|  |  |  | | | | | Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | From: Tim Davies tim@practicalparticipation.co.uk
Date: Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 2:35 AM
Open data, democracy and public sector reform is a report based on a recent MSc dissertation taking a look at the policy and practice of using open government data from data.gov.uk. It's now up as an online document at -
http://practicalparticipation.co.uk/odi/report/
In looking at how open government data is being used in practice it draws out a number of themes, including:
Data is not just for developers
- there is a tendency to focus on machine-readable data for large scale visualisations and mash-ups; but data can be useful to individual citizens or local citizen activists, finding facts within spreadsheets and campaigning for change locally.
Open government data changes the gatekeepers, and the role of civic actors
- now mainstream media, independent citizens, companies and different levels of government are all afforded the possibility of advancing their own interpretations of data. Government, however, retains some (significant?) gate-keeping power by setting the categories and structure in which data is recorded and released. Debates over the meaning of data become more important - and the capacity of local democratic actors to be part of those debates again needs to be developed.
Open government data can support innovation in public services
- predominantly through improving the 'markets' for public service innovation - allowing social and commercial entrepreneurs to work with government data, and preventing exclusive access to data being an anti-competitive advantage for certain firms. However, the research didn't find cases where open government data was successfully facilitating 'citizen led' forms of public service innovation involving local communities discussing and debating how services operated.
A focus on digitizing government underlies much open government data supply and use, and can lead to concerns of politics, power and justice being under-valued in the development of open government data infrastructure
- and we need more articulation and focus on real-live civic use-cases of open government data to inform the development of open data infrastructures.
All comments and feedback on the report welcome - particularly to help shape thinking about what to do with the research next.
http://www.timdavies.org.uk
@timdavies
Co-director of Practical Participation:
http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk
My source:
ciresearchers at vancouvercommunity.net | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Read the special issue on the -
Challenges of Dementia
- for free online!
 This special edition of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry contains a series of articles concerning current services and future plans for the care of people with dementia and their carers in a host of different countries. The articles reflect the myriad approaches in which various countries are improving the quality of life for people with dementia.
My source: Wiley | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In order to pursue post graduate study you need a project, which demands a question. Formulating a research question is central. I wonder however whether there remains a bias - hard sciences vs humanities (and triangulation) - towards a class of questions that are closed and so can be answered in X-words : Y-time : with Z-funding? Thereby passing through the necessary academic hoops. Of course I realise that if there are no constraints then chaos would ensue. I just wonder if the journey (creativity, discovery ...) might be lost for the sake of assuring the end product?
My questions (apart from 'beware from moves') tend to be framed in broad terms. You could say that as yet I am not disciplined (specific) enough to come up with a question that passes "GO!"
 In Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future the issue of educational programmes is raised and I read the following:
The second antidote entails the creation of educational programs directed specifically at certain individuals of promise - for example, leaders of tomorrow. Chief executives and general managers are expected to be able to see the big picture - to look beyond their own background and specialization; to understand the various components in their organization or constituency; to think systematically about what is working, what is not working, and how goals can be more effectively achieved. ...
Other individuals - for example, those exhibiting a "searchlight" or "bricoleur" intelligence - might be attracted to such programs as well. They would make use of their enhanced skills even if they do not occupy explicit leadership roles. Perhaps, as educator Vartan Gregorian has suggested, we need a specialization in becoming a generalist. p.75. Gardner, H. (2008) Five Minds for the Future, Harvard University Press. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In his funny and very engaging session 'Designing UI with Seven' at Drupalcon CPH Mark Boulton discussed four user experience (UX) principles and introduced us to ten user interface (UI) guidelines.
Mark highlighted the need for a mental model and the challenge for publishing of there being someone who has the big picture. Who knows exactly what is going on? The health career model provides a model and can provide a canvas to support the big picture.
What caught my attention was as soon as Mark asserted -
"Don't make people think."
I immediately thought -
'Make people care instead'.
Well, I'm not sure if an interface can do what public (mental) health policy, government public funded education programmes and the concerted efforts of the health professions has largely failed to achieve. The users of e-health information systems do need the design of the system to be transparent to them. IT mustn't get in the way. Mark's point of course is the the user's should be free to focus on the problem the system is to help solve. In health this includes:
- recording of a health (and social) care record;
- secure information / file management and access;
- information governance, reporting and archiving;
- timely, ready access for those who need to know;
- ability to manipulate the record to obtain knowledge: from data > from information;
- to provide patient (carer as advocate) access and verification;
- remote access with rugged devices.
- ...
This does not mean that people are oblivious to design: far from it (iThis - iThat!). My point is that as we follow Mark and other design expert's advice then users should be able to focus on care design and the care outputs arising.
So in health we need interfaces and user experiences that DO encourage reflection, thought: thinking.
P.S. In another session (or magazine!?) on creating mobile versions of sites the advice included getting rid of the crap - the clutter, the >1000px width adornments. Rhetoric aside - my design thought would be not to include anything that could be described in this way whatever the media type (maybe I should lighten up!) ;-)
To follow: update on my Drupal efforts. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In Drupal musings 12 I mentioned that the classification of nursing practice is not necessarily at the forefront of nursing's mind set against the turbulence and rush of clinical areas.* This is especially so at the moment as nurses on wards, clinics and community try to identify savings.
I am interested in classification in part as this is the raison d'être for the health career model; on a mental (cognitive) level, in practice and potentially in virtual representations of health care activities. For learners it is an extra to hold the bicycle saddle for those first turns of the pedals. Additionally, for those who have completed many rides and races (lifelong learners) they can reflect on how they got there, and plan for the next round.
As a conceptual framework then h2cm is, like classification, in the background. The model can help to compose, direct and conduct (c-d-c) nursing (health and social) care. Classification matters to ALL nurses because we need to know not only the c-d-c of nursing but the outcomes too.
If all the above is in the background, then together with classification the health career model can help differentiate nursing as a discipline and make nursing visible. We can only take heed of the adage "divide and conquer" by being able to differentiate nursing from other disciplinary contributions. Then perhaps we can truly identify and so define the facets of integrated, interprofessional and multidisciplinary care that must also be person-centred. As nurses and the team respond to the individual's trauma (assault, illness, chronic disease ...), they can also assure their combined values, which must be defined and articulated if there is to be a unified philosophy.
If the respective professions have not noticed (I am sure they have) 'professionalism' is itself under assault in terms of unique knowledge and skills, respect, power and status. To a degree this a good thing. It is also called 'progress': countering restrictive practices, improving service access and challenging institutionalised and state paternalism. Professionalism is accorded for reasons of accountability, education, responsibility, integrity and advocacy. Amid the public (mental) health disaster that we face - the professions - are needed more than ever and if the assault is taken too far ... ?
* Should you know of examples where classification IS at the forefront of nursing practice please let me know - h2cmng @ yahoo.co.uk. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Dear Colleagues,
 We are pleased to announce a fantastic free event coming up on the 29th of September 2010 titled - "Promoting the collaboration of Age research"
The event is run by the UK Age Research Forum (UKARF) which is a strategic partnership between government, research councils and charities that aims to make a positive difference to the lives of older people through research.
The aims of the conference are:
- To highlight the best of UK research funded by collaborative working of the UKARF member organisations
- To demonstrate the benefits of collaborative working in age research
- To inform about developments in age research in the UK
Where is it taking place?
Time: 9:30am — 4:00pm
Venue: The Royal College of Physicians
11 St Andrews Place
Regent's Park, London NW1 4LE
How to register: fill in the form attached or register online at -
http://web.me.com/magic_bean/UKARF/registration.html
KT-EQUAL will have a stand at the conference so please register for the event and drop by and say hello!
If you want to know what we are up to, register for any of our future events, or download our monographs from previous events please visit our website www.equal.ac.uk
Best Wishes
Helen Haigh
KT-EQUAL Co-ordinator
University of Sheffield
My source: Sparc/KT-EQUAL network | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 
I received a copy of the following - Interprofessional Education in Wales: case studies in health and social care - July 2010, Editors: Clare Kell and Marion Helme (Health Sciences and Practice). Published by the HEA.
As per other HEA publications there are many papers here of great interest. One stood out at a first reading as in addition to the quote below Mark Edward's also refers to the need for an holistic approach, and this particular MSc. course providing a critical space.
UK Professionals are trained and educated in their own disciplines, learning their own unique and specialist knowledge for their chosen profession. Therefore, although each profession is well equipped for its singular contribution, they find their 'educational preparation a total mismatch for the complex, interactive world into which they graduate and practice' (Sullivan, 1998: 428). Sullivan's view reinforces the WLGA's concerns, that professional boundaries *demarcate* social professions (and others) from each other and that resistance to collaboration and co-operation on any meaningful level has been compounded by the historical development of the uni-professional training model. We need therefore to agree a uniting philosophy and *conceptual framework* that facilitates a dialogue between these professional disciplines and gives reasons for these discrete services to work together in providing effective inter-professional solutions to shared social problems. p.53. Edwards, M.L. (2010). * -- * My emphasis. I do not merely want to hang word associations here on the blog line. But, I have wondered about how we demarcate the disciplines. This is a major question. In the rather incomplete, ill-formatted glossary I cite Resnik (2002) - A pragmatic approach to the Demarcation Problem. I would love to have the opportunity to explore this philosophical, scientific and disciplinary conundrum within the context of pantology in the 21st century (h2cm?).
On the new site a living glossary is a must - the terms we use often vary from context to context, professional to professional. Clearly (or opaquely) I cannot provide all the answers hence the need for a community and a (Drupal) module. ...
Mark L. Edwards, Case Study 7: Issues in collaboration between undergraduate professional qualifying programmes of youth work and social work. pp.47-55.
HEA, Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre: Room 3.12 Waterloo Bridge Wing, Franklin-Wilkins buildings, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH.
Resnik, D.B. (2002) A pragmatic approach to the Demarcation Problem, Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci., 31:2,249-267.
Related posts:
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2010/05/hea-mental-health-sig-h2cm-reflection.html
http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2010/05/update-kings-college-london-mental.html
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