Msh
ULTIMATE Member
I'm back in the hotel now and of course, you guys get my first feedback
First of all, I did not win, that award went to the Digital Poverty Alliance. They absolutely deserved this and I think I'd have been offended if it went to anyone else
... seriously, go check them out/donate 
My table was made up of people nominated for the digital inclusion category/internet hero so I had some really amazing people around me. I absolutely love what they're all doing and it was a great couple of hours talking with them.
As for talking to ISPs, this was a bit tougher. ISPs generally went in their own little (or huge... Hyperoptic looked like they took their entire company) groups and these groups were pretty static throughout the evening, it was kind of awkward as someone there alone to try and insert yourself. I did speak to a couple of ISPs though, it took basically zero effort for them all to agree with my points.
A bit unrelated, I've been thinking about the long-term future of bidb and personally, I believe the main feature that will survive time is the checkers on the right-hand side (and a vast majority of the bidb codebase). As rollouts ramps down, these will be the things that remain relevant, people knowing what exists over the country (ignore imminent acquisitions/mergers, that's a minor detail). My focus has mainly been on around providing a robust foundation for bidb (I've written a few blogs about the fairly complex architecture of bidb you can check), however, this work is finite. Once that's done, I'd like to see bidb become the normalised way of providing coverage data. I will try to engage more with ISPA/INCA/Ofcom/BDUK to build this legitimately open platform as time goes on (though there are conflicts in there I am well aware of).
Lastly, congratulations to @Mark.J for the award. It's well deserved! It's a shame you couldn't make it!
First of all, I did not win, that award went to the Digital Poverty Alliance. They absolutely deserved this and I think I'd have been offended if it went to anyone else
My table was made up of people nominated for the digital inclusion category/internet hero so I had some really amazing people around me. I absolutely love what they're all doing and it was a great couple of hours talking with them.
As for talking to ISPs, this was a bit tougher. ISPs generally went in their own little (or huge... Hyperoptic looked like they took their entire company) groups and these groups were pretty static throughout the evening, it was kind of awkward as someone there alone to try and insert yourself. I did speak to a couple of ISPs though, it took basically zero effort for them all to agree with my points.
A bit unrelated, I've been thinking about the long-term future of bidb and personally, I believe the main feature that will survive time is the checkers on the right-hand side (and a vast majority of the bidb codebase). As rollouts ramps down, these will be the things that remain relevant, people knowing what exists over the country (ignore imminent acquisitions/mergers, that's a minor detail). My focus has mainly been on around providing a robust foundation for bidb (I've written a few blogs about the fairly complex architecture of bidb you can check), however, this work is finite. Once that's done, I'd like to see bidb become the normalised way of providing coverage data. I will try to engage more with ISPA/INCA/Ofcom/BDUK to build this legitimately open platform as time goes on (though there are conflicts in there I am well aware of).
Lastly, congratulations to @Mark.J for the award. It's well deserved! It's a shame you couldn't make it!























