Journalist, editor, analyst and trainer on computing, government, climate and data
For each pair of pictures, the one on the left is a wide view from a viewpoint with an arrow pointing to the city, the one in the right is a Brum-hanced (or Cov-hanced) close-up. Click on any image for a larger version. Continue reading “Brumspotting: how to see Birmingham (and Coventry) from the Cotswolds”
Has North Bristol NHS trust found the answer to providing efficient health and social care after hospital closures?
This article appeared in the Guardian’s Society pages on 4 January 2012. I also wrote about North Bristol NHS trust’s progress towards its Southmead superhospital for Guardian Healthcare Network, based on the same set of interviews.
This image was taken of the site when I visited Southmead in mid-December 2011. Continue reading “NHS trust plans alternative to ‘outdated hospital model’”
Damian Green has marked the end of the identity card scheme by feeding its drives into an industrial shredder in Essex
After years of debate, hours of a parliamentary time and millions of pounds, I saw minister Damian Green feeding some of the hard drives behind the ID cards system into an industrial shredder in Essex. It was certainly an unusual press trip – see images below.
First published in Government Computing, September 2002
Orkney Island Council is the smallest full-service local authority in the UK, a unitary body that governs just 20,000 people on 17 inhabited islands.
It is also a place where they love the internet. A council survey last summer, which gathered responses from over 1,000 households, found that 44% had internet access with another 6% planning to go online by the end of 2002. The national equivalent last summer, according to Oftel, was 39%.
So it may come as a surprise that the council is planning to concentrate on video-conferencing, rather than its web-site, in providing electronic access to social services, housing and health.
Continue reading “Video ring to unite islanders: Orkney Island Council and videoconferencing”
The need for reinvention
In his lab a few doors along the corridor from his office, Biegelsen proudly shows a piece of paper being steadily rotated by jets of air, held between two green printed circuit boards, while the paper’s movement is monitored on a PC. This is one of Parc’s big current projects – to reinvent the printer, like it did in 1971. Continue reading “Parc life: how Parc Xerox changed the world – 3”
