A few months ago, Ed, a colleague of mine from Durham University, asked if I would chair a panel session on artificial intelligence and social sciences at Proto in Gateshead. These are not subjects that I had any real experience in though this has never stopped me before from having opinions nor contributing to a … Continue reading AI and social sciences
Ethics? Whatever
If there was ever a fascinating subject to get your head around then ethics is it. Someone’s ethics are the moral principles that govern their behaviour or the way they conduct an activity. At its simplest, ethics is about doing or being right or wrong. People have argued about the subject for years and no … Continue reading Ethics? Whatever
A&E App
Matt Hancock, the Heath Secretary is proud of the NHS’s latest app. It is designed to help patients find the accident and emergency department with the shortest waiting time. He claims that the app will be’ good for patients, good for clinicians’. It won’t work for two reasons, firstly it is tackling the wrong problem … Continue reading A&E App
Teapot Lid
I can’t be an expert in everything. In fact I’m not sure I am an expert in anything other than perhaps helping people to take a step back from their issues and helping them to put forward a solution. At least that is what I like to do and I am convinced that people are … Continue reading Teapot Lid
50:50 Future
I like getting involved in new things. It might be my fickleness as a Gemini or my magpie like approach to life but there is always something else interesting to have a go at. Lots of people ask me if I can help out and my default position is yes, if I can spare the … Continue reading 50:50 Future
Getting suppliers involved early
Perhaps it seems counter-intuitive that getting potential suppliers involved early will help shape a procurement yet it is beyond doubt true. So many requests for goods and services are issued without much thought as to whether the market exists to realise them and this will ultimately result in either poor purchases or dissatisfied customers. I … Continue reading Getting suppliers involved early
Cake is a powerful weapon
Earlier last week I was at the Dynamo North East office for one of our regular weekly meetings. To be honest, they are regular but I am not. Due to, in the main self-imposed time restraints and diary clashes I have only been able to attend sporadically, so infrequently in fact that I don’t … Continue reading Cake is a powerful weapon
In praise of naivete
Often I have been told that I am naive and that is not the way the world works. At times I think that is an unfair criticism. It is clear that I have a lot of experience and believe I can offer wisdom and use good judgement. I appear naive then, not because I don’t … Continue reading In praise of naivete
Let’s agglomerate
A few months ago I went to buy some perfume for my wife’s birthday. She had been dropping hints for a couple of weeks and so I thought I was on a safe bet. I set off for the Metro Centre, a shopping mall not far from where I live and went into Debenhams. The … Continue reading Let’s agglomerate
Health and cyber safety
There seems to be a lot of parallels between where we are with cyber awareness and the early days of Health and Safety. I thought this was a unique observation until I raised it at the latest North East Fraud Forum event. The speaker quite rightly pointed out that he had heard such observations before. … Continue reading Health and cyber safety
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 