One of the main ingredients of a Prakash Jha film is its topical element and the director now wants to bring on the silver screen the relationship of the police and society today.
One of the main ingredients of a Prakash Jha film is its topical element and the director now wants to bring on the silver screen the relationship of the police and society today. Almost all of Jha's films be it Mrityudand, Gangaajal, Apaharan and latest, Satyagraha, have been connected to their time.
The 61-year-old helmer feels the image of police in the society has changed drastically in the last 12 years and this subject could make for an interesting movie. The director now wants to bring on the silver screen the relationship of the police and society today. "I did Gangaajal which was about the relationship between the society and police at that point of time. The dictum then was that society gets the police it deserves. But in the last 12 years, there has been a big change. The attitude of the society to the police is different," Jha told PTI in an interview.
"Today if a cop has to arrest a criminal he thinks ten times, because there is the caste, communal factor, the local goon, the politician, his own officer, the judiciary. My friends, who are cops say there is no policing in this country anymore. Efficiency has become a crime and inaction is a virtue. I find this very interesting. I have a story I could work on it," Jha said.
The filmmaker, who tried his hands in politics for some time, has made his political drive well-known in his movies as well. His films have all been prisms for reflecting politics- Raajneeti drew parallels to the epic Mahabharata, Apaharan was set in the backdrop of politicians and the kidnapping industry in Bihar, Aarakshan was on the controversial policy of caste based reservations in Indian government jobs and educational institutions and Chakravyuh was a commentary on the issues of Naxalites. Jha says he has never made such films to be preachy or with an intent to invite the youth to enter politics.
He feels becoming a politician is not the only way one can change the system. "One way you can change the system is by getting into the system, as long as you don't get into the system those who are in the power will continue to do what they are doing. But I feel even thinking about politics, about the right candidate, voting for the right candidate, canvassing for the right candidate, making sure that the right candidate comes to lead us- is also political engagement. "You don't have to become a politician, you have to be politically aware. You have to take control of your political destiny," the director-producer said. Jha unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from his native Champaran in 2004 and again in 2009. When asked if he would like to revive his political career any time soon, he said, "My political career is long over. I am a very straight and determined guy. I gave ten years of my life to public service. It is over and I am finished with it. I have to do a whole lot of other things."
Satyagraha, Jha's latest release, starring megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, has done well at the box office and the director is elated with the response as he never expected the film to do so well. "I am not talking about some of the critics who did not agree with my presentation but in terms of collection and response of the audience, it has exceeded our expectations. I don't really make commercial films so it is interesting for me to see how people do connect to this kind of cinema and find it engaging. It encourages me," Jha said.


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AAPP United States
AAPP United States is a holistic legal and resettlement initiative developed in response to the crisis in Afghanistan. The project is safely relocating and resettling Afghan artists and their families in the United States, and enabling them to preserve their livelihoods as artists.
Since the U.S. announced its intention to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, AFI has received nearly 3,000 individual requests for legal assistance from Afghan artists. This is unprecedented throughout AFI's history. AFI developed AAPP United States to provide direct assistance to Afghan artists whose lives and livelihoods are currently at risk under the Taliban.
Through AAPP United States, Artistic Freedom Initiative is directly supporting at-risk Afghan artists and their families by providing:
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We can't do this work alone! To download a list of individual and organizational partnership opportunities, click here.
AAPP United States is supported by generous funding from the Mellon Foundation and the SDK Foundation for Human Dignity.
Photo credits: Michael Wilson, Nosrat Tarighi.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Loans and Finance
Home creation Combining Talk Therapy and Antidepressant Medication
Combining Talk Therapy and Antidepressant Medication
digitalonline330943 May 19, 2021 comments off
Most experts believe that antidepressant medication is not the only effective way to cure depression. New findings about talk therapy called cognitive behavior therapy appears to cancel the risk of suicidal thinking or behavior associated with taking antidepressant medication.
depression, counseling
Just as when people think that the only effective treatment for depression is to take drugs, new findings about talk therapy called cognitive behavior therapy appears to cancel the risk of suicidal thinking or behavior associated with taking antidepressant medication. Cognitive therapy is a type of talk therapy that involves counseling and changing a person's negative thought patterns.
In one of the most comprehensive and long-running study to date about depression treatment among adolescents, 600 patients were treated for chronic depression. Statistics show that four out of five adolescents treated for chronic depression recovered entirely, or nearly so, when treated over nine months with medication, talk therapy or a combination of the two.
Significant signs of improvement were seen from patients taking medication 6 weeks earlier than those who were undergoing cognitive behavior therapy alone, but were about twice as likely to report feeling suddenly suicidal. The combination of the two therapies, the authors found, produced the most rapid recovery and protected against sudden suicidal urges.
The argument regarding the risks of antidepressants to children and adolescents have been going on for years, prompting health regulators to require all labels for antidepressants to carry prominent warnings that the drugs have been associated with increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior in young patients. Such a move was seen by many psychiatrists to be a case of something being blown out of proportion and scared off patients who could have benefited from drug treatment.
This study showed that antidepressants lowered the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions over all, but significantly less so than talk therapy. According to Kevin Stark, a psychologist at the University of Texas who was not involved with the research, the study convincingly showed for the first time that there are very good options for a child who is going through depression and thought to be at risk for suicidal thinking. ?Psychosocial therapies do work on their own, with time. But they also help prevent relapse, and this shows that they can help make drug treatment safer,? said Stark.
Experts agreed that talk therapy was a safer alternative. Almost 15 percent of the patients taking just antidepressant medication reported what were described as ?suicidal events,? mainly talk and thoughts of suicide so alarming that doctors called in the patients and, often, altered dosages.
The rate of such events for those receiving just cognitive behavior therapy was 6 percent. The results for combination therapy were about the same.
Dr. John March, Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Duke University Medical Center and the principal investigator for the study believed that medication accelerates recovery while cognitive therapy protects against these bad reactions. ?The combination of both treatments is the best option,? said Dr. March.
Getting patients out of bed and doing something that they enjoy, like playing basketball or going to a party, are just some of the behavioral changes promoted by talk therapy. The young patients are also taught to diffuse ?poisonous assumptions? like ?I?m a loser? or ?I?ll never get a girlfriend.?
It may not be easy to find specialists for this therapy outside large cities. However, the techniques have been widely published in various manuals and books which can serve as sources and references for a good therapist to work on a depression treatment plan.
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LIVERPOOL target Anderson Talisca is reportedly set to join Wolves.
The Benfica midfielder had been linked with a £20million move to Liverpool earlier this week.
However it now appears the Reds have missed out on the 22-year-old's signature.
Portuguese newspaper A Bola claim he will join the Championship club Wolves by the weekend.
The report claims Wolves have secured a work permit for the Brazilian and he will now move to Molineux.
A Bola add Benfica duo Helder Costa and Pele are set to follow Talisca to Wolves.
Talisca joined Benfica from Bahia in 2014, and has gone on to score 12 goals in 52 games for the Portuguese side.
Wolves were recently taken over by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International.
And Fosun International's investment director Jeff Shi revealed that the firm plans to invest £20m into the club over the next two years.


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$150 per term; Term 4 production surcharge additional $15.
An interim class for 8 - 12 year olds.
Please refer to Class Information for details of content and term dates.


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Jimmy Rollins thinks the Phillies should spend money and compete in 2015
By Craig CalcaterraSep 25, 2014, 10:28 AM EDT
Jimmy Rollins wasn't fantastic this season, but he did have a bounceback year of sorts while playing some solid defense. He enters 2015 in the last year of his contract and Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News spoke with him about his and the Phillies' future. With respect to the team, Rollins thinks they can and should compete:
The man who helped propel the Phillies into a winner – first with his "team to beat" declaration, then with an MVP season to back it up – thinks the front office will continue to do what's necessary to turn their fortunes around.
"We have enough money to," Rollins said. "So you can't say we don't have the money to make improvements in the places that need to be improved, or where they can make them, whichever is the priority. We're in a big market. A big-market payroll. So you have to go out there and make it happen."
I wouldn't read that as Rollins misreading the Phillies' competitive chances. I would read it as a challenge of sorts to the front office to fix what's broken and do what it can to reload with him, Cole Hamels and the rest of the old crew intact. I'm not sure if that's a good idea, but there aren't a ton of good options for Philly right now and, clearly, something has to change.


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IDS not quite as bullish on Universal Credit programme?
Iain Duncan Smith told the House of Commons in January 2013:
"Universal Credit is on track and on budget. The systems are not new or complex. After all, more than 60% of the total developed system is based on reusing existing IT. New developments will use tried and tested technology.
"The key difference between how this Government are doing things and how they were done before is that we have adopted commercial "agile" design principles to build the IT service for universal credit in four stages, each four months long."
No longer does IDS say the Universal Credit programme is on time or on budget. Indeed in the House of Commons yesterday he was asked by Labour if the Treasury has approved the full business case for Universal Credit. His replies to MPs were not quite as bullish as they sometimes have been.
He spoke about the programme almost entirely in the future tense, and when he mentioned the present state of the programme he quoted someone else – John Manzoni, the chief executive of the Cabinet Office's Major Projects Authority.
Labour's Nicholas Brown asked IDS when he expects the business case for Universal Credit to be fully signed off.
IDS: "I announced in December that Her Majesty's Treasury has approved funding for the universal credit programme in 2013-14 and 2014-15. The final stage in Treasury approvals is sign-off of the full business case, which covers the full lifetime of the programme. We expect to agree that very shortly."
Brown: The answer to a similar question two months ago was "very shortly", but it is taking rather longer than the Secretary of State intended. What are the major outstanding issues between his Department and the Treasury, and where does universal credit now stand in the Cabinet Office's traffic light system?
IDS: "… the reality is that we have agreed all the spending that is relevant to the plan that we set out at the end of last year. The final point relates to the full lifetime of that programme, which will take it all the way through, probably beyond all the years that anybody present will be in government. [MPs: 'Certainly you!'] … That is now being agreed and the reality is that it has to be done very carefully. I genuinely believe, from my discussions, that it will be signed off very shortly. The result will be that the programme will be seen for what it is: a programme that will deliver hugely to those who have the toughest lives and need the most support and help."
Labour's Andrew Gwynne asked when the government is going to get a grip on a "chaotic shambles".
IDS: "It is always nice to live in the past, but the reality is that if the hon. Gentleman waits he will see that this programme is running well and will be delivering, that this programme of universal credit will benefit everybody who needs the support they most need, and all the nonsense he is talking about will all go away.
Chris Bryant, Labour, said that IDS keeps telling MPs that the UC business case will be approved very shortly. "What has gone wrong?" he asked IDS.
IDS: "There are no sticking points, but these matters need to be agreed carefully. This test-first-and-then-implement process is the way all future programmes will be implemented.
"I just want to quote Mr Manzoni, the new chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, who made it clear to the Public Accounts Committee in June that universal credit is stable and on track with the reset plan."
The National Audit Office is re-investigating the UC programme and is expected to publish its second "progress" report on the state of the programme by December.
If IDS says anything unjustifiably positive about the programme now, MPs and the media will compare his comments today with what the NAO says in its new report. Is that why he refers to the programme only in the future tense? And who can say with certainty what will or will not happen in the future?
It may be worth mentioning that ministers and officials, some years into the NPfIT, referred to the state of the programme almost entirely in the future tense.
Tagged agile, Cabinet Office, npfit
DWP wastes money on another Universal Credit FOI appeal
Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions are to pay external lawyers to attend another FOI hearing as part of the department's efforts to stop four old reports on the Universal Credit programme being published.
A hearing will take place in London on 3 December for the DWP to put its case for a third time that it should be allowed to appeal a ruling of the first tier information tribunal that the four reports be published.
Although the DWP's lawyers have lost every tribunal decision they have contested in the case, there is no sign the department's officials will restrict the amount of public money they allocate to stopping publication of the reports.
If lawyers for the DWP continue to lose every judicial decision, officials will always have the option of a ministerial veto.
The DWP's multiple appeals are arguably a pointless plundering of the public purse for legal costs, because officials have known from the initial FOI requests in 2012 that they would never publish the reports in question.
Despite the efforts of Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude to introduce open government, no central department has agreed to issue reports on the progress or otherwise of its big IT-dependent projects and programmes.
This is the chronology so far in the DWP's attempts to stop the four Universal Credit reports being published:
March 2012 – I make a freedom of information request for a Project Assessment Review of the Universal Credit programme, as carried out by the Cabinet Office's Major Projects Authority. The PAR would have given early indications of the problems the IT teams faced while the DWP's ministers and press office were issuing public statements that the programme was on time and on budget.
April 2012 – John Slater, a programme and project management professional, makes an FOI request for the Universal Credit programme Risk Register, which gives a traffic light status of the risks most likely to occur and who should take ownership of them. He also requests an Issues Register which details the problems and failures that have occurred and why, how they can be managed, and how their effect on the programme can be minimised or eliminated. The Milestone Schedule he requests would show whether milestones have been met or changed.
May 2012 – DWP minister Lord Freud personally signs refusals to release any of the four reports. John Slater and I request internal reviews of the refusals. The DWP rejects our appeals so we complain to the Information Commissioner.
June 2013 – The Information Commissioner orders that the DWP publish three of the reports but not the Risk Register. The DWP appeals the ruling. John Slater appeals the Commissioner's decision to keep the Risk Register confidential.
Jan 2014 – A two-day appeal hearing is held in Leicester, before the First-Tier Information Tribunal. Slater appears at the hearing, as do representatives of the Information Commissioner and the DWP.
March 2014 – Judge David Farrer and his First-Tier tribunal members rule that the DWP publish all four reports. The DWP discovers that the version of the PAR [Project Assessment Review] it supplied to the Tribunal is not the final version that has been requested. It is evidently a draft. "How the mistake occurred is not entirely clear to us," says Judge Farrer. He suggests that the DWP might not have read the PAR closely and has refused to publish it on principle. Under the FOI every request is supposed to be considered on its merits.
"Whilst the differences [between the draft and final versions] related almost entirely to the format, it did raise questions as to how far the DWP had scrutinised the particular PAR requested, as distinct from forming a generic judgement as to whether PARs should be disclosed," says the judge.
He also comes close to saying the DWP had not been telling the truth about the state of Universal Credit programme. He and his tribunal members have read the four reports in question. He says the Tribunal had been "struck by the sharp contrast" between "the unfailing confidence and optimism of a series of press releases by the DWP or ministerial statements as to the progress of the Universal Credit programme" and some of the criticisms and controversy the programme was attracting at the time of the public statements.
April 2014 – The DWP seeks Judge's Farrer's permission to appeal his ruling. Unexpectedly the judge refuses the DWP permission. The DWP's lawyers had argued that the Tribunal had "wholly misunderstood the nature and/or manifestation of any chilling effect". [The chilling effect suggests that public servants will not tell the whole truth in project reviews if they know the reports will be published.] The DWP said the Tribunal's misunderstanding about the chilling effect "amounted to an error in law" and was "perverse". Judge Farrer said he had not misunderstood the DWP's claims of a chilling effect.
May 2014 – The DWP's lawyers ask the Upper Tribunal for permission to appeal the ruling of the First Tier Tribunal that the four reports be published. The DWP's arguments are long and complex – but they are, arguably, useful only to the bank account of lawyers because the DWP will not publish the four reports whatever the outcome of its appeals.
June 2014 – The judge of the Upper Tribunal (Nicholas Wikeley) refuses to give the DWP permission to appeal the ruling of the First-Tier Tribunal. On the DWP's claim that the First-Tier Tribunal has misunderstood the chilling effect, the Upper Tribunal's ruling says,
"This [the chilling effect] is a well known concept, and I can see no support for the argument that the Tribunal misunderstood its meaning …"
Having lost the case, the DWP requests permission from the Upper Tribunal for another appeal hearing so it can put its arguments in person, not just in writing. The Tribunal agrees.
August 2014 – The Upper Tribunal sets a date of 3 December 2014 in London for a hearing to decide whether the DWP can appeal the First-Tier Tribunal's ruling that the four reports be published. The DWP's lawyers have had the case open now for more than a year.
If the DWP's ministers and officials were spending their own money on legal costs, doubtless the four reports would have been published within days of our FOI requests; and their publication would have made no difference except to make officials a little less confident that they could, in future, cover up serious problems on their big IT-dependent projects and programmes.
The irony of the whole case is that the DWP argues that it needs to keep the reports confidential because candid assessments of a programme's problems are essential tools for good project management. But the DWP has presided over a succession of failed IT-dependent programmes.
Clearly the routine suppression of reports on its problems has not helped the DWP's project management. The National Audit Office's report on Universal Credit could hardly have been more negative about the DWP's management of the Universal Credit programme.
Isn't it time the DWP did things differently and published reports on the progress or otherwise of its biggest programmes? With improved public scrutiny the department may then start to have a succession of successes. What a surprise that would be, to the department's officials at least.
Tagged Cabinet Office, Efficiency and Reform Group, Francis Maude
Making the case for "tilting the table" for mutuals
By David Bicknell
A recent get-together organised by Stepping Out discussed the landscape for mutuals and asked what needs to happen to get the mutuals show on the road.
The discussions are summed up in this well argued blog by Craig Dearden-Phillips.
A few paragraphs caught my eye:
"The general view in the room is that financial weakness – in the form of small balance sheets – is a disadvantage facing spin-outs tendering for contracts. There appears to be a truth that when tenders come up, this sector struggles to show the financial 'leg' necessary to get nervous public sector commissioners into bed. Instead they bee-line for safer-looking super-providers. Some would argue that social enterprises should be 'gifted' public assets in the form of property to address the balance sheet issue.
"Therefore, to what extent Government should 'tilt the table' and if so how was one of the talking-points. There is a natural reluctance in many quarters of too much government intervention in markets of any sort. 'Best is best' is a common watchword in the world of public procurement. How to behave in markets is also a big question for spin-out organisations. Are they best, in the longer term, to partner up or even fold-in larger healthcare groups in order to gain efficiencies and achieve long-term stability? Or is this too much of a compromise that would water down their raison d'etre as socially focused organisations?
"This one of the unresolved questions facing spin-outs in this sector, particularly as they come up head to head with organisations whose chief competencies lie not in actual service delivery but the winning and fulfilment of contracts, often with third party deliverers."
The blog makes some good points and appears to sum up the key issues facing mutuals. To deliver any sense of a future for spin-out mutuals, the question is not whether to tilt the table, but how and when.
Posted in change, mutualisation, mutuals, outsourcing, procurement, public sector, public services, Uncategorized
Tagged mutuals, outsourcing, Stepping Out
SaaS or Cloud SME? – get in touch says Cabinet Office official
Chris Chant, Executive Director in the Cabinet Office working as Programme Director for the G-Cloud initiative, says in a blog post that "if you are an SME and you have a SaaS or other cloud service that government might use – we want to know about it".
Chant says the government is changing the way it buys and uses IT. "We have trained our suppliers and ourselves to think that we need big, complex solutions to complicated problems; which has meant that all too often it's only the big, complex suppliers that get a look in.
"We are changing all this. We are giving SMEs and ourselves a chance to work together by levelling the playing field for all IT suppliers."
Chant says it won't happen overnight and mistakes may be made. "This is new territory for many departments and very few are experienced at handling this new way of working.
"I think it's fair to say that many just can't see how this can happen yet though
many know it must." Government users are not so different to others.
"First off government has realised that it's not that different. From now
on, if government wants some IT, it needs to do what everyone else does and look at what's already available, not just what we can pay to have built for us and not just what we are used to doing.
"It will be uncomfortable, uncharted territory for many but it must be done. It is unacceptable for things to remain the same. So if you are a SME and you have a SaaS or other cloud service that government might use – we want to know about it."
Chant says that government will use open standards wherever it can, and buy IT on pay-as-you-go or short term contracts.
"Some contracts may be longer but there must be a break option, in my view, at no later than 12 months.
"Of course organisations will offer lower prices for longer lock-ins but, as I've said before, the cost of being unable to exit will almost always outweigh the savings."
Chant says that if you are an SME, any supplier that's never worked with government, or an existing supplier that "gets" cloud "you are the type of people we need to work with the deliver the savings all of us need".
Talk to us, he adds.
Chris Chant's blog post.
Vested interests will try to stop GovIT changing.
Posted in capacity building, change, change management, Cloud, Cloud Computing, EU procurement, G-Cloud, Government IT, innovation, managing change, open source, procurement, public sector, public services, reducing cost strategically, reforms, SME, supplier relationships, Uncategorized
Tagged Cabinet Office, government procurement, innovation within government, Open Public Services White Paper, public sector, SME government contracts, SMEs
Praise for departing Deputy government CIO
Bill McCluggage, the departing Deputy government CIO, has been praised by friends and colleagues for his strength of purpose as a change advocate, and for steering through the government ICT Strategy.
He is also admired by friends for "telling it like it is" despite the Cabinet Office's restrictive communications policy.
Said one friend: "To get the ICT strategy out and into delivery underlines Bill's credentials as a deliverer not just a strategist; and he regularly held his ground with those who sought to maintain the status quo."
McCluggage announced this week he is leaving government to join storage supplier EMC. He said on Twitter that it's "sad to leave excellent team that have delivered real change but time to move on and address new challenge". He said he counted himself "lucky to have been part of the vanguard of new GovtIT".
Mike Bracken, Executive Director of Digital, Efficiency and Reform Group, Cabinet Office, said that Whitehall will be poorer in McCluggage's absence.
McCluggage joined the Cabinet Office as Deputy Government CIO in September 2009. He has been Director of ICT Strategy & Policy and Senior Information Risk Owner with overall responsibility for the formulation, development and communication of cross-Government ICT strategies and policies.
He was IT Director at Harland & Wolff Heavy Industries in Belfast and was an engineering officer in the RAF. He is a chartered engineer and member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
As Deputy government CIO McCluggage has been a firm advocate of agile techniques, cloud computing, open source, cutting out waste and duplication, and bringing many more SMEs into GovIT.
Deputy Government CIO to join EMC.
Deputy government quits.
Cabinet Office loses another top ICT man.
Posted in Agile, change, change management, Cloud Computing, collaboration, compliance with spending review, Government IT, innovation, managing change, procurement, public sector, public services, reducing cost strategically, SME, Uncategorized
Tagged Cabinet Office, Efficiency and Reform Group, government IT, government procurement, innovation within government, outsourcing, public sector, public services, SME, SME government contracts
Where is the Government CIO?
Joe Harley, Government CIO
Joe Harley, the government CIO, is much respected inside and outside of government.
Amiable, straight-talking and influential, he could be the Government's civil service ambassador for change. Like his predecessor John Suffolk he could use conferences and public events to talk inspirationally about the dystopian costs of government IT and what to do about them. He could jolt the complacent into an awareness of their self-deceptions.
Why hasn't he? If the Government CIO has much to say is not for the public ear. While there has been talk in recent weeks of how five corporations control GovIT, and how it can cost up to £50,000 to change a line of code, Harley has been silent.
Where does the Government CIO stand on the need for major reform of the machinery of government, on the sensible risks that could save billions?
Is the top man in Government IT inspiring his colleagues and officials in other departments to do things differently?
It's true that Joe Harley has enough to do – perhaps too much – in his "other" day job as CIO and Director General of Corporate IT, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
He is a leader of the programme that is helping to deliver Universal Credit. He chairs the public sector-wide CIO Council; and his trying to do more with a smaller budget will require all the skill and the experience he acquired as global CIO for ICI Paints and before that as BP's IT Vice President for global applications, hosting and consultancy.
These responsibilities give Harley a chance to point to a new way, to confront unequivocally the costs of GovIT, to lead by example: by replacing gradually the long-term contracts and monolithlic suppliers of old; by listening to SMEs and employing them directly, and in more than a token capacity.
What has happened is the opposite. HP, Accenture, IBM and CapGemini are safe in his hands.
The DWP has recently awarded those suppliers new and conventionally-large, long-term contracts. Headlines in the past two months hint at how the DWP will, for years to come, dance to the tune of its large IT suppliers:
"DWP signs fifth large deal with HP"
"DWP awards Accenture seven year application services deal"
"DWP awards IT deals to IBM and Capgemini"
These deals could be seen as a protest against all that Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, stands for.
In March Maude spoke of a need for big contracts to be broken down into "smaller, more flexible projects" which would "open up the market to SMEs and new providers". Maude wants to end the oligopoly of big GovIT suppliers – but does he have an influence at the DWP?
Nobody is suggesting that Harley shows a hard fist at the negotiating table. But he should assert himself sufficiently in public to make us believe that his appointment as Government CIO was more than the filling of a vacuum.
He doesn't need to lead by radiating charisma; but can you inspire from the shadows? Billions is spent unnecessarily each year on not changing the government administration. So it's time Harley advocated change. He could be a standing reproach to the myth that senior civil servants do all in their power to obstruct change.
Deposing the muscular monoliths in the supplier community will require a consuming interest in innovation, courage (risk-taking) and a passion to cut costs. Harley has many strengths and qualities. Surely these are among them. But if they're not manifest soon, some in government will wonder if the Government CIO has gone missing.
DWP awards 7-year deal worth up to £350m to Accenture
DWP awards deals to IBM and Capgemini
DWP signs big contracts with IBM and Capgemini
Posted in Campaign4Change, capacity building, change, change management, Cloud, Cloud Computing, compliance with spending review, G-Cloud, government, Government IT, innovation, Lean, managing change, managing outsourced services, operational issues, procurement, public sector, public services, recruitment freeze, recruitment freeze, reducing cost strategically, reforms, supplier relationships, Uncategorized, Universal Credit
Tagged Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, government IT, innovation, outsourcing, procurement, public sector
Vested interests will try to stop GovIT changing – Cabinet Office official
Image courtesy of Paul Clarke
"There will be many on the sidelines who criticise what we're trying to do and who will say that it can't be done. Some of their criticisms will hold true, at least at the beginning," says G-Cloud director Chris Chant. "They'll use what goes wrong as a chance to reinforce their view that it can't ever be done. And our job is to prove them wrong."
Chris Chant, Executive Director in the Cabinet Office, who is working as Programme Director for the G-Cloud initiative, has added to the "unavoidable truths" talk he gave to the Institute for Government.
He writes on the Government Digital Service website that the "last 20 years of government IT say that we've been doing it wrong all along". He adds that the "change we are going to make now is a chance to shift that approach massively, to make a 180 degree turn, and start to get it right".
He warns that there will be:
"many vested interests who try to stop the change both overtly and covertly".
Chant suggested that the usual suppliers to government have a history of preferring complicated solutions to simple problems.
"Government, like all of us, wants IT that works. For too long, though, we thought we were special in government and that we needed special IT. We trained our suppliers to think the same and, in return, they proposed ever more complicated solutions to simple problems; our suppliers failed to convince us that we needed something else and continued to make the same mistakes in trying to deliver what they'd promised. After decades of stimulus / response and countless billions spent, it's time to make a change."
This is what he said:
"The change we are already making is a big one. It will affect the way government buys IT, who we buy it from, how we handle security, how we focus relentlessly on our customers and how all our employees work, not just those in IT.
"Every aspect of government and the public sector will be affected, thankfully, things will never be the same.
"Cloud computing – the ability to buy proven solutions on a pay-as-you-go basis – is what lets government make this change. Once we recognise that we're not different and that we don't need special IT, then we can buy what everyone else is already buying and using.
"After all, at home you probably let Google handle your e-mail, you might be using iCloud for your contacts and calendar, you stream your music from Spotify and so on. There are business equivalents of those services that mean government, too, can move its e-mail, collaboration, customer management, payments and accounts – to name a few services – to the cloud.
"Everything changes when we do this. We will pay less, get more and get it sooner. If a supplier fails to do what they've promised, we will find another supplier – with no tears.
"There won't be contracts running for decades; smaller businesses will be able to enter the market, engage directly with Government and compete with far larger companies; UK businesses will get a chance to out-deliver foreign ones; government will be more efficient and our customers will get the service they need.
"This change isn't easy of course. A lot of things have to be different. And there will be many vested interests who try to stop the change both overtly and covertly.
"Over the last few months with the G-Cloud initiative, we have developed a small number of pilots that prove that this model can work. We have overcome some of the issues, and have confronted others that still need work. With the recent launch of the procurement, we are signalling that we think we're ready to do some more.
"We won't get it all right this time round and we will certainly encounter some more problems, and we will all work hard and fast to overcome those.
"There will be many on the sidelines who criticise what we're trying to do and who will say that it can't be done. Some of their criticisms will hold true, at least at the beginning.
"And they'll use what goes wrong as a chance to reinforce their view that it can't ever be done. And our job is to prove them wrong.
"The last 20 years of government IT say that we've been doing it wrong all along. The change we are going to make now is a chance to shift that approach massively, to make a 180 degree turn, and start to get it right.
"Over the coming weeks I will set out how I see this working, looking at each of the issues in turn and also seeing how the change will affect different people from permanent secretary through to front line staff and from big systems integrators to niche suppliers. A new and exciting journey is about to begin."
Chris Chant talking about G-Cloud – audio
The Unacceptable – Government Digital Service.
The unavoidable truths about GovIT.
Posted in Campaign4Change, change, change management, Cloud, Cloud Computing, G-Cloud, Government IT, innovation, managing change, procurement, public sector, public services, reforms, supplier relationships, Uncategorized
Tagged Cabinet Office, government procurement, public sector, SME government contracts
The unavoidable truths about GovIT – by Cabinet Office official
Posted on 31/10/2011 | 14 comments
The vast majority of GovIT is "outrageously expensive" says Chris Chant. "Things have changed and we haven't."
Chris Chant is one of the most experienced IT officials in central government. He was CIO at Defra where he led IT service improvement programmes with strategic outsourcing partners including IBM. His reforms helped to change the way people worked.
He was also CIO at the Government Olympic Executive, part of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Now he is an Executive Director in the Cabinet Office working as Programme Director for the G-Cloud initiative.
In a cloud computing event hosted by the Institute for Government in London, Chant told it like it is. The points he make indicate that major change is less of a risk to public finances than keeping the machinery of government as it is.
He began his talk by thanking those in government IT who have been"working their socks off". He had been talking positively to his teams in the last week and now "it is time to recognise some of the less positive aspects about what we do".
He added: "We need to face some unavoidable truths head on about government IT as it has been done."
These were his main points:
"The vast majority of government IT in my view is outrageously expensive, is ridiculously slow, or agile-less, is poor quality in the main and, most unforgivably I think, is rarely user-centric in any meaningful way at all."
He said it is unacceptable:
– That "80% of Government IT is controlled by five corporations".
– That "some organisations outsource their IT strategy in Government".
– That "to change one line of code in one application can cost up to £50,000".
– To wait 12 weeks to get a server commissioned for use. He said: "That's pretty commonplace. When you think in terms of using a service like Amazon the most problematic thing on the critical path is the time it takes you to get your
credit card out of your wallet and enter the details on screen".
– That the civil service does not know the true cost of a service and the real exit costs from those services – the costs commercially, technically and from a business de-integration standpoint. "So how do we untangle our way out of a particular product or service. I cannot tell you how many times I have had the discussion that says: we need to get away from that but we cannot because of the complexity of getting out from where we are: all the things hanging on to that particular service that we cannot disentangle ourself from."
– To enter into any contracts for more than 12 months. "I cannot see how we can sit in a world of IT and acknowledge the arrival of the iPad in the last two years and yet somehow imagine we can predict what we are going to need to be doing in two or three, or five or seven or ten years time."
– Not to know in government "how many staff we have on the client side of IT". He said: "I have not yet met anybody who knows what that figure is. People know about small areas but overall we don't know what that figure is.
– Not to know what IT people do. "So we don't have any idea of the breakdown of that number that we don't know either, surprisingly. I think that is outrageous in this climate, and in any climate."
– Not to know "what systems we own how much they cost; and how much or even if they're used". He said: "I know there are organisations that have turned off tens of thousands of desktop services merely to discover if they are used anymore; and when they do that they discover maybe one per cent are still being used. That's completely unacceptable."
– Not to know when users give up on an online service; "and it's unacceptable not to know why they give up". He said: "Of course it is unacceptable that they have to give up because the service does not fulfil their needs."
– to have a successful online service that sends out reminders to use that service through the post.
– Not to be able to communicate with customers securely and electronically when technology clearly allows that to happen.
– Not to be able to "do our work from any device we choose". He said: "That is possible and has been for some time. It's outrageous we cannot do that."
– To pay up to £3,500 per person per year for a desktop service.
– That "your corporate desktop to take 10 minutes to boot and the same amount of time to close down". He said: "But that is the truth of what goes on everyday in Government IT and I suspect the public sector too."
– For staff to be unable to access Twitter or YouTube, when they use those services for what they do.
– For call centre staff not to be able to access the very service they are supporting at the call centre. "It sounds funny but when you think of the consequences of that it is truly dreadful."
– To ensure people are working by restricting their access to the Internet. "If we cannot measure people by outputs where on earth are we?"
Above all, said Chant, "it is unacceptable not to engage directly with the most agile forward-thinking suppliers that are in the SME market today and are not among the suppliers we have been using".
Chris Chant's talk
This is much of what Chris Chant said:
"A bunch of people have worked their socks off [but], through no fault of their own, on the wrong thing for some time too… And it's quite tough being in IT because, a bit like electricity, it's one of the rare things people seem to use almost all of the time…but we need to face some unavoidable truths head on about government IT as it has been done.
The vast majority of government IT in my view is outrageously expensive, is ridiculously slow, or agile-less, is poor quality in the main and, most unforgivably I think, is rarely user centric in any meaningful way at all…
I'll give you my personal view of the unacceptable. I have spent a lot of time with teams in the last week talking positively about things and I think it is time to recognise some of the less positive aspects of what we do.
I think it is unacceptable at this point in time to not know the true cost of a service and the real exit costs from those services; the costs commercially, technically and from a business de-integration standpoint – so how do we untangle our way out of a particular product or service? I cannot tell you how many times I have had the discussion that says: we need to get away from that but we cannot because of the complexity of getting out from where we are: all the things hanging on to that particular service that we cannot disentangle ourself from.
I think it is completely unacceptable at this point in time to enter into any contracts for more than 12 months. I cannot see how we can sit in a world of IT and acknowledge the arrival of the iPad in the last two years and yet somehow imagine we can predict what we are going to need to be doing in two to three, or five or seven or 10 years time. It is a complete nonsense.
And to those who say 'what about a supplier upfront infrastructure: surely you have to fund that somehow?' I would say: 'why do we have to treat IT and particularly commodity IT any differently from any other commodity
around?'
Marks and Spencer does not come knocking on the door asking me to guarantee to buy three suits and two shirts a year for the next five years and then they will put a store at the bottom of the road… if you look at a small local garage that has to fund its hydraulic ramps and the computer equipment they now need. They do not ask people to fund that upfront. They go into the market confident of their products and confident of their pricing so they will get people back again and arrange for how that gets funding…
I think it is unacceptable not to know in government how many staff we have on the client side of IT. I have not yet met anybody who knows what that figure is. People know about small areas but overall we don't know what that figure is. It is also unacceptable that we don't know what those people do. So we don't have any idea of the breakdown of that number that we don't know either, surprisingly. I think that is outrageous in this climate, and in any climate.
It is completely unacceptable we don't know what systems we own and how much they cost; and how much or even if they're used. I know there are organisations that have turned off tens of thousands of desktop services merely to discover if they are used anymore; and when they do that they discover maybe one per cent are still being used…
It is unacceptable not to know when users give up on an online service; and it's unacceptable not to know why they give up. Of course it is unacceptable that they have to give up because the service does not fulfil their needs.
It unacceptable to have a successful online service that sends out reminders to use that service through the post…. Linked to that, it's completely unacceptable not to be able to communicate with customers securely electronically when technology clearly allows that to happen.
It is unacceptable not to be able to do our work from any device we choose. That is possible and has been for some time. It's outrageous we cannot do that.
It is unacceptable to pay – and these figures are Public Accounts Committee figures – up to £3,500 per person per year for a desktop service.
It is unacceptable for your corporate desktop to take 10 minutes to boot and the same amount of time to close down. But that is the truth of what goes on everyday in Government IT and I suspect the public sector too.
It is unacceptable for staff to be unable to access Twitter or YouTube, when they use those services for what they do.
It is unacceptable for call centre staff not to be able to access the very service they are supporting at the call centre. It sounds funny but when you think of the consequences of that it is truly dreadful.
I think it is unacceptable in this day and age to ensure people are working by restricting their access to the Internet. If we cannot measure people by outputs where on earth are we?
It is unacceptable that 80% of Government IT is controlled by five corporations.
It is unacceptable that some organisations outsource their IT strategy in Government.
It is unacceptable that to change one line of code in one application can cost up to £50,000.
It is unacceptable to wait 12 weeks to get a server commissioned for use. That's pretty commonplace. When you think in terms of using a service like Amazon the most problematic thing on the critical path is the time it takes you to get your credit card out of your wallet and enter the details on screen.
Above all – and at the heart of a lot of this – it is unacceptable not to engage directly with the most agile forward-thinking suppliers that are in the SME market today and are not among the suppliers we have been using.
So things have changed and we haven't is what has happened.
A lot of these things could have been explained away five or 10 years ago but I
don't think they could have been explained away adequately in the last three years, probably at least.
So how does G-cloud help in all of this? I think G-Cloud is about a fundamental change in the way Government and I believe the public sector too does technology. It is not just about cloud computing. It requires a complete change of approach. A cultural change of approach. A change in the way we look at security; a change in the way we look at service management and above all change in the way we procure services we use. So cloud will be cheaper…
Using cloud solutions that have already been secured and accredited
will be cheaper almost always. We will only pay for what we use. People will only use DR when they use DR.
Over time through the G-Cloud programme, products will be pre-procured and security accredited. They won't be accredited by the programme itself but by the first users of this, so we don't have to replicate that work time and time again because that is what a lot of our staff are doing. A lot of the tens of thousands of staff that are working on the client side of government and public sector IT are procuring the same things, accrediting the same things from a security perspective; and it is a complete and utter waste of time and huge money.
You'll know from the outset the cost of the product and most importantly we will know the cost of exit. Nuclear power looked really cheap all the time somebody chose to ignore de-commissioning of nuclear power stations, and then it became a very different model.
Contracts will be under a year I believe… I don't believe aggregated demand and long-term contracts bring value for money. Quite the reverse… why anybody would offer somebody a contract which meant we could carry on paying them money almost regardless of the service we got, with no meaningful incentive for better performance? That can all change. When we have the ability, through understanding exit and understanding the cost and performance of things, to move out of one product and into another in short order, I guarantee that the price will come down …
… Costs [of streaming] used to be outrageous and the quality was poor until the BBC put together standards on the way it's done and the BBC can now buy services on daily basis and the cost has dropped by an order of magnitude and the quality is much improved. They know – the service providers – that tomorrow somebody can go somewhere else. If Marks and Spencer does not provide clothes at the right price and quality people will go down the road and buy somewhere else. It is that, that drives quality and price, not a long-term contract.
[When people see that] products have clear pricing, clear details of what they do, clear details of what exiting that product is going to be like, and it says: 'Andy Nelson at the Ministry of Justice has used this product over the last year and this is what he says about of it', that starts to transform what happens on price and quality far and away above anything that any SLA can or ever has given us. So we won't get ourselves locked in in any way. Not from a commercial or technical perspective. Many products nowadays are designed to get their little feelers locked into every part of your system….
Our staff over time will become skilled system integrators. That's what will happen in the short term…
We will see people setting up services in minutes instead of years. How?
We have Foundation Delivery Partners – they are departments, local authorities, organisations that come together with others that are looking
to buy cloud products. The FDPs work with a bunch of people from the government procurement service who handle the commercial aspects; they work with staff from CESG to work out security implications and product by product they have begun to break down what it is they need to do, so subsequently that work does not need to be redone.
Over time we will have a model that describes lots of different circumstances of use of products so we will know – the senior risk information officer – will know what has been covered off already and will see the accreditation that has gone on and will know they will only have to fine tune that for the last bit of use in their department. That will dramatically reduce over time the amount of effort that goes into that security.
Large-scale IL3 email is coming soon; and large-scale IL3 collaboration
[The Government Digital Service is off] corporate systems to a solution that is IL0 and IL1 and 2, with IL3 on a few machines to one side. [There are] savings of 82% over adopting the corporate systems. People don't wait 10 minutes for machines to boot up and shut down.
We don't have all the answers… Great quality IT centres around an iterative process that gets stuff out and we learn quickly from what users do with it and is improved and improved. I don't recall a press release saying Google will update its apps products on 8 May next year. What happens is you notice a little banner saying we have done it differently: do you want to try it? How many times have you seen improvements on eBay and just experienced them as they arrived?
They are intuitive and what people want and they just happen… [Published in last few minutes] is a new cloud framework that is designed specifically to get SMEs across the threshold and working directly with departments, agencies, local authorities, police and health. There is a user guide. It is a key product.
We will watch very carefully how this gets used, and the impact on SMEs. I don't anticipate any large organisations having difficulty with this. But the target is to get us engaged with SMEs.
We will watch what their problems are and we will correct that as we go. We are already working on the second version of this which will be due out, hopefully, early in the new year. With brilliant support from John Collington in the Government Procurement Service we will be adding new suppliers on a month by month basis which will dramatically change things and really gives us the flexibility we need.
The second manifestation of how serious we are in the cloud is a document to be published tomorrow which will give a very serious indication of intent around the use of cloud…"
Chris Chant's talk – audio file Government Digital Service
Posted in Campaign4Change, change, change management, Cloud, Cloud Computing, G-Cloud, government, Government IT, innovation, procurement, public sector, public services, reforms, SME, supplier relationships, Uncategorized
Tagged Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, government procurement, innovation within government, public sector
Why GovIT reform is so slow?
An NAO report "A snapshot of the Government's ICT Profession in 2011" depicts government CIOs not as business leaders who are passionate for change but as middle-managers who are more or less dispensable.
The impression given in the report is that CIOs are, in general, necessary but not of strategic importance, not necessarily party to key business decisions.
The NAO reports concludes that there is "more Government and departments could do" to:
– raise the influence of CIOs in departments;
– move the ICT profession from a support service or overhead to taking an active or lead role on business decisions; and
– develop people to a level so that they become leaders and bring ICT into the heart of the business.
Of 17 departments the NAO investigated a CIO sat on the main boards of only two. One department abolished the role of CIO in April 2011. The NAO quoted a CIO as describing his department's perception of ICT as "at best an overhead".
What CIOs told the NAO
CIO comments to the NAO on the impact of cost reduction measures were generally negative:
"We are having to re-prioritise and delay IT service enhancement projects."
"A significant headcount reduction… and consequently a new operating model and a new strategic approach which will affect the roles of all IT professionals significantly."
"Continual focus on cost-out and scrutiny of spend – in some ways this has helped engender a positive culture of efficiency but the constant demand for information/data is distracting. Skills shortage owing to recruitment freeze on external candidates and reduction in contractors. Requirement to broker cross-network relationships to drive out costs/savings."
"Pressure to reduce costs/headcount to the Iowest levels means desirable things such as career development opportunity planning, implementing SFIA etc are left on the shelf whilst we divert resource to focus on significant projects to deliver running cost savings to the dept. … The consequences for the lCT function are not yet fully known."
"The situation has been uncertain and reviews have caused some loss of momentum, but the set of future projects is now clear and we are progressing. Austerity measures have limited our ability to obtain the level of IT skills required for our portfolio."
"As part of our change programme, the Central Department is reducing cost by approximately 30%. IT is included within this envelope. No money and everybody having to re-apply for jobs."
[Source National Audit Office survey of central government CIOs 2011]
Skills most needed
It's a shortage of IT people with business skills that appears to be one of the biggest barriers to change. Demand is greatest, says the NAO, for programme and project managers, procurement specialists and business analysts.
In particular CIOs perceive the need for good people who have contract and supplier management skills, and the ability to manage stakeholders.
On the technical side the skills most needed, as perceived by CIOs, are architecture, analysis and design, and information management/security. The biggest barriers to recruitment, as perceived by CIOs, are public sector pay constraints and inflexible civil service recruitment processes. [On pay some departments are still able to pay large bonuses – see near end of this article.]
NAO recommendations
The highest immediate priority for Government is to continue to motivate and reinforce the value of its ICT profession, says the NAO.
"ICT leaders need to dig deep to manage their teams whether in development projects, service management or operations. CIOs themselves need to continue to reinforce their standing in departments ideally by sitting on departmental boards or, if this is not appropriate, finding other ways to develop their influence so that ICT is properly included in strategic and business decisions."
ICT leaders will have to find innovative ways to develop skills to fill roles.
"… government cannot ignore the capability gaps because it is so reliant on ICT to conduct its future business."
The NAO said that CIOs described the same business and technical skills as being in short supply. It advised "structured on-the-job experience and mentoring".
Greater collaboration across departments and with suppliers may "help to make optimum use of the skills that the profession already has to offer". Where
necessary, government must "find practical ways to recover lost skills".
It added: "With more services being delivered through technology channels, there is a real need to ensure that service delivery is being driven by a skilled and capable ICT workforce."
The Government Digital Service has at least made a good start – it has begun recruiting innovators.
And when it comes to paying bonuses to keep valued staff, departments still have scope. The Financial Times reported yesterday that the Department for Work and Pensions was the most generous employer in the civil service: it paid more than £45m to its staff in bonuses in the year ending April 2011.
Thank you to ComputerworldUK.com for spotting this report which was not distributed by the NAO to the media.
NAO report "A snapshot of the Government's ICT profession in 2011"
Government CIOs are undervalued, official audit report finds.
Posted in Campaign4Change, change, change management, Government IT, managing change, procurement, public sector, public services, reforms, Uncategorized
Tagged capacity building, compliance with spending review, government IT, government procurement, operational issues, outsourcing, recruitment freeze, reducing cost strategically, SME government contracts
Jobs on offer – Government in need of "digital" talent
Some parts of government may be shrinking but there's jobs on offer in the Government Digital Service.
Mike Bracken, the Cabinet Office's Executive Director for Digital, says the Government is "badly in need of the talent to engineer ourselves out of our torpor".
"We are hiring", he says. His team have jobs in development, product management, interaction design, web ops, technology architecture and digital engagement. Salaries are between £59k and £90k.
Says Bracken: "Over the last 15 years or more, across Government we have engineered digital products and services using risk aversion and long-term programme management as our guiding principles.
"Now that it is clear that rapid, user-led development using open source technologies, agile approaches to delivery and cloud-based infrastructure is the order of the day, we find ourselves badly in need of the talent to engineer ourselves out of our torpor.
"In short, with long-term contracts giving programme managers and departments only one lever to pull in order to change or create digital services, it's never been more important that there is a choice within Government.
"While there have been a few raised eyebrows at hiring in these straitened times, let me be clear that we need digital talent all across Government. In policy, legal, procurement and service delivery, deep digital experience in Government is scarce.
"So I would recommend that we see this drive not just a one-off recruitment campaign for GDS, but the start of the digital transformation of all Government services. As well as hiring, I spend large amounts of my time looking to help transform existing people and processes.
Bracken was appointed the Government's new Executive Director for Digital on 5 July 2011.
Government Digital Service
Posted in Campaign4Change, change, change management, Cloud Computing, government, Government IT, innovation, Uncategorized
Tagged Cabinet Office, government procurement, innovation, innovation within government, jobs, recruitment
RT @carolJhedges: FUN FACT!! @BorisJohnson 's school fees, including Eton, were paid for by the EU because his father worked for the #EU Co… 24 minutes ago
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The newest Jam installment (and it's spectacular) will run tomorrow, cure but today is a day for some serious talk.
Coming off of Tuesday's rant about America's accelerating retreat from anything remotely approaching social progress, generic today's Supreme Court rulings were a welcome reminder that there are beacons of hope shining in the darkness.
I wasn't sure which way the ruling would go. There was no consitutional basis — especially in the "strict interpretation" sense so beloved by reactionaries — for disallowing marriage equality, order but these were the same folks who'd just voided key components of the Voting Rights Act, limited redress for sexual harassment in the workplace, and added a prominent asterisk over the right to avoid self-incrimination.
While today's decisions weren't an absolute triumph for marriage equality, they did relagate both DOMA and Prop 8 to the dustbin of history. There's still a ways to go before this country is at the place it ought to be — both legally and socially — on the issue of equal rights for all, but today was a huge step forward.
Feels good, doesn't it? The same goes for the heroic stand taken by Wendy Davis and pro-choice activists that saw Texas's latest piece of anti-choice legislation went down in flames.
Savor those feelings without guilt, for they are a powerful reminder of exactly what we're fighting for, and a taste of what could be. Let it empower you as much, if not more than the indignant rage born of a thousand setbacks and defeats.
Celebration only becomes complacency if you allow it to be.
The word schadenfreude is the best thing my people gave the world, and you're correct. Today, it's delicious.
Thanks for this. I haven't felt the satisfaction I ought to today– feeling too pessimistic, lately. As a parent, a historian, a stressed and harried citizen of our modern culture. But you're right. We won this one, didn't we?
I will certainly enjoy the schadenfreude. It'll be like November again, when the sight of Romney bumper stickers made me chortle like a supervillain.


text:
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Nov. 1, 2019 — Some need to hear it; others must see it. Still others need to use their hands to gain a grasp.
No two students learn the same way. At the UF College of Medicine, when the going gets tough due to massive workloads, medical and PA students turn to James Gorske, learning resource specialist and disability officer for the college. Gorske offers individualized strategies to help students manage their time and study in ways that enable them to be successful on their exams, including the US Medical Licensing Examination Step 1.
From his office in the Harrell Medical Education Building, Gorske regularly meets with four to five students a day, discussing students' current strategies and assessing what can be improved upon. Gorske says his work with students eases the transition from undergraduate studies to medical and PA training, when student work loads more than double.
James Gorske in the Harrell Medical Education Building Photo by Jesse S. Jones
"PA and medical students are obviously very intelligent and well-suited to starting their training, but sometimes, in transition from being undergraduates, they haven't yet had to be intentional about how they approach learning and studying. With the pace and volume of material in medical and PA school, being strategic in how you learn is important," Gorske says. "In our meetings, we look at methods of taking notes and ways to interact with the material after class. Some examples are making outlines, summaries or charts and graphs if they're visual learners."
Gorske says his goal in his work with students is to offer feedback that is "as individualized as possible," remaining cognizant of the plethora of ways students approach learning and studying.
"That involves figuring out if they're auditory or visual learners and if they focus on details or bigger picture ideas and connections," Gorske says.
In the role that he's held for four years, Gorske also serves as the college's disability officer. For students with learning, mental health and medical disabilities, Gorske works with course and clerkship directors to facilitate accommodations for students that are established by the UF Disability Resource Center.
Before coming to the UF College of Medicine, Gorske served as the director of the UF Disability Resource Center, whose mission is to "champion a universally accessible community that supports the holistic advancement of individuals with disabilities." Gorske says he was motivated to transition to his current position for its opportunities to work with students individually.
"In my previous role, I didn't have much one-on-one contact with students. That's what drew me to this position and keeps me motivated: the connections I've built with many students," he says.
James Gorske in his office in the Harrell Medical Education Building Photo by Jesse S. Jones
Patrick Duff, M.D., associate dean for student affairs, says Gorske is the first to hold the position of learning resource specialist at the college, and his impact is deeply felt.
"We specifically hired him because we noted more and more students struggling with the Phase I curriculum, particularly the preparation for their Step 1 exams," Duff says. "Jim has done a wonderful job helping students develop better study skills and time management skills."
Each year, Gorske meets with about 150 students individually, conducts presentations throughout the school year and coordinates tutoring support and group review sessions for medical and PA students. In each of his efforts, his mission remains the same: ensure each student learns and works to the best of their abilities.
"It's important that students know that I'm available to meet at any point in time," Gorske says. "My being available to support student success is very beneficial to them."
College, Staff, Students
Tyler Francischine
Before joining the UF Health staff in 2016, Tyler regularly contributed to The Gainesville Sun and Gainesville Magazine. She graduated from the University of Florida in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She now contributes to UF College of Medicine publications such as the Florida Physician magazine and Dr. Gator newsletter, as well as alumni features, news releases and copy for special publications.
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Why would I choose in-mold labeling of my plastic product over self-adhesive or heat transfer labeling?
In-mold labeling is typically used on larger, multi-color images, which must be permanently bonded to a product. This process provides greater durability than pressure sensitive and heat transfer labeling. During in-mold labeling, the label is held to the mold using static electricity. The molten plastic is then injected into the mold cavity and chemically bonds with the back of the in-mold label. The label is now physically part of the product and cannot be peeled or torn from the product. In-mold decorating may also reduce total product costs. Because it is done during the molding cycle, the decorated product ejects from the mold without the need for secondary decorating processes.
What is the difference between hot stamping and heat transfer labeling?
Both are done as a secondary decorating process after the parts have been injection molded.
In hot stamping, metallic or color-pigmented foil is placed on the surface to be decorated and a hot die strikes the foil. The hot die has the image that is to be transferred to the part. Through heat and pressure, the metallic or pigment on the foil is transferred to the part. Hot stamping is generally done on parts that are mostly flat. It can be done on curved surfaces on special hot stamping equipment.
In heat transfer labeling, the image is printed on the foil at our supplier's manufacturing plant. The foil is then placed on the surface to be decorated and a hot die that is flat strikes the foil. The heat and pressure from the hot die transfer the printed image on the foil to the part. Like hot stamping, heat transfer labeling is generally done on flat parts but can be done on curved parts and even cups with special equipment.
Hot stamping is generally selected for simple images that only require one color. Heat transfer is generally selected for complicated images or for images that require multiple colors.
If I give you a sketch of the part I want produced, how long will it take before a prototype can be made?
Our engineers can use your sketch to produce a 3D CAD model in our design software, SOLIDWORKS®. Depending on the complexity of your part, the CAD model may only take a couple of hours, or it could take a couple of days. Once the 3D CAD model is complete, a prototype part can often be fabricated within 2-5 days.
Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) measure the physical dimensions of an object. A probe on the machine is used to collect X, Y, and Z coordinate data from a part. This data is converted into measurements of the part and its features, which can be compared to design requirements and critical dimensions. To assist with manufacturing inspections, the CMM can be programmed to repeatedly run a measurement process on a set of parts.
What are the benefits of replacing metal parts with plastic and can your company carry out this conversion?
Lower overall production costs: Secondary operations such as coloring, texturing, or polishing the part can be done in the molding process, thereby eliminating the secondary operations.
Reduced assembly time and costs: Instead of assembling or fastening together metal parts, a single injection molded part can combine all of the necessary features.
Lower shipping costs: Plastic generally weighs less and therefore, will cost less to ship.
Greater structural strength: Using engineering grade plastic materials, along with integral ribs, gussets, or bosses, can produce a plastic part, which exceeds the performance of metal.
Resistance to corrosion: By withstanding many chemicals and environments, plastic parts will often deliver a longer life, than metal parts.
Thermal response: The properties of plastic parts can be tailored to handle a variety of temperature conditions.
Wear resistance: The surface of a plastic part can be made very tough and durable with additives, so that it can serve as a high-performance bearing or a rugged handle.
Our Engineering team will use their knowledge and experience to help determine if your part can be converted from metal to plastic. We will provide additional support with appropriate material options to meet your performance and budget requirements.
What is the difference between a prototype injection mold and a production injection mold?
A prototype injection mold is generally a smaller, less expensive mold, which can produce several hundred to several thousand parts. Prototype molds are used when injection molded parts are needed to test a design or if the market for selling a product has not been fully established. In order to keep costs lower, prototype tools may be constructed with less durable steels, aluminum, or other materials.
Prototype molds usually serve as a bridge between constructing a few part prototypes and full production quantities.
Production injection molds are built to produce large quantities of parts for years. They are constructed of hardened steel and are designed so worn components can be replaced to extend the life of the tool. Production molds often use multiple cavities to produce many copies of parts during each molding cycle. Class 101 production injection molds are designed to run at least 1 million cycles of parts.
What is your company doing to stay in the forefront of your industry?
When purchasing new injection molding machines, we are purchasing the latest in all electric and hybrid machines from European and Asian suppliers. Please visit our News & Events page to read about our latest machinery additions as a part of our replacement strategy to continually update equipment.
We have also rebuilt some of our older machines, which still have excellent mechanics, but have outdated electronic controls. With these updates, we get highly capable and more energy efficient machines.
We are also taking advantage of MuCell® technology from Trexel on selected molding presses. The MuCell process introduces nitrogen into the plastic resin melt stream in the barrel. By the time it reaches the mold, the nitrogen is thoroughly mixed in the resin, giving it a very homogenous cell structure. The process allows for weight savings and cycle time savings while improving the dimensional stability of the finished part.
What is the need for cleanroom injection molding and what is an ISO 7 cleanroom?
Certain types of products must be manufactured in an area that is nearly free of contaminants in the air. Most of these products are used in the medical industry. The most effective way of accomplishing this is to manufacture the parts in a cleanroom. A cleanroom has a controlled environment in which the concentration of airborne particles is controlled to specified limits. Our cleanroom is currently classified as an ISO8, but it tests below that level and could be certified to a lower level if necessary.
What is your machine size range?
We have 31 injection molding machines that range from 60 tons to 1220 tons clamping force. The shot size ranges from 0.80 ounces to 287 ounces. All four of our machines in the cleanroom are all electric Engels with clamping forces of 60 tons, 110 tons, and 200 tons.
What is MuCell速 injection molding?
The MuCell® process is a relatively new process for injection molding that can greatly improve the quality of plastic parts while lowering production costs. It involves the controlled use of gas, usually nitrogen, to make a foamed part.
The part created will be lighter due to the nitrogen gas creating a uniform cell structure within the part. By varying the amount of gas used in the process, the cell structure can be increased or decreased. The cell structure replaces plastic thereby making the part weigh less.
Other benefits of the MuCell process are the elimination of molded-in stress and sink marks. Also, the internal pressure of the gas forces the plastic against the mold causing the part to cool quicker and to have greater dimensional stability.
How does ISO 13485 differ from ISO 9001?
ISO 9001 is an international standard for the quality management of product manufacturers and service providers all over the world. ISO 9001 evaluates management systems to ensure manufactured products consistently meet customer requirements and that quality is continuously improved.
ISO 13485 is an international standard for the quality management of businesses that build medical devices. While similar to ISO 9001, this medical device standard has more stringent requirements in certain areas. Businesses with ISO 13485 have demonstrated the ability to provide medical devices which consistently meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements.
Obtaining ISO registration involves an enormous amount of time, effort, and dedication by all aspects of an organization. Only after a multi-day third party assessment can the registration be achieved. Following registration, the organization is subject to annual audits, at a minimum, to ensure that the quality system is being maintained and improved.
ISO 9001 and 13485 registration by an organization signifies an unending commitment to quality and provides assurance to its customers that it will provide quality goods and services.
What is the meaning of IQ, OQ, and PQ?
These are acronyms for Installation Qualification (IQ), Operational Qualification (OQ) and Performance Qualification (PQ).
These qualifications are primarily used when first qualifying medical device manufacturing. They are used to determine the expected variability in processes and to ensure that the devices operate as expected within the variability. They define an operation range specification for the process. If the processes move outside the specifications, the qualification process must be done again at the new process settings.
AIAG is an acronym for Automotive Industry Action Group. It is an organization that was founded in 1982 to develop a structure for improving quality in the North American Automotive Industry.
AIAG originated the PPAP requirement in QS9000 (now ISO/TS 16949), the automotive industry's version of ISO 9000 quality system. It publishes the PPAP manual that details the requirements of the different levels of PPAPs.
What are PPAPs and do you perform them?
PPAP stands for Pre-Production Approval Process. PPAPs are a way of examining and approving the production process. Approval of a PPAP ensures the client that the supplier has the ability to produce a quality product at the level that the client requires. It is a valuable tool for suppliers as well because it helps to identify possible problems that might arise in production. The supplier can then address solutions to the problems or systems to control the issues before starting full production. PPAPs are required by most automotive companies as well as numerous other large industries. PPAPs are part of the Bright Plastics Quality Management program.
I'm not ready to pay for having a mold made, but I need to check the fit of my plastic parts. Can you help?
Bright Plastics can provide a rapid prototype of your design which will allow you to check the form, fit, and function of your parts. The prototype can be a simple model of the part or may be a fully functional part, depending on the requirements.
There are a variety of ways that a 3D printed prototype can be made, including Stereolithography (SLA), Polyjet, and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). Our design specialists can help determine the best process to use based on your specific needs. Rapid prototypes are less costly to produce and make sense to use for testing purposes (and small production runs), because they offer opportunities to improve or change the design before building an injection molding tool.
What size molds can you handle?
We can handle up to 500 ton molds in our tool room. We work with local tool and die shops to handle larger molds.
How many toolmakers do you have on your staff?
We have three toolmakers on staff. Our Tool Room Manager is a Journeyman tool and die maker with 20+ years of mold building experience.
What kind of engineering support do you have for your tool room?
We have two plastics engineers and two engineers from other disciplines. We have contracted the building of hundreds of tools and have partnerships with multiple tooling sources both domestic and international.
Engineering uses SOLIDWORKS® CAD software to design and modify parts and tools. In addition, we have SOLIDWORKS Plastics to conduct mold flow analysis.
MuCell and Trexel are registered trademarks of Trexel, Inc.


text:
of Gallicia, and live on good terms with the inhabitants. But the officers dread an explosion of despair on the part of the Cracovians. The spies of the police have spread the rumour of a projected masThe officers at first believed it, and now they blush for their credulity.
sacre.
The Ex-President of the Republic, Wiegloglowski has addressed to Prince Metternich a Memoir by which he maintains, that "Summoned by the Conference of the three Residents, he had for a long time solicited passports for a small number of persons who had been designated as turbulent; but that he had not obtained these passports from any of the three Courts whose possessions surround the territory of Cracow; he calls to mind that to answer the uneasiness expressed by the Conference on the subject of the Militia of the Republic, and of the number of refugees admitted into this Militia, and of the degree of authority that this force might in case of need give to the Senate, he had long since offered to increase the amount of this militia by recruiting from the inhabitants of the territory-but that this proposition remained without any answer.
"In a word, he maintains that the Residents desired the inconveniences which subsequently gave a motive for the occupation. With respect to the pretended powerlessness of the Senate, he observes, that on the simple demand of this authority five hundred refugees repaired to Podgoree without compulsion; resistance and presumed revolts were spoken of, but nothing of the kind has appeared; and even the execution of the rigours which had been ordered only caused tears to appear in the eyes of those who were thereby reduced to despair."
The Bishop of Cracow is not the only victim of the religious persecution exercised by the Russians against Catholicism. The Bishop of Podlachie has also incurred the displeasure of the Emperor Nicolas. Driven from his diocese he lives in destitution. Latterly he commissioned his Chaplain to sell a gold snuff box. The proprietor of the neighbourhood to whom this box was presented sent it back to the Bishop filled with gold pieces.
• An admirable article on the affairs of Cracow has just appeared in the British and Foreign Quarterly Review, No. IV. for April.—ED.
THE speech of Sir Stratford Canning on the 18th of March, on the occupation of Cracow, so clearly developing the sound principles of a truly British policy, that any comment on our part would savour of presumption, terminated with "the expression of a hope that some step might be taken by Parliament to mitigate the sufferings of the unfortunate individuals who are to be shipped off to America."
The infringement of the law and rights of nations by the forcible abduction of the natives of an independent state through the agents of a foreign power, which can exercise no legal jurisdiction over them, is a question deeply interesting to the statesmen of Europe and the United States. The expulsion of the Morescoes from Spain, incompatible as it was with the principles of humanity, did not involve the separation of families. The father was not separated from his children, nor the husband from the wife; and although torn from the land which contained the ashes of their forefathers, they were allowed to convey to another and a neighbouring shore, the elements of a new home and the living objects of their earthly affections.
What the feelings of the Americans will be on the arrival on their shores of exiles from Cracow, may be easily imagined. But can the enlightened benevolence that will animate every community amongst our Anglo-Saxon brethren, compensate to these unhappy men for the apathy of Europe? What must be their sensations on passing the rock of Gibraltar, when their last glance of despair rests on that banner on which the sun never sets, and dwells on the scene where, in a few short hours, one English arm scattered to the winds the powers of despotism, and identified the name of England with the liberation of the world?
SULPICIUS.
The gentlemanlike style of the Letters in the "Times" of the 20th and 22d ult., addressed to the Editor of the Portfolio, under the signature of "Sulpicius," entitled them to an earlier notice on our part, but with every desire of replying to the arguments of the writer we are compelled to postpone our remarks until we expose in more minute detail the whole drama of Russian Diplomacy as connected with the origin and negotiation of the Treaty of July the 6th.
In the mean time we hope that "Sulpicius" will not suffer himself to be deterred by our silence from continuing his criticisms of our opinions, the discussion of which, we feel convinced, will serve the purposes of truth, and thus conduce to the national interest. We should be glad, however, to be favoured with any observations from "Sulpicius," or any other quarter, which may tend to prove that our notions of the finesse and skill of Russian Diplomatists have been in any degree exaggerated, for we are not conscious of having hitherto ventured on a single assertion which cannot be substantiated by evidence, and which may not be fully borne out in the progress of this work.
POSTSCRIPT.- May 3rd.
Extract of a Letter from Cracow, April 15th.
"THERE is to be a grand parade on the 19th in honour of the Emperor Ferdinand, after which the troops composing the corps of occupation will commence their march to quit the territory of Cracow.
"An Austrian detachment of five hundred men and fifty cavalry will, however, remain. The Senate, that is to say, its President, has demanded, they say, this prolongation of their stay, to give time to reorganise the militia of the town, which has been disbanded.
"The three Powers had in vain sought to obtain that the Senate should previously demand the occupation; but since then the President of this body has been induced to lay down his office, and the Conference of the three Residents has replaced him arbitrarily, and contrary to all the laws, by a man who will now demand, in the name of the Senate, all that they desire.
"It happened accidentally that, on the very day of the announcement of the evacuation, a grand menagerie arrived at Cracow, on which the people amused themselves with repeating, that the lion ' of England had put to flight the troops of the three Powers.'
"We had received, a few days before, the details of the debate brought on in the English House of Commons by the inquiries of Sir Stratford Canning, on the subject of the armed occupation of our city."
THE PORTFOLIO.
ALTHOUGH the following translation from the German is only a review of the first Numbers of the Portfolio, yet it contains so much interesting information, and is so ably drawn up, that we cannot abstain from reproducing it. The principal cause, however, of our doing so is to allow the people of this country to appreciate the effect silently produced on the public mind in Germany.
One of the most singular incidents connected with this periodical is, that although its tendency has been of a nature hostile to the views of those who entertain aggressive projects, still it has not been prohibited in any Continental State.
Two reasons may be assigned for this..
The first, that it has no community or participation with any principles, or with any party, as regards internal government. Hitherto the aggressive views of Russia, as of Prussia, have been opposed in the spirit of the French Propagande. The opposition manifested so acrimoniously by Austria and Prussia, and with such appearance of
VOL. III.NO. XX.


Of course we want to do SOMETHING for Elizabeth before she sails off into the Qualicum sunset.
There will be an Open House so we can gather to say goodbye, present her with our collective memories and just generally have a gratifest in her honour.
Please drop by the Dodds' family home - 5024 Central Avenue, Ladner sometime between 4 and 8 pm on Saturday 1 September and join the Elizabeth Appreciation Society!