What the public might be even more angry about is the huge amount of tax payers money that ‘PA Consulting’ will have taken off the government in the first place. Come on, it’s out of control.

The site itself is at http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8036055 and has links to other resources, including one from UCL.

The problem with having bus companies running railways is that there is no demarcation with ‘competition’. Bus companies believe in buses first and foremost and therefore at the least excuse will substitute a bus for a train, regardless of the circumstances.

A second problem is the inability of the TOCs (Train Operating Companies) and National Rail Enquiries to supply any sort of coherent information at a national level. One of the great strengths of the railway system is the standardisation across the country and the fact that there is really a single system of tracks, regardless of the absurd bureaucratic manouveres of government to make the running as complicated as possible.

Today as an example.

I boarded the 9.35 ‘Cross Country’ (once Virgin rail - really, who in their right mind would let Richard Branson take them into space? He can’t run a railway that would take anyone easily from Crewe to Manchester). Just before the train left the station, an announcement was made that the train would ‘not stop at Doncaster’. Which was a bit annoying as the 9.30 east coast mainline (now National Express, until recently GNER - the tender process was run over a Christmas holiday period and was just within the absolute MINIMUM of EC procurement rules) was just leaving. Now don’t ask why, but that WAS going to stop at Doncaster.

Before York I asked the guard the options. Number 1 - get off at York and wait an hour and might get to Lincoln at 1.50pm. Option 2 - stay on the train to Sheffield and get the 11.44 to Gainsborough; where there would be a ‘replacemement bus service’. I opted for option 2 but knew deep down inside this was a terrible mistake. From hitch hiking days I know that it’s always best to slowly move towards ultimate destination. NEVER travel in the opposite direction, even for a short distance.

So then I find myself in Sheffield, on a train that’s late, but I still have time to get on the 11.44 - except that turns up at 12.06 (these precise times are important). And that gets to Gainsborugh Lea Road and 13.03. And the ‘connecting bus to Lincoln’ has left at 12.45 - and the next one will be at 13.45. Although there were three buses there - but all on their break. I don’t have a problem with that - but surely it could have been organised a bit better?

Now at every stage I tried to get any sense out of anyone on ‘National Rail Enquiries’ I got nothing but wrong and conflicting information. Personally I find the attitude of ‘thank you for your patience’ (which they extract) and ‘I’m sorry sir…’ really freaking irritating. I would rather surly customer service but trains that ran to some sort of timetable.

I wondered, really did wonder whether GPS and mobile phones are used in the rail network, to at least try and put things right when they go so wrong. It wasn’t just my journeys; every station I went to today was running late trains and that included Newcastle, Sheffield and Newark Northgate.

But what’s the purpose of this minute detail? Well, partly if ‘national rail’ or WHOEVER RUNS THE FREAKING RAILWAYS ever does a google search on RAIL COMPLAINTS then they might find this. It might be an interesting use of a faceless and frankly useless organisation using the web to pick up customer feedback through web 2.0.

And partly because the receptionist at the Town Hall I turned up for a quite important meeting is an absolute star. I arrived 2 hours late, fuming, had missed my dinner, been half way round the country on various trains and buses, none of which ran to any sort of timetable. I had been taking deep breaths all the way to the main doors trying to calm down before I meet some clients; I spent a couple of minutes just saying what a rotten day I’d had so far; and she listened sympathetically, emphasised and made me laugh. What a great set of skills. And it made me realise that ‘front line staff’ are actually in many instances therapists as much as ‘customer services representatives’.

There are certain councils that have marvellous reputations and are awarded gold stars from organisations such as the Audit Commission. I was eagerly awaiting my first visit to some of these websites after hearing such glowing presentations and great stories. And surprise, surprise within minutes I was lost in jargon, inconsistency between links and content, haphazard lists of categories and a mish mash of links, graphics and content. The user experience, or at least my tuppence worth was rotten.

I would like to know, and will send an email with this request, to find out exactly how much *user testing* has been carried out with these ‘information systems’ (for that indeed is what the web should be).

It cannot be said too often, that if the end users are never sat in front of a website and asked to complete some basic tasks and comment on what that’s like - then all the design by committee is a waste of time.

And for knowledge production, the creation of new knowledge, the development of theories and ideas, do we need such high inputs of technology? Back to Darwin; a great many of his observations that helped to develop his theories were based in his garden and immediate surroundings. He didn’t need to be rushing around the world to conferences in seven continents (which you’ll find some ‘management gurus’ do). He didn’t need the endless sensuous stimulation of a city centre or to be constantly checking email or surfing the web. Perhaps there’s a core methodology of study there that we would all do well to learn from.

We are led to believe we need to be connected, to be part of something called ‘the world wide web’. But does it just in fact flatten knowledge, leading everyone into predefined positions? Allowing a certain type of techno-path to dominate discussion, leave a residue of power with those that create and control the technologies ?

From my own experience, i) I don’t tend to surf the web that much apart from work issues and occassionaly to check a ‘fact’ about something; ii) I use it as a shop much more than as an information resource (it’s an addiction to books and music) and iii) I don’t find the web as such a source of new thinking or new ideas that make me re-think what I’m thinking about.

Email discussions - yes; maybe - I learn from specific ones such as the records management list, KIDMM, taxonomy and others. Forums and blogs; to some extent, but not much more than if I caught up with a certain circle of friends more frequently.

Twitter? Facebooks? I wonder when the backlash is going to start….

I was struck by a passage in Elizabeth Orna’s book ‘Information Strategy in Practice’ where she writes

“And technology isn’t always involved in the greatest advances. Sometimes it is - the revolution that Galileo brought in our understanding of the universe depended on the technology that he himself did so much to develop; but the equally revolutionary changes that Darwin achieved owed little, if anything to techology and most to observation based on, as he put it, ’some ideas’ and long reflection”.

Tuesday - laptop stops working - ie there’s a light on but nobody in. No surprise there really as it’s around five years old and has regularly been bashed into lampposts while in rucksack, or thrown onto floor of pub (not in aggressive way - it’s just sometimes you throw rucksacks down); it’s been to Spain, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden. I think we once took it on a bike to Europe.

Wednesday - broadband connection disappears. BT - bless ‘em, take an age to contact, with growing confusion as to where I might be in an ever more byzantian telephone system ‘press 1 for pestulence, 2 for famine…’ There help as usual is - take all the plugs out and plug them back in again ‘ah, you don’t have a BT router, sorry’…click whirr as they disappear.

Wednesday - order new ASUS notepad. Promised it will be delivered next day.

Thursday - ASUS EEE900 delivered. Not the 901. It’s the wrong one. Send it back.

Thursday - spare computer starts to cut out at random, with no notice.

Saturday - I attend ‘OpenTech’ - one of the few people taking notes with a pencil and paper

In conclusion I would like to say a very big thank you to the local computer shop - they can be contacted at info@600022.com or 01434 600022 and have been extremely helpful in sorting all this out. If you’re in the north east and need a computer problem fixing - get in touch with them.

Which points out that I have spend almost TWO days of my time trying to find out when their next meeting is. This has involved numerous phone calls, contact with three councils and one hospital and several emails. As well as various searches on the internet that have led nowhere.

The prize for incompetence is won hands down by a large London teaching hospital. This took seven phone calls including being twice put through to outpatients, once to clinical coding and once to someone’s voice mail. ‘Sorry’, it said’ ‘you have been timed out’. Eventually I got through to …. a voice mail.

I still don’t know when this meeting is going to take place. I’m beginning to cease to care.

It’s just all so grimly depressing and miserable that after zillions of pounds spent on egovernment and global warming amounts of hot air about ‘efficiencies’ and ‘transformation’ it has proved all but impossible to find the date of a meeting.

Meanwhile, people still wait months and months for operations. And the impact of these lengthy waits is conditions getting worse (so an operation that’s done within four weeks may have a much better chance of sorting out a problem than one that is done 8 months later). Another long term impact is on someone’s finances. You get sick, you wait months for an operation, you go on to half pay, you get a long sick record. Job offers get withdrawn, it becomes harder to get another job and so on. All because you’re waiting for an operation.

So far, all the billions thrown at computer systems and the giant computer companies and the giant consulting firms has made very little difference to any of these issues.

But the really big question is - why on earth do we all put up with this?

Just have  a quick peak at this page on the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7459579.stm

…the four headlines are:

‘Blears computer theft ‘alarming’

‘More secret files found on train’

‘Breach’ caused terror file loss’

‘MoD laptop stolen from McDonalds’

ID cards????? You would think they must be having a laugh, but unfortunately no. It often feels to me that we live in a very unpleasant environment of what I would describe as authoritarian libertarianism. It’s ok for Tesco’s to sell over strength alcohol to young people; it’s ok for the same company not to pay what they should in tax; but meanwhile we’re all subjected to this blanket coverage CCTV and endless shouting messages (any wait in the underground or even short train journey will illustrate the point). And a government that’s determined to collect as much data about us as possible - but from their own example, with no sense they will ever look after it.

Having said all that, the second goal that Spain have just scored was good no matter how crumby the technology in delivering the images.

Also - within the confines of the library there is no sound - although having just checked the PC here, it looks like headphones could be plugged in. Although is the lack of commentary a good or bad thing?

There is of course an even better alternative - big screen, comfortable chairs, bit of atmosphere with any luck…and cool beer - it’s called the pub and I’ve got plenty of time to get there during half time.

Totally by accident, I clicked on a link that said ‘watch the football live’ and discovered that the Euro 2008 games can be seen over the internet. This is fantastic news and it means that one eye can be kept on the full screen match, and er, well, the rest of one’s attention firmly on the report I’m writing…

But it does make me wonder how many other hundreds of thousands of transactions are affected in this way. And I increasingly find myself not using the internet and not wanting to. Apart from occassionally checking the biographical details of someone I come across in a book, what exactly do I get from it? Not much. I’ve also noticed a strange sort of addiction, almost like going outside for a cigarette break, when I think - oh, I’ll just go and ‘check’ the internet - ie this means browsing the news headlines for 10 minutes. I’m now weaning myself off this habit because it is usually fairly pointless and just time wasting.

Now, back to my book.

Some people won’t leave a trace on the internet because they never use it. But even in these instances that’s not strictly true. There is all sorts of information that is submitted for other purposes that gets added to the web - so someone might write a letter to a newspaper - and not realise it’s going to be on the web as well. Or they might take part in an event and find themselves on the web; or their photograph can be easily added by someone else. I was recently talking to a friend who had received an email from someone she’s not seen for years who had added a photo without asking for any permission - a photo of my friend as a child. Would you want that?

Presumably some people simply aren’t bothered - like those who have tattoos on their heads and faces - but they really are in a tiny minority. The growing evidence is that potential employers and colleges and other organisations and institutions are already searching the internet to check the backgrounds and profiles of people (I’ve done it myself before and after meetings).

Which makes me wonder how this will impact on the development of ideas and ‘free speech’. The web blurs work and leisure; I for one am much more likely to curtail what I say in general on the web if there is a risk it would damage work relationships or impact negatively on a piece of work.

Maybe it’s time to become anonymous - but what’s the point of that? If you have a good idea, surely you want people to know it’s yours?

It would be useful for someone to develop a metadata element that enable people to decide on the transience or permanence of data; and to have some control over how that might work.

The Lit & Phil has the primary function of encouraging people to read books. No gimmicks, no internet (that I saw). Whole shelves of histories about the northern miners, ship building, biography, county histories and so on. Here is the detail of skirmishes in small villages during the civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians; here is the detail of miners songs, customs and cultures.

The Lit & Phil will slowly reveal it’s full beauty and collected knowledge only over time. But what I did notice as I was walking around, looking at the shelves (and this is so much more satisfying than ‘browsing’ an online catalogue)…was that everyone had tea and biscuits. Yes; tea and biscuits. There’s a small kitchen area and library users can have a cup of tea or coffee or a flask.

on- off - channel up - channel down - volume up - volume down - that really would be enough for me.

I would have so much preferred to have a radio.