What I learned leaving a Ruth AI in charge
Before my three-month ordination retreat I built a Ruth AI so our Mautic team could keep going without me. The AI turned out to be the smaller part of the story.
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Writing on open source, dharma and life
Everything from marketing automation and digital sovereignty to Buddhist practice and running very long distances.
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103 posts
Top tips for thriving on the three-month ordination retreat at Akashavana
Preparing to thrive on the three-month ordination retreat at Akashavana - fitness, medical planning, kit and coping with the mountain weather - from someone who once was not sure her body could manage it.
What I learned at my first Order convention
Sitting in complete stillness with more than 620 Order members at Wymondham, and what I worked out about how to survive, and enjoy, a first convention.
What I've been up to in August 2026
A look back over the month across my work leading Mautic, from a community led AI initiative and our first paid certifications to rebooting Women of Open Source and rebuilding this site.
Rebuilding this site in the open - Joomla to a static site, with an AI assistant
How I moved fifteen years of content off Joomla onto a fast, low-maintenance, open source static site - built in the open with an AI coding agent as my thought partner - and why I made the choices I did.
Introducing Sīlavāpi
Over the last three months I’ve attended an 11‑week residential ordination retreat up in the mountains of Aragón in southern Spain. During this retreat I was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order and given the name Sīlavāpi by my preceptor, Acalavajrī…
What dāna teaches us about open source sustainability
Over the past week, something beautiful has been happening in the Mautic community. We launched an emergency fundraiser to address a significant revenue…
When the project you lead needs community support
There's a particular kind of vulnerability that comes with asking for help. Especially when you're leading something that tens of thousands of people…
Making your dharma notes digital, linked and searchable
I've been taking digital notes on my dharma practice for over fifteen years. Through multiple devices, various apps, and countless software migrations,…
Is truthful speech the most critical infrastructure in community management?
In this ongoing exploration of Buddhist ethics for leadership, we’ve journeyed past the diamond pillar of non-harm, the gold pillar of generosity, and the…
Personalisation and customer experience done right at the New Wolsey Theatre
Last night I experienced a lovely case of personalisation and knowing your customers done right…
Finding stillness and focus in the chaos of open source
In this series exploring ancient ethics for modern leadership, we’ve looked at the 'Diamond Pillar' of non-harm and the 'Gold Pillar' of generosity. Now,…
The Sovereignty Spectrum - a practical guide to reclaiming your marketing independence
In my last article, we explored the unsettling concept of digital colonialism, and how the marketing stacks of many businesses have become subject to the…
Cultivating true value beyond 'takers v makers' in open source
The 'takers vs. makers' dynamic in open source can lead to burnout. Discover how the Buddhist second precept offers a practical path to sustainable community…
What graduating from GitHub’s Secure Open Source Program means for Mautic - and for open source security
I’ve been thinking about how we build trust in open source - not just through transparent code, but through transparent practices. Over the past month,…
Digital colonialism and how your marketing stack is surrendering your business sovereignty
In my previous articles on digital sovereignty and data sovereignty in the marketing technology landscape I established the foundations for understanding…
Who really owns your customer data? A marketer's guide to digital independence
In my previous article on digital sovereignty, I explored the overarching concept of how organisations can maintain control over their entire digital…
Understanding digital sovereignty - your key to marketing freedom
The world is digital, there's no getting away from that. The question of who controls our technology infrastructure, data and operations, however, has…
Cultivating non-harm and kindness in Open Source leadership
In my last post, I explored the Four Samgrahavastus – ancient Buddhist principles for unifying a community that I've found to be super relevant to leading…
Four ancient principles every open source leader can benefit from implementing
Open source communities face unique challenges. Distributed teams, volunteer contributors, competing priorities, and the constant balance between…
Living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome: How I ran 50 miles to support Breathworks
This blog shares my journey with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and celebrates the achievement of completing a 50 mile run to raise funds for Breathworks…
FOSDEM 2024: A recap
A free conference, with 885 talks comprising of 365 hours of content over two days all of which are live streamed, recorded and made available within…
State of Open Con 24: A bright future for Open Technology
It's Monday morning, you've just spent the entire weekend at FOSDEM in Belgium, and now the Eurostar departures lounge is filled with a disproportionate…
Running an RFP process in an open source project
Ever felt like you're at the foot of Everest when you decide to create a huge project or a long-term collaboration for an Open Source project? Tell me…
Q3 2023 Mautic Roundup
Another quarter of significant change in the Mautic project, we've lots going on in many different areas…
Q2 2023 Mautic Roundup
Another busy quarter has flown past, here’s a round-up of what’s been happening in the community!…
Five things I've learned through running multilingual online conferences in our open source project
Like many Brits, English is the only language I speak fluently. I speak schoolgirl French, a bit of Welsh and a few words in German and Dutch. I'm…
Change is coming to Mautic
Some exciting changes are coming to Mautic - learn more in my blog post!…
Automating new contributor swag with Mautic, n8n and Sticker Space
Saying thank you is a great way to recognise and appreciate the time people have spent making a contribution to an open source project, but how do you…
Q1 2023 Mautic Community roundup
Another busy quarter has flown past, here’s a round-up of what’s been happening in the community!…
What is practice, anyway?
Last weekend I had the great delight of welcoming a good friend to run a women’s day at the Ipswich Buddhist Centre. Suryadarshini hails originally from…
FOSDEM 2023: Back to live!
Last weekend I headed over to Brussels on the Eurostar like hundreds of other open source enthusiasts, for the first in-person FOSDEM event since the…
Cross-training with EDS to manage injuries
Yesterday I shared on my Instagram feed about having to switch all my training over to bike-based for cardio and lower body/core for strength training due…
Q4 2022 Mautic Community Roundup
Another quarter and another year has passed, and what a year it has been! Let’s review what’s happened over the last few months…
Using projects to transparently manage financial resources on Open Collective
Often as an Open Source project grows there becomes a need to allocate funding resources to specific projects, teams or initiatives. It can be challenging…
Creating our community swag shop with Spreadshirt and Open Source Collective
With any Open Source project, once you have an established logo and brand you want a way to get that out into the world on swag for your community to…
Long distance work travel with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
In my job I have the great privilege of travelling quite a bit, sometimes long distance. Today I’m writing this from my hotel room in São Paulo, after…
Q3 2022 Mautic Community Roundup
Another action-packed quarter has passed, let’s dive into a roundup of what we’ve been up to!…
Swapping out JACK for Pipewire in Ubuntu Studio 22.04
Pretty soon after setting up Ubuntu Studio on my laptop (which I plan to use for my music recording and composition) it became obvious that all was not…
Switching from Kubuntu to Ubuntu Studio
Having started to learn the flute three years ago and taking up piano during lockdown to help me with learning how to compose, I've increasingly been…
3 years working in Open Source at Acquia: a review
Today marks three years since I started working as Mautic Community Manager at Acquia, here is a reflection on all we have achieved in that time…
First Breathworks in-person board meeting
I certainly wasn't expecting to be playing with toy unicorns, ribbon, jewels and pine cones during our first in-person meeting of the Breathworks board…
Using DDEV with Joomla for local development
In Mautic, we make use of the open source tool DDEV heavily as a tool to help you get a local development environment spun up quickly. It's an incredible…
My first long distance race - Endure24 Reading
This weekend after a culmination of nearly a year's training, I completed my first ever marathon - and indeed ultramarathon - race at Endure24 Reading. A…
Q2 2022 Mautic Community Roundup
It's been another fantastic quarter in the Mautic Community, learn what we've been up to in this Q2 2022 round-up report…
When did you learn how to run properly?
During my training for Endure24 I started to pick up small but frustrating problems with my body - painful hip flexors and quads, a Mortons Neuroma, and…
Acquia volunteering day at Camp Mohawk
As a fully remote worker at Acquia, I always jump at the chance to meet up with fellow Acquians, especially when we get to spend the day working together…
Q1 2022 Mautic Community Roundup
A quarterly round-up of activity and progress in the Mautic Community…
How to back your open source project's stack
Identify your open source project's dependencies through the Back Your Stack initiative and consider one of the many creative ways to show support…
Planning to support event attendees who test positive for covid-19: top tips
How to support event attendees/delegates who test positive for covid-19 - including email templates to use!…
Q4 2021 Mautic Community Roundup
A roundup of all things Mautic Community from Q4 2021…
6 ideas for building an equitable partners program for your open source project
How one open source project found a way to give credit for all kinds of contributions…
Running our first in-person event in covid times
Our experience of running an in-person event for the Mautic Community during covid pandemic times - what we learned, how we did it and what we'd do differently…
Organising digital events in the Mautic Community
Rewind just over two years and we were about to organise our first ever Mautic World Conference - MautiCon for short - at Acquia's head office in Boston…
Q3 2021 Mautic Community Roundup
It hardly seems that it was a year ago we were releasing Mautic 3.0 release, but here we are just over a year later, and Mautic 4 has been released!…
Q2 2021 Mautic Community Roundup
It hardly seems like three months have passed since the last roundup report on activity within the Mautic Community, but a lot has happened since then! Read on for the latest updates…
Q1 2021 Mautic Community Roundup
Another quarter has seemingly flown by and here we are again with a quarterly round up of everything that has happened in the community over the last three months…
Becoming a bilingual typist - switching from QWERTY to Maltron
Making the switch from QWERTY to Maltron Keyboard Layouts - one handed keyboard, two handed keyboard and all the fun & challenges involved!…
Q4 2020 Mautic Community Roundup
Another quarter passes and we mark a year of progress in the Mautic Community since we held our first in-person community sprint in November 2019 at…
Q3 2020 Mautic Community Roundup
Another quarter has flown by, so it’s time for our round-up report of what’s been happening in the Mautic Community over the past three months!…
Q2 2020 Mautic Community Roundup
This quarter has seen huge progress being made in many areas of the Mautic Community and some big changes being announced…
Learning to write acceptance tests with Codeception
Follow my journey to learning Codeception and writing acceptance tests for Mautic - including links to documentation and walk-through to get started!…
Q1 2020 Mautic Community round-up
It has been a busy quarter in the Mautic community following the first Community Summit back in November. What follows is a round-up on a team-by-team basis of their activity between January-March 2020…
My first two weeks at Acquia
A busy first two weeks as Mautic Community Manager at Acquia! A round-up and overview of my OKR's!…
Working with internal and external thinkers in communities
How do you support both internal and external thinkers in communities? Find out more in this short article…
How my wheelchair gave me back my life, my health, and my dignity
Today is #InternationalWheelchairDay which has me reflecting just how much my life has changed since I decided to start using a wheelchair back in 2014…
Amphibious SEOs, cracking content and optimisation of Javascript sites .. another Brighton SEO round-up
Round-up of BrightonSEO September 2018 - Amphibious SEOs, cracking content & Javascript SEO…
Top tips for maximising your exhibition experience with digital marketing and social media
Top tips for using digital marketing and social media when exhibiting at events and conferences…
Breaking the Boom and Bust cycle of pain and activity
One of the most fundamental tips I learned over the years was how to break the 'Boom and Bust' cycle of pain and activity. It has taken many years of…
Building a community? Check out these great resources!
Some useful tips for people building communities…
How businesses can support people with #EhlersDanlosSyndrome to be well at work
Some ways in which businesses can support a team member who has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome with being well at work…
I ran a mile every day for 40 days .. and so can you! #rwrunstreak
What I have taken away from running a mile every day as part of the Runner's World Run Streak #RWRunStreak…
Who cares about marketing strategies anyway?
Why are marketing strategies important? How do you make them work? Find out more in this short article!…
What lies behind being so well at the moment
I'm pretty well at the moment, here's how that happened (and what that means for my general health!)…
What is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? (and how it affects me)
What is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and how does it affect me? An overview of the EDS condition and the ways it affects my life…
Being believed and getting a diagnosis of EDS
Sadly, many people experience a lot of suffering before they are actually diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Some of the classifications are picked up…
Introducing Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Awareness Month
The month of May is a special month to me - it's a month where the condition which I live my life with is showcased through Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome…
How venues could learn from Brighton Dome about supporting people with disabilities
This weekend I had the great pleasure of attending my first BrightonSEO event - a twice-yearly gathering of the great and the good (and definitely the…
Top tips for surviving your first exhibition or conference
Top tips for surviving exhibiting at your first event or conference from Ruth Cheesley…
Gamification reaches new heights with Majestic's Awards
Majestic launch a gamification platform to help users explore all the features of their web-based SEO and data analysis platform…
Marketing Automation - the missing piece in your small business marketing toolbox
Small businesses are often heavily reliant on their marketing - particularly in the early stages - for generating interest, reaching out to potential…
Setting icons for desktop shortcuts on KDE - a UI fail?
How to change icons on KDE / Ubuntu for desktop shortcuts…
Life is better with wheels!
Being British has it's advantages. Tea, for one thing, is something I really miss when I'm travelling the world ... good old fashioned tea the way my mum…
Have the courage to be fierce with reality
"You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce…
Meditations for women who do too much!
A while ago, a good friend of mine gave me a lovely book of hers, slightly in jest but also out of compassion, at my busyness and tendency to do too much,…
My journey with chronic pain
I was largely motivated to write this blog post after reading this post - 6 things about chronic pain you didn't know you knew - and just to be clear…
When did you last stop to sharpen your blade?
It is often easy to overlook the need to rest and recharge when running as business to avoid burnout and stay on top of your game…
Why is community important in today's society?
Today is an important day in the Buddhist calendar - it's Sangha Day, where we celebrate one of the 'Three Jewels' of Buddhism…
It's been a busy few months and quite a few airmiles!
Things have been a little busy in the past month, with lots of international speaking engagements and of course, being part of the team behind Joomla!Day…
Social media in an emergency - Kenyan Interior Ministry maintains calm using Twitter to communicate
As you may know I've been in Kenya this week, speaking at Joomla!Day Kenya and carrying out some market research. Today was my last day, so this morning…
Social Media management for business owners
Just recently I was reviewing the systems in place for managing our social media accounts, and looking at new technologies that had emerged since we…
Did your Ecademy (now SunZu) profile suddenly drop from search listings?
Did your Ecademy profile suddenly vanish from your prominent page 1 position in search listings a few months ago? Mine too! The bad news is that SunZu…
Getting deep and dirty with Google Analytics (Part 1)
NOTE: This is now very outdated, and remains here as an archive only. Keeping up with changes from Google can be rather challenging at the best of times,…
Google+, Microdata and Authorship - why you can't afford to ignore Google+
NOTE: This is now very outdated, and remains here as an archive only. With the abundance of social networks that spring up on an almost daily basis, you…
How secure is your Joomla! website? Top tips for business owners to ensure your site is safe
NOTE: This article is quite outdated and remains here for archive purposes. Joomla! is fast becoming one of the most popular content management systems in…
Identify and recover from Google Panda and Penguin updates causing sites to disappear from Google
NOTE: This is now very outdated, and remains here as an archive only. Google has been tweaking its algorithms (the systems it uses to identify how…
Microdata as an extension to Semantic HTML (aka adding cool stuff to search listings)
NOTE: This article is quite outdated and remains here for archive purposes. You may have noticed recently that extra bits of information have started…
Joomla! World Conference, San Jose - Talk on Microdata, Authorship and Google+
I am fortunate to have recently returned from a couple of weeks out in America, where I was invited to speak at the first Joomla! World Conference in San…
Google+, Authorship and Personal Brands - it's not all about the ego!
NOTE: This is now very outdated, and remains here as an archive only. Or is it? Months ago, having listened to what several high profile people were…
It's just like riding a bike apparently ... #bikeweek
They say that a good boss should lead by example, so for the next week I am making a real effort to cycle into work each day, as part of 'Bike Week'. Bike…
When things go wrong - tips for dealing with clients who have had a bad experience
I don't often work as a contractor on ODesk, mainly because when competing against thousands of other developers from other parts of the world who are…
The meditation challenge!
As you may know, I'm Buddhist and am training for ordination in the Triratna Buddhist Order - quite a long process! I see my work as part of my practice…
New site, new me?
Well, I've been 'on the web' since the early 90's when my school IT teacher had to remind me I had a home to go to (and my mother made me get a job to pay…
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