Weeknotes: things to do, ways of working, society-centered design
There was a lot of week in this one. For those working from home for the first time, it is not usually like this.
I saw many projects springing up and bringing people together. More on those below. It also feels like there are new divisions appearing. Those who can work from home (with or without this being deeply challenging for all kinds of reasons such as space, equipment, responsibilities, and adaptations) and those who can't. It must be very tough to be a supermarket worker, for instance - all those people, definitely within 2m of you, and a critical service. (Are they getting the support they need?) That's without thinking about the economic impact of businesses closing and lost jobs, reduced hours and pay, and so on.
There's also a division between those who are trying hard to do the right thing, staying home, maintaining physical distance, and so on (in the face of often not very clear guidance), and those who are still out and about, doing their own thing.
A lot of the lovely community ideas - look after your neighbours, sing or applaud from your windows at a certain hour of the evening to celebrate health workers - only work in an urban setting. It was useful to be reminded of other experiences, first via Rory Bremner with Friday's PM statement and then Andrew Back:
Several people including food expert Tim Hayward shared this thread from Greg Callus on stockpiling - or not. Recommended reading - supply chains are a huge thing now we've optimised for efficiency, there's not much resilience left.
This applies to medical equipment too. Current shortages in the UK are hard to spot (very few hospitals or other medical centres are asking for equipment, or are interested in it when offered) - although there's obviously going to be demand in the future. The big manufacturing consortia will be the best way to deliver the complex and critical technology of ventilators - the IfM in Cambridge has a great list of resources around this challenge and other ways manufacturers can help. There are probably lower tech solutions (that don't need fancy electronics and software, which are hard to develop and test effectively in a hurry) from the past which could be revisited, too. And let's not forget repairing broken ventilators where possible too.
What can makers do to help? 3D printing has been mentioned a lot as a potential solution - in some cases with medical groups asking for assistance printing masks (which, sadly, is not a workable solution any time soon - there are all kinds of material issues here for masks to filter and fit effectively to a medical PPE (personal protective equipment) standard). There are little interventions like the door handle opening device so regular doors can be opened with elbows instead of hands - are these useful at scale, not just for individual households? Perhaps they would be useful in care homes, if not confusing to residents - but care homes undoubtedly have other priorities right now (this might change over time as things adapt, though). Face masks for regular households and local communities - for the person going out for weekly groceries, or to the pharmacy, say - don't have to be as effective as serious PPE to still offer benefits. Cloth masks can be hot washed to sterilise them for reuse, and SmartAirFilters have been working on testing materials. Hopefully they will have a design coming out soon, probably for a sewable mask using everyday materials, which still blocks a good percentage, which will help reduce risks for some of the population, even if it doesn't help front line medical workers directly. The other advantage of using everyday materials for masks that don't need to be fully surgical grade is that they don't use up filter materials that will be needed to make the surgical masks, which may be in short supply locally or even internationally. It's all supply chains.
Coordination of projects and demand is probably a neglected area. There have been a lot of random ideas for ventilators floating around for instance, some of which appear actively hazardous. There are reasons safety standards exist, and which make medical equipment a little more expensive (and slower to get to market) than the most obvious requirements might suggest. The question of whether, and by how much, such standards might be relaxed in a crisis - and who might get to decide this, is nontrivial. It's also not a new question - provision of supplies in crisis situations, when local infrastructure and normal supply chains are broken - is something humanitarian organisations have been doing for years. Alternative equipment might not perform the same as what medical workers are used to - they need to understand what might be different, too. Still, there are ways to accelerate additional supplies or alternative equipment; opening up safety standards (most of which still are pay-to-view) might be one possibility, so that more groups can explore innovations which could help. There are some great efforts underway, especially by manufacturers - eg Prusa, who have a great statement on quality and safety in their blog post about making face shields. Local manufacturing and new supply chains which work with different organisations and different ways of working should play a role too. It's not just designs, but access to materials, equipment, skills, testing and distribution which will be needed.
The coordination on the demand side - being able to find out what local medical centres or care homes etc might actually need - seems to be lacking too, and it's worrying to think of random makers calling up organisations under pressure to ask repeatedly. Some sort of interface here could be useful so local makers and (more importantly!) manufacturers can offer help, and local groups in need can request what they need. This might be more important in future weeks than now. (If anyone is working on this, get in touch! It might be good in particular to find ways to support the myriad smaller organisations around the UK - the care homes, social care agencies, food banks and others - not just the big hospitals, who in many cases will have existing teams who work on medical equipment and have supplier links and so on.)
If you have time, and energy - and not everyone will, for all kinds of reasons - there are (and will increasingly be) more and more opportunities to learn, share, be entertained, and to socialise online. This week has been fairly overwhelming with them. Hopefully these things will sustain and continue for the longer haul - even if we quickly get to a place where many people are out and about again, some will not be. There's scope for new ways to do things online - both better tools and ways of using them, especially for small-midsize groups. It's easy to chat with a few friends online; harder to throw a party, connect strangers and get to know each other. It's easy to broadcast a show to millions; harder to make it easier for a smaller audience to find ways to discuss aspects of it. The BBC and other public service media groups have the chance to demonstrate the value of digital public space as never before, and it was good this week to discuss this with Ian Forrester and others.
Good guidance on new ways of working, for those who have desk/computer jobs and are continuing in new places:
One of the best responses I've seen comes from Wikimedia - full thread from Katherine Maher - reducing the hours of work expected from people is a really thoughtful move. And in the UK, more chance for employee representation coming soon:
There will be new kinds of work opportunities too. As well as the obvious (delivery people), there are jobs in agriculture.
All in all a great time to think about collective design and going beyond the individual. Many thanks to Projects By IF for their new manifesto for society-centered design:
It's suddenly a season for mapping all the makerspaces and hackspaces again. There's now atlasofinnovation.com and mapall.space (based on the classic hackerspaces.org wiki, spaceapi and fablab.io) as well as existing lists like the Global Innovation Gathering (may not be functioning at the time of writing).
Be optimistic - but also make plans for what happens if you or your loved ones are badly affected. Write your will, and advance statement / advance decision. Think about whether you would want anyone to have access to your digital stuff; make arrangements. (Thanks Nathan Matias for the reminder about this.)
Follow BootstrapCook for store cupboard cooking tips on a budget.
Be kind. Remember other people will have different needs to you - more or less social contact, more or less loo roll, more or less reassurance. Help if and where you can. Don't feel bad if you can't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I saw many projects springing up and bringing people together. More on those below. It also feels like there are new divisions appearing. Those who can work from home (with or without this being deeply challenging for all kinds of reasons such as space, equipment, responsibilities, and adaptations) and those who can't. It must be very tough to be a supermarket worker, for instance - all those people, definitely within 2m of you, and a critical service. (Are they getting the support they need?) That's without thinking about the economic impact of businesses closing and lost jobs, reduced hours and pay, and so on.
There's also a division between those who are trying hard to do the right thing, staying home, maintaining physical distance, and so on (in the face of often not very clear guidance), and those who are still out and about, doing their own thing.
A lot of the lovely community ideas - look after your neighbours, sing or applaud from your windows at a certain hour of the evening to celebrate health workers - only work in an urban setting. It was useful to be reminded of other experiences, first via Rory Bremner with Friday's PM statement and then Andrew Back:
 |
| https://twitter.com/9600/status/1241612415172780037 |
Several people including food expert Tim Hayward shared this thread from Greg Callus on stockpiling - or not. Recommended reading - supply chains are a huge thing now we've optimised for efficiency, there's not much resilience left.
This applies to medical equipment too. Current shortages in the UK are hard to spot (very few hospitals or other medical centres are asking for equipment, or are interested in it when offered) - although there's obviously going to be demand in the future. The big manufacturing consortia will be the best way to deliver the complex and critical technology of ventilators - the IfM in Cambridge has a great list of resources around this challenge and other ways manufacturers can help. There are probably lower tech solutions (that don't need fancy electronics and software, which are hard to develop and test effectively in a hurry) from the past which could be revisited, too. And let's not forget repairing broken ventilators where possible too.
What can makers do to help? 3D printing has been mentioned a lot as a potential solution - in some cases with medical groups asking for assistance printing masks (which, sadly, is not a workable solution any time soon - there are all kinds of material issues here for masks to filter and fit effectively to a medical PPE (personal protective equipment) standard). There are little interventions like the door handle opening device so regular doors can be opened with elbows instead of hands - are these useful at scale, not just for individual households? Perhaps they would be useful in care homes, if not confusing to residents - but care homes undoubtedly have other priorities right now (this might change over time as things adapt, though). Face masks for regular households and local communities - for the person going out for weekly groceries, or to the pharmacy, say - don't have to be as effective as serious PPE to still offer benefits. Cloth masks can be hot washed to sterilise them for reuse, and SmartAirFilters have been working on testing materials. Hopefully they will have a design coming out soon, probably for a sewable mask using everyday materials, which still blocks a good percentage, which will help reduce risks for some of the population, even if it doesn't help front line medical workers directly. The other advantage of using everyday materials for masks that don't need to be fully surgical grade is that they don't use up filter materials that will be needed to make the surgical masks, which may be in short supply locally or even internationally. It's all supply chains.
 |
| https://twitter.com/STS_News/status/1240282690747805697 |
The coordination on the demand side - being able to find out what local medical centres or care homes etc might actually need - seems to be lacking too, and it's worrying to think of random makers calling up organisations under pressure to ask repeatedly. Some sort of interface here could be useful so local makers and (more importantly!) manufacturers can offer help, and local groups in need can request what they need. This might be more important in future weeks than now. (If anyone is working on this, get in touch! It might be good in particular to find ways to support the myriad smaller organisations around the UK - the care homes, social care agencies, food banks and others - not just the big hospitals, who in many cases will have existing teams who work on medical equipment and have supplier links and so on.)
- Help your local community: covidmutualaid.org
- If you can get to the site, a useful index of resources and projects across 'tech' broadly interpreted: coronavirustechhandbook.com
- Volunteer technical help for mutual aid groups: sign up form
- Other links:
- https://civictech.guide/coronavirus/
- https://www.raeng.org.uk/policy/engineering-response-to-covid-19
- https://www.communitiesprepared.org.uk/2020/03/communities-prepared-launches-public-health-volunteer-training-in-response-to-coronavirus/
- https://gitlab.fabcloud.org/pub/project/coronavirus/tracking
- https://www.helpfulengineering.org/
If you have time, and energy - and not everyone will, for all kinds of reasons - there are (and will increasingly be) more and more opportunities to learn, share, be entertained, and to socialise online. This week has been fairly overwhelming with them. Hopefully these things will sustain and continue for the longer haul - even if we quickly get to a place where many people are out and about again, some will not be. There's scope for new ways to do things online - both better tools and ways of using them, especially for small-midsize groups. It's easy to chat with a few friends online; harder to throw a party, connect strangers and get to know each other. It's easy to broadcast a show to millions; harder to make it easier for a smaller audience to find ways to discuss aspects of it. The BBC and other public service media groups have the chance to demonstrate the value of digital public space as never before, and it was good this week to discuss this with Ian Forrester and others.
Good guidance on new ways of working, for those who have desk/computer jobs and are continuing in new places:
 |
| https://twitter.com/chrisalbon/status/1239927980450697218 |
 |
| https://twitter.com/RSAMatthew/status/1240164443050455040 |
All in all a great time to think about collective design and going beyond the individual. Many thanks to Projects By IF for their new manifesto for society-centered design:
All around us we see signs that patriarchal capitalism and exploitative business models place profit over privacy, and efficiency over agency. They pit individuals against the collective. At their core, they are hierarchical and exclusionary. We demand better. Better design approaches and tools, better measures of success, better data protection standards.Go read it, it's super.
20th century approaches like design thinking, human-centered design, and jobs to be done too often look at people solely as individuals. Or, worse yet, only as customers. They don’t consider people in relation to their communities or to wider society. And society itself is ignored by design.
Similarly, data protection frameworks like GDPR or CCPA express our rights only as individuals. This individualistic lens has shaped how we now design for digital rights. But data rarely represents a single person - it usually describes many people.
We’ve had enough. We must advocate for civic value, equity, the common good, public health, and the planet. We need a new framework for design and data that is purpose-built for the 21st century. We want to move beyond human-centered design to society-centered design. We must design for the collective. We must design for society.
It's suddenly a season for mapping all the makerspaces and hackspaces again. There's now atlasofinnovation.com and mapall.space (based on the classic hackerspaces.org wiki, spaceapi and fablab.io) as well as existing lists like the Global Innovation Gathering (may not be functioning at the time of writing).
Be optimistic - but also make plans for what happens if you or your loved ones are badly affected. Write your will, and advance statement / advance decision. Think about whether you would want anyone to have access to your digital stuff; make arrangements. (Thanks Nathan Matias for the reminder about this.)
Follow BootstrapCook for store cupboard cooking tips on a budget.
Be kind. Remember other people will have different needs to you - more or less social contact, more or less loo roll, more or less reassurance. Help if and where you can. Don't feel bad if you can't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯