Kia ora koutou ITP members and supporters, welcome to this Friday’s digital pānui. I hope you all enjoyed these two short weeks - but isn’t it funny how short weeks feel long somehow. Todays editorial from Peter tackles the gnarly topic of cyber crime “The international nature of cybercrime can make it very difficult to track down the perpetrators of devastating hacking attacks and misinformation campaigns that can damage democracy.” We all know this stuff on one level, tackling it is another thing all together, Peter talks about the impact for indigenous data for instance - a massive and important topic in it’s own right. 

Speaking of challenges too enormous to tackle, earlier in the week Peter wrote a great insight piece into the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (the ACCC) approach to moderating the power “Big Tech” hold, noting the proactive approach the ACCC have taken to date. 

Other reading in this pānui includes why was TikTok banned on Government devices? An expert on why the security concerns make sense from David Tuffley. Coincidentally Brendan also turned his attention to this with The Alliance of the Bans cartoon.

Peter has also written up an overview of the recent announcement in the mobile coverage space - Goodbye mobile blackspots. One, 2Degrees gear up for satellite to mobile service - tldr you want to make a call or text message in the most remote and rugged parts of New Zealand you’ll generally be out of luck, unless you have a satellite phone, and this is announcing a new solution offering.

I had my 2nd meeting with Minister Ginny Andersen last week, this one focused on skills and talent, workforce growth and the digital technology education system. She is certainly doing a good job of meeting a wide and varied set of voices in our sector and is taking that on the road this next few weeks meeting initiatives around the country. Our next meeting will be a sit down on the governments role as an employer, the benefits for government on adopting a workforce planning approach for digital technology (as they have in place for other roles such as policy) and a framework for creating entry level roles. 

One thing the Minister also talked about was data, insights and transparency of government data. I had a fair bit of time to reflect on this while my mother in law had a medical emergency and we spent 22 hours in ED (more insight into that below). In the recesses of my brain I remembered NZ signing up to be a Digital Nation way back in 2014, the signatory was to the then D5 Charter, one that committed to adoption of (among other things): 

• Open Standards
• Open Source
• Open Markets
• Open Government (transparency) 

Where are we at with this I wondered? On DIA’s website there is an updated Charter link for the now Digital Nations, and I also found we have signed up to an International Open Data Charter here as well which looks to provide a great set of aspirations to guide agencies in their work programmes. Sadly there are no updates on how we are progressing towards the outcomes stated in these charters but I can see this on the agenda for my next meeting with the Minister. 

To round out my observations of our health experiences this week, this is not opinion just some data points from our experience: 

• We waited 60 minutes for an ambulance
• Once at ED waited a further 50 minutes for an ED bed with 2 x paramedics waiting for their bed back so they could leave
  • there were 5 ambulances in this queue Wednesday afternoon all with 2 paramedics waiting to hand their patients over
• 2.5 hours until my mother in law saw a nurse and had her wristband put on (first medical contact post ambulance)
• 8 hours in a corridor (midnight into a room)
  • For most of Wednesday night there were 18 beds in Wellington ED in corridors and some of those patients were still there all day Thursday 
• 10 hours until seeing a doctor (2am) who advised she would be admitted once a bed available in a ward
• 22 hours in ED before moving to a ward

Opinion now - everyone we encountered, the orderlies / security staff, the nurses aides, the nurses, the doctors, the consultants, paramedics - everyone was amazing and did an amazing job and are taking great care of her, they are however all time and data poor (in my opinion). It’s one thing reading the news stories, it’s another experiencing the staff shortages and pressure on the health system first hand. 

Finally in short things worth your attention. Last week ITP members got together to discuss Ethics, I have started a blog series on this really important topic with What is a Code of Ethics? An Otago Masters student is looking for people who work remotely in scrum development teams to respond to their survey. Reminder about our upcoming How to be an effective CIO course, there are still places, this is a great investment if you - or one of your colleagues or staff - should consider. 

Back to the hospital now for me. I hope you all have relaxing weekends. Ngā mihi Vic