The Good Hacker – Part 3: Matt Jukes

Matt Jukes

I met Matt Jukes on the internet first. Around the time that we were planning on launching GovCampCymru in Wales, this incredibly kind, enthusiastic, and encouraging character (@jukesie) popped up on the twitter streams.  His remote efforts landed us a logo and the kind of momentum that is the difference between ‘we think this could be a good idea’ to ‘this thing is definitely going to happen’.  This is the kind of magic we need more of, deep thinkers who have a bias for action.  I finally met Matt in real life and caught a glimpse of the deep thinking part at the Open Knowledge Festival in Berlin this summer.  The theme was ‘Open Minds to Open Action’, just the kind of place to meet deep thinkers with a bias for action.  What’s more, Matt is rare valuable resource to the public sector, his bias for action can do things like getting us excited about the Office for National Statistics because they now do things like this! Enough of my preamble, let’s hear from Matt in his own words…

What do you do for a living?

I’ve had some odd job titles but basically I am a Product Manager and work mainly in the public sector. Currently for the Office for National Statistics.

What ding you are trying to make in the universe?

I just see myself as a cog in a big machine that has started the journey to make public sector digital services user focused and flexible. That is enough for me.

What is your life mantra?

I’m not really a ‘life mantra’ kind of guy. Probably something about life being a team sport.

Nikola Tesla or Thomas Edison?

I like the mythology around Tesla but I’m going to go with Edison. Like GDS say – ‘the strategy is delivery.’

Favourite place in the world? and why?

New York. Brooklyn to be more precise. I am pretty much obsessed with old school hip hop culture (graffiti in particular) as well as DC comics and Scorsese movies so NYC is the mothership.

Who is your hero?

Ian Holloway. Or when I am feeling more serious probably Brunel. It is a Bristolian thing.

Who is the most interesting hacker you have come across? and why?

No idea. Depends on what is going on. I have friends like Stef Goodchild (@stefangoodchild) and Sam Machin (@sammachin) who conjure up amazing, but very different, ‘hacks’ seemingly from nowhere. Then people like Matthew Somerville who build amazing tools that go way beyond hacks thats genuinely help improve things for people.

I’d also be remiss in not mentioning the team from DXW who won the recent hack day I was involved in with the National Audit Office and Parliament. Lily (@lilydart), Magda (@magdawebdesign) and team built something amazing in just a couple of days.

How would you define ‘hacker’ using only words allowed by upgoer5 ?

Building stuff that makes things better.

What is the coolest hack you have seen?

My favourite hacks over the years have tended to be where digital meets physical. Ben O’Steen introduced me to a load of ‘paper net’ ideas back in 2010 https://benosteen.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/making-the-physical-from-the-digital/ and I think that was also where I saw personal 3D printing for the first time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RepRap_Project. Since then the Mozilla Festival each year is pretty much overwhelming with the number of amazing hacks.

What is the biggest obstacle for hackers in traditional organisations?

Risk aversion and governance. It is hard to reconcile a hacker like approach with the concerns of large organisations – it takes a big leap of faith from the powers that be.

What is the value of having hackers in your organisation?

Opportunities to genuinely change culture and make a difference that can be seen by users in a way that traditional ‘change management programmes’ rarely deliver.

What is the best culture hack you have heard of?

Who knows if it is still in place and it was less of a hack and more of a culture from day one but the Netflix presentation from ’09 pretty much set a standard for thinking about what a modern workplace could be (not necessarily should be – but it asks the right questions.)

Which aspect of public sector culture is in most need of getting hacked?

The NHS. Well it seems in need of the most help full stop. So many technology failures and misunderstanding of the public’s concerns about data but also so much opportunity to really make a difference.