Drupalcon Prague: sessions, missed ops, leaflets and old contacts - renewed

The structure of Drupalcons provide a range of sources for learning, networking and information. The main sessions are the most obvious source, plus there are many vendors providing and marketing various services from development, hosting to specialist services. Less formal there are the Birds of a Feather BoFs, core conversations. I did not get to any BoFs, it is always difficult when these things run concurrently.

I'll list here some things that stood out from leaflets left on the coffee tables to BoFs that clashed (I've revisited the program). First up is a BoF that points to a useful bundled project:

Creating Graphs and Maps with SearchAPI

BoFs, being informal are quite dynamic so the lesson for me is to check the program for additions and things you may have missed. I missed a BoF on e-learning in Drupal, the Quiz and related modules - H5P that I posted about last May. Gutted for sure, as I can envisage how I could use these tools beyond the old HTML multiple choice form.

The above BoF included a demo of Opigno an LMS - learning management system.

As to companies, the Semantic Web Company offers Drupal services. This lead was a flyer I picked up on the last day and another prompt to revisit Neologism a Drupal project I came across in Drupalcon Szeged, Hungary in 2008 and posted about. The introductory text from the DERI Neologism website reads:

Neologism is a vocabulary publishing platform for the Web of Data, with a focus on ease of use and compatibility with Linked Data principles. Neologism is free and Open Source.
With Neologism, you can create RDF classes and properties, which are needed to publish on the Web of Data. Neologism makes creating and publishing vocabularies easy and fast. It supports the RDFS standard, and a part of OWL.

Among a great many people, I met Alan Burke in Szeged back in '08 and he re-introduced himself this week in Prague. He is now full-time dedicated to Drupal and was pleased to learn that as an 'enthusiast' I am still engaged. I qualified this - with a website still to do; but yes, I'm very much still on-board. I really appreciate Alan's coming over during the break and hearing of his progress and that of his colleagues.

Scalability is a common discussion in software. Scale is an issue for new businesses also. One of the sessions in Prague (several probably) drew attention to the complexity of the 'Drupal stack'. Is it possible for an end-user to fully master it? In our quick chat it became apparent that this was partly why Alan was pleased to learn that I am still climbing the curve. Scalability can be a problem for individuals too, as in making sense of the commercial offerings, whether semantic services or hosting.

There was a BoF on data visualization too - but again I was elsewhere. Dataseed sounds an interesting fusion. I also followed sessions on creating multilingual sites, Drupal 8, Symfony, plus Twig the new templating system for Drupal 8. All in all it was a great event with some sight seeing last Monday. The greatest source though is the community!

Budgeting for Public Involvement in Research

Dear Colleagues,

INVOLVE and the Mental Health Research Network teamed up to produce a new resource to help with budgeting for the costs of public involvement in research. It can be used for everything from putting together an involvement budget for an entire study to working out how much it will cost to run a one-off consultation event.

The first part of the resource is a guide which:

• provides practical advice on what costs are associated with involvement in research
• includes a step-by-step process for identifying the associated costs and planning the budget
• presents examples of research projects with well-developed budgets for involvement work
• contains tips, links to useful websites, and references.

The second part of the resource is an online ‘involvement cost calculator' to work out the costs for your research study.

Please forward this information to your colleagues and networks.

If you have any questions or queries about Budgeting for involvement please contact:

Thomas Kabir
MHRN Service Users in Research Coordinator ...
To find out about INVOLVE visit www.invo.org.uk

...

My source: Laura Gardner: Research Design Service North West’s e-mail list.

Surveys, Nursing Education, Drupal and Webform

Just before heading to Drupalcon Prague I learned of a new paper by Gill et al.:

Using a web-based survey tool to undertake a Delphi study: Application for nurse education research

Background: The Internet is increasingly being used as a data collection medium to access research participants. This paper reports on the experience and value of using web-survey software to conduct an eDelphi study to develop Australian critical care course graduate practice standards.
Methods: The eDelphi technique used involved the iterative process of administering three rounds of surveys to a national expert panel. The survey was developed online using SurveyMonkey. Panel members responded to statements using one rating scale for round one and two scales for rounds two and three. Text boxes for panel comments were provided.
Collecting data and providing feedback: For each round, the SurveyMonkey's email tool was used to distribute an individualized email invitation containing the survey web link. The distribution of panel responses, individual responses and a summary of comments were emailed to panel members. Stacked bar charts representing the distribution of responses were generated using the SurveyMonkey software. Panel response rates remained greater than 85% over all rounds.
(in press)

The paper is interesting in combining surveys and an e-variant of the Delphi research method. Conclusions highlight the improved accessibility to experts and how ethics needs to keep pace with technical change and affordances.

Yesterday at Drupalcon there was a presentation on Webform:

Webform 4.0: Surveys in Drupal Improved

I've mocked up a enquiry form using Webform, but this session pointed to how the module can be extended for polls and contact forms. Based on Gill et al. and the eDelphi technique they explain this could be a really powerful combination.


Gill, F.J., et al., Using a web-based survey tool to undertake a Delphi study: Application for nurse education research, Nurse Education Today (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2013.02.016

Health 2.0 Europe 2013: Nurses, registration and £££

This year I've really enjoyed the Health 2.0 Manchester chapter meetings and there's some great evening sessions to follow this northern autumn. In June as I posted on W2tQ I also spent a weekend at the NW Health Hack in Knutsford. 

For several months European Health 2.0 conference has been publicized at the Manchester meetings. I was keen to attend until I saw the registration fee even with a 15% reduction. The fee increased yesterday too as I was reminded by Pascal Lardier on twitter.

I retweeted and replied to Pascal and Health2eu, with the thought that few nurses would be able to afford the registration fee.

NW Health Hack was a success for me (in addition to our group coming 3rd) because it was free, apart that is from driving there over the weekend on my days off (thanks again to all the sponsors). As the NHS is trying to save money I've also taken some unpaid leave this year.

NHS nurses, like many public sector groups have effectively had a pay cut these past few years. There are other general challenges:

• Are those nurses who might attend already 'onboard'?
• Does nursing engagement itself need a health check (what is 'clinical engagement' now)?
• Much was made of achieving clinical engagement in previous NHS IT projects. How can clinical engagement that reaches nurses be assured now?
• If (technical) innovation is to be a constant stream, please don't leave the nurses on an island: they can set sail too.
• Are nurses, like the one writing this, tainted, having been sat on the fence (health care || ICT) for too long?
• Once projects are established how can nurses, patients and carers stay the course and keep in touch and engaged?
• As 'NHS clinicians' can nurses participate in initiatives such as the forthcoming Code4Health, or will operational constraints limit their involvement?
• How are the socio-technical aspects and outcomes measured (hospital vs. home personal use vs. self-care...) ?
• Is there a golden ratio for the mix of delegates?
• If there's a strategic partner involved where's the strategy?

Pascal sliced through my query and many of the points above:

Pascal Lardier ‏@pascal_lardier 19 Sep
- then they should reach out to me!

So if the World Wide Health 2.0 conferences are of interest to you, do as Pascal suggests. New communities can provide new opportunities. Don't just help make your day, help make tomorrow too.

In 2012 the NHS employed 146,075 doctors, 369,868 qualified nursing staff, and 37,314 managers. 
http://www.nhsconfed.org/priorities/political-engagement/Pages/NHS-statistics.aspx#staff

Additional notes 29 Sept:

Health 2.0 MCR ‏@H20MCR
@h2cm patients are also asking how can @Health2eu Health 2.0 Europe conference be made more accessible for them @pascal_lardier?

Pascal Lardier ‏@pascal_lardier
@H20MCR @h2cm @Health2eu @pascal_lardier they should email me pascal AT health2con.com there is a FREE reg code for them.

H2CM new website - A short-form project brief

In Dani Nordin’s Drupal for Designers, chapter 4 is includes a short-form project brief.

As I pack for Prague and another Drupalcon (my 6th!) and with PHPNW conference fast approaching it's time I re-visited my project brief:

1 Identify the Project Goals

According to Nordin a good list of project goals should be no more than about three bullet points.

1. To provide a new archive for Brian Hodges’ lecture notes and make these accessible and multilingual
2. To share / signpost papers to date and invite others to collaborate and share work
3. To highlight why Hodges’ model matters

Then Dani moved to personas and here I'll extend the above goals.

2 Identify the Audience

I am looking for student nurses, that is under graduates and post grad, indeed life-long learners within the field of health and social care. In seeking students the natural progression of this is to connect if possible with lecturers and faculty. Nordin lists several ways to characterise the personas through common aspects:

• Who they are
• What will win them
• What I need them to know
• Content focus

So immediately I can broadly identify and develop two personas:

Learners

Who they are: Student nurses, social work students including medicine and other health and social care disciplines. They will be seeking evidence in theory and practice, with sources and resources to apply to assigned work. They will also be open to ideas and techniques that can help them to structure and recall their learning.
What will win them: Make it easy for them to see what is offered, find what they seek, Brian Hodges' lecture notes, provide feedback on learning if students are willing to register and invest their time. Provide a responsive contact form to answer questions promptly. Link the content to evidence if, or as soon as possible. Make content relevant by allowing users to contribute to website's development and direction.
What I need them to know: I want to convey to them an understanding of Hodges’ model its purposes, structure, content and how the model might be applied in theory and practice.
Content focus: Lecture notes text and video; Quiz; Test; Certificate; h2cm grid; Case study template; Presentations; FAQ; Registration; Contact form; Polls; Bibliography; Biographies; Timeline; Photos.

Lecturers

Who are they: Health and social care related faculty, teaching on nursing, social work, learning disability and other programmes. A diverse range of subjects and disciplines could be included from mental health, acute care, community and across the life course.
What will win them: Illustrate the ways h2cm can facilitate learning the aspects of (for example) nursing, not only reinforcing the key concepts of nursing (care) but why they care.
What I need them to know: Understanding how h2cm fits within their respective curriculum. Gaining awareness of how can the model can potentially stimulate and challenge their students and complement assignments. Why Hodges' model is relevant at this particular time.
Content focus: Brian Hodges' lecture notes; Outstanding questions; Research directions; Blog; Contact form; Registration; h2cm examples.

On the old website I possibly over-egged the pudding in terms of 'audiences'. There is an introductory page for -

• students and lecturer; 
• patients and carers;
• the public (citizens);
• and managers with policy makers.

Nordin has a persona for The Sharer. There are people for whom this is their forte. Here though I would try to include sharing tools that might be utilised by specific audiences. So for lecturers ways sharing might be Academia.edu, ResearchGate and LinkedIn. Likewise there are student (social media oriented) communities.The content of the old was fixed - by me. This needs to change, so polls and discussion may help define what the students / lecturers would like to see, hear ...

3 Focus on Information Architecture and Content Strategy

Nordin is describing a website re-design and so am I with some simplifications. Taking step 3 literally and from reading having an information architecture is very important to me. Its importance is not just in earning a scout badge, but it may need to vary slightly across the site. Nordin's step three seems to emphasize content. I'm wondering about headings, subtitles and other structural and aesthetic points. How might these work and hopefully cohere across the archive and rest of the site? It is also the case of separating (in my head) information architecture and styling.

As to content strategy I've played and doodled with this on several occasions. There's even an A, B, C, ... about it if you check above.

4 Identify New Features or Technologies You Want to Include

Responsive design is as Nordin also indicates a must have for me. In successive Drupalcon keynotes Dries Buytaert has stressed the rise of mobile devices. It would be a major gain to have the archive readable by mobile and tablet users.

Thus far I've not made full use of video, Skype and even audio for delivering content. At Drupalcon Prague there's a session media management and the Scald module. I'm hardly a radio or TV station but as people say DO consider those things that you are not skilled at, or naturally drawn to. Slides and presentations both existing and contributions (or links) would also be a key content feature.

If a community can emerge this might also be that as Nordin suggests users can share internally within the site using (unconsciously) specific structures within Drupal. The latest means of classifying and searching a site will also be essential. Seeking to share h2cm with the world I've scheduled some sessions on leveraging the multilingual capabilities of Drupal 8.

Accessibility is another essential feature.

5 Upgrade, or Start from Scratch

This, thankfully, is not an upgrade. To the list in #4 I could have added database - a dynamic website because this is the primary need, the enabler. With that though comes complexity and responsibility. Website management then demands data be protected, secure, backed up, and this involves migration and upgrades. So, starting from scratch - yes, but with an eye to upgrading.

The NW Drupal meetings in Manchester and Drupalcon Prague program bring the news of the many new tools and changes in Drupal 8:

• Views in core;
• New configurable fields e.g. entity reference, date, e-mail and others;
• Multilingual changes;
• Blocks & Layouts;
• Responsive images and breakpoints.
  
  From Drupalcon Prague "Drupal 8 for Site Builders" session

In addition there is Symfony, the loss of some hooks, Twig a templating engine.

6 Figure Out Theming and CSS Issues

If .Net and Web Designer magazines inform us of two things it's the pace of change in tools and the range of tools. It's helpful then when those choices are reduced. This may be the case with CSS within Drupal and adopting a grid system, a point made by Todd Nienkerk (p.79).

There are some excellent themes and sub-themes within Drupal 7. Drupal 8 extends this potential. I posted previously about Omega.

To conclude:
I think there is an interesting project here, but thinking alone isn't going to get this done!

Study on attitudes to epistemic uncertainty in safety - Call for participants

From: Eugenio Alberdi, e.alberdi AT CSR.CITY.AC.UK
To: SOCIOTECH AT JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Sent: Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 19:57
Subject: Study on attitudes to epistemic uncertainty in safety - Call for participants

The Centre of Software Reliability and the Department of Psychology at City University London are running a study on reactions to epistemic uncertainty in decision problems about safety.

Perceived errors in such decisions are often debated hotly after the fact, but there is still a need to study how the input to the decision maker can help or hinder correct decisions.

If you are involved in any capacity with probabilistic reasoning about safety and risk, we would be grateful if you take the survey at:

...

This study arises from research project UnCoDe -
(UNcertainty and COnfidence in safety arguments: effect on expert DEcision makers).

All participants will have the opportunity to read the final report from the study and the other project outputs.

Regards,

_eugenio

Dr. Eugenio Alberdi

Research Fellow, Centre for Software Reliability,

City University, London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB

Book review "Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy: The Neurobiology of Embodied Response"

Clinical intuition is something that in formal learning terms is intangible, but in practice is earned and relied upon as a gift of experience. When I first received this book from the author Terry Marks-Tarlow, leafing through I thought the emphasis was on the neurobiology presaging a rather technical read. The references to brain structures, neocortex, brain waves ... seemed to suggest a reductive approach, remote from my conception of intuition in clinical practice. I need not have worried, the initial discussion on the brain and evolutionary development is not just a foundation for what follows but as the title suggests underpins and integrates the whole text. Despite the title and as the foreward advises you do not have to be a psychotherapist to read and appreciate this book. The stall is set from the outset in the introduction which explains that chapter one defines clinical intuition:

Clinical intuition is defined from a neurobiological perspective as a right-brain, fully embodied mode of perceiving, relating, and responding to the ongoing flows and changing dynamics of psychotherapy. (p.3)

The introductory material here is essential foundation reading for people starting a career in psychology and mental health related disciplines. The evolutionary development of the brain from reptile through to the mammalian brain is invaluable. Tying this to specific brain functions and circuits - care, fear, panic, play, lust, rage and seeking - helps integrate brain anatomy, perception, emotion, and behaviour. The advances in neurobiology to follow will no doubt demand that we all extend our understanding of this interdisciplinary fusion.

Clinical Intuition in Psychothreapy

The book itself (hardback edition) is very well produced, the type face easy to read and the book well structured and with a well balanced mix of illustrations and photographs. The reference listing at the end runs over thirteen pages and is well grounded historically and in having regard to ongoing research. The index is comprehensive (fourteen pages) and a resource itself providing a look-up approach. The book's use of case studies, thirteen in total informs the text and provides some continuity through the book. Dialogue between therapist and client is easy to follow and illustrations are provided with ample explanation in situ. The references also utilize web-based resources.

I recall intuition coming up as a thread on several occasions on the psychiatric-nursing list especially between 1998 and 2004. Intuition is a central quality for all personnel working in health and social care. We must also recognise intuition as a human trait as when non-health professionals exercise the judgement that: "Wait a minute, we need a clinical opinion here." Self-care is also discussed. I had a Pythonesque moment - "Is this the right room for an argument?" - considering psychotherapy as a therapeutic modality within therapies as a whole. Here in the UK (and no doubt elsewhere) self, brief and solution based therapies rule economically. Even though the shortage of psychological intervention is recognised in the UK through IAPT improving access to psychological therapies, we need to ask: how does psychotherapy fare in the current (austerity) climate? To what extent can clinicians exercise intuition? Therapy relies on caseness, relationships and narrative, but to what extent can these be acknowledged and delivered within the economical time frames that frequently operate? 

Although there's no specific chapter on training for clinical intuition, Marks-Tarlow provides a list of how researchers have characterized clinical intuition (more recently in the 1980-1990s); five characteristics are proposed:

• Sudden recognition;
• Immediate knowledge;
• Emergent awareness;
• Non-verbal insight; and 
• Holistic integrative sensibilities. (pp.42-43).

 Of the first two sudden recognition and immediate knowledge, I thought of the intuitive sense that is applied upon receiving a referral. That is the assumptions (not always helpful) that arise from the information provided (and missing) and where this leads you? But of course, is this clinical intuition? Intuition as the author makes clear (p.3 and) throughout the book is in psychotherapy. Intuition here (and for me) depends on interpersonal - therapeutic - interaction. What precedes is something else (data integration, hypothesizing, reasoning...?). I can however still see explanatory avenues in the above that can help us travel from the conceptual (reduced) to a holistic whole. I did wonder about the role of intuition in suicidal ideation and risk management, but this is also a question of referral criteria and caseness.

I would very much like to write myself about information and complexity and these themes recur in the text, especially the latter. Several 'spaces' are discussed too: social, physical and spatial schemas. The work of Buzsáki on the hippocampus, navigation and maps - landmark navigation - is fascinating in chapter 7 Navigating the Seas. I have likened Hodges' model to a cognitive periplus - an ancient maritime map. Over the next few months I'll post some quotes from the book.

This is an excellent book that I heartily recommend. The discussion of what is implicit in the brain and so in therapy, what is embodied and wisdom in mentoring invites re-reading. Finally but vitally there is much humour and humanity here too.

Many thanks to Terry Marks-Tarlow for the review copy.

'Pictures to Share' book titles for people with later stage dementia

Hi

I am contacting you as one of our LinkedIn colleagues working in the field of dementia. One of our 'Pictures to Share' book titles for people with later stage dementia has been shortlisted for the UK 'People's Book Prize'

By winning this award we can help to to raise awareness of the needs of people with dementia, so it would be great if you could take a look at the People's Book Prize website, and consider voting for our book 'Proverbs and Sayings'.

The link is below:

http://www.peoplesbookprize.com

Many thanks for your help

Helen Bate and Michelle Forster
http://www.picturestoshare.co.uk/

[I will register and vote Michelle - good luck PJ ]

Hodges' model - Website, Blog and the UK Web Archive

Early this morning the blog threw a wobbly, at least on Firefox. The sidebar was being displayed below the main content. I take this as a sign that it's time to move on digitally. This evening the problem seems to have corrected itself.

Returning from holiday there was another sign, a tap on the shoulder. This was positive in that as I left for Italy (minus laptop) I had submitted the old website, first published online in 1998 to the UK web archive.

Well, they have accepted the proposal and would like to archive the website. I really appreciate this. I've to fill in a form and will also use this as an opportunity to do some Northerly autumnal cleaning. There may be some broken links and other edits to make.

This is quite apt then given the long winter of the website and this blog, especially as I prepare for Drupalcon Prague on the 22 September. As I've written here before one of the first 'menu options' of any new site will be to provide a new archive for Brian Hodges' original lecture notes.

If you are new to nursing, health and social care and reflection and are interested in using Hodges' model please let me know. There are contact options in that sidebar - if it's behaving itself...

Research Design Service North West (RDS NW) September 2013 e-bulletin

A very useful resource:

Dear Colleague,

Please follow the link below to the September 2013 e-bulletin from the Research Design Service North West (RDS NW).

http://www.rds-nw.nihr.ac.uk/news-training-events/

In this issue:

• is my study research?
• NIHR showcases the clinical research that could bring hope to the nation’s dementia sufferers
• funding opportunities
• events and training
• approaching funding deadlines.

We hope you find this helpful and as always welcome any feedback.

Thanks,

RDS NW

Research Design Service North West

Central Coordinating Office

Tel: +44 (0) 1524 593209

Follow the Research Design Service on Twitter: @NIHR_RDS

Source: Thanks to RDS NW and Paul Dolby

Forms and Dimensions of Care: 20 Gs of Politics

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual

?	?
?

group - population

Image: Timeout.com