**This week we're walking around Mousehold** Let's wander and chat about tech &amp; life! Come rain or shine, and we'll be walking at 7pm! Bring a dog, your significant others, kids, a friend and your face! Join our friendly group for some healthy activities! Our current walk is Whitlingham Lake, a 2.5-mile walk at an all-inclusive pace!

Norfolk Developers - nor(DEV):

nor(DEV): Wander (Mousehold)

Let's wander around the lake and chat about tech &amp; life! Come rain or shine, and we'll be walking at 7pm! Bring a dog, your significant others, kids, a friend and your face! Join our friendly group for some healthy activities! Our current walk is Whitlingham Lake, a 2.5-mile walk at an all-inclusive pace!

nor(DEV): Wander


All conference speakers, regardless of, well anything really, share one thing in common. They all had to deliver their first talk. The first time they stood up in front of a group of people and imparted something. I cannot be more specific, because each and every one of those experiences would have been unique, but I can be reasonably sure about one thing: those speakers  would have been scared. Probably terrified. 
 
## Stage nerves

Talking to a large group of people is scary. That fear lessens the more you do it, but it never quite goes away. Recently, a well respected keynote speaker at a large conference told us their heart rate was over 140bpm before starting. The talk was excellent, so arguably they had nothing to worry about. And yet, there was The Fear. Fear, the talk won’t go well. Fear people won’t find it interesting, or useful. Fear that you will somehow fail.
 
I mention this because, great as it is to see the same old faces [quite literally in some cases,] I also love hearing from new people. What may seem blindingly obvious to you, like doing something in Blender or coding a little electronics project on an Arduino, are actually fascinating to people like me whose experience doesn’t encompass these fields.
 
“But,” I hear you say, “The Fear!”
 
To which I say Tish and Pish. Provided you can tell a story, you can give a talk. Granted, not everyone can tell a good story, but you may surprise yourself if you tried. 
 
## Adrenaline rush

The Fear is very real. As is the stress. But then so is the rush when you’re done. And the discourse after the event. Which is why, time after time, I willingly put myself in the situation of standing up in front of a whole bunch of people who know a lot more about a whole bunch of stuff than I do, and open my gob. And then I tell a story. Usually about tech.
 
Despite coming across as a colossal extrovert, I am actually very introverted. Going up to strangers and talking to them is incredibly difficult for me. Standing in front of them and talking at them is somehow easier. And, once it’s all over, they come and speak to me. A ready made gaggle of people to talk to and interact with while at a conference.

## Conference gains

Ultimately, for me, that’s what conferences are about. Yes, the learning to be gained from the talks is interesting, but you can watch most of those on the internet. **It’s the corridor conference which is the best part**. So despite everything, I will submit talks to conferences I want to go to, because if I don’t I will just passively attend the conference, rather than taking part in it. So this year, listen to the stories being told at [NorDevCon](https://nordevcon.com), and have a think about what story you might tell next year. You never know, you might even enjoy telling it.

Facing the fear

[Keynote speaker](https://www.nordevcon.com/#speakers) and specialist in work-place innovation and optimisation, [Rokker](https://www.rokker.co.uk/) People’s Jim Marshall, spent some time talking to us about the future of work – providing us with real-world solutions rather than just abstractions.

## The nuts & bolts

Having worked with the tech sector for many years, [Jim](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimnmarshall) explains:

> We work across a range of industries and geographies and with companies of all sizes, from start-ups through to fortune 250 businesses; the common themes are: we tend to deal with c-suite stakeholders who want to dramatically scale or improve their people strategy. These companies are predominantly in the tech-sector…although it could be argued that every business on the planet these days is a tech company in one way or another!

## What is success?

Jim explains, “success is about identifying the goals or desired direction of travel for a client company, and then designing a contextual, optimal journey to meet that state”. This is where Rokker’s ‘Design Thinking’ approach comes in, treating each corporate and people brief as a design challenge which requires research, ideation, planning, execution and measurement – supported by a range of in-house tools such as the PRISM methodology seen on the Rokker website.

Jim says “this process is very agile, and specifically designed to align to language within tech companies, instead of MVPs we have MVIs (Minimum Viable Initiatives) for example. The agile framework is also very good at handling corporate change, similar to a development project, it allows us to prioritise and reprioritise based on customer, stakeholder or market influences. I am sure many in nor(DEV) will recognise this language”:

## The people lens

Most organisations are subject to persistent change. Jim is surprised that through these major transformations how comparatively little time and attention is spent addressing the very pertinent question - “how are these changes going to affect our people?” Jim feels that one of the biggest business failings is “inadequate comms.” Organisations that start with a collective ‘how are we going to work through this together?’ and ‘what are our roles going to look like in the new world?’, fair so much better than those that have impressive people slogans and collateral, but put little effort into understanding the motivations of their wider team(s).

## The autonomy to think

Allowing staff the freedom to think is a good start. Jim talked about the importance of giving colleagues the time and space to think and then the “autonomy to act.” Don’t follow siloed options, but “in a knowledge based economy, it’s so inefficient to run a business with a top down hierarchy - sadly this is all too common, akin to Victorian mill owners.” 

## Exploring the future

Jim highlights that there is room for hope. The pandemic unraveled a whole range of working options. His mantra at that time was, “I hope we don’t forget all of this.” …
”However, I know we have short memories and the crowd mentality rarely follows logic.” 

“There is a massive difference between companies that have been designed digital first and remote first and the approach here is often energising.” However, a lot of organisations that were built ‘premises first’ are struggling with the hybrid era. The problem is not the office working or the remote working, the difficulty is an ideology momentum that is based around control and hierarchy not empowerment and outcome.

Explore more about the future of work by attending [Jim’s keynote at 09.30 on 17th June.](https://www.nordevcon.com/schedule?share=20)

<NorDevCon />

The future works

Senior software engineer and video game modder and archivist, Codie Stella knows a thing or two about raising the dead. No, we’re not discussing ghouls 👻, [Codie Stella](https://twitter.com/craftycodie) is a game resurrectionist.

## Passion for programming

Codie Stella started making addons for Garry’s Mod in their teens and realised that they really enjoyed doing this. A web & game dev, 3 years B-Tech course, at Peterborough regional college followed. Having graduated they pursued a four year degree course, at UEA, an integrated Masters in computing, where they were introduced to neuro-imaging and machine learning with a practical application that can be used in the field of Alzheimer’s research. This work involved the use of more cost effective MRI scans rather than the more expensive PET scans. 

## Bringing games back to life

Seven years ago fans of the Halo game, specifically Halo 3, attempted to convert the game from Xbox 360 to PC and CodieStella became involved in this project. Minecraft, too, is one of Codie’s interests. “It’s a game that’s been around for 12 years, it’s a game that’s hugely popular and over its life it has changed dramatically. Comparing the early versions to those that exist today, you’ll see that these are almost two totally different games.” 

Codie Stella went on to explain that what they like is that people can relive the experiences that were enjoyed when first playing the early version. Codie Stella started playing Minecraft in 2011 - when Minecraft was still in a Beta phase. Restoring the old versions has become something of a passion.

## Abandoned games

Team Fortress 2 (TF2) has a massive following, it was released in 2007 and the game is still immensely popular, as Codie Stella says, “the game developers have all but abandoned it but people still want to play the game.” This is the time for community action. Codie Stella added:

> When the community can step in and support these old games that the developers no longer wish to support, this shows passion for the game and allows devotees to keep it going.

Most recently Codie Stella’s work on Halo3 and working on the Xbox 360 “has been a bit of a challenge.” 

## Keeping game devs happy

In terms of people like Codie Stella and the community stepping in where game devs no longer tread, “it’s an interesting area.” Minecraft developers encourage modding and even hire modders. They even release the source code of every update. Sadly, should you touch anything Nintendo related you might get more than you bargained for. The company will “tell you to stop immediately, they do not like modders.” 

To some extent, Codie Stella understands why this might be so. “There are bad ways to do it \[modding\] and some people have stolen code and this might be why some companies are guarded.” When game developers open themselves up to modding that can be both good and bad. “But the companies can gain from the modders’ interest in a specific game.” Legally, the whole area is grey and precedents are still being set.

To find out how you can take part in video game preservation to resurrect your favourites, and hear about hacking comparisons come and [listen to Codie’s fascinating talk at 13.45 on 16 June.](https://www.nordevcon.com/schedule?share=6)

<NorDevCon />

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Facing the fear

The future works

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February 2020 Conference Edition