October beckons - update PHP, Drupal and Public Health

October looks to be a busy month, at least the first half.

It's the PHPNW Conference next weekend and I'm pleased that they were able to use some copy I provided for their blog. The 2010 conf was very good and 2012 is looking a real treat.

Before then, this Wednesday evening it's the monthly NW Drupal User Group meeting also in Manchester. They are continuing the Back to Basics sessions. Since last month I've not had much time to explore and use DrupalPro. I will do before Wednesday, after the excellent input I was provided with last month it's over to me now.

Another event - and one needing a presentation is the -

Institute of Public Health: Open Conference 2012

Thursday, 11^th October 2012 at The King's Hall, Belfast. After visiting Dublin last November for the first time I'm really looking forward to this brief first trip to Northern Ireland too.

On the blog front I've deleted a service that was slowing things down. I've also reduced the total number of posts on display.

A fellow delegate and a full-time academic at the IPONS conference in Leeds earlier this month suggested that I blog less and write more. Things will go quieter here - year on year...

More to follow - for the time being!

SF, health, criminality and justice

"The Dehewwoff system of punishing by disease; graded capital punishment; the more serious the crime the more serious the disease the culprit is infected with. For minor crimes a mere fever, loss of livelihood and medical expenses; for more damaging misdeeds a bout of something lasting perhaps months, with pain and long convalescence, bills and no sympathy, sometimes marks to show later on. For really ghastly crimes, infections with diseases rarely survived; near certain death but possible divine intervention and miracle cure. Of course, the lower one's class, the more virulent one's punishment, to allow for the hardier constitution of the toilers. Combinations, and recurring strains, provide sophistications to the basic idea." p.181.

Use of Weapons, Iain M Banks, 1990, Orbit.

Amongst other reading and snorkeling, I read Use of Weapons on holiday. Consider Phlebas was the better read to me. I've come across this disease - justice idea before. As I read the above paragraph in the book you can see the many limitations with this, the physical, psychological and ethical dimensions. This is SF of course, but are the assumptions about the toilers accurate? As a health care professional and thus exposed to more bugs what impact would that have? You also wonder to what extent personalised medicine could physically level the sentencing field? The point about divine intervention seems to suggest a way to gauge - balance that uncertainty element. Is this left to a surface protein or something else? Are the diseases as punishments all to be physical?


My copy (see inside back cover) is now sitting on a shelf in the secondhand book section of the supermarket across from the Zante Park Hotel in Laganas, Zakynthos - the quieter end of the resort. I bought two Camus paperbacks, my book was donated - I suppose you could also say it was shop-dropped - and I'd washed my hands. ;-)

Image source: Goodreads.com

IPONS 2012 Leeds: Dementia and Robots - SF and Isaac Asimov ruined me, what about you?

Just before I disappear for 11 days holiday...

In the 1970s I could go into (the old) Smiths in Wigan with £1 and buy three paperbacks. I built quite an SF library that includes Heinlein, Clarke, Smith, Aldiss, Van Vogt, and Asimov, all a bit musty now and boxed.

Robots featured in many of those old books and Issac Asimov in particular with his Three Laws of Robotics. As a result I've tended to take robots for granted, not just in fiction and film but health care too. Big mistake!

It's almost as if every decade we should watch Blade Runner again and reflect. Take our bearings, triangulating them with these other things-beings. ...

The demographic time bomb is proving quite an incentive for developments in leading edge robotics. 

One of the IPONS keynotes with Dr Susan Barnes and Dr Theodore Metzler presented Three Dialogues Concerning Robots in Elder Care.

We were introduced to general developments including Asimo, which I remember seeing on QI:



- and a specific nursing example:

Through their three dialogues ranging through the developments of artificial intelligence and consciousness, Drs Barnes and Metzler also introduced Paro a Therapeutic Robot, which is modeled after a baby harp seal. For many years dolls of various sorts have been used in residential and nursing homes to provide comfort for selected residents. This is an example of personalised care. I know because there are times when it has seemed not quite right. The paradox is that this arises not necessarily from the client's response to the doll, but sometimes that of the other residents. The response of relatives and visitors can also vary, especially when efforts are ongoing to find ways to help someone settle. Seeing - and hearing someone who is agitated is distressing for all.

Needless to say the keynote prompted many robot related questions. Are we deceiving people who are cognitively impaired? Is this a variation of covert administration of medicine? It was later afternoon 1500 hours or thereabouts, which had me thinking about the phenomena of sundowning. A time of day when some residents can feel they need to be elsewhere. Former responsibilities and roles come back to the fore with what can be chaotic results.

This excellent keynote also made me think about how care needs are matched to technologies. What is the ethical spectrum of telecare, of remote care, of robotics (surgical, locomotion, dementia care)?

A person living with dementia at home may benefit from have a robotic carer / assistant who can respond to the repetitive questions that often follow. A robot is not going to get frustrated, angry (Asimov's Laws?) by such behaviour, unless it were conscious?

On the other hand don't we need the frustration of a family member, a carer, a human to alert society at large to this local crisis - situation? What are the reporting capabilities of the robot system?

I realised many years ago the notion of windows of opportunity in terms of supporting independence - delivering care. There may be an optimum period in a person's health career to introduce day care, respite care, care at home, a robot ...?

Nursing (like me) needs to wake up.

The next twenty - thirty years are going to be a real challenge in all sorts of ways and for many reasons. Throughout that time and beyond a good dose of philosophical thought will be the order of the day. IPONS got me thinking anew: perhaps you too? The society are planning changes to the website, membership and journal options.

Back at month end.
P.S. ICN abstract submitted. Prospect of a public health presentation next month.

IPONS 2012 Leeds - presentation completed and 2013...

As planned I am in Leeds at the moment attending the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS). The keynotes and other sessions so far have proved really thought provoking, as with talking to other people in the evening.

My presentation was well received and well attended given the total attendees and three concurrent streams.

Two interesting points were raised in questions:

1. the value of a practical example of h2cm in use even in this forum.
2. the most interesting aspect of my 30 minute presentation was the potential research directions I have identified and am trying to pursue. These may extend beyond the model in terms of finalizing a research question. Would Hodges' model need to feature in the question? A very interesting point.

This is a small community, very welcoming and supportive. The conference next year is in Atlanta. There is plenty more to follow at 0900 on the main conference day, so I will add to this post shortly, or post another.

With the IPONS talk 'sorted', one thing that has me preoccupied is the closing date for abstract submissions for the ICN Congress: the 14th! It looks like it will be an individual effort, which was likely.

DrupalCamp North West November 24-25 Manchester

If your are based in the North West of England, or can travel to Manchester there are plans for a DrupalCamp in November 24-25th at Media City Salford.

You can sign up for news - ...

For the next few months the North West Drupal User Group are having 'back to basics' sessions (Madlab, Manchester 1st Weds in the month). I'm really grateful to Phil who sorted VirtualBox and DrupalPro on my Macbook last Wednesday. I've been struggling with MAMP since Drupalcon in Munich, asking too much of the conference wifi and paying the price with 'MySQL server gone away' and PDO errors. DrupalPro is quite something behold.

Thanks to the NW gang, friends old and new. Before DrupalCamp there is also PHPNW 2012 to enjoy next month.

Hodges' model paper in the Journal of Community Informatics

As a full-time nurse with an interest in informatics I am already in a sense looking over the fence at that other garden. Well, why not? It looks quite enticing, there's a special sandpit and frameworks to climb with learning curves that run on and on ...

News of a paper on Hodges' model in the Journal of Community Informatics finds me trying to look over not one, but several fences. Whether or not the project is successful is a matter of opinion which sums up this latest exercise.

I'm very grateful to the editors and reviewers who helped to shape what was a very wandersome paper into something that strives to see beyond Central and West Lancashire in NW England:

Exploring several dimensions of local, global and glocal
using the generic conceptual framework Hodges's model

If you have any comments or questions please get in touch - h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk. I can supply a copy of figure 3.


Jones, P. (2012). Exploring several dimensions of local, global and glocal using the generic conceptual framework Hodges's model. The Journal Of Community Informatics, 8(3). Retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/876/941

April 8-10 2013 The Difference That Makes a Difference: Information - People and Places

To: DTMD2011 contacts
Dear colleague,

We are sending you this message because either you attended The Difference That Makes a Difference 2011 workshop last September, or we have previously had some other contact with you in association with the workshop, and we think this information will be of interest to you.

 DTMD 2013

Plans for "The Difference That Makes a Difference 2013" are taking shape. It will run from 8th to 10th April 2013 and will either be on the Open University campus or, if we can get the funding, at Bletchley Park. There will be an overall theme to the workshop of 'Information: People and Places', with the sessions provisionally planned as follows:

Session 1: The philosophy of information and the search for a UTI. This does not specifically address the people and places theme, but addresses the underlying theoretical basis running through all discussions of Information.

Session 2: Information and Identity: How does thinking in terms of information inform our understanding of human identity? How do our concepts of identity inform our understanding of information? What do we learn if we address race, gender, nationality, class, sexual orientation as information issues?

Session 3: Information and the built environment. In what sense is architecture an information discipline? What is the relationship between information and cities.

Session 4: Information and Geography. This opens the themes of sessions 2 and 3 to a broader consideration of information in the context of physical and human geography. As with DTMD 2011, these sessions will be followed by a synthesis session to maximise the opportunity for discussion. 

An additional exciting plan for DTMD 2013 is the involvement of artists. We have been in discussion with the MK Gallery and are seeking funding to allow three artists to participate in the workshop, and at the end of the workshop for one them to be commissioned to produce a work which reflects, interprets and communicates ideas emerging from the workshop. The commissioned work would be unveiled/launched/performed six months after the workshop.

We are very pleased that Professor Luciano Floridi - http://www.philosophyofinformation.net has agreed to participate in the workshop.

Please get in touch if you have any proposals or suggestions for DTMD 2013 - and put it in your diary.

TripleC Special Issue. We've had a good set of papers submitted for the special issue of TripleC arising from DTMD 2011, which we are currently reviewing. The Special Issue is planned for August this year - keep an eye on the website: www.triple-c.at.  

Kybernetes. We (Magnus and David) together with Chris Bissell (Professor of Telematics at the OU, and one of the Keynote Speakers at DTMD 2011) are to take up the editorship of Kybernetes (https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0368-492X ) from later this year, with Magnus as lead editor and David and Chris as co-editors. Among our plans for the journal are to increase the focus on Information. Again: keep an eye on the website.

Best wishes,
David Chapman and Magnus Ramage