Continuing what I started in 2012 (13) (14), it is once again time to look back and forward. The past year has been rather turbulent, the year ahead holds a lot of (uncertain) potential…

2014, the year in which I thought I would:

Start writing my PhD thesis

I’m not going to spend a lot of words on this item. I wrote about it here somewhere in May last year. To cut a long story short, the plug has been pulled from the PhD.

Plan to submit my first journal article as a first author

See above.

Will visit my sister in Berlin

Yes! This actually happened. Well, kind of. The plan was to stay with her during thingscon2014. In the end, she had a very last minute work opportunity abroad – so I ended up staying in her Berlin appartment while she was away. At least I was there, and thingscon was probably the best conference I’ve ever attended.

Hope to create more prototypes and mockups instead of ‘thinking’ about them

I think I managed to do this more. A very recent example of this is my tinkering with connected christmas lights, which I wrote about on the blog. Also, I’ve been putting together some prototypes for an ongoing project at Studio Dott. It feels very good to create some working things, it also feels like the enthusiasm and interest I’ve been putting into getting to understand Arduino and others is starting to pay off.

Will be a CHI Belgium boardmember and co-organise all kinds of cool activities

Very much so! We’ve been running a couple of google hangout sessions with the CHI Belgium board, which has been very nice to set up and coordinate. The highlight of these activities was, without any doubt, setting up the Humans & Things event early December. Setting this up, both organisation and contentwise was a blast.

Plan to write a collaborative paper which originated from a chat during a conference

I didn’t manage to write the collaborative paper I referred to, but we are still planning to do a collaborative writing effort. To certain extend, the reason that this has not happened yet relates to the first point in this list.

Hope to participate in at least one make or hackathon

For sure this happened! Probably Apps For Ghent was the most memorable, had a lot of fun with an awesome team! (and won some things as well, hurray!)

Plan to somehow communicate my thinking and research more to an international public (by posting more on this blog for instance!)

I’m not sure if I managed to post more, but I was more conscious about getting a more consistent message across regarding my research. Throughout the year I had the opportunity to give some talks on meaningful connected products, which really helped to get my point across and get some focus on what I have been doing, where the boundaries of my research and interest are, etc.

Will own my first decent audio setup

Yes! Yamaha R-N500 and a decent pair of Focal speakers, very happy with these – mostly during weekends.

Will turn our front garden into a vegetable garden

Yes! Well, we only managed to get the vegetable garden finished at the end of August. So we haven’t been able to plant a lot of things – so the grand harvest will be for the year to come. We do have some onions and garlic planted right now though … let’s see how that turns out.

An item which I did not add last year, but which has had a significant influence on how I ‘see the world’ today has been the decision of becoming a foster parent (pleegouder / pleeggezin in Dutch). During September – October – November, the 1.5 year old S. stayed with our family. Reflecting back, this was an emotional rollercoaster and very intensive period – but I can’t think of anything that has enriched me more last year. Becoming a parent already made me realise that a lot of things in life are relative, becoming a foster parent is rooting this thought even deeper. It has been a though step to take, but a very much rewarding one. I hope our family can continue to sustain the decision made.

2015, the year in which I will…

• Know if my PhD can be rerouted / rebooted
• Build at least one other example of a meaningful connected product
• Will put together a publication on meaningful connected products (and hope to distribute it at thingscon 2015)
• Own a GoodnightLamp (!)
• Actually read the books I buy. I want to, at least, read:
  • Making Futures
  • Design Things
  • Well Designed
  • The Myth of the Spoiled Child
  • Ubik
• Somehow get involved in my father’s CNC business
• Do more geocaching with my wife and children