Personal realities and in the media

Ordinarily I would be completely lost in tonight's Horizon - What Is Reality? at 9pm BBC2. I will be watching, but I won't be as lost as I have been.

Today I took a big step forward - sorting 'issues' that will allow me to purchase a new home. I ('we') also resolved the post-marital issue of pensions. This has proved a major reality re-orientation factor since July 2008. There is the old house to sell, but nonetheless real progress.

I am really looking forward to the NW England Drupal meet in Manchester on Friday. That's another reality to immerse oneself in - especially Drupal 7!

2010-2011 posts, papers, studies and Drupal

Happy New Year everyone!

2010 saw 211 posts, 183 in 2009. As ever a mix of original material concerning h2cm, conferences and call for papers. Fingers x'd 2011 should run to approx 150 posts as I focus on work, studies and Drupal. The good thing for me is that all three of these can run along together and I intend to forge a union if at all possible.

At work my full-time role is clinical - nursing; Nursing Home Liaison. Increasingly we are finding what nurses on the ground have recognized for a long time. With this job comes an educational role, despite efforts to upscale the skills and knowledge of the residential care / nursing home sectors. H2cm is a gift in these quarters, in prompting and facilitating reflection, holistic and person-centred care.

Studies: On this front I'm trying to identify a research question from a bewildering mix of possibilities. Previously I've referred to the relevance and my interest in conceptual spaces:

Hodges' model: Background - Foreground and the Space Between

The socio-tech and conceptual space papers

Next paper? Conceptual Spaces and Hodges' model

Nursing theory - conceptual spaces: Where's my T-shirt?

Gardenfors' book - a quote and can that be, surely not ...h2cm?

That other 2nd-hand book - 'Conceptual Spaces'

This is definitely a worthwhile focus. I'm making enquiries to try to find a mentor. Strange, or maybe not actually, that I am a nurse mentor and sign-off mentor too and here I am coughing and spluttering in need of a mentor myself to help sort the wheat from the chaff. The 10K words on conceptual spaces is now 13K.

Today is a good day for throwing numbers about, but being short of time I hate wasting it. So I've been revisiting the papers situation. ...

The co-authored h2cm and forensic nursing paper is completed with two revisions, but still needs a home.

I missed an opportunity with the h2cm and substance misuse paper. Trying to complete it in the summer of 2009 before my eye surgery I did not stick to the brief. I'm hoping a new co-author can take the 5K words and help re-frame the content from a practice and service perspective. It really is refreshing to work with other people. I look forward to providing an update here later in the Winter - Spring.

Since this summer and the posts (one and two) about the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice I've drafted a piece on h2cm and medical progress taking an informational perspective. I'm not sure if this will pass muster, but this 5K did not take too long and I enjoyed the process.

As to Drupal - I've hit the wall that has "styling" written all over it. It seems if you start with a basic theme like Zen you are rewarded with an easy to negotiate palette, that is - you do it yourself. With more complete themes you need to read and orientate yourself with somebody else's handiwork. This is the next job and then move to Drupal 7 - released on the 5th.

In October I received an invitation to present at an international nursing conference. I've submitted a presentation and have offered to do a workshop too. This was accepted. It all depends on travel and confirmation of arrangements so we will have to see. If they just wanted support with links they only needed to ask.

More to follow on all the above and wherever you are

may I wish you a very happy, healthy, 

peaceful and prosperous 2011!

To follow: Line of sight, lines of insight ...

self disclosure: personal distractions & Andrew Marr

Although I've installed, re-installed ... been reading, attended 3 Drupalcons and the monthly NW Drupal Users group in Manchester - Drupal remains a scary character. I am in for the long haul though and the new PC is a great asset. All I need now is a place of my own. It's complicated. There was a question raised on the psychiatric nursing email list about the "Do I?" - "Don't I?" of self disclosure.

As for the "Do I?" - "Don't I?" Drupal - since summer 2008 separation and divorce has been the source of distraction. It still is, with a 'final' hearing to follow in the new year about the 'marital' home. I need the equity: STAT! This protracted delay in resolving matters is not my fault (although there is a counter argument that says the delay spans 24 years³). Such disclosure here may grate with some readers; if so well actually to date I've been re-strained to the point of chronic constipation. Whether a citizen journalist or not I'm pleased to remain an exception to Mr Marr's tirade about bloggers this past week.

As per the first post of 2010 it is now 12 months since I had my first cataract op c/o surgeons Messrs Heaven and in November 2009 Mr Mars at Wigan Infirmary. I'm sending a thank you card now. Now, because the past 12 months have been visually amazing! As each season has come along new sights (no pun intended) and old vistas refreshed have been a great revelation. Things are coming together. Drupal musings 17 to follow soon ...

³The main disclosure here is not about 'self' but about the three amazing individuals that union brought into the world. This 'self' would not want to change that for anything in the world.

New PC - my own Chaos Manor

Well two days ago it arrived: the new PC! A black encased i7 3.2 quad core c/o PC Specialist based in Holmfirth.

I've read some of his most popular SF books and the past few days I've been reminded of his monthly contributions to Byte magazine. I'm on about Jerry Pournelle and his Chaos Manor essays, in which new PC kit and gadgets obviously featured.

For months I've been visiting several supplier's website and configuring 'my new PC' and yes I've done it on the Apple site specifying the most expensive piece of kit available. Taking the plunge with PC Specialist I've been impressed (thus far) with their pre-sales, pre-delivery and delivery service. There was confirmation with regular updates by e-mail and texts as my PC came into being. I opted for Mon-Fri delivery between 0700-1000. My bit-of-a-beast arrived at 0800 (with the toast and coffee).

Clinically, you always worry for the worst, but there was no DOA here.

It booted up nicely and the noise: so quiet! I made sure the case is acoustically damped. I'd already sourced a screen, keyboard and mouse, so there was a brief scare when Windows 7 prompted finger action and of course what to do? In Windows 7, Microsoft have an operating system that is suddenly (fingers x'd) very forgiving. Despite the tag on the USB connector saying 'install the software first' or words to that effect I removed the tag and connected the MS Natural Ergonomic KB 4000. A random drum of fingers heard cries of delight and account creation. It's proved a real breeze as the (latest!) drivers have been downloaded automatically. I noticed the power cord - PC attachment can be sensitive to fairly slight knocks, if you are not careful, but that's nothing new.

There are tools to check your site on several browsers and mobile format, but I've just Opera and Safari to add. Check this site's logo on a suitably equipped browser (I used Google's Chrome).*

E-mail and ftp have proved problematic so far. I've been tied to Demon's Turnpike which is basic (and anonymous), but does the job. Now with W7 64-bit I'm not prepared to mess about with virtual machines and other fixes. So I am now trying other email clients. FireFTP is in-situ awaiting my attention. There will be quite a few conferences out of date on the links pages, but we'll get there.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 is installed. I first purchased the MX (educational) version in 2003-2004, and just had to upgrade. Strange that I always wondered about that other functionality PHP, CSS, Javascript I never got to grips with. Now with Drupal there's no choice and no going back! Dreamweaver looks well - dream like. In a way you know this new machine is a set-back. I'm determined whether software or the new keyboard and other facilities to fully use this new machine, which means distraction.

One of my favourite books is CETI edited by Carl Sagan. ...

My dual core Macbook Pro has been processing two units at a time from Rosetta and SETI@home. Suddenly there's nine ticking away. In fact I am having to check to figure out just what is doing what in the innards that includes twin graphics cards with CUDA processors. At some point I really must throw a game into the mix. The noise from the fans has increased, but is still 'quiet' compared to the Evesham box.

WAMP is up and running (or at least appears to be) and Drupal 6 and 7 are in place. I'm going to see if I can export - import stuff in Drupal 6. Drupal and updating remains a demon here. (If you are looking for admin training try Menus and Blocks).

Before I close I have to say a belated thanks to Evesham Computers - sadly no longer trading. That PC from November 2002 is still going, the motherboard clock needs a new battery, the 100GB hard disc a wipe and refresh.

I hope this latest machine fulfills its great promise. So thanks also to the team at PC Specialist specifically:

Built By : Andrew Vincent
Tested By : Zbear Ramzan
QC'd By : Craig Whiteley
Packed By : Adnaan Marban

I'll report again on developments. I was able to select the hard disc partitions soon after placing my order. I nearly missed that, but so glad I didn't. I will allocate specific space for images, photos, music, Drupal and Ruby. First though I'll check on installing Linux too.

Maybe as per Mr Pournelle I should give this new machine a name? Well why not? I'm not going to eat it (I hope). Much still to do!

* An item mentioned in this month's .net magazine.

Wageningen MultiMedia Research Centre

I am away for a week and will be e-free. Amongst reading materials I'm packing Learning Drupal 6 Module Development. Last evening I came across Wageningen MultiMedia Research Centre (WMMRC) a treat to explore for when I return. Rather than a more complete educational Drupal distribution there are some specific modules that might work as a plug-in:

• ClosedQuestion
• Proteus
• LinearCase

The publications are extensive and of relevance too.

(Bye for now ... There's a post scheduled for 1st June on Proteus)

CfP International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP)

********************* CALL FOR PAPERS *********************
(edited here for length)
*** INAUGURAL ISSUE ***

SUBMISSION DUE DATE: 1st May 2010

International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP)

Official publication of the Information Resources Management Association
http://www.igi-global.com/IJPOP

Co-Editors-in-Chief: Steve Goschnick & Sandrine Balbo
Published: Semi-annual (both in Print and Electronic form)

Mission of IJPOP:

The International Journal of People-Oriented Programming (IJPOP) is cross-discipline in range yet singularly focused on empowering individuals to conceptualise, design, program, configure and orchestrate Internet-powered mashups, game mods (modifications), aggregate and structure personal media and build standalone cloud-based and client-side applications (on smartphones, netbooks, laptops, desktops, home network and novel appliances) – into self-fashioned tools and products that ultimately suit the user's own unique needs and aspirations. Other individuals may well take up such apps, mods and mashups for themselves, further customising, enhancing and embellishing them, or they may in part be used in a social or family context (to the benefit of the collective aspirations of those Social Worlds of which the individual is a part) – nonetheless, the focus of composition, development and customisation is on a product for oneself, upon theory, concepts, techniques, methodologies and ultimately tools that service a market of one. Our mission is to be the first journal that comes to mind to academics and practitioners alike and remain the best with regard to all aspects of People-Oriented Programming. Our papers and reviews will be insightful and compelling to both educators and researchers, and often to a wider audience too – the people for whom this paradigm of software development has come about.

SCOPE:

People-Oriented Programming requires high-level tools to empower both the technical and non-technical user, which in turn calls upon research into meta-models that inform design and construction, that aid comparisons of these tools, and facilitates the interchange of content between them. The meta-models of most interest to POP initially, are drawn from two disparate disciplines – the Task Analysis (TA) and Agent-Oriented (AO) paradigms– both of which often have models with representations of entities matching the needs of POP, e.g. goal, task, object, agent, individual, role, intention and communication. Several AO architectures and methodologies have called upon branches of Psychology to formulate AO meta-models that incorporate mentalistic notions such as perception, motivation and intention, but which are most often aimed at constructing artificial humans and the like. In POP we too call upon those same Psychologies and similarly enhance and formulate meta-models and methodologies influenced by them, but with the intention of augmenting and empowering the individual human, in areas where they themselves desire aid or have identified a gap in their own abilities or resources, which they want to enhance.

From Sociology, POP draws upon ethnography with a focus on self-ethnography using tools such as cultural probes, life blogs and life logs to capture aspects of the individual's own life, themselves (or through a life coach), from which they draw the desire and/or frame the need for new technological artefacts to be used in their own lives. Interactivity, with respect to facilitating and streamlining a regular user's intention to build their own artefacts, and situatedness in terms of the individual's current location and activities, are two other facets of HCI (human computer interaction) that POP encompasses.

Video gaming is the first application area where large numbers of everyday users have been able to envisage and then developed their own innovations within existing games. So-called game mods are working examples of POP where players have appropriated userfriendly tools, usually built into the game engines by the vendors (e.g. The Sims, World of Warcraft, etc.). Video games have joined other media (e.g. movie, novel, comic) in the new genre of transmedia storytelling (e.g. franchises such as Tomb Raider, The Matrix, Harry Potter), allowing the player to enter the story 'so far', extending it in the 'now', constructing their own individualised narratives and increasingly, with the capability to enhance and extend the realm of the game itself. These individual constructed game mods allow players to extend virtual realms and narratives in real-time, in directions often unforeseen by the game engine makers. Such activities are increasingly a part of an individual's entertainment and education. Game modding as described, and the engines and tools that enable it, are within the scope of POP.

Internet-based mashup tools (e.g. Google Wave) have opened up a second application front beyond game mods, where POP is likely to gain mass adoption and occasionally produce radical user innovation. The selection and orchestration of disparate distributed services (e.g. web services; information feeds; the Cloud) by an individual within a user-friendly toolkit or framework, is also in the scope of POP. While the formal protocols and the technical enactment of such specific services are of little interest here, the quality, access, usage, aggregation and orchestration of them by the individual themselves, into a personalised synergy of capability made available through some enacting technology, are of acute interest to POP. Modeling techniques and people-friendly notations that bridge and coordinate distributed services together with local resources within POP tools – ones that the layperson can understand and use in conceptualising their designs - encompasses another cross-discipline facet of POP.

RECOMMENDED TOPICS:

Topics to be discussed in this journal include (but are not limited to) the following:

* Activity theory and modeling
* Agent meta-models, mental models
* Alert filter and notification software, automated task assistance
* Augmented reality, augmented interaction
* Automating personal ontologies, personalised content generation
* Client-side conceptual modeling
* Computational models from psychology
* Context-aware systems, location-aware computing, ubiquitous computing
* Cultural probes, self-ethnography
* End-user composition, end-user multi-agent systems
* Game development support tools
* Game mods, game engines, open game engines
* Home network applications
* Human-centred software development
* Interface generators, XML-based UI notation generators
* Interface metaphors
* Life logs, life blogs, feed aggregators
* Mashups, mashup tools, cloud mashups
* Model-driven design, didactic models, model-based design and implementation
* New generation visual programming
* Personal interaction styles, touch and gestures
* People-Oriented Programming (POP)
* People-Oriented Programming case studies
* Personal ontologies and taxonomies
* Personalisation, individualisation, market of one
* Personas and actors
* Real-time narrative generation engines
* Role-based modeling
* Service science for individuals
* Situated computation, social proximity applications
* Smart-phone mashups, home network mashups, home media mashups
* Software analysis & design, software process modeling
* Software component selection
* Speech and natural language interfaces
* Storyboarding, scenarios, picture scenarios
* Task flow diagrams, Task-based design
* Task models, task analysis, cognitive task models, concurrent task modeling
* Use case models, user interface XML notations
* User-centered design, usage-centered design
* User interface tools, XML-based UI notations
* User modelling, end user programming, end user development
* Wearable computing, bodyware
* Web-service orchestration, web-service co-ordination

SUBMITTING TO IJPOP:
Prospective authors should note that only original and previously unpublished articles will be considered. INTERESTED AUTHORS MUST CONSULT THE JOURNAL’S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at:
http://www.igi-global.com/Files/AuthorEditor/guidelinessubmission.pdf

PRIOR TO SUBMISSION. All article submissions will be forwarded to at least three members of the Editorial Review Board of the journal for double-blind, peer review. Final decision regarding acceptance/revision/rejection will be based on the reviews received from the reviewers. All submissions must be forwarded electronically to: stevenbg AT unimelb.edu.au

All inquiries and submissions should be should be directed to the attention of:

Steve Goschnick
Co-Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of People-Oriented Programming
E-mail: stevenbg AT unimelb.edu.au
http://www.igi-global.com/IJPOP

Additional links:

Goschnick, S. (2009). People-Oriented Programming: from Agent-Oriented Analysis to the Design of Interactive Systems, In. J.A. Jacko (Ed.): Human-Computer Interaction, Part I, HCII 2009, LNCS 5610, pp. 836–845.

"2010" definitely not - future vision is 20:20!

Happy New Year everyone!

As 2010 begins with the first day and month of January I always think of Janus and the origins of January as per the description on Wikipedia:

In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January, which begins the new year. He is most often depicted as having two faces or heads, facing in opposite directions.

Looking to the past and future my eyesight has proved a another source of personal upheaval. In September 2008 I went to get some new specs as I knew all was not well. I thought I was just tired, making excuses for a new pair of glasses and eyes that could still not focus. I went back in January '09 to learn I had a triplopia. After the first op (left eye) I realised how bad my right eye remained.

Picking up a white mug and using the lens mother nature gave me I was shocked to see a green-yellow cast over the mug. I have been able to type online and at work quite well and accurately by relying on my previously attained keyboard skills. Driving was becoming problematic, with traffic lights forming a perfect triangle. The lines in the middle of the road would float and merge in the distance. No wonder the optometrist asked me in July if colours seemed as vivid as they should be. I studied art at GCSE level and thought I had a good appreciation of the colour wheel and all that: Tch!

Now two eye ops later - left eye care of surgeon Mr Heaven and the right by Mr Mars (yes really) I have better than 20:20 distance vision with intraocular implants. I was reminded of younger years coming downstairs and the room looking so bright, as if it had snowed and then here in the UK it did snow.

Many thanks to Messrs Heaven and Mars and the team at Wigan Infirmary (where I also did my general nurse training). They have done an excellent job!

Post an out-patient appointment in two weeks I will finally be able to sort some reading glasses.

If winter is a time for reflection well as per my final post of 2009 then I have reflected much of late, but at least I can see clearly now.

I hope you can too - especially if you are in a position of power and influence!

Take care wherever you are now and over the coming year ....

Image source:
Eric Sutic http://www.onecloud.nu/Visual/things/janus.jpg

Goodbye to David McKendrick an 'old' friend and personal reflections

The past three years have been quite challenging both personally and professionally.

Professionally as an IT secondment came to an end in 2007 and brought with it positive and negative changes. The positive of moving back to clinical practice, the negative the vagaries of clinical banding and the Knowledge and Skills Framework which many health sector organisations are still attempting to fully implement. On a personal level, I am now also divorced. Working on the community for so many years - just over the border of my clinical patch - was a gift of convenience in terms of the children's schooling and playing taxi driver.

While there was a very objective interview panel I feel I owe having my current job to my friend David McKendrick. This fact now scares me witless that this was back in 1985 when my eldest son was born. I was so wrapped up in this life-changing event that the secretary phoned to ask if I did want the job. The organisation I still work for has changed its title and status umpteenth times it seems and I have had several roles over the years, including research and service development projects. The truth is though that when it comes to work, this journey began at Chorley with David and that is essentially where I am still at.

I was really shocked then when Sue, David's wife phoned with the news that David had died earlier this month. I'd kept in touch with David through the years. Due to my new domestic circumstances I moved back to Ashton-in-Makerfield - living not far from David and Sue - in July last year. David was so helpful, patient and supportive as I have progressed through the divorce.

We both worked at Winwick Hospital, Warrington, UK and I am pleased I went along this summer to a reunion and saw David in his element with friends, Sue and a pint. I also managed to take quite a few photos which will now be extra memorable for so many of us. Although I didn't work with David at Winwick, as already suggested he was my boss on the community mental health team at Chorley, Lancashire from October 1985 through to his early retirement due to illness.

We shared a love of IT and coding as enthusiasts. In the early 80s David called to my parents home when I'd bought a BBC micro, an upgrade from a Sinclair ZX81. David contributed so much to health IT, through his work with Open Software Library, computer aided learning and his pioneering bulletin board. David was also a co-organiser of a computer based training conference at Keele University 1987-88. Open Software Library distributed several computer programs I wrote on the BBC micro. One thing that makes me smile is the way in the late 80s early 90s I got my underpants into a bit of a twist over the copyright. Now reflecting back, David was a real Gent in how he handled that, my concerns to which he listened, accepted and explained. There was a lesson there also in terms of Hodges' model and Brian Hodges' worries over the same. Where might the model be now, we often pondered, if it had been driven hard from the outset!

When David retired it wasn't the same. Of course you know the job changes constantly, but there was a real loss of impetus: from warp to impulse drive. David was much liked and respected as a boss and colleague. If you were professional in your approach put the clients, carers and families first then he left you to get on with the job. That said his recognition for accountability and governance was communicated and shared by the team. He used an Amstrad micro to produce statistics on the number of home visits, injections and many other details. David was ahead of the informatics game in recognising the value of information for service planning, development and improvement. When David was off a while I kept this effort going for a short while until duties dragged me elsewhere. David's early IT work was published in the Community Psychiatric Nursing Association journal, an association (now the MHNA) which he helped established initially.

I can see us all walking from the team office at Eaves Lane hospital (long gone now), up through the tunnel to the main hospital for the regular team meeting. That was a golden age of sorts, when all the community nurses came together. David was always keen on that. You were a member of a team and everyone was valued and had a role to play.

David recognised my interest (and yes skill -- thanks David!) in computing and sent me on a health care computing conference held in Manchester 1986. I wrote a report and have attended and presented at the HC-XXXX series on several occasions since. We often shared books, papers and plans around technology developments and when to build or buy that next PC.

I really, really can't believe David has gone. He was (very) widely read and we loved knocking ideas around always wondering about what sort of clinical / nursing application might have a future. I only learned since his passing of his excellence as a student nurse. When he qualified as a Registered Mental Nurse (RMN) he was awarded the Gold Medal. He was always keen to read my writing efforts and discuss the same. I remain really impressed with his website on Winwick Hospital - Winwick Remembered. While there is much in the old institutions to say good riddance to and never again this IS social history and as BBC R4's In the Mind featured there is much to record and document. In 2006 David got in touch with a query regarding relatives of patients from Winwick trying to trace details of their family members. I posted his inquiry on the psychiatric nursing list.

Over the past year or so, we met a few times at Tom & Gerry's the local pub with David riding there on his bike: magic!! Sitting at that usual table (near the plug) sad, but lots of smiles too.

I arrived late to politics and I much admire his involvement in community work, the Three Sisters Recreation area project in Ashton. While I enthused over 'community informatics' David was practicing it, engaging with others. I'm sure I don't appreciate the extent of his efforts, the youth club - helping make IT available to youngsters, environmental projects, and the community forum.

I am truly thankful for having met David, for his friendship, support and guidance over the past 18 months and the years before. If I've three regrets:

1. I never did take my guitar around; as I realise now how good David was - McKendrick's Moonshiners no less - I clearly missed a lick there!
2. Also never did find and show David the old photos from Winwick hospital - the show we put on as students.
3. Being able to explore Ashton Heath, the types of heather and the bees there.

Regular readers here know of the hyperbole over the new website, well now if I ever do create the new website - maybe we'll know why...

David - I'll miss you pal and miss you already!
As the new decade begins bless you, Sue and your family and friends...

Peter

===================================
From: Richard Lakeman, richard.lakeman at dcu.ie
To: Peter Jones h2cmng at yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Mon, 14 December, 2009 14:40:27
RE: [PSYCHIATRIC-NURSING] David McKendrick - CPN - CPN Manager, Winwick & Chorley, UK

I’m sorry to hear about David, Peter. Thanks for letting us know. I never met David, but he marketed some software I wrote for some years and He was a pleasure to deal with.

Regards
Richard