However, I think that some of the more interesting stories are those which use the concept of relativity and the weird effects it produces. By allowing their fictional vessels to accelerate to near, but not beyond, the speed of light, they create stories in which time moves differently for different characters. In such stories, a character who travels a lot may live a normal human lifetime while millennia pass on the places they visit, and events ripple across the galaxy in lightspeed jumps.

(I realise that I’ve assumed that everyone reading this is familiar with the concept of relativity. Just in case you’re not, the TL;DR version is that, as object A approaches the speed of light relative to object B, then the rate at which time passes for A slows down from B’s perspective but not from A’s perspective, meaning that A could undertake a journey which takes weeks for them, but centuries for B. Many, many people have explained this much, much better than me: a quick Internet search will tell you more. And if you’re genuinely encountering these concepts for the first time, I envy you; you’re in for a fun ride!)

Grasping relativity takes an act of imagination, and crafting stories which follow the rules of relativity takes further acts of imagination. I believe that we need to exercise similar imagination when putting technology to work in our enterprises – and that we can experience our own time-dilation effects.

A science fiction story which ignores relativity often draws from a familiar mode of travel: spaceships are like ocean-going ships. They may take a while to reach their destination, but their journeys take place within human scale spans of time. Such spaceships have bridges, and captains, and other roles which resemble those of a normal ship (you may be thinking of a familiar television series).

Similarly, when we put technology to work in our enterprises, it can be tempting to treat computers as machines which behave like humans, and to organise our systems as if they are subject to the same constraints as humans. Some attempts at business process redesign fall prey to this temptation: I know that my process is inefficient; I am going to invest a large amount of money digitising this process; therefore, my money will be better spent if I redesign the process and remove the inefficiencies.

This is an understandable chain of reasoning, and I have followed it myself, many times, in many projects. However, it is often a mistake and fails to recognise the effects of computing time compression. Why is my process inefficient? If it is because it allows errors, and handles those errors badly, then I probably need to redesign it. But if it is because it has five steps rather than two, why do I care? When I implement the process as code, I will compress the time taken for those five steps from one hour each to a few milliseconds each. Relative to the computer, time stands still: I can take as many steps as I want.

For people who build software, this time dilation effect is particularly apparent when we build automated tests. I remember being shocked when I read a programming guide which said that, when building tests, it was okay to ignore some (but not all!) of the good coding practices that applied to my main code. I could cut and paste and I could repeat myself. The goal was not elegance, but coverage. As a result, some of my test code is not organised in a way that would make any sense to a human manually executing a test script. But no human could ever execute that test script manually: even a simple test script, executed frequently, can represent a level of manual effort that would exceed a human lifetime. The effects of inefficiencies in the script are negated by extreme time dilation.

I am not arguing for bad processes and inefficient code. But I am proposing that, when designing computer systems, and particularly when explaining those systems to people who don’t have a technical background, we emulate those science fiction authors who embrace the constraints of relativity. We should remember that, relative to computers, our world is at a virtual standstill, and that work which saves hours in our world may only save fractions of a second in a computer world. We’ve built a lightspeed engine: let’s use it.

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This article offers a compelling insight into the transformative potential of augmented reality in bolstering public safety. By spotlighting the advantages of AR technology in supporting situational awareness and decision-making for emergency personnel, it underscores the critical role AR can play in improving public safety and emergency services. Additionally, the article delves into the challenges faced by the industry in making AR more accessible and user-friendly to a broader audience, advocating for strategic adoption in the public sector to enhance emergency response capabilities.

What is Augmented Reality?

AR combines virtual and real environments by utilising computer-generated graphics to enhance the user’s perception of the real world. That is, AR enhances how users perceive their surroundings by superimposing digital content on the real world. One of the greatest attractions of AR is that the applications are predominantly used on smartphones, hence its growing adoption, unlike other immersive technologies such as virtual reality, mixed reality and metaverse which require the use of headsets. Although historically, the use of AR first started as a head-mounted headset and progressed to smart glasses, they are now predominantly used on hand-held smart devices (Fig 1).

The adoption of augmented reality technology in various industries has been ongoing for decades, from NASA to sports broadcasting to automotive repair. Whilst the utilisation of AR technology has gained traction in certain industries, its overall adoption remains relatively low. The primary challenge faced by the industry lies in transforming the perception of AR from being excessively high-tech to making it more accessible and user-friendly to everyday consumers. However, there has been a notable increase in the adoption of AR technology not only in the retail industry but also in various other sectors.

Potential benefits of AR technology in the public sector

Given the advancement in mobile technology and the abundance of digital data available, AR is poised to become a significant tool for organisations to make real-time decisions more efficiently. For instance, AR can enable more precise real-time data collection, such as demographic information, which can then be analysed to inform policy decisions and enhance government services. Despite the growing demand and potential benefits of AR, it is still in its nascent stage in terms of development and adoption in various industries, particularly in government. As the technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see many more AR applications across different fields.

Enhancing public safety

AR technology has the potential to significantly enhance public safety and emergency response efforts. By providing real-time situational awareness and decision support, AR can equip first responders such as firefighters and police officers with an augmented view of their surroundings, highlighting potential hazards and critical information such as the location of victims or the nearest exit. This improved situational awareness can lead to faster response times and more informed decision-making, ultimately saving lives. Additionally, AR can provide decision support for emergency managers and incident commanders by overlaying real-time data such as weather reports or traffic patterns onto a map of the affected area, aiding in resource allocation and evacuation planning. AR can also be utilised for training purposes, allowing first responders to simulate emergency scenarios and practice response strategies in a safe and controlled environment, thus improving their skills and readiness for real-world emergencies.

Customs and border protection

AR technology has the potential to revolutionise the way customs and border force agents conduct security checks. By creating 3D images of X-ray scans, AR systems can help identify hidden items in luggage or cargo more effectively. Agents can quickly and efficiently detect any potential security threats, minimising delays and costs while maximising available resources. Additionally, AR devices can assist agents with real-time translation, which is crucial when dealing with travellers who speak different languages. Finally, AR technology can also be used to create training simulations for customs and border force agents. These simulations provide realistic scenarios, allowing agents to practice responding to various situations without risking their safety or that of others. ​​

AR in justice

What can AR contribute to the fight for justice? How might AR be used by law enforcement, legal experts, defendants, litigants, judges, and juries? Will the use of immersive visualisation technologies in courtrooms result in more fairness or will it be unfair? The potential for immersive technologies in the legal system has received renewed attention. From examining a crime scene to testifying in court, AR and VR are beginning to prove their worth, for example in 2016 the Dutch police conducted a trial of an AR solution to assist officers in investigating crime scenes. The system allowed officers to stream video from their body cameras or smart glasses to forensic scientists, chemical analysts, and other experts who could provide remote guidance during the investigation.

Using the AR solution, experts could explore the crime scene from the officer’s perspective and provide real-time guidance on how to collect and preserve evidence. They could use annotations in the officer’s smart glasses or smartphone display to point out evidence to be examined and bagged.

This approach can be very helpful, especially in cases where the first responding officer may not have the necessary expertise to conduct a thorough investigation. The use of AR technology allows for a more collaborative approach to investigations, with experts being able to provide guidance remotely, reducing the need for them to be physically present at the scene.

These early forays into using AR to enhance crime scene investigation could also impact crime scene training and courtroom presentations. Photos and video captured via smart glasses at the crime scene serve to preserve the scene for later use in the investigation and trial, but that footage can also help create immersive training simulations.

Next step

Despite the benefits of AR, its adoption by government is still slow. The big question is, how will the adoption of AR enhance an organisation’s overall mission and vision? Could AR represent the next industrial revolution? One of the biggest benefits of AR is cost saving. According to research carried out by Harvard Business School in 2017 on AR, the following benefits of were revealed ​(Harvard Business Review, 2017)​:

• AR reduces inspection time by 96% for a telecommunication service engineer leading to overall time savings of 25%.
• Boeing trainees’ work was completed in 35% less time than trainees using traditional 2-D drawing and with an increased first-time accuracy rate of >90%.
• GE completed wiring in wind turbines using voice command in AR and achieved >34% productivity.

Originally posted here

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According to an NHS review into outpatient appointments, the main reasons for missing appointments stem from difficulties with processes and communication, as well as previous poor experiences. My own research for the NHS also pinpoints anxiety as a significant factor in the relationship between patients/carers and healthcare estates.

Digital technologies are increasingly emerging as a fundamental part of the fabric of the NHS, which is embarking on a long-term digital transformation to modernise services and tools. It is transforming the NHS at all levels – from mobile apps to give people greater control of their health and wellbeing at home, to incredible advancements in AI which can identify and diagnose diseases quicker than ever before – and even perform operations. We are also seeing digital services tackling the issue of no-shows (also known as DNAs – do-not-attends), with reminders reducing missed appointments by up to 80%.

At the same time, NHS staff sickness and absence is also on the rise; there is an urgent need to find solutions that address the root cause of all these issues.

I have previously written about how digital placemaking can address many of the place-based challenges faced by the NHS. In this article, I will explore how digital wayfinding, specifically, can be implemented as a solution to improve people’s relationships with healthcare facilities and the overall experience of these places; addressing key challenges around DNAs, staff burnout and operational costs.

Barriers and benefits

DNAs is a complex issue. NHS England recognises there are many reasons why people may not attend their appointments – some within people’s control, such as forgetting or feeling like they no longer need help; others outside of their control, for instance issues with transport or cost, or difficulties cancelling.

Regardless of the reason, NHS England sees ‘digital enablers’ as key to overcoming barriers and promoting wide-ranging benefits across healthcare, such as releasing capacity, improving administrative processes and communication with patients, and reducing health inequalities through understanding issues faced by particular demographic groups.

The ‘primary benefit’ noted, however, is that of a better patient experience; and the result of a better patient experience would – should– be a better hospital staff, carer and overall visitor experience.

This is where I see digital wayfinding playing a critical role. Healthcare estates are often large, busy and difficult to navigate, which we know can make people feel stressed and anxious. When some patients have heightened anxiety they can become aggressive to others, which is already a significant issue for NHS staff, so anything that can be done to relieve some of that anxiety – i.e. through making highly stressful environments easier to get around – can only be a good thing. When designed well, of course…

Accessibility

In the built environment – healthcare or otherwise – ‘accessibility’ can be thought about in a number of ways: in terms of navigation on-site, being able to plan visits in advance, enabling people with disabilities and sensory impairments to get around confidently and independently. Factors that are all conducive to a smoother, more inclusive, experience for everyone.

Accessibility underpins much of the work Calvium does, but there are two particular digital wayfinding projects we have undertaken to help manage uncertainty, and where I see clear applications in an NHS setting.

One of those is NavSta, a mobile wayfinding solution to help people with less visible impairments, such as neurodivergence, to navigate the complex Transport for London network independently. By providing practical assistance to people when they plan and undertake a journey, the ultimate goal is to reduce anxiety when travelling through stations. Testament to its success, NavSta was highly commended in the Neurodiverse Research of the Year category at the 2020 Neurodiversity Awards.

UCAN GO, meanwhile, is a wayfinding app that helps people with sight loss to navigate indoor cultural venues. It works by visually mapping the building, offering visual cues and audio description to help users visualise a mental map of the building and their route.

It is not difficult to imagine these apps working in a healthcare setting. In addition to helping people find the location of appointments, waiting rooms and toilets, a dedicated wayfinding app could signpost to shops and eateries, green spaces and other amenities – both on the hospital site and, importantly, in the neighbouring public realm.

It’s about making the whole area easier to navigate and thus more accessible to everyone. This wouldn’t only potentially help to reduce anxiety, but if fewer people needed to ask staff where things are, that should have a knock-on effect in terms of freeing up already-stretched NHS resources. Which, in a best-case-scenario, should also help to reduce costs.

Care-full innovation

Last year, the UK government invested £21m in AIto help diagnose patients more quickly for conditions such as cancer, strokes and heart conditions. It is one example of how ultra-efficiency is supporting the NHS, offering innovative solutions that are, in some cases, the difference between life and death.

In other industries, ultra-efficiency is what is expected and what defines success: Amazon, Uber, Deliveroo. But physical healthcare environments, where people spend time in a place, require a very different approach to agility. There is a real point of difference in getting your technology to be as effective, productive, cost-effective and frictionless as possible within the hospital setting, but not treating the hospital and its communities in the same way.

Rather than prioritising the easiest frictionless flow (as with general customer experience solutions) innovation must fundamentally be human-centred and sympathetic to a variety of individual needs – many of which will be around easing anxiety, and making things more comprehensible, accessible and inclusive.

Ultimately, hospitals are physical places where people don’t want to feel rushed; where they want to be able to get around easily and where they value the kind of human interaction and care that our online world often forgoes.

If someone has travelled a long way, they may want to find a cafe to have something to eat, or a garden to sit in to decompress after an appointment… All things digital wayfinding can enable when designed thoughtfully, with hospital stakeholder communities, especially those it will serve and benefit.

The critical role of community engagement in delivering innovative healthcare solutions was highlighted in the NHS NEL Digital Placemaking Scoping Project I undertook last year. A key output of the project was the development of a framework for Digital Placemaking for Health and Wellbeing, built around key pillars that work together to create inclusive solutions for all. Due to the interconnected nature of placemaking and wayfinding, the framework can help to guide the design of digital wayfinding solutions for this environment too.

Final thoughts

The rate of DNAs and associated issues will only continue to grow and cause problems for the NHS if we do not find ways to support and enhance the patient and carer experience (and new staff). When considering the issues that contribute to a poor experience and the knock-on effect on the wider healthcare system – from staff wellbeing to costs – there is a clear case for investing in digital wayfinding solutions.

Designed well, with accessibility and thoughtful innovation baked-in from the start, digital wayfinding technologies can help to mitigate the causes of heightened anxieties often felt by patients and visitors. Not only will alleviating stresses around planning and navigation lead to a reduction in patient no-shows and calmer patients and visitors, ultimately it will foster a less taxing workplace – reducing the amount of times staff are asked where things are located will lead to greater staff effectiveness and productivity. It’s a win-win solution for all who exist within the NHS environment – and the NHS itself.

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As one of the UK’s most innovative telecoms operators and a ‘hidden enabler’ of smart cities, banking, healthcare, finance, logistics, education, and innovation, the past few years have seen us launch several 5G and IoT testbeds including the Eden Project, Connected Cowes, Factory of the Future, and Mobile Access North Yorkshire.

Our partners joined the event to provide industry insights, sensor data, and IoT hardware, as well as delivering insightful talks on the practical application of IoT and real-world insights of its adoption across a mix of industries. All are powered by our global mobile network and complete Core IoT platform.

The goal of the hackathon was to allow our amazing partners to discuss real-world emerging IoT and 5G connectivity innovation across a wealth of amazing regional and national initiatives, as well as providing local partners, businesses, and students with a series of hackathon challenges leveraging our Core IoT platform.

“The Ingenuity team is proud to have partnered with aql, Fyma and Nexus on this dynamic one-day hackathon that delved into the realms of IoT and 5G. Witnessing the enthusiasm of the college students diving into challenges, collaborating, and ingeniously solving problems exemplifies the boundless potential of the next generation.

The synergy between the team members from the business world and the students underscored the importance of nurturing talent, and fostering an environment where diverse minds converge to tackle real-world problems.

The success of this event reinforces our commitment to cultivating the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, who, armed with creativity and knowledge, are poised to shape the future of the world we live in.”
Mark Midlren, Co-founder, Ingenuity Leeds

“The Ingenuity team is proud to have partnered with aql, Fyma and Nexus on this dynamic one-day hackathon that delved into the realms of IoT and 5G. Witnessing the enthusiasm of the college students diving into challenges, collaborating, and ingeniously solving problems exemplifies the boundless potential of the next generation.

The synergy between the team members from the business world and the students underscored the importance of nurturing talent, and fostering an environment where diverse minds converge to tackle real-world problems.

The success of this event reinforces our commitment to cultivating the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, who, armed with creativity and knowledge, are poised to shape the future of the world we live in.”
Mark Midlren, Co-founder, Ingenuity Leeds

We have been implementing AllIoT’s LoRaWAN sensors across all our 5G and IoT Testbeds, so it was our pleasure as our new IoT Hardware Partner for Rob to present his vision for IoT hardware and provide insights to the students regarding the use of LoRaWAN sensors and there deployment across differing industry segments.

“We were thrilled to be invited to be a part of the aql hackathon. IoT for many people is still a new concept; events like this play a key role in driving the technology forward and educating others about what is actually possible with the Internet of Things and LoRaWAN. Thank you to the aql team for putting on such a thought provoking, interactive event.”
Rob Ferriday, Business Development Manager, AllIoT

With their enormous wealth of data, Dales Land Net explained how their soil moisture monitoring technology informs decisions that protect and help agriculture, livestock, and residents in the Yorkshire Dales. Dalesland Net provided a wealth of sensor readings for the students from across all their rural test locations.

Visualisation of Dales Land Net soil sensors, these visualisations were built using api.core.al.com

All the visualisations are available to download from https://github.com/aql-com/iot_event

“A really interesting event hosted by aql. Lots of networking opportunities and good discussions all around. Above all it’s great to see students getting to grips with aql’s technology and working on real world data. Good luck to them all.”
Neale Hall, Founder, Dales Land Net

Leeds City Council walked the partners and students through how the council are deploying LoRaWAN sensors and technology across the city to aid the utilisation and reporting of Street Lighting, flood alerts and air quality. Leeds City Council provided a selection of indoor and outdoor sensor readings to the students to learn about their local environment and what factors can influence air quality.

“The Hackathon was a great opportunity to share the work that Leeds City Council is doing, and to meet new and existing contacts from the local area.

It’s refreshing to get together in person and share ideas as so much work is done remotely these days.

We were very impressed with the enthusiasm and skills of the young people that attended, and hope that they’re inspired to pursue a career in technology.”
James Glenton, IT Service Transition, Leeds City Council

Visualisation within core.aql.com of one of the Leeds City Council sensors illustrating air quality and temperature

Fyma is a strategic partner of Ingenuity and provides White Rose Park with AI-powered cameras which empower businesses to understand human activity in the physical world, providing occupancy, placemaking space utilisation data, and insights. Fyma provided a month’s set of AI camera readings from across the White Rose Park to aid students and partners in understanding occupancy, as well as people and vehicle flow across that period.

“It was a pleasure to be a partner for the hackathon event. I really loved the participants’ enthusiasm and insight working with the data provided to them. Alongside us, a range of companies delivered insightful talks on their experiences with IoT technology and data visualisation, providing attendees with a deeper understanding of how this technology can be used.”
Karen Burns, CEO, Fyma

Digital Leaders, a trusted partner of ours for many years, were at the event as attendees to learn about aql’s Core IoT technology and how it was used to enable businesses.

“The hackathon at White Rose Park was a fantastic event. Companies using IoT for a whole spectrum of use cases presented on their experiences with aql’s Core IoT technology, giving me a great insight into the potential of the platform.” Louise Westcott, Head of Online at Digital Leaders

Following our partner talks, the hackathon half of the event got underway. For this section of the event, over 20 bright and enthusiastic students and their tutors were sent from Leeds City College to take part. The students were split into teams, paired up with our business partners, and given the chance to understand and interact with our mobile network and IoT technology through a wealth of IoT sensor readings from across all our 5G/IoT testbeds. They took part in a variety of challenges from reprogramming our IoT Edge gateways, adding sensors to our LoRaWAN network, and programming widgets to creating custom web parts.

The work the students completed was an inspiration. We were so pleased to be a part of the exploration of IoT that was undertaken by the students and gave the winning students access to our Core IoT platform and IoT data SIMs allowing access to our mobile network, hopefully inspiring and empowering their further exploration of IoT.

“The presentations gave the students background information on the different sensors. The group activities were well throughout and all students seemed to get involved not only with the task at hand but also with the developers, asking questions throughout the day. The event was very hands on and this is what the students seemed to enjoy the most. It was wonderful to see how all the students engaged as not all students had much knowledge of software development or any programming languages but yet still tried to have a go.” 
Cheryl Macfarlane, Deputy of Apprenticeships and Commercial, Leeds City College

Originally posted here

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This is something we’re focused on at Swindon Borough Council. We have an opportunity to connect in new ways with residents who have additional needs, such as low literacy levels, or cognitive impairment, or learning difficulties. 

The importance of inclusion

There are 1.5m people with a learning disability in the UK, 44.2m in the US, and globally it is estimated that 15 per cent of the population have some form of learning disability. Public-service providers are expected to supply accessible, easy-to-understand information to the public so they can make informed decisions about their lives and for their households. Not all citizens have the same ability to identify and digest the information that’s important to them, so councils have to invest in alternative versions of documents in a format known as Easy read.

It can typically cost $150 (£120) to adapt content manually for a single page with just five lines and five images. A document of five pages would take two weeks to adapt, and cost $750 (£500). This is unsustainable in terms of the demand on council resources. Most importantly, people may miss the significance of a change in local provision, or the need to attend an appointment.

Our Easy read solution presents simplified text on the right side of a page and images on the left—all summarizing the most important, relevant information. This results in documents that are more accessible for people who might otherwise feel isolated and reliant on others to discover what’s happening in their community.

The AI-based facilitator

Generative AI excels in making content more accessible for everyone, thanks to its ability to summarize and simplify information, and turn it into forms such as images. 

Amazon Bedrock provides one of the simplest ways for development teams to build and scale generative AI applications with the use of foundation models: template neural networks/machine-learning algorithms which can be adapted for a particular use case. It’s hosted in the cloud and is intuitive to use, so it’s simple and affordable for local councils to experiment with. We are also confident that data is secure.

We tested the technology on a complex tenancy agreement of more than 50 pages. We experimented with the tools and within just a few days sent samples of adapted content back to Adult Social Care. When they liked the results, we moved into a deeper engineering phase.

A positive difference for communities

We saw a further opportunity to combine the technology with our existing Translate solution, to make content available in 75 languages and reach people for whom English is a second language.  

At Swindon, we’re keen to improve services informed by the people who use them. We employed Experts by Experience of a Learning Disability, a group whose members have a wide range of learning disabilities.  Tom, Dan, Charlotte, Kelly, Tammy, Elroy, and David provided important insights into their experiences and how we can all work together to break down barriers. This was as important to us as the technology collaboration. For example, it’s how we learned that images are important, text size needs to be bigger than usual, the space between any text needs to be wider, and jargon and ambiguous terms must be avoided.

We now have a solution and we’re excited about its potential for positive social impact. Once launched, it’ll help overcome barriers and improve people’s lives. 

Also, as a council with budget pressures, there’s significant financial gain. We can now create an accessible multi-page document for 7-10 pence per page.

Share the benefits

Cloud-based technology has enabled this service innovation. The cloud is a place where we can experiment and explore fast, securely, and at low cost. And our teams don’t need to know Python or have a PhD in AI. We can simply focus on realizing our ideas for new service improvements.

We’re keen to share our experiences so other councils and public services can build on what we’ve learned and extend similar benefits to their own citizens. That’s something I’m passionate about. For this reason, we plan to make our tool open source—in other words, available for others to use, licence-free. We’ll also release the prompts and parameters we’ve curated, so that others in the public sector and third sector can customise them rather than starting from scratch. These solutions have the potential to help so many across other councils, across social care, in health, and in the non-profit sector.

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To mitigate this, they are procuring independent support services that can coach citizens through accessing online services, or enable them to access help by non-digital means.

But what if, despite all this effort, some barriers to access have not yet been fully addressed in some of the most sensitive areas of public service provision? In addition to addressing the changing nature of the digital divide, we also need to consider the barriers of trauma that service users may be experiencing. We also need to consider how services can be adapted to better acknowledge these human needs and circumstances.

Over the last year or so Sopra Steria’s Experience Design team have conducted thought provoking work across Justice, Policing and Victims’ Services. People in contact with the Justice system are often experiencing acute life events: divorce or custody dispute; the aftermath of crime/s; or a challenging medical prognosis that necessitates legal planning of future health and financial decisions. These are times when providing swift support, or maintaining contact with an individual, matter most profoundly, but also times where it can be most challenging.

Our recent work suggests a number of key considerations in designing complex sensitive public services.

Keeping in touch

It has been assumed that the problem of digital exclusion will reduce as more users grow up digitally native and as network coverage expands. Yet, as many as one million people cut off their broadband last year for reasons of affordability, according to Citizens Advice – individuals with active accounts with public sector bodies who may now be losing access or experiencing reduced touchpoints.

Fluctuating levels of digital access are common in Justice, with some users experiencing the least ability to access services at times when they most need help.

• A victim of domestic violence or coercive control leaving an abusive partner will need not only access to justice, but also support in re-finding accommodation, employment, education, and other services. This could be at a point when they may also need to change their email address, phone number, erase their social media, and perhaps change devices to cease contact from an abuser. All of which greatly affects the ease with which they interact with digital services.
• Those who have experienced online fraud may need to change key details and devices at a point when this kind of crime may have severely impacted their confidence in using any sort of online service.

Providing effective digital services to citizens with the most complex and dynamic needs requires public service providers to continually learn about how their live services are being used. Integrating ongoing, iterative research that generates hypotheses can help providers explore new ways to support users as well as identifying when something’s not working as expected.

Such feedback loops should be systematically built into services by default. This would help service providers monitor current dynamic levels of access and, when necessary, route them to alternative avenues. This approach will ensure continuity of access even when life changes may be reducing their access to digital services.

All of the content, all of the time

From 2020-22, Sopra Steria worked closely with the Scottish Government on the design of its scheme seeking to provide Redress for Survivors of Historical Child Abuse in Care. This service created an avenue to justice for a group of individuals who had been repeatedly let down by public institutions and whose trust in government had been greatly damaged. Through this work, we learned about trauma-informed approaches and collaboratively developed a set of principles with researchers, consultants and psychologists that we are now applying more widely.

While many public service providers will be working to ensure that their website is accessible and their forms are in plain English, we’d argue that it is just as important to consider the content that is not online. What are all of the ways the public may access or engage with your service? The paper forms? The notice letters?

With a continued focus on public services being accessed through a browser, there are often areas that slip between the cracks of digital and traditional service provision.

For instance, have your call centre teams been provided with the same understanding of user journeys that have been built up in designing your digital channels? Or how many organisations really consider compassion in the tone of their chatbots? Or how to phrase some more sensitive questions with both brevity and empathy? So, really, how trauma-informed is your chatbot?

As public services seek to widen the routes by which citizens can contact them, applying content design approaches to each channel offered ensures ALL of your service remains accessible. No services should be built on mere assumptions, but systematic testing is especially critical when services need (or claim to be) trauma-informed.

Switch it off, switch it on again

It’s not just a user’s digital access that can be dynamic – their capacity to engage with services evolves too. Especially if the service has an emotional or traumatic experience tied to it.

Sopra Steria undertook a unique cross agency piece of work in the Scottish Criminal Justice Service, mapping both the victim’s experience and the flow of data across the various processes and agencies that make up the Scottish justice system.

A victim of crime often needs to re-count a painful experience multiple times to different agencies as a case progresses. From report to the police, through investigation, prosecution, court case, sentence and potentially release – often these processes can take place over months and years.

A key request from service users was the ability to reduce repetition of the same painful facts, to be able to take a short break from the process, and for some particularly acute touchpoints to have choice as to how they interact with public services.

Users drop out across Justice services – whether that be choosing not to support an ongoing criminal prosecution, or completing a Lasting Power of Attorney but not registering it.

Service design needs to better account for the emotional and mental challenges that users are contemplating when accessing services. In complex multi-agency processes taking a more blended omni-channel approach might enable users to control whether some aspects of the journey are undertaken digitally, or where they might need some verbal or face to face support; or enabling users to take a short break from a painful process and set a time frame and a channel by which to return to it  when they’re feeling more resilient.

Rather than asking them to repeat, to switch off and on their story, their emotions, their experience, the systems could be shaped around them. Given the complexity of the criminal justice system, the multi-agency nature of the data journey, this could be a priority area for co-designing public services with citizens.

In summary

The nature of crime is changing and the way that we as citizens engage with Justice Services is evolving. Building continuous ongoing user research into services, facilitating more blended access routes across multiple channels, and designing services around citizens rather than agency structures, will be critical to overcoming some of the ongoing digital and emotional barriers in accessing justice.

Originally posted here

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Sometimes it feels like the world turns very slowly. Then, suddenly there is a major shift that has immediate impact and changes our view of the world in fundamental ways. For many people, that is what we have experienced over the past few months.

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I’m simultaneously excited by the possibilities and nervous about the consequences of new technologies. PWC predicts that 30% of jobs could be at risk of automation by the mid 2030s. Goldman Sachs estimates that a quarter of all jobs could be done by artificial intelligence. 

Chat GPT itself isn’t always accurate, and can ‘hallucinate’ facts. Yet something has clearly shifted when everyone from journalists to scientists and charity fundraisers are asking how to use Chat GPT in their roles. 

How organisations like yours can make the most of emerging tech, such as Chat GPT, is on my mind. We’re asking charities and social sector organisations to share their views on this as part of the survey to build this year’s Charity Digital Skills Report, which tracks digital adoption, skills and support needs. We all need to develop the skills to make the most of emerging technologies. So which ones should we  grow? 

Tools such as Chat GPT offer huge opportunities because of their capacity to take on manual, repetitive tasks. This should free staff up to focus on the work that makes the biggest difference. Duncan Roberts, Senior Manager at Cognizant Research, counsels employees to look at where they can add value through creative problem solving or providing enhanced customer service. “For this reason, employees should focus on developing not their technical skills, but their soft skills, such as communication and emotional intelligence. In doing so, they’ll find the skills they develop complement the processing power brought by generative AI and other emerging technology,” explains Roberts. 

Which skills do you need?

The exciting thing about these tools is that they are within reach for organisations of all sectors and sizes. Over at veterinary charity PDSA, Gordon Miller, its Head of Digital, and his team are focusing on building skills in data literacy, familiarity with relevant programming languages, tools, and platforms, prompt engineering (ie the ability to craft effective prompts which get effective results from tools like Chat GPT) and horizon scanning so that new trends can be evaluated and prioritised. 

Manchester based relationships charity TLC: Talk, Listen, Change is  taking a holistic approach to emerging tech skills development for its staff. Staff are learning about the basic principles and ethical implications of AI, as well as coding. They’re also growing their soft skills, such as problem solving. These tools can feel like a big change, even to those of us who are confident with digital. To that end Michelle Hill, TLC: Talk, Listen, Change’s CEO says that she is, “focused on developing people’s comfort with taking risks and experimenting with new technologies.” 

This shows how changing people’s mindsets is as important as growing their skills. Technical skills are one thing, but the ‘soft’ skill of being comfortable with change is critical for digital progress. 

How are people learning about these skills?

Whilst most of the organisations I spoke to were offering staff training, they were also exploring different learning methods. 

At the PDSA Miller and his team, “have established a mentorship programme to foster knowledge-sharing and collaboration within our organisation.” In addition they have , “also had the benefit of working with some of the world’s leading developers in this space, such as Microsoft, who are helping us to hone our skills and utilise this technology in new and unique ways.” Ask your tech suppliers if they can offer you support with capacity building. If you’re a charity, why not ask tech companies if they’d be willing to volunteer to help build your skills? 

How can these skills be embedded?

Every digital skills programme also needs to be a change programme, and even more so when emerging technologies are involved. 

During a cost of living crisis it is really tempting to slash training budgets. However the organisations I spoke to were prioritising skills and learning. 

Miller told me , “we’ve learned that a continuous learning mindset is crucial for success in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Investing in the professional development of our staff and building relationships with large corporations that can support our team to grow has not only improved their technical skills but also boosted their morale and job satisfaction.” This is good advice for any organisation looking to improve staff retention. 

TLC: Talk, Listen, Change’s CEO is passionate about giving staff time to learn and innovate together. “80% of our biggest technology innovations and applications have come from the free project time we have provided to our Business Intelligence team,” says Hill. “They developed something small scale to show to the rest of the team just because it’s a cool process or applications that sometimes work or don’t and from this it creates new ideas or bigger solutions.”

Staff need space to learn emerging tech skills and put them into practice. 

What are the pitfalls?

Emerging technology is exciting, but it’s important to build in guardrails. John Fitzgerald, Digital Evolution Manager at SCVO, points out that one of the risks with tools like Chat GPT is its accessibility. “It’s really important to understand its limitations and the ethical issues it can throw up,” he advises. This includes the inaccurate information that Chat GPT sometimes generates. “So an understanding of the importance and limitations of data, and digital ethics are really important,” concludes Fitzgerald. 

This speaks to good practice in any form of digital skills development. Skills should never be seen as a discreet, transactional product.If we want staff to learn new skills we need to give them the tools for long term change.And that means our organisations need to change too.  

In the case of emerging tech skills this might mean an organisational digital ethics policy and factoring emerging tech into your board’s scenario planning. Above all we need to empower everyone to think critically about why, and how, we are using these tools. 

Emerging technologies offer huge opportunities for organisations of all sizes to develop new products and ways of working that create efficiencies and offer creative ways to help more people. The rapid rise of Chat GPT is a sign that the pace of technological development is quickening. Our organisations need to be prepared and skilled up for the future.

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ChatGPT is an application built using GPT-3 (and more recently GPT-4), which are large-scale language models developed by OpenAI. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer model.  The transformer part came from a paper in 2017 called “Attention is all you need”. The paper discussed how one can take large amounts of data and train a model to generate output. The ‘generative’ stands for making the next step in the message sequence. It is pre-trained and uses a transformer model, which is why it can give the impression that it can reason. However, it doesn’t reason as humans do.

The basic idea

Appreciating the simplicity of GPT is important, because this will allow you to understand its capability and limitations. Given an input sequence of information (GPT calls them tokens), it will try to predict the probability of what the next token will be. And it performs that repeatedly. Tokens aren’t words. They equate to about 4 characters each. So, you give it information, and it predicts and selects the next token and reiterates.

ChatGPT can give you an Illusion of Intelligence. It can refer to a limited amount of the conversation that preceded it. But it can’t currently fact-check itself. It is a sophisticated predictive system based on its training data and refinements over time. It does not possess any ability to reason. Don’t share its output without checking thoroughly. Try challenging its response; it may apologise and change its position.

How useful is ChatGPT?

Well, it depends on what you want to use it for. I think there are many use cases. Here are five:

1. Summarising long texts and articles

ChatGPT is particularly good at summarising long texts and articles. For example, you could paste some text and ask it to summarise the text in 50 words. The transformer architecture means that it is excellent for that. Don’t submit any information that is either sensitive, official, or personal because OpenAI collects all input to improve the system.

2. Answering questions on a wide range of topics.

The most widely used version of ChatGPT was trained on a vast amount of information and knowledge on a wide range of topics, from history and science to sports and entertainment up until 2021. Be wary of using it instead of search engines, and don’t use it for recent topics. It is good for creating content such as agendas or providing recommendations. Its output is only as good as the guidance you have given it. It takes skill and effort to hone your input.

3. Generating coherent and grammatically correct text

ChatGPT uses a neural network architecture called a transformer. And this helps it generate coherent and grammatically correct text by capturing long-range dependencies between words to maintain the context over long text passages. Don’t use the first response. Refine it with further clarifications as required. Be careful; there are significant risks when using it to generate text about a subject you know little about. There is a high probability that it can be convincing, but false.

4. Engaging in human-like conversations

It’s trained on previous chat sessions between humans and can be used for general webchat, though its depth of engagement can be shallow. There is huge potential here.

5. Translating text from one language to another

ChatGPT was pre-trained on parallel corpora text in multiple languages. These are texts in one language paired with translations in another language. This pre-training enables the model to have a strong understanding of the relationship between different languages and how they map to each other. Results can be impressive. It’s worth noting that there are dedicated models that may provide greater accuracy. Check the translation with a native speaker and be careful when translating complex or idiomatic phrases.

The pitfalls of ChatGPT

There are significant pitfalls associated with using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. These include issues related to:

• Accuracy and reliability
• Legal and ethical concerns
• Brand image
• Dependence on technology
• Lack of control over the content being generated.

What next?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) models will improve incrementally over time:

• Expect to see more use of multi-modal input, which we are already seeing; ChatGPT can handle text and images at the same time.
• More systems are being developed to use multiple chains of specialised models in concert so that you may ask ChatGPT to answer a mathematical problem and receive an answer generated by a mathematical model chained to ChatGPT.
• Improved interactivity and integration with voice-activated devices such as Alexa will lead to more seamless and natural interactions, supported by advancements in natural language understanding and processing technologies.
• There will be new computing technology advancements too in the realm of quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, advanced AI accelerators, and energy-efficient processors for AI and machine learning applications.

Originally posted here

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Offering an entirely unique playing field through which to reach global audiences, it should come as no surprise that brands quickly sought to find their virtual feet in the metaverse, with household and luxury names such as Nike, Gucci and Coca-Cola staking their flag in the virtual ground. But looking beyond marketing trends and considering the implications of these ecosystems on a social level, this lawless structure runs the risk of allowing antisocial behaviours to proliferate, and begs the question: how do brands navigate these spaces? At SHARE Creative, we conducted extensive social intelligence research to examine behaviours such as bullying to predict how Web 3.0 may compare to its more regulated predecessors on a granular level, mapping the safety of virtual worlds for users in the coming years as the technology continues to evolve – and what this means for brands. 

To anticipate how bullying might present itself in Web 3.0, we investigated how its predecessors spread across Web 2.0 in viral ways, from memes to video, and the real life effects of these behaviours. A key example of this is Rebecca Black, who at only 13 years old released a music video for her song ‘Friday’. Relentlessly criticised across social media and bullied, Black ended up leaving school, and astonishingly 76% of respondents to an InStyle survey revealed that they believed this cyberbullying to be justified. While keyboard warriors find security behind screens of anonymity, Black’s story and the public’s response to her American Dream attempt at stardom prove that cyberbullying is rife, particularly among (young) women. 

But it isn’t just Black – research conducted by the PEW RESEARCH CENTER revealed that 41% of U.S. adults have experienced online harassment, which jumps to a whopping two thirds in users under 30. Given that only 18% said they considered social media companies to be doing a good job at regulating safety in-platform, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to suggest that this problem may worsen in an even more virtualised world of avatars. Our own research corroborates the PEW findings as cyber safety concerns become more granular: the main pillars of concern for the metaverse among our respondents were racism; criticism of meta itself; privacy and security concerns; and the impacts of the metaverse on children. Draft legislation like the Online Safety Bill may be taking steps to remove the anonymity which online trolls often use as a shield, but in a purely virtual environment this doesn’t remove the fact that virtual actions often have real life consequences for those singled out while their aggressors remain hidden. 

Far from abstract concerns, these forms of abuse are already taking place: stories have begun to arise of women being harassed in the metaverse, and Meta’s own CTO has admitted that ‘moderating what people say and how they act in the metaverse at any meaningful scale is practically impossible’. To examine the scale of this phenomenon and how cyberbullying is discussed online, we conducted extensive social intelligence research with our proprietary AI algorithm to segment the conversation into underlying themes and key drivers. This unique research revealed that 10% of mentions were concerned with the potential of racism in addition to other forms of discrimination, while some 7% focused on the safety of children in the metaverse. So what next? If safeguarding isn’t a viable option in the metaverse, how do brands not only protect but empower these communities as they venture further into its digital folds and expand their marketing strategies to target new audiences? 

Given the nascent status of many Web 3.0 platforms this isn’t an exact science, and marketers will likely learn as they go, but they can draw inspiration from trusty Web 2.0 as a starting point. Just like any other brand taking a stand on social issues on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, the same may apply to brands in the metaverse – perhaps even more so considering the need even for established brands to make their mark. Effective stand out against competition in virtual spaces hinges on facilitating positive social interaction in the metaverse. In Web 3.0, the job of the community manager has reached new heights. By demonstrating their commitment to socio-ethical issues to protect users, and jumping into cultural moments, these community managers will help their brands cut through the noise with instant relevancy and catch the attention of younger, socially-engaged audiences in these gamified realms in the process. The brands themselves will arbitrate on safeguarding, rather than relying on external oversight or regulation. This brings a whole new dimension to brand stewardship, and with it, a whole host of possibilities.

If Web 3.0 is all about experience, then issues of bullying or harassment may be inevitable, but that isn’t to say that they can’t be mitigated. Brand purpose is becoming increasingly important in both digital and physical spheres due to overly saturated markets, and these businesses play an important role in empowering their communities to build a safe and engaging space. For many, the metaverse may well be a cause for concern, and yet there are already movements focused on wellness in Web 3.0, spearheaded by figures such as Shira Lazar, public speaker, blogger and founding member of BFF, a community that supports women’s involvement in Web 3.0.

Clearly, by virtue of its immersive nature, the curation of an experience is going to be paramount in the metaverse, and marketers should take heed. It isn’t just about selling a product or service anymore, but rather about creating engaged communities in real-time, which comes with a duty of care or at the very least a move away from the anonymous trolling of keyboard warriors and towards a more authentic, lived (albeit virtual) experience. To crack the code of metaverse success, marketers will need to look beyond the markets themselves and dig a little deeper to really understand the needs of the individual and the communities they want to build in the long term.

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