Freezing public sector IT – what is the government aiming to achieve?.

Public sector IT spending currently absorbs more than £17 billion of public spending annually in the UK. Under Labour, British expenditure in this area dwarfed that of any other European Union nation, with many contracts costing billions of £s and running for periods up to 18 years. The UK also has perhaps the most concentrated government IT market in the world. So the Treasury announcement of an effective freeze in central government IT spending has sent shock waves through a major private sector industry. Here Jerry Fishenden decodes what the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat government is seeking to do and why it has determined on such a radical stance.

The performance of a branched annular diffuser system

Low-speed tests have been carried out on a branched annular diffuser system having a geometry similar to that employed in some gas turbine engine combustion systems. The system comprised a straight walled pre-diffuser followed by a sudden area expansion in which the flow was divided between two concentric annuli separated by a bluff body simulating a combustion chamber. The overall geometric area ratio was maintained at 2.0 and all tests were carried out with fully developed flow at inlet. The design flow split between the outer and inner annuli was 2.15:1. The system was tested with five different pre-diffuser geometries to show the effect of increasing the area ratio, increasing the included angle and canting the pre-diffuser. For each pre-diffuser geometry the influence of varying the flow split and the axial distance between pre-diffuser outlet and combustion chamber head (dump gap) were investigated. In addition to determining the overall performance characteristics, the pressure losses for the inner and outer flow fields were calculated and the losses further sub-divided in order to identify regions of high loss. [Continues.

Interactive Digital Technologies and the User Experience of Time and Place

This research examines the relationship between the development of a portfolio of interactive digital techniques and compositions, and its impact on user experiences of time and place. It is designed to answer two research questions: • What are some effective methods and techniques for evoking an enhanced awareness of past time and place using interactive digital technologies (IDTs)? • How can users play a role in improving the development and impact of interfaces made with IDTs? The principal creative and thematic element of the portfolio is the concept of the palimpsest, and its artistic potential to reveal visual and aural layers that lie behind the landscapes and soundscapes around us. This research thus contributes to an evolving cadre of creative interest in palimpsests, developing techniques and compositions in the context of testing, collating user experience feedback, and improving the ways in which IDTs enable an artistic exploration and realisation of hidden layers, both aural and visual, of the past of place. An iterative theory-composition-testing methodology is developed and applied to optimise techniques for enabling users to navigate multiple layers of content, as well as in finding methods that evoke an increased emotional connection with the past of place. This iterative realisation cycle comprises four stages – of content origination, pre-processing, mapping and user interaction. The user interaction stage of this cycle forms an integral element of the research methodology, involving the techniques being subjected to formalised user experience testing, both to assist with their further refinement and to assess their value in evoking an increased awareness of time and place. Online usability testing gathered 5,451 responses over three years of iterative cycles of composition development and refinement, with more detailed usability labs conducted involving eighteen participants. Usability lab response categories span efficiency, accuracy, recall and emotional response. The portfolio includes a variety of interactive techniques developed and improved during its testing and refinement. User experience feedback data plays an essential role in influencing the development and direction of the portfolio, helping refine techniques to evoke an enhanced awareness of the past of place by identifying those that worked most, and least, effectively for users. This includes an analysis of the role of synthetic and authentic content on user perception of various digital techniques and compositions. The contributions of this research include: • the composition portfolio and the associated IDT techniques originated, developed, tested and refined in its research and creation • the research methodology developed and applied, utilising iterative development of aspects of the portfolio informed by user feedback obtained both online and in usability labs • the findings from user experience testing, in particular the extent to which various visual and aural techniques help evoke a heightened sense of the past of place • an exploration of the extent to which the usability testing substantiates that user responses to the compositions have the potential to establish an evocative connection that communicates a sense close to that of Barthes’ punctum (something that pierces the viewer) rather than solely that of the studium • the role of synthetic and authentic content on user perception and appreciation of the techniques and compositions • the emergence of an analytical framework with the potential for wider application to the development, analysis and design of IDT composition

Appraising the impact and role of platform models and Government as a Platform (GaaP) in UK Government public service reform: towards a Platform Assessment Framework (PAF)

The concept of “Government as a Platform” (GaaP) (O'Reilly, 2009) is coined frequently, but interpreted inconsistently: views of GaaP as being solely about technology and the building of technical components ignore GaaP's radical and disruptive embrace of a new economic and organisational model with the potential to improve the way Government operates – helping resolve the binary political debate about centralised versus localised models of public service delivery. We offer a structured approach to the application of the platforms that underpin GaaP, encompassing not only their technical architecture, but also the other essential aspects of market dynamics and organisational form. Based on a review of information systems platforms literature, we develop a Platform Appraisal Framework (PAF) incorporating the various dimensions that characterise business models based on digital platforms. We propose this PAF as a general contribution to the strategy and audit of platform initiatives and more specifically as an assessment framework to provide consistency of thinking in GaaP initiatives. We demonstrate the utility of our PAF by applying it to UK Government platform initiatives over two distinct periods, 1999–2010 and 2010 to the present day, drawing practical conclusions concerning implementation of platforms within the unique and complex environment of the public sector.Non

Dry weather fears of Britain’s early ‘industrial’ canal network

© 2019, The Author(s). The first large-scale water supply in Britain was not for potable domestic supplies, but for the canal network, the arteries of the industrial revolution. This paper examines how episodes of dry weather in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, reconstructed from early instrumental sources, impacted the developing canal network. Analysis reveals how a frequent lack of preparedness for even relatively minor drought events resulted in conflict between water users, with potentially serious socio-economic consequences. The economic pressure of compensating other users for loss or reduction of their water supply resulted in canal companies investing in technologies and management techniques that continue to be used today as drought mitigation strategies, such as the building of large-capacity reservoirs and groundwater abstraction. This period represents a key technological milestone in the development of the modern water supply systems, contextualising current challenges faced by the water industry in responding to drought events. Although the failure of the British canal system no longer has serious economic impacts, themes emerge from this research which are as relevant for water supplies today as they were in the eighteenth century, such as issues around water rights and the value of preparing for potential future extreme weather scenarios. A newly reconstructed composite precipitation series for Chatsworth House is presented (1760–present). Through comparing weather records within the archives of canal companies and their competitors for water supplies, historical insight can be gained into the possible far-reaching societal impacts of drought

Learning from arts and humanities approaches for building climate resilience in the UK

Summary:•This chapter shares insights from five arts and humanities-led UK Climate Resilience Programme projects, presenting key learnings and pathways for future research and policy interventions. •We highlight the significant potential of place-based arts and humanities approaches for working with and engaging communities in building climate resilience and driving climate action.•We underline the importance of generating genuine two-way dialogue, knowledge exchange and co-creation between academics, practitioners, and community members. •We point to the importance of robustly and reflexively assessing the effectiveness of arts and humanities-led engagement.•We argue that working collectively to develop more integrated climate and arts/cultural policy is imperative in supporting future long-term climate resilience

Quantifying climate risk and building resilience in the UK

This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this record. Co-production brought clear benefits to a range of projects across the UK Climate Resilience Programme (UKCR). Experiences were deeply context specific; dependent on those involved, their motivations and expectations. A range of barriers currently exist to achieving the benefits of co-production more fully. Skills associated with using co-productive approaches need to be developed, taught and mentored in the research community.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

Behind the WikiLeaks furore, there’s a much bigger issue at stake: America’s slack approach to information security: the UK national interest lies in demanding that the USA act to stop its government computer systems being breached time and again, and in reviewing British data security as well

American elites have fiercely denounced Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for the latest, and largest, release of secret documents, covering over 250,000 diplomatic cables. And with the notable exception of an unfazed Ken Clarke, British elites (both Conservative and Labour) have rushed to follow suit. Yet Jerry Fishenden argues that it is not WikiLeaks that the UK and world publics should be worried about, but instead very poor information security in American government

Farewell then NPfIT across the health service. But without learning longer-term lessons, will locally-orientated IT development in the NHS just be going back to the future?

Long a focus of controversy, the NHS’s flagship programme for renewing its information technology has been radically scaled down and ‘re-focused’ by the new coalition government. Jerry Fishenden welcomes the change, but worries that letting diversity bloom again without learning the lessons of both NPfIT and its predecessor policies will not break the mould of past failures

Freezing public sector IT – what is the government aiming to achieve?

Public sector IT spending currently absorbs more than £17 billion of public spending annually in the UK. Under Labour, British expenditure in this area dwarfed that of any other European Union nation, with many contracts costing billions of £s and running for periods up to 18 years. The UK also has perhaps the most concentrated government IT market in the world. So the Treasury announcement of an effective freeze in central government IT spending has sent shock waves through a major private sector industry. Here Jerry Fishenden decodes what the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat government is seeking to do and why it has determined on such a radical stance