Blogs

Joining up is hard to do

The history of IT and the NHS is not as bad as it is often painted. It's taken a while but computerised GP records are the norm. This forms the backbone of the health promotion agenda at the heart of the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) delivering major preventative benefits. Preventing illness is not dramatic in the sense of Casualty or ER, but personally speaking I'd rather avoid the hospital and the illness if at all possible. Routine decision support seeks to prevent prescribing errors both in terms of conflicting medications and personal adverse reactions.

I need your consent to process your personal information, right? It's the Data Protection Act

Most people think I need your consent to process your personal information, right? It's the Data Protection Act, isn't it? And it's right there in the first data protection principle which most people seem to think says:

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless the individual who the personal data is about has consented to the processing

What it actually says is:

Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless –

The Usability Bypass ( an homage to the late Douglas Adams)

In the Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Arthur Dent complains that he had not been warned that his house would demolished to make way for a new bypass:

"But the plans were on display . . ."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a torch."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"

Sherlock Holmes: a modern data protection parable?

The final episode of the second series of the modern BBC adaptation of Sherlock Holmes opens with serious security breaches at the Bank of England, The Tower of London and Pentonville Prison. The breaches are apparently caused by a piece of malware created by Holmes' nemesis Moriarty.
Towards the end of the episode, Moriarty reveals that the malware is a hoax: it does not exist. Instead the security breaches were caused by collaboration by insiders induced by threats and bribes.
This storyline is a modern parable for data protection: it's easier to hack the people than the technology.

Losing Personal Information Needs to Treated More Like Drinking and Driving than Speeding

After the English riots in the summer of 2011, commentators observed that criminal behaviour was influenced as much by social norms as the legal system. Some illegal acts are socially acceptable. If you get caught exceeding the speed limit and 'fess up at a middle class dinner table, you will likely be greeted with sympathy and with comments such as "why aren't the police out catching real criminals?"

The second biggest data protection risk in the world

If asked to invent the worst possible data protection nightmare, I wouldn’t have to: it already exists, and it’s called a fax. Imagine a medium which allows you to put any information on it in a completely uncontrolled way on a completely open format for all to see. Then take this medium and feed it into a machine where it is directed by using a long string of pseudo random numbers, which is almost but not exactly the same as a phone number.

10 Reasons why IT projects fail

In spite of the best efforts of many software developers, IT projects have a poor reputation for failure, associated with errors, budget over-runs and delays.
Even more depressing, the 10 reasons given below are not new. So why re-state them? Because until we address them, the perception of failure will continue.
1. People don't remember the successes
Developers often tell me that people only remember their failures. Possibly true. But isn't this reasonable? Shouldn't a working system fit for its intended purpose be a perfectly reasonable expectation on the part of users?

What is an Information Technology PhD ?

IT PhDs
There are many different types of IT PhDs. According to your choice of problem you can treat your IT PhD as engineering, social science business and management, physical science or even mathematics. In many cases, the actual computing component is the means to deliver the PhD, rather than the PhD itself.
How to do an Information Technology PhD, IT PhDs, Information Systems

Is Microsoft Bing the New Google?

The Buzz about Bing

Bing is the new search engine from Microsoft. It has been designed to compete head-on with Google. It claims to offer advantages in terms of finding more information in less clicks. It also claims to be designed to help people make better decisions based upon better information. Specifically, it seeks to reduce the number of searches that are abandoned without a satisfactory result, and the number which then require a second stage of refinement or re-query.
Ease of Use

A Good Emergency Plan May Save Your Business

What are the risks to your business?

As a sole trader or small company, there are a number of risks to which you are exposed which could have a serious impact on your ability to earn a livelihood. The risks may be characterized as one of three types: personal, resources, market.