Infomania

Todd Bishop posted an article recently in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about something called Infomania, which I found very interesting. When you first hear that term, you think it's one of those terms that you here in things such as management speak. However, it's a bit more than pointless terminology.

"A September 2005 study by Basex Inc. estimated that interruptions from e-mail, Web browsing, instant messaging and other electronic communications cost U.S. companies $588 billion a year. It estimated that interruptions constituted 28 percent of the average knowledge worker's day."

As this study had such stark stats, Microsoft held a two-day workshop recently to find ways of removing the problem, or at least making it less of a worry.

There was a good point made in this article though. This entirely depends on how many times a person checks their email, how many RSS feeds they have, etc. Also, their particular role might mean they don't have as many emails as others. It's an estimation - not a fact. This means we have to investigate further.

The executive summary is the only part of the report that I'm able to get hold of because I'm not prepared to pay £199 for the whole thing! Naturally, as it's only a summary, it doesn't tell you much. However, it does include what Basex consider to be the four main categories:

• Total interruptions
• Dominant interruptions
• Distractions
• Background activities

Total interruptions are obviously the worst. These would presumably be things such as power cuts or system crashes - they prevent you from doing any work. The dominant interruptions would be those that slowed you down considerably, but weren't so bad that you couldn't do work. The other two are less worrying.

Another thing the report summary mentions is that it's important to use the right program (also known as the 'horses for courses' principle).

The problem with this is that for huge global corporations such as Microsoft, they live by email and IM. Without those valuable communication tools things could grind to a halt. Any reduction in usage would mean that things would grind to a halt. There's also the possibility that the more communications mechanisms you have, the better. It makes the company more dynamic and if one system were to fail - you could always use the other.

So what do you think?

Technorati tags: Infomania, Information, IT

Oh Brother!

I have only ever seen a few hours of a couple of series Big Brother and have never seen the 'celebrity version'. I stopped watching it after being very unimpressed. I just couldn't enjoy the endless cycle of watching people sleep, wake up, make porridge and sit in chairs for hours. Some people do, but I don't. Some of the most recent series I didn't even realise were on until they were several days (or weeks) old. Even when I did find out I couldn't be bothered.

They say it's 'reality TV', but it isn't. How many people can say their life involves being stuck in a house for several weeks with several cameras pointing at you and having to get on with people you hardly know? Also, those people are quite often from the extremes of society and that ends up creating explosive situations over minor things.

One thing I do remember from the occasional bit of Big Brother I saw (and news pieces) was Jade Goody when she started off. I couldn't believe how dense she was. However, after she left the house, she managed to make some money and moderate success from the Z-list career that she earned. She could have quite easily ended up where she was beforehand - so Jade had to have learned something.

Anyway, now she made her way onto the Z-list, she qualified for a spot on celebrity Big Brother. It was another effort to boost the ratings (which went against the original idea of the show bringing people back into the house after they had already left). Once again, this series had 'characters' who were completely different when compared to each other.

I didn't even start thinking about this series until the controversy started. I couldn't believe that Big Brother had allowed the racist abuse to be broadcast. Jade directed it towards the absolutely stunning Bollywood star, Shilpa Shetty - a fellow housemate. The show is watched by thousands (possibly millions) of people of varying ages and they were exposed to something that is truly abhorrant. The following is one of the things Jade said:

"I couldn't think of her surname. Why would I be talking to someone like that, I don't know what her surname is. What is it? Shilpa Cookamada, Shilpa whatever Rockamada, Shilpa Poppadom."

Jade apologised afterwards, also saying that her comments were "nasty and ugly". No matter how much she apologises though, the memories will still remain.

She said she made some of her comments in anger. That maybe right, but the fact is that those racist words should not have been so close to the forefront of her mind. There are plenty of other ways to express anger without being racist.

Today, the following was reported on the BBC News website:

"Channel 4 bosses have ordered a review of Big Brother following the racism row, but say that the current Celebrity edition of the show will remain on air.

Chairman Luke Johnson said that the Channel 4 board expressed profound regret for any offence that may have been caused."

It's good that a review is taking place, but will the public agree with the findings?

The Government and the NUS were two other major bodies that commented on the situation. The following is from Ruqayyah Collector, the NUS Black Students Officer:

"It is unacceptable that people should see abusive racist language openly displayed on prime-time television unchecked by broadcasters. The NUS is working on promoting unity and good race relations, with many young people across the country responding positively to our call. The racist views on display are an offense to Asian people and will do nothing to garner a climate of acceptance in Britain today. On the contrary, around the world, British culture is being perceived as bigoted, aggressive and offensive, as Endemol's cynical ploy to boost ratings and profits by allowing racially abusive language to continue unchecked in the Big Brother House."

As you can see I totally agree with her. I'm sure many other people do too.

After Jade left the house, she said her fee will be donated to charity. That's good, but it's not enough. Jade has had celebrity thrust on her too soon and she's been unable to deal with it. That's the problem with the 'fifteen minutes of fame' culture.

Another thing to note was the suspicions of 'coaching'. I hope that didn't happen or it means her apology may not be genuine and giving the money to charity could have been forced upon her. That would be a shame.

Big Brother should be axed after the end of this series, but it probably won't. Channel 4 and Endemol (the producers) will probably secretly enjoy the publicity and the short term ratings boost. Nobody should be allowed to profit from racism though. That would be disgusting.

Technorati tags: Big Brother, Racism, Television

The NHS Programme for I.T. (Part 3)

The first of the remaining parts of the NPfIT I'm going to cover is the new communications service, NHSmail. According to the Connecting for Health website, the new service (which replaces the existing Microsoft Exchange setup) is:

• A national directory of people in the NHS, containing the name, email addresses, telephone numbers, name and address of their NHS organisation, and information about departments, job roles and specialities.
• Accessibility from anywhere on NHSnet or the Internet, particularly useful for staff who work from more than one location.
• An email address that stays with you as you move around the NHS.
• Calendars and folders that can be shared with other users across the NHS.
• Automatic encryption during sending of emails.

The theory behind this is great. I'm a big fan of replacing paper systems because with IT, you can create instant and multiple backups, but it would take much longer to make copies on paper. I wonder about the value for money though. I'm glad they took into account encryption, but quality encryption packages can be bought relatively cheaply. Sharing of calendars can be done with Exchange, so in that respect there was no need to replace the old system - that point is not a benefit. Having a unique email address is good, but fairly easy to organise. I think the first point in the list of features is the big selling point, although it doesn't state whether it will be everybody and how regularly it is updated (people can leave the NHS and other will join - it's not just about having unique email addresses). I would still be interested in finding out how much it cost. The features are fairly inexpensive, but as the organisation is huge that might change things.

Now onto PACS:

"Picture Archiving and Communications System, more commonly known as PACS, enables images such as x-rays and scans to be stored electronically and viewed on computer screens, so that doctors and other health professionals can access the information and compare it with previous images at the touch of a button.

By delivering more efficient imaging processes, PACS will contribute to the delivery of a maximum 18 week patient journey by 2008."

That 18 week goal could be considered ambitious, but there are signs of improvement already (86.9% of outpatients waiting under 8 weeks and more than three quarters of inpatients waiting under 13 weeks). This is something that I think will really struggle. X-rays need to be really high quality, therefore the file sizes will be huge. You would need an absolutely vast amount of storage and a massive backup facility. I'm sorry, but it just seems too problematic.

Choose and Book is another interesting idea. Like other aspects of the NPfIT system, there's been an earlier adopter program, so there is opinions available already. An online/phone system for booking (as well as the possibility of picking from multiple hospitals) sounds great. However, there are reports of problems with the implementation already:

"Half of the GPs said the choose and book online booking system was poor or fairly poor. The poll was completed by 447 hospital doctors and 340 GPs.

And in a further blow, ministers said other parts of the project were behind schedule, pushing it over budget.

The Financial Times reported that the government had admitted the electronic records system - a database which could be accessed by health professionals anywhere in the country - was more than two years behind schedule."

Sure, many big projects fall behind schedule - but two years! Also, for 50% to say it's poor or worse is worrying. The problem is that as it's been in place long enough to see 400000 bookings, it could be difficult to make any changes if they are needed.

There's also ETP. This is a great idea, as long as there is proper security in place. It would be a major disaster if prescriptions were changed en route. Apart from that, I don't really have any worries about it. I couldn't find negative news articles either.

I have highlighted some good points in these three parts, but there are some clear worries/problems with NPfIT. Also, there was little consultation with the people who'll be using the setup - the doctors, GPs, etc. The people on the 'shop floor' will see problems with things and they are capable of coming up with ideas about how to fix them. Also, why not provide doctors and surgeons with tablet PCs and PDAs? That way they could access patient notes and records that are perfectly readable and if the person is from another country, they could change the language instantly. That must beat patient notes written on paper and made available on clipboards at the front of beds. Notes at the front of beds aren't the most portable either and they could be damaged. Of course, to make PDA and tablet PCs work in that environment, WiFi would need to be freely available. Why not focus on those things too?

I'd like to know what you think about what I've posted in any or all of these three parts.

Technorati tags: NPfIT, Connecting for Health, Government, IT, NHS