're proud to finally be able to say that it's available for you to download and fork on GitHub. Enjoy!

We've also put together a pre-built demo for you to play with.

View of the Thames within ViziCities

As things stands, the current release includes:

Buildings, water (rivers, canals, etc), and green areas (parks, grass, forest, etc)
Dynamic data loading using the OpenStreetMap Overpass API (literally the entire world)
Accurate heights based on OpenStreetMap tags, if available
Caching of loaded data to prevent duplicated requests
Processing of geographic features into 3D objects using Web Workers
Controls (zoom, pan and orbit)

What you see on GitHub is at a very early stage and things may break, so it's definitely not ready for production use. However, download it, build it and have a play around - you can move around anywhere in the world (it's pretty cool). We'd love to hear what you think. We'd love it even more if you helped us build it!

Here are some interesting facts from the past year:

We were the first in the world to build a live visualisation of the London Underground in 3D, as well as the London bus network, which we demoed to Transport for London
We've given talks about the project at lots of events
We got to meet up with large and important organisations around the world to talk about how ViziCities can help people understand cities and the data that lies within them
The codebase has been completely re-written as a modular web application
And most importantly, we've had over 4,500 lovely people sign up to hear more about the project!

We've been constantly blown away by the response the project has received. We never imagined quite how much it would inspire people, and we're just happy to finally be able to show you something.

This is just the beginning. Now the project is public it will continue to be actively developed on and improvements will appear regularly. We've still got huge plans for ViziCites, plans which we've barely begun to set in motion.

If you have any questions, reach us at hello@vizicities.com and we'll get back to you.

I'll leave you with a couple of screenshots that others have taken on their journey within ViziCities. I'd love to see more!

View of Toronto within ViziCities

View of Amsterdam within ViziCities

2013: All change

2014-01-14T00:00:00.000Z

This time last year I rounded up my 2012. I wrote that it was the craziest year of my life so far, and one that I won't forget. I obviously had no idea what 2013 had in store for me!

All change

2013 was the year for massive change in my life, in every aspect. The funny thing is that none of the changes were planned or even desired, yet I'm glad each and every one happened as they taught me valuable lessons that I'll remember forever.

Suffering burnout and leaving Mozilla

Back in December 2012 I announced my intentions to leave my role as a Technical Evangelist at Mozilla, arguably my dream job. I wrote about the reasoning behind this in a lot of detail. In short, I suffered a combination of burnout and a catastrophic demotivation in what Mozilla was doing and what my role was there.

As of the 25th of January 2013 I was no longer a Mozilla employee, something I never imagined myself saying.

Lessons learnt: Even the most perfect things in life have downsides and if you ignore them you'll pay for it in the long run. Focus on keeping yourself happy, otherwise you'll cause yourself long-term damage.

Ending a 4-year relationship

After 4 years together, Lizzy and I decided it was time to call it a day. It's quite surreal uttering a few disembodied words and subsequently ending a relationship with someone you've spent practically every day with for what feels like forever.

Yes, of course it sucked. But no, I don't regret it and it was definitely the right decision for the both of us. What I was most surprised about was how we both handled it; from sitting down, talking for a while, and deciding that we should split up, to sorting everything out afterward so neither of us got left in a difficult situation.

2013 has shown us both that we're better off because of it. That makes me happy.

Lessons learnt: Good things sometimes come to an end, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Remember the good times and make sure you learn something from the experience. Things do get better in time, you just need to make sure you allow them to.

Taking time off to recover and find my way

Part of my decision to leave Mozilla was to take some time off to rest and work out what I wanted from life. What was planned to be 6 months out ended up turning into near-enough 10 months without firm commitment or income. I'm sure glad I saved while I was at Mozilla!

1 year on and, although much better, I'm still suffering from the burnout that I experienced while at Mozilla. Someday it'll fade into the background, though I've resided myself to the fact that it won't be any time soon, nor an obvious transition.

Lessons learnt: Take time off when you get the chance, it's a great healer. Don't force yourself to do something, it's nearly more valuable to do nothing and let your body tell you what it needs.

Appreciating close friends

One of the general lessons I learnt from 2012 was that I had neglected my close friends. Part of 2013 was about fixing that, at least in a small way.

Over the year I spent much more time with my best friend of 10+ years, helping her through a tough and similar career problem, and generally looking out for each other. Although I don't need to see or talk to her often (the sign of a great friend), doing so has shown me how valuable my close friends are to me and how important that are to my happiness.

March was pretty special as I travelled to Wales to visit Matt and Sophie, two friends that I've known online for a long time but had never met before. I had a great time exploring their part of the world and being taught how to ride on Anubis, one of their (three!) horses.

Lessons learnt: Don't neglect your close friends. It sucks, and you'll look and feel like a dick because of it. You may not make things perfect but at least try your best to make an effort.

Creating ViziCities

Soon after leaving Mozilla, Peter Smart and I decided to work on a seemingly innocuous project called ViziCities. Oh how naive we were!

ViziCities

Nearly a year to the day since we first started ViziCities, we've come a hell of a long way and have learnt a huge amount about the power of a good idea, especially when implemented well. So much happened but I'll try my best to round up the key events:

The hugely positive response to our announcement of ViziCities took us both by surprise
We spoke to a large number of influential organisations that we never would have imagined talking to previously
We decided to try and turn ViziCities into a business
We took part in Mozilla's WebFWD accelerator program, including travelling to San Francisco!
We explored avenues of funding and learnt a huge amount along the way
We got to talk about ViziCities at large and influential events

As it stands, ViziCities is still being worked on, just at a slower pace due to Peter and I both recovering from big changes and events in our lives. It's too good an idea to let slide.

Lessons learnt: When you have a good idea, run with it. Don't ruin a good thing by taking it too seriously too quickly. Release early and worry about making it perfect later. Working on something purely for fun and the good of others is an incredible motivator, don't squander it.

Doing things as me-me, not Mozilla-me

Something I didn't really consider when leaving Mozilla was that I would need to do everything under my own steam from that point. No Mozilla to hide behind. No Mozilla to help me get events to speak at. No Mozilla to help with travel. Just little old me.

Fortunately I haven't found the desire to do much speaking of late, though I've had some great opportunities this year. Taking part in the real-time Web panel at EDGE in NYC is a particular favourite, as is speaking at FOWA in London toward the end of the year. Going on the stage as Robin Hawkes (of no affiliation) was quite a liberating and scary experience.

Most recently, I got to attend Mozilla Festival in London. This was lovely because I got to catch up with some of my old Mozilla friends and show them ViziCities. I don't think I've ever said so much to so many people in such a short period of time.

Lessons learnt: Doing things on your own is scary but ultimately liberating and rewarding. Don't shun opportunities to do things as you. Stay grounded — it's what you're talking about that's the important thing, not you.

Moving back to London

After spending what feels like most of my adult life living in Bournemouth, recent events gave me the perfect opportunity to up sticks and move back to London. I never thought I'd move back to London, or any city, but after travelling the world I can safely say that London is by far my favourite city in the world. There's something special about it.

I originally moved back with family, which was meant to be temporary but ended up lasting for about 4 months while I sorted my shit out. While slightly embarrassing as a 27-year-old, it was really nice to spend more time with my Dad.

Just before the end of the year I finally got the opportunity to move out and get my independence back. I absolutely hate moving but it's totally been worth it. Having a place that I can call my own is immensely good for my happiness and wellbeing. It also helps that the place I live is beautiful (right alongside the Thames).

Lessons learnt: It's easy to settle and get scared of change. Not having independence can really, really suck. Finding and moving house is incredibly stressful, but worth it in the long run. Make sure you find somewhere that makes you happy, even if it costs a little extra.

Changing my name

In October I decided to do something that I've wanted to do for a very long time; I changed my name back to the one I was born with.

My name in full

For near-enough 16 years I've referred to myself as Rob Hawkes, completely shunning my full name because of bullying earlier in life and general habit since then. Changing back to Robin Hawkes has quite literally felt like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I feel like the real me is back again.

The feedback since changing my name has quite honestly been overwhelming; I never knew how much my friends preferred my birth-name!

Lessons learnt: Personal identity is something I should have taken more seriously. It doesn't matter how well you pronounce 'Robin', people in Starbucks will still write 'Robert'.

Joining Pusher

In November I decided that it was time to get serious and get a proper job, in a real office and everything. A few weeks later I started at Pusher as Head of Developer Relations.

It's been a couple months now and I've absolutely loved my time here so far — everyone at Pusher is amazingly friendly and good at what they do. I'm looking forward to working somewhere and actually making a difference.

Lesson learnt: Sometimes the obvious solution is the best one. Commuting can suck, but it can be solved (by moving house). Being part of something small(er) is an awesome feeling.

Looking after myself and listening to my body

In general, this year has taught me to look after myself and listen to what my body is trying to tell me (it's usually right).

Some of the things I've done this year include:

Better exercise, like regular cycling and walking
Better eating, as in regular and proper meals
Better sleep, earlier and for enough hours
Being strict about time off and relaxation
Doing things that make me happier
Accepting that burnout isn't going away any time soon
Taking lots of photos of gorgeous sunsets (great for the soul)

All in all, I feel much better about myself after doing these relatively minor things. Even just the regular exercise has had a huge effect on my energy levels, which I've noticed decreasing since I stopped cycling recently (due to winter and moving house).

Lessons learnt: Routine is easy, until you stop it. You don't have to cook crazy meals to eat well. Getting a good night's sleep is so, so important. Taking time off seriously will pay off in the long run. Burnout sucks.

Reflecting on my 2013 wishes

At the beginning of last year I outlined a few wishes for the following 12 months. Let's see how they did…

Position Rawkes as a viable channel for technology and development content

My wish…

Right now, Rawkes is purely a personal blog containing information about me and the things that I'm currently thinking about. In 2013 I want to explore the idea of turning Rawkes into a much larger content platform, revolving around technology and development. I'd also like to see more authors contributing to Rawkes.

Fail. I completely neglected Rawkes in 2013, mostly due to taking time off and working on ViziCities.

Find a way to earn enough to fund my personal projects and experimentation

My wish…

The next 6 months are going to be spent working out how to fund time to continue experimenting and learning new things. I'm keen to find a way to do this without the act of earning money being my primary focus.

Half-success. I didn't need to fund myself in the end as I sustained myself long enough on savings to last me until I got a proper job. I still got to work on my personal projects.

Work on a project interesting to the general public

My wish…

More often than not, the projects I work on are targeted mainly to the developer community. I'm keen to work on some projects this year that are also of use to the general public, or at least to the wider Internet community.

Massive success. While accidental, ViziCities proved to be incredibly valuable to the general public!

Wishes for 2014

I don't do resolutions so instead here are my overall wishes for the coming year.

Release ViziCities to the public

Even if not the full feature-set that we envisaged, I want to make sure ViziCities can actually be used by people. It's too good an idea to let it sit and gather dust.

Write another book

While perhaps not completely up to me, I think I'm ready to write another book.

Stay happy

I've done enough crazy stuff in the past few years to last me for a while. I'd be happy for 2014 to be spent taking things relatively easy and keeping myself happy instead.

Interesting facts about 2013

As always, I'll end this round-up with a few facts and figures about the previous year with comparisons to last year in grey.

What about you?

I find these retrospectives incredibly useful to me personally, especially when you have a few years-worth to look back on. I'd recommend you try doing them! So how was your 2013? Post it online and send me the link on Twitter.

Joining Pusher as Head of Developer Relations

2013-11-06T00:00:00.000Z

I'm happy to announce that I've joined Pusher as Head of Developer Relations, starting immediately (in fact, this is my second day).

Who are Pusher?

I know a lot of you will have heard of Pusher before, but here is the blurb anyway for those who haven't:

Pusher is a hosted service for quickly and easily adding realtime features into web and mobile applications. We're used for all sorts of features such as notifications, game movements, chat, live data feeds and much more. Our aim is to take away the headache of configuring realtime infrastructure so that developers can concentrate on making awesome stuff.

In short, Pusher take the pain out of building applications and websites that want to benefit from real-time data. They handle the infrastructure behind real-time data so you can focus on the important bit, creating your application.

They're a lovely bunch of people and I'm excited to work with them, get to know them, and make awesome things happen with them.

What will you be doing?

In general, I will be in charge of providing oversight and direction for Pusher's developer-facing activities. This includes things such as:

Working on the overall plan for developer relations at Pusher
Co-ordinating with other departments to improve the developer experience Pusher-wide
Making sure the on-boarding process for developers is as smooth as possible
Handling developer-facing events
Optimising the developer support process where possible
And much more…

I'm keen to get started and implement the ideas that I've had as a result of my experiences both at Mozilla and in my day-to-day developer-related activities. I'm confident that developer relations can be improved in so many ways, not just at Pusher but everywhere.

When do you start?

I've already started. I joined on the 7th of November, 2013.

Where will you be based?

At Pusher's offices alongside a lovely canal in Hackney, London. Not far from Shoreditch.

Awesome, but what about ViziCities?

Good question. Pete and I have effectively decided to move ViziCities back to a side project and worry about making it awesome (and releasing it) rather than worrying about making it a business.

In fact, work on ViziCities has progressed significantly in the past fortnight now that the financial strain has been alleviated. On the development side, I'm in the process of moving from distributed, ad-hoc experiments to a more deliberate and structured application architecture. The results of early progress in this area have already shown that I can integrate new functionality much quicker than before. Two examples of this include:

Building a loading system that uses promises to notify in code when all functionality has finished loading.
Using Web Workers to offload the creation of 3D models to a separate OS process, meaning that you don't lock up the browser UI and the user experience stays relatively smooth. This alone has resulted in a massive improvement to the loading and rendering of many thousands of complex buildings, improved even further by the use of typed arrays and transferable objects.

Plus much more, like finishing a proof-of-concept for visualising London buses in real-time, along the real road network, in 3D.

Expect more ViziCities updates in the future as things progress further.

More soon…

I'll leave things there for now, though I'll write another update once I've settled into Pusher and have a better idea about what's going on.

In the meantime, check Pusher out and get in touch should you have any questions about my joining, Pusher in general, or the services they offer.

Here's to the next chapter!

Thoughts and advice for public speaking

2013-10-28T00:00:00.000Z

Over the past few years I've had the opportunity to speak at a number of events all around the world, taking me from a terrified newbie to a (slightly-less terrified) professional. Here are some (unordered and rough) thoughts and tips on public speaking based on my experiences.

I will keep this entry updated as I learn new things.

Taking part in a panel at EDGE NYC

No one is perfect, don't make that your goal
Focus on being happy with yourself and your own approach and style
Try not to compare yourself to other speakers, everyone does things differently
Other speakers will always look better to you than your perception of yourself (more composed, articulate, funnier, engaging, etc) – that doesn't mean you aren't any of those things
Public speaking is scary shit, even the professionals get nervous
Ask for feedback but don't take it personally or immediately apply it (some people love to be negative without being constructive, also everyone has a different opinion)
Try and ignore the "great talk" comments – they're nice, but not constructive and don't help you get better
Don't use humour as a crutch, you may get laughs but you'll dilute the real content

Try not to look as scruffy as this

Find a comfortable position for a headset mic and try not to fiddle with it for the rest of the talk
Run the cable for headset and lapel mics down inside your top, that way you won't accidentally catch them and deafen the audience
Don't hold a handheld mic like a rapper, you look stupid and no one can hear you
Take your lanyard off before you talk, otherwise you may get it caught in the mic or your hands
99.9% of people are normal and will give you their time and attention and won't be dicks
Given the chance, most people wouldn't want to be where you are (but wish they could)
You have a huge amount of power as a speaker, people will listen to you and do what you say. Use it to your advantage.
Stay calm and speak slowly
Don't be afraid to pause for breath, to calm down, or to take a sip of water
Related to above, make sure you have some water with you
For you a pause may seem like a lifetime (especially with people watching) but in reality it's only a couple of seconds
No one notices or cares if you pause or make a mistake
Don't freak out or start apologising profusely if you make a mistake, just compose yourself and continue where you left off
Try not to infer anything from the facial expressions and behaviour of the audience (weirdly, the most engaged people are often the ones who look most bored)
Have a pee just before you talk, even if you don't particularly need one

Title slide for a recent ViziCities talk

Keep your slides to a minimum (few words, no bullets, more images and visual triggers)
Write notes to expand on the minimal slides that you can keep on your presenter display
Don't stress about practicing, so long as you have good content and notes then you'll be fine
However, make sure you keep to time as it's bad practice to go over and have to rush or end early (for me I give myself around 30 seconds a slide)
Try not to get distracted and look at the big shiny screen behind you (trust that the slides work). Remember that you have power as a speaker and people will look where you look… you want their eyes and attention on you and not unnecessarily on your slides
If you're a fiddler or walker-and-talker, try bringing something to hold to prevent you looking uncomfortable
Bring a power cable and display adapter to the stage with you
Don't rely on the Internet being available or reliable (have offline demos and videos)
Don't live-code if you don't need to, it's cumbersome, error-prone (due to pressure of talking) and takes much longer than explaining pre-written code. If it's for a demo, use a video of you doing it (successfully) previously.
Backup your slides on a USB and somewhere online (trust me, this will save you one day)
Ask for the projector dimensions and general AV setup at the event before you make your slide deck

Demoing ViziCities at Mozilla Festival

As much as you can, talk about things that you are interested in and excited about (even if it's a 'boring' topic) – it's impossible to be bored if the speaker is obviously interested in what they're talking about
You don't need a full-on story arc to your talk but have some structure with a beginning, middle and end
Most importantly, try to enjoy it. Not many people get to do this and it's a great experience. You'll survive and you may even enjoy it slightly
Use a decent remote control, ideally not Bluetooth- or WiFi-powered
Record your talk and watch or listen to it back afterward, this is the best way to improve as you'll notice things like nervous ticks (for me, walking or rocking back and forth – yeah, weird), or repetitive phrases (for me, "erm", "like", "so…", "interesting", etc)
Repeat questions back to the audience (so everyone can hear and it's clear you understood it)
Don't be afraid to say, "I don't know" or, "I'll get back to you on that"
If the answer to a question is going to be long, suggest catching up with them after the talk instead
Put your slides online and mention that during your talk so people can focus and not have to take notes

I'm sure that's not everything but it's a good start for now. I'll update this entry as I think of things that I've missed.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear about any tips you might have learnt while speaking in public, or perhaps some questions you've got about speaking that I might be able to answer. Grab me on Twitter and I'll do my best to help!

Robin Andrew Hawkes: The story behind a name

2013-10-07T00:00:00.000Z

A long time ago I used to be known as Robin Andrew Hawkes. It was my full birth-name. A name that I was proud of. A name that had both history and story behind it. However, when I was a young teenager I decided to call myself Rob, just Rob. I made every effort to stop using my full first name, and made even more effort to make sure my full first and last names didn't appear together. I've always regretted this. I've always felt sad about it. I've always felt like a part of me has been missing. So why did I do this? And why haven't I changed back?

A name of 2 birds

I was actually known as Andrew Hawkes for a few days after being born. It was a name given to me in part because my dad had a friend called Andrew who had recently died in an accident. It made sense to remember him that way, and it was a nice name. It didn't last long though.

One day while I was still in hospital, a surreal event happened that had a profound effect on rest of my life. A robin, the bird, flew through the window of the ward I was in and landed delicately on the curtain rail above my cot. Aside from the nurses freaking out because a bird was in the ward, no one could quite believe it. But there it sat, a little robin looking down at little Andrew. The robin was shooed out by the nurses and from that moment on I was known as Robin Andrew Hawkes. My first name as a result of some surreal moment, my middle name as a tribute to a family friend, my last name containing the history of my ancestors. A name full of story.

A robin, by Joffley on Flickr

Ever since then I've had a connection to robins that I can't quite explain. I'm not a believer in a greater being, but I certainly believe that there are things that cannot be explained yet. In this case, perhaps because I'm looking out for it, I've always noticed robins. They seem to always surround me, whether living in the garden or showing up in random moments. Not just that, but when they do show up we often share a moment, some sort of connection – maybe the way the robin behaves, or just the timing of their arrival. I don't need to know the reason why that is, all I care about is that it feels special and I feel like I have something watching over me. Silly, perhaps. Especially for someone who doesn't believe in God.

Fucking batman

Up until late primary school (elementary for those outside the UK) I was Robin, the smiley happy kid who was always getting in trouble. Not for being badly behaved, more because I was mischievous and always had a grin on my face (which made ~~lying about~~ denying something incredibly hard).

A very young me

Toward the end of primary school we all started to work out how to wind each other up, mostly through teasing. Everyone did it, it's just a part of being a kid. The problem was, I was more ripe than most for the name teasing because not only was Robin Batman's sidekick (second best) but at least in the UK we have a term called Robin red-breast, named after the bird. Coupled with the fact my last name (Hawkes) sounds like a bird too, the teasing was guaranteed. Then Robyn happened (the singer), and everyone assumed I had a girls name. Oh the joy.

Actually, I didn't mind the teasing so much. What I did mind was when some of my 'friends' realised that it could be used to hurt me, which happened to be the same time the bullying started. I was never physically bullied but I was always bullied mentally in a variety of ways, one being via my name. At that point I was so embarrassed and annoyed at my name that I decided to drop the birds and call myself Rob. Plain and simple. You can't bully a Rob.

It worked, but in doing so I lost part of my identity. Part of what made me… me. I never quite got over that, though the resulting years certainly helped make it easier to forget about.

It hurts to call me Robert

Fast-forward 15 years or so and I've made a professional career for myself under the name Rob Hawkes. I've written a book under the name Rob Hawkes. Hell, the vast majority of people in my life know me only as Rob Hawkes. I got so used to it that I very nearly forgot about my full name and how it made me feel.

My university degree

It was only quite recently, within the past few years that I've started to reminisce about my name and consider changing it back. It probably started when I graduated from university and saw my name in full, looking formal and smart. I was an adult and by that point the painful memories of the name had worn away and I was left wondering why I wasn't called that any more. I didn't have an answer, at least not one any better than "Because everyone knows me as Rob, it's too late to change."

I would guess that most people wouldn't predict that my full first name is Robin. In fact, I'd bet that you would assume my full name is Robert. Everyone knows a Robert. Very few people have even heard the name Robin, let alone met someone called that. And guess what, it hurts to have people call you by a name that isn't your name. It's not me!

Back to my roots

I've always regretted calling myself Rob and hiding who I really am. Hiding the real me and the stories behind who I am. It's always felt odd to call myself Rob, perhaps even wrong, but I was used to it.

From now on I'm Robin Hawkes, a name that I'm proud of. To the outside, it's a small change. To me, it's one of the biggest decisions I've made. It defines who I am. Losing the Rob feels like losing a part of me, but gaining the Robin feels like I'm getting a part back that I've missed dearly.

I've already had friends telling me how happy they are that I've changed my name, how they always preferred the name Robin. It's really nice to get support for what feels like a massive decision, even if it seems small and silly from the outside.

Now to go about changing my name on what feels like every aspect of my adult life, both online and off. Starting with Twitter and Facebook, because you know, that obviously makes it official.

What about you?

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have a story behind my name, or a reason for changing to a shortening or nickname. Why did you change? Have you ever thought about changing it back?