ScotLUG :: Thursday 29th September

Thu Sep 29 23:25:45 UTC 2016

Hi all,

Thanks for a great meeting tonight! As promised I've included the
Digital Glasgow discussion collab document below. I'll be looking into
etherpad options for ScotLUG over the coming

Will

On 27/09/2016 13:06, Kenny Coyle via Scottish wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> The next ScotLUG meeting will be on Thursday 29th of September at the usual
> spot, the Electron Club in the CCA. We should be kicking around the
> Electron Club around 6:45PM. We will be aiming to start the talk at 7:30PM.
> 
> This month we have a meeting in two parts, kindly led by Martin Bartos, the
> details being as below.
> 
> Part 1: Have you ever noticed just how inefficient it is to send messages
> around to assemble a single document? Even assembling chunks and revision
> control has problems. Live collaborative text editing broke through first
> on the Mac with SubEthaEdit and later went mainstream when Google adopted
> it for their Wave project - Wave was later culled by Google and spun out to
> an Apache project. Most people who have experienced it have used GoogleDocs
> - but if you don’t want to be forced to get everyone a gmail login or want
> to collaborate privately what to do? We’ll show you how to set up an
> etherpad on a machine..
> 
> Part 2: Glasgow should be a beacon of digital progress and not a laughing
> stock. Recent reports suggest the city as a local authority is looking at
> outsourcing its IT provision completely to CGI. What do you think of this
> and what would you want from the City’s IT? What should a Digital Glasgow
> look like? Contributions from the group will be collated on an etherpad
> create in Part 1.
> 
> Hope to see you there!
> 
-------------- next part --------------
ONCE WE'RE FINISHED HERE, ONE OF THE C.C.A TENENTS HAVE KINDLY LEFT SOME FOOD IN THE OUTSIDE AREA FOR US TO FINISH
	Why do you think people keep nipping out?

:)
very kind of them

TOC

	1. preventing catastrophe
	1. connectivity
	1. transparency
	1. OpenSource
	1. OpenData
	1. Finding Solutions
		2. OpenSpaces
		2. BCS
	1. Getting people involved
	1. Glasgow City Council IT usage

Digital Glasgow

Preventing Catastrophe..
	* HOW
	* testimony from industry experienced people who are concerned??
	* BAE / CSC / Airbus experience
	* who owns the backup strategy for glasgow's backup

Connectivity
	* connectivity of software? of networks? of data?
	* better wired connectivity between council spaces
		* many people still can only access internet at libraries, for example
			* do we have statistics for this in Glasgow?
				* http://www.cas.org.uk/system/files/publications/internet_access_in_glasgow_2015_final_-_aug_15.pdf
					* Citizens Advice Beurue report
						* Almost half of respondents did not have a computer or an internet connection at home
						* As recently as August 2013, Ofcom reported that fixed broadband uptake in Glasgow remained at 50%
				* http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/Councillorsandcommittees/viewSelectedDocument.asp?c=P62AFQDNT1DNUT2UDN
	* better connectivity for the citizens of the city area
		* the modern age requires that engaged citizens are able to ingest the required data
	* datapipe size?
		* If we use the youtube and bbc iplayer video streams as a rough mesurement of basic data ingest, then a minimum would be above 3-5 Mbps for 
		* Other mesurements?
		* There is certainly a correlation between well connected cities and prosperity
			* http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/stockholm-is-rivalling-silicon-valley-with-a-hotbed-of-technology-start-ups-9931876.html
				* Sweden and connectivity investment paid off here
	* own buildings and property
	* Q. what is there just now?
	* Q. what is being planned?
	* Q. what provision for wireless connectivity is in place? What are the future plans?

Transparency
	* why are contracts put in place?
	* tender?
	* cheapest?
	* what is the current use of FOSS software?
	* what about 'cloud'?
	* what doing? in tech terms..
	* What do the council think about government IT organisations like GDS that seem to be doing interesting things in a reasonable fasion?
		* https://gds.blog.gov.uk/about/
	* does the council actually know what data they have, and where it is?
		* NTS demonstrates how long running organisations can have no clue on what they're actually holding
	* Does the council know about the current IT landscape and the tools that are available to them? (vs what vendors are pushing to them)

Opensource
	* I would like to see a move towards adoption of more open source hardware and software
	* how much is spent on proprietary systems?

OpenData
	* what's being done just now..
	* what's happening next?
	* 3D mapping information under an excessive license..
	* data.glasgow.gov.uk is nice but there could be more
	* What happened to OpenGlasgow?
		* it still exists, but its more stealth, not sure what it's actually
			* stealth mode
	* transport data would be interesting
		* tracking busses
		* average speeds on roads (can the CCTV system calculate this?)
		* would anonymised ANPR data be possibly made available?
			* tracking traffic patterns etc

Finding solutions
	* places like this one.. MakLab..
	* approach spaces and ask for help..
	* Ask community groups for both help and potentially fund them to do so!
		* what about the BCS? "Making IT good for society" 
			* Does BCS have ANY interaction with the council? Never used to.
			* i'm working on the BCS, actually, join me at the AGM on 10/10 and help me get some new blood on the committee
				* Working how?
					* talks on relevant topics, working on projects within the city on subjects like this
					* what about the BCS leading a code project using PiDroid robots and getting seconf
			* what about a discussion being opened between the council, or a section of it, and the BCS to talk about issues and problems
				* I'm not certain if the branch can officially do advocacy without HQ consent?
	* somewhereto_ do spaces for young people to host events - looks empty for Glasgow though
		* You've got the CodeDojo stuff but it's not related to the council
	* Hackathons
		* what should the focus areas be? using the council's open data? solving current council IT problems? Simply Building the Community Further will be valuable.
			* Problems that the council are currently having, IT or non IT
			* Random hacks of kindness style events?
				* Crack the clear channel signs and replace them with motivational quotes
			* Teaching more open source and data/coding outside of school and university
			* Building open source tools for common council tasks?
				* how do we foster a good relation with existing council (esp IT) staff while doing this?
				* Beer? Seriously? Wine... surely. MD 20/20 or buckfast? I'll settle for some good whisky. Deal?
			* ScotLUG/BCS/Council hackaton on civic planning with open/semi-open data sets
		* Interaction with the young
		* Primary and Secondary schools
	* Ask students at the Universities involved in both technological and non-technological fields
	* Local vs multinational IT companies - should the council be biased to using local?

How do we get more people *wanting* to be involved with improving council activities?
	* Direct engagement with a variety of specific interest groups around the area.
	* Potentially some form of middleman org required to ensure a helpful, planned, experience for relevant groups and a single point of contact.
		* Effort. Unlikely to be provided by the Council.
		* council or arms length not for profit?
			* Most likely, but suddenly becoming more effort and people required to ensure it continues over time.
				* could be a national org seeking to increase engagment - would need funded though...
					* downside being the overal central admin required in addition to the local groups.
					* Would local groups be controlled by or independent to the umbrella?
						* independent would probably provide the most flexibility and least ammount of friction
							* Potential concern over one group going "rogue" and affecting the name of the overall org.
							* Perhaps a ethics statement would need to be adhered to on the nature of contact/use.
		* What about creating an umbrella group, like city of science, grabbing together coderdojo and the other coding groups in the city?
			* there should also be some dragging of the universities in to the mix, they'd be getting to train their new compsci students if nothing else
			* Possibly also grabbing people from other fields with differing skills
				* definitely. It shouldn't be just compsci. Engineering, design, art, the humanities need to be involved to get a well rounded solution, otherwhise it will fail, due to not capturing the human condition
	* Not a lot of good information available on how to get involved
		* Talk to a councillor
		* Talk to many councillors
		* Talk to the public petitions comittee
		* write

Technical Spaces
	* Support to build more local Hackspaces and Makerspaces
		* Seconded! 

Glasgow City Council IT usage
	* Financial services
	* Processing wages for teachers etc
	* Cameras etc
	* how much of council IT is centally managed, vs small departments running 'shadow IT' systems
	* what data security is in place? are there publically available audit reports? Is there stated compliance with industry standards, i.e. ISO27001?

What's the agreed license on this document?
	* WTFPL? FTW!!!
	* ISC?
	* MIT surely
	* Lets make it AGPL and see people worry...
	* Sleepycat
	* GnuDOC... as long as someone else writes the coverpage and updates for all the version changes.
	* BSD 2 clause :~)
	* 