2024 in review

For me, 2024 was split into two distinct halves - pre- and post-Touch World Cup (July, 2024). The first half of the year felt like it took an age to get through, while the second has flown by.

When I look back on it, a heck of a lot happened in 2024. My vibes are pretty positive about the year, or maybe I'm just selectively retaining the good parts in memory and have discarded everything else. I'll take that.

The 2024 Touch World Cup in Nottingham, UK was easily the highlight of the year for me. My second World Cup representing "Chinese Taipei" (all together now ... "T A I W A N") in the Mixed Open Division. This time around I was given the privilege of co-captaining our team as well.

Our squad had a split of 7 players based out of Taiwan, and 9 players from the overseas Taiwanese diaspora. Our first game together as a full squad was on the Sunday prior to the tournament - 2 days before our first game. That presented challenges as different playing pods took time to gel and work out what systems worked best for them. We battled through the group stages, with some really strong performances against bigger nations and some really tough losses which tested our resolve.

In the end, we managed to secure Taiwan's first ever international win in any division, defeating Spain 11 - 2 in our final game of the event.

Through it all, we created some amazing memories together. We became close with the Tongan Mens team who were staying in the same accommodation as us - sharing some really special moments including a hymn after playing a warm up game together, and a combined team dinner. Our teams supported each other throughout the tournament, making sure we got to each other's games whenever we could.

Personally, I came out of the tournament the fitness I've ever felt after the 9 months of training we'd put in leading up to it. That didn't last long though, lol.

Places I visited in 2024 (in no order): Sydney, Kiama, London, Cotswolds, Oslo, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Dusseldorf, Singapore, Hong Kong, Rishikesh, Delhi (New & Old), Hamburg, Bergen, Nottingham, Western Norway, Uttarakhand, Tokyo, Chiba, Taichung, Nantou.

• London: My partner came to the UK to meet me after the World Cup was over (she's got no interest in the sport), and we spent a week on the island. A few days in London were spent visiting her old stomping grounds around East London from when she studied in the UK before we met. We also caught Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre, which was a night well spent. We split our stay in London with a few idyllic days in the Cotswolds.
• India: A trip to India that was totally until mid-way through 2024. My parter's guru was holding workshops in Northern India, and she'd decided to attend. Later, it emerged that her guru was also planning a tour of Uttarakhand province, visiting four major Hindu temples. I'm not religious, but I jumped at the chance to visit India again after so long (nearly 20 years) and to see the Himalayas for the first time.
• Sydney: Another very late decision, we went down to Sydney for a week to surprise Mum for her 70th birthday. My sister organised everything, and even Dad managed to keep a secret. Mum was genuinely surprised when we showed up with our luggage at the door. A week well spent.
• Norway: Bro. Epic. After London, we took 6 trains and 2 days to reach Oslo. From there, we spent two weeks in Western Norway being blown away by the stunning scenery. Though the weather wasn't the greatest, we had an amazing time in driving around the fjords. Towards the end of the trip, we looked at where we'd been on a map and realised just how little of Norway we'd actually covered. Our trip ended with 5 sunny days in Copenhagen, Denmark. I'd move there in a heart beat if I could, then probably blow my life savings on bikes.

Nothing too significant happened on a personal note in 2024. Is that good?

I did get more into film photography, taking my (now very battered) Olympus Pen EE-3 with me to all the places listed above. I've started saving those pictures on a separate website: film.fershad.com

While traveling to Berlin for work (see below), I made a point to extend my time in Europe partly so that I could play some Touch in a few cities there. This was pre-World Cup, so I was keen to get in as much practice as I could. In the end, I got to jam with the teams in Berlin, Amsterdam, and Den Haag, making friends who I'd be seeing again (and playing against) a few months later in Nottingham.

There's been a lot happening in Green Web Foundation land this year, and I've been lucky to be part of a nice chunk of it.

I was fortunate enough to travel to Berlin again this year to meet up with the team. As the moment distant of our remote team (we span the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and Taiwan) I spend a lot of time seeing my colleagues as pixels in boxes on video calls. Despite the cold March weather in Berlin, it's nice to be able to meet with each other in person for a while. These moments allow us to share stories, have genuine impromptu conversations, and just bond with each other.

March and April saw me give two talks about web sustainability in Taiwan and Singapore respectively. I was super surprised when a Taiwan-based event popped up on my radar, and hopefully it can be something I regularly attend. The event in Singapore was for Green IO, the Asian conference for the podcast of the same name, hosted by Gael Duez. It was fantastic to meet Gael in person, and connect with other people in the region who are working on similar problem spaces. You can read about both conferences at on the Green Web Foundation blog.

2024's finished with two really cool projects kicking off - Carbon.txt and Grid-aware Websites. Both projects are super interesting, tackling different problem spaces, and include a sufficient deal of technical nerdery to keep me very satisfied. These projects will be continuing well into 2025, and I'll be talking about them more as the year goes on.

Earlier in the year, I was part of the working group that introduced an updated Sustainable Web Design Model (version 4) for estimating website carbon emissions. The update applies more recent research and data to the estimation methodology, and aims to be detailed yet easy to follow for those who want to implement it. It's now in CO2.js as an option, and we'll be looking to make it the default methodology in that library sometime in the first half of 2025.

Somehow, I've already got a heap of stuff planned for 2025 - both personal, work, and Touch related. As with anything forward-looking, things can change, but here's a rundown.

• February: RightsCon will be in Taipei, and I'll be part of a panel discussion at that event. If you plan on attending RightsCon, let me know! There might also be a sneaky Touch Tournament in Bangkok mid-month. Unsure yet if I'll play or referee.
• March: I'll be in Sydney for Rounds 1-3 of the NRL season, plus rounds 1 & 2 of the AFL season. So if you want to catch a Bulldogs (NRL) or Swans (AFL) game during that month, let me know! Oh, and I'll also be at Sydney Climate Action Week, so if you'll be in and around those events let's meet up! All of the aforementioned shenanigans began with my sister planning her wedding in rural NSW for the end of March.
• April: I'll be at the Green IO conference in Singapore again, probably talking about either Grid-aware Websites or Carbon.txt, or both - depends how much time Gael gives me. If you're in Singapore and want to meet up or organise a workshop, get in touch.
• July: At this stage, it looks like I'll be floating through Europe sometime in July as I make my way to Berlin for our yearly Green Web team days. Again, the plan will be to play as much Touch as I can in different cities while I'm over there. We may also be taking a junior Touch team to the Atlantic Youth Cup in Ireland at the end of July, but that's a long shot at this stage.
• October: We've got our eye on spending a few weeks in Japan in October. Not sure where as yet, but Hokkaido is an early favourite. Japan Touch Nationals are on at the end of October, so will probably time something around that.

As always, if you're visiting Taiwan for work or play, let me know. There's so much to do, see, and eat (mostly eat, though) here. I'd love to show you around!