In Praise of Communication

I've recently been contracted to work in London, city of my birth, of my bringing up, and of certain excesses during my 5 years here around the millennium. It's interesting to note the way that it has changed, especially when compared to my youth in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then the capital was a little more down-at-heel, a little more social; and socialist - I mean, our leader was "red" Ken Livingstone after all. And at the risk of sounding like an old fart - one who can't keep up with the times, I must admit that I think London was a far better place to exist back then. There were more spaces and structures through which to relate to your fellow woman or man. Symptomatic of the modern London (of which I'm about to get polemic on yo' ass) is the issue of communication. I'm not talking about rude cockneys or the silence of the Central Line - things have always been that way. No, the communication which I wish to dwell upon is of an altogether different nature.

IT Service? Welcome To The Social Sciences

Firstly, I must apologise for being such a diverse soul. There are readers who discovered this blog for postings about IT service management, others were drawn to it because they were interested in musings upon organisational (and other types of) psychology. I've even commented once or twice about social issues such as social luddism and racism which probably attracted others. The most recent posting was related to psychology, but touched upon phenomena currently considered to be at the far edge of the discipline - NDEs.

But buoyed by my recent talk at the Service Desk and IT Show in London (#SITS13) recently, I think it's time to go back to basics, or dare I say - back to ITSM (insert wink emoticon here). Although, with this particular post I'm going to have my cake and eat it; that is ITSM, psychology and sociology are all going to be wrapped up in one post, so it should keep all the diverse followers happy.

Psychology and NDEs - Light at the end of the tunnel?

I've had three encounters with near death experiences (NDEs) in the last week.

The first was reading an article in the Telegraph by Colin Blakemore who was very dismissive of the paranormal claims of NDErs. Then last Thursday I attended a talk as part of Sheffield's Off The Shelf literary festival. Author Linda Hoy was promoting her new book The Effect in which she argued that science and spirituality are converging. She spent a lot of time talking about NDEs. Finally today I read a very well-argued, enjoyable, but skeptical blog post by psychologist Christian Jarrett. His line of reasoning was that NDEs, are simply brain activity along the lines of certain types of drug use. He remains firm in the belief that the mind exists within the brain.

Monty: Anti-Quantic

The information age.

A new industrial revolution powered by silicon electronic technology, binary arithmetic and computer science.

I'm one of the worker bees of this epoch. You'll find me buried deep within the hierarchy of corporations composing symphonia of code on the plastic piano, or perhaps helping those already dependent on technology to cope when a malfunction occurs.

In my spare time I spend countless hours browsing the worldwide web via various devices: desktop - laptop - tablet - smartphone. Or I can sometimes be found dancing to music created on computers much like the ones that I work with. I play games on my X-Box, and when I shop, each purchase is recorded in large remote databases. Through these I become a segment score; my behaviour correlated with marketing campaigns, demographic pigeon holing and environmental conditions until I become a predictable unit of potential sales.

Greek crisis: Human freedom as the grit in the management machine?

I'm writing this in May 2012, which in the UK currently is much colder than one would expect of late spring. At the moment I am engaged on a data analysis contract, helping a national media corporation to roll out new product offerings to its customers. In the somewhat warmer corresponding period a year ago I was in wind-down mode after terminating my contract at a large banking organisation. The immediate future looked wonderful. I had a long vacation in the South of France planned for July and August during which time I would be writing a book about IT service. In preparation for that I was geared up to spend June ensconsed in Western Bank library (Sheffield University), reading and note-taking. It turned out to be quite idyllic. I would cycle the 5 miles down from South-west Sheffield (and it is down, my house is 500ft vertically above Sheffield city centre) to the library where I'd read, write, doze, and take the occasional stroll around the city.

Social Luddism?

By now most British internet users will be familiar with the YouTube video of Emma West expounding her controversial views about the ethnic makeup of the UK on a South London train. The video appears to have been shot on a mobile phone and quickly "went viral". Fascinating how what once would have been a purely local issue, a story to amuse colleagues with at work, became - through the power of these new technologies - a national news story and a case for the judiciary. For good or ill, big brother is certainly watching us, and yet with our personal recording equipment to hand, we ourselves are all the means of that surveillance.

'Tunnel Vision' or 'ITSM and the Passage of Time'

My career has taken many twists and turns over the years. However, in my work, technology has always been a constant. From analogue to digital electronics; assembly code through ansi C to visual languages; and desktop support into line management and ITSM. I've recently popped out of my umpteenth chrysalis and find myself fluttering my wings in the pretty garden of data and predictive analytics. ITIL seems like a distant dream (or is that nightmare?).