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How the Canadian Digital Service started…
A Made-in-Canada Approach
to Digital Government
The Case for Digital Government
Technological advances, coupled with the private sector's responsiveness to client demands have resulted in rising citizen expectations for digital service delivery. Financial institutions allow clients to quickly check balances, transfer funds or pay bills through mobile applications. Online retailers offer more selection, delivery on demand, and easy returns. Uber, Airbnb and other organizations active in the "sharing economy" are disrupting and overhauling established industries. In a digital era where citizens expect responsive and seamless service, governments must rise to the challenge. While private sector firms have shifted to a delivery model where "there's an app for that," too often the response from government remains "there's a paper form for that".
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines digital government as:
"…the rethinking of government policy, program and service delivery through digital enablers, as an integrated part of governments' modernization strategies, to create public value. [Digital government] relies on and enables an ecosystem that connects government, non-governmental organizations, businesses, citizens' associations and individuals to support the production of and access to data, services and content through interactions with the government."
Digital government extends beyond electronic service delivery and self-service. It touches every facet of how governments manage service delivery, and engage citizens and stakeholders – and leverages digital advances to allow citizens to access services anywhere, anytime. In the long run, digital government can help build stronger engagement and trust between citizens and government, and make public institutions more inclusive, effective, accountable and transparent.
When Government of Canada services began to be migrated online in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Canada was seen as a world leader. In the 2016 United Nations (UN) e-government index, Canada slipped three positions to a ranking of 14th overall – just behind other jurisdictions who have made significant efforts to reform digital service delivery (i.e. the United States who ranked 12th, and Estonia who ranked 13th). The United Kingdom and Australia ranked first and second overall, both having established distinct digital service organizations.
Despite the Government of Canada's early successes, there is room for improvement. The 2013 Fall Report of the Office of the Auditor General on Access to Online Services painted a picture of a disjointed and inefficient approach to digital service delivery in Canada, a point emphasized again in the 2016 Fall Report of the OAG which pointed out how few online services were focused on citizen needs. While the 2014 Policy on Service and a number of departmental initiatives to improve service delivery have helped address some of these issues, efforts need to be accelerated at a whole-of-government level for Canada to be a world leader again.
Organizational size, scope of change and complexity of delivery have been identified as factors that can slow government efforts to modernize service delivery, adapt to changing priorities and expectations, and take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by improved digital technologies and tools. Limited capacity to recruit, retain and harness top digital talent in public sector organizations exacerbates this lack of responsiveness. To remain relevant and responsive in a digital world, governments must accelerate their drive towards modernization and better exploit the potential of digital in its service design and delivery. This digital government transformation is not just about procuring the latest technology or redesigning websites or online services – it is about harnessing new technologies, skills, and approaches to modernize government, and by doing so, improve the lives of citizens.
What Other Governments are Doing
Governments worldwide and at every level are facing similar issues around digital transformation. Many countries have developed targeted strategies, to better leverage digital opportunities that can meet client needs and expectations. Many jurisdictions such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have also responded by creating dedicated digital service organizations that focus on:
- User-centric service innovation
- Rapid prototyping of digital solutions
- Procurement reform to deploy technological advances more effectively
- Better use of data to improve services and measure results
The mandates of these digital service organizations vary in terms of both scope and maturity. A scan of the experiences of other jurisdictions reveals:
- The United Kingdom launched the Government Digital Service (GDS) in 2011 to make services simpler, faster, clearer and digital by default. It made waves by working in full view of the public, and by using open source software and enlisting award-winning design expertise. GDS has also played a central role in managing IT spending across the UK government, reforming procurement systems for IT, and establishing digital standards to assess the quality of online services.
- New Zealand established the Digital Transformation Team in 2013 to work with agencies to adopt a user-centric approach and to deliver simpler, seamless, end-to-end services around important life events.
- The United States established 18F in 2014, along with the US Digital Service, to help transform the federal government's IT efforts and improve public-facing digital services. While the US Digital Service sits within the Executive Office of the President, the more project-based 18F operates in a cost-recovery model as part of the Technology Transformation Service of the Government Services Agency. Both teams use open source software extensively and recruit talent from both established technology companies and start-ups in places like Silicon Valley. Both US digital offices have also done significant work on procurement processes to allow for open source approaches and participation of smaller companies.
- The Australian government established the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA, previously the Digital Transformation Office) in 2015 to work with agencies to invest in technology that underpins digital services, to lead the transformation of government services to deliver a better experience for Australians, and to provide guidance and oversight on government IT spending. The DTA jump-started its work by adopting design standards and tools directly from GDS in the UK.
- Other governments have accomplished some significant, and in some cases ground breaking, progress, such as Estonia's e-Estonia Digital Society initiative. Estonia's digital infrastructure – including a citizen e-ID system, digital signatures, and X-road, a secure data exchange layer used by banks, other businesses, and public services alike – has a level of security and reliability that is unmatched around the world.
In Canada, Ontario has created the Ontario Digital Service within the Cabinet Office to lead the strategic implementation of the government's digital agenda and drive government-wide transformation. The Government of Ontario appointed a Minister responsible for Digital Government, and established a Deputy Minister-level position of Chief Digital Officer. There have also been examples at the municipal level in Canada of focused digital strategies and organizational reform, such as in Vancouver with the creation of a Chief Digital Officer to drive digital transformation across the municipal government or the City of Calgary's launch of its digital strategy in 2014.
Within the Government of Canada, the activities being conducted by central digital service offices in other countries are dispersed throughout the system and generally at lower levels of maturity. While the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) plays an oversight role on large IT investments and sets overall direction on service standards and the use of IT, ultimately it has been up to individual departments to determine how they use and incorporate technology or adopt digital approaches to support service delivery – as departments remain directly accountable for service delivery to their clients. While there are pockets of innovation across the digital service delivery landscape in the federal government, this has led to a patchwork of disconnected approaches and a lack of strategic direction. This makes it difficult for departments to apply user-centric approaches to service delivery, or to introduce agile methodologies that prototype and incorporate user feedback into the service development process in a consistent way. With recent commitments by the government to improve service delivery for Canadians, the time was right to start exploring what a Made-in-Canada approach to digital government should look like.
Starting a Conversation
on a Made-in-Canada
In September 2016, TBS began designing and undertaking a series of engagement sessions on digital government. The objective was to solicit input from stakeholders with a variety of backgrounds to inform a made-in-Canada approach to digital government. While not designed as a broad citizen consultation in the traditional sense, the exercise was intended to learn from the experience of other jurisdictions and gather input from stakeholders from coast to coast to coast.
In total, 20 cities and 10 provinces and territories were visited between September 2016 and February 2017. During this time, discussions took place with over 1,000 individuals, representing more than 200 organizations. These discussions largely took place with representatives from the following sectors:
- Provincial and municipal governments
- Technology sector vendors, start-ups, entrepreneurs, business incubators, and accelerators
- Civic Tech organizations, communities, and non-profit organizations
- Academic institutions, faculty and students
Caption: Map of Canada indicating cities visited
Feedback and input was also collected through a number of other channels, including email, bilateral meetings, tweets using the #GCdigital hashtag, and networking events. Discussions were also held with international peers from a number of countries who have undertaken digital transformation initiatives, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Estonia, New Zealand and Australia.
Four major themes were used to frame the discussions:
- Organizing to Deliver Digital
- Digital Talent
- Digital Service Design and Delivery
- Putting in Place the Right Foundations
In all cases, the results of these discussions were captured and categorized by theme to inform the key takeaways featured in this report. While each session focused on various topics depending on the participants, the four themes listed above capture the essence of the discussions. The remainder of this report is structured along these main themes, and identifies issues that were highlighted by stakeholders in these discussions as key considerations as the Government of Canada works towards a made-in-Canada approach to digital government.
to Deliver Digital
Looking at the experience of other public sector organisations, it has become clear that incorporating new digital tools, techniques, and approaches into traditional government organizations requires a fundamental reassessment of the traditional vertical accountability structures which characterize the public sector. As demonstrated by jurisdictions across the globe, there has been a move in recent years to organize digital transformation teams differently – to ensure that modernization efforts transcend departmental silos and have an impact at an enterprise level. In these cases, existing departmental mandates needed to evolve, along with leadership roles within the public sector, to enable efforts to establish dedicated capacity for digital transformation. These processes can be disruptive, making it important to ensure the pace of change is manageable within organizations.
The following five items surfaced through discussions with stakeholders across Canada related to organizing to deliver digital:
Focused Leadership
International best practices have illustrated the need for strong, horizontal leadership to drive digital transformation:
- Digital transformation agencies in other jurisdictions tend to be organized from central agencies (e.g. Cabinet Office, Treasury).
- Horizontal leadership was identified as being important to ensure that digital transformation can move beyond departmental silos, and that services reflect the needs of citizens who do not distinguish between departments or levels of government.
- In many cases, a dedicated champion was mentioned as being critical to help address barriers, create partnership opportunities and garner support across the enterprise.
Evolving Leadership Roles
A number of stakeholders shared that in recent years their organizations have seen an evolving role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the emergence of Chief Digital Officers (CDO):
- Traditionally, the CIO function has been the de facto leader for all IT-related functions within an organization. Over time, the responsibilities of CIOs have broadened to include any technology-related function. This mandate expansion is more and more untenable, as digital becomes a critical underpinning of every government program and service.
- A recent trend is the emergence of the CDO position, which is seen in a number of jurisdictions across Canada: the City of Vancouver, the Province of Ontario, and several federal institutions including Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and the National Film Board of Canada. While CIOs are focused on technology functions that relate to the back-office and cyber security, the CDO plays a larger role in business transformation and the use of technology to achieve citizen-facing service objectives. The reporting relationship between these roles varies from organization to organization.
Revolution versus Evolution
Striking the optimal balance between revolution and evolution was highlighted by a number of stakeholders as being an important consideration:
- The experience of some stakeholders was that the size and scope of the federal government makes it difficult to achieve large-scale transformation initiatives in short time frames, particularly in comparison to the fast-moving pace of the private technology sector.
- A number of participants raised that legitimate reasons exist as to why a revolutionary approach cannot be applied systematically. Some parts of government are meant to evolve slowly by design, and this is often reflected in their legislative and policy frameworks. In addition, mission-critical services that assure the safety and security of Canadians and their personal information must be maintained throughout any transformation process.
- Since some parts of government are able to move more nimbly than others, it was raised that incremental progress should be nourished and encouraged. The size and complexity of government as a whole should not prevent a willingness to undertake small steps towards improved digital service delivery where the right environment for success exists.
"Working in the Open"
Info box: A number of digital transformation teams have created blogs that share their strategic thinking, design and technical approaches, and results. The UK Government Digital Service blog began this trend in 2011, followed by the 18F blog and USDS blog in the United States, the DTA blog in Australia, and the Ontario Digital blog here in Canada. These resources allow digital teams within government to connect and share with the public, the technology community, and counterparts around the world.
The UK's digital transformation agency, the Government Digital Service has championed 'working in the open' since its inception, as a way to accelerate change across government. It was noted that other jurisdictions have since followed their approach:
- Digital transformation agencies in other jurisdictions have been working in the open through the use of blogs, social media, and the open sharing of code through open source platforms. This allows other departments and jurisdictions to re-use and adapt code and ideas, quickly and at no cost.
- As most departments, governments, and jurisdictions face similar issues, it was noted that 'working in the open' allows best practices to be replicated and scaled, along with solutions to challenges and failures. Reusing digital strategies, standards, and open source code also reduces costs and helps different parts of government coordinate, accelerate change, and support each other.
- Working in the open was also highlighted as being symbolically important, as it demonstrates a different approach to government where employees are trusted and empowered, rather than anonymized in favour of an institutional voice. This symbolic change was felt to be critical not just for earning the credibility and social licence needed to drive change, but also to attract and retain new and dynamic types of talent.
- This approach also demonstrates transparency and fosters greater citizen collaboration with government, both among the technology sector and the broader public. Similar to open government initiatives, efforts to work in the open can help strengthen trust and engagement between citizens and governments.
Better Services through Data
Data plays a critical role in informing and improving service delivery, despite complex policy and public perception issues surrounding data use and privacy:
- At their core, all services run on data, and the ability to use and share data is one of the defining characteristics of service delivery in the digital age. Data sharing enables the integrated, highly-personalized user experiences across digital platforms that citizens are increasingly accustomed to in the private sector.
- It was raised by many stakeholders that in some cases, specific legislative and policy barriers prohibit the sharing of data between government organizations and other levels of government. As much of the legislative and policy framework related to the protection of personal information dates its origins back to a pre-internet era, it was noted that the possibilities for personalized service delivery that could exist in the digital age were not anticipated in the existing 'web of rules' around data usage.
- The impact of perceived public opinion was also raised as a hindrance to rapid change in this area. While there is a widespread sense that the public holds government to a higher standard for data protection and usage than the private sector, little work has been done to explore these assumptions in a quantitative way. Without transforming the conversation about government use of data, it will be difficult to envision a significant leap in the integration and personalization of government services. Many stakeholders suggested that a broader conversation with Canadians around privacy and the use of personal information would be valuable.
Digital Talent
People are at the core of everything that government does, and technology is no exception. Within the Government of Canada, a significant number of people work on issues related to IT, including the more than 17,200 federal employees who are part of the Computer Systems (CS) classification. Stakeholders explained, however, that governments have struggled to keep pace with advances in digital technologies, both through maintaining and further developing the skills of its existing workforce, as well as recruiting and retaining the next generation of top talent. Amongst the more than 17,200 IT workers in the federal government, only 15% are millennials (compared to 24% of the overall public service workforce). The average age of CS employees has increased from 40 in the year 2000, to 46 in 2016. The Government has also struggled to maintain a diverse IT workforce: the percentage of women in the CS category has decreased from 30% in 2000, to 27% in 2016 – a trend that is even more significant among millennials – compared to the Public Service as a whole, which has a workforce of 55% women. These trends present a significant challenge, particularly in such a rapidly evolving field. Participants raised concerns that, without a concerted effort to renew its workforce, the Government of Canada will continue to fall behind in its ability to leverage new digital tools and technologies to meet rising citizen expectations.
Through engagement sessions held across the country, the following six items surfaced through discussions with stakeholders on digital talent:
Connecting with External Talent
The federal government needs to find better ways to connect external talent with internal opportunities:
- For many digital professionals outside of government, the overwhelming consensus was that they do not know how to navigate public service employment opportunities, or where to find competitive opportunities that meet their expectations within the public sector.
- While mechanisms like Interchange and newer flexible staffing regimes make it relatively easy and fast for hiring managers to bring outside professionals into government for short-term assignments or indeterminate employment, it was felt that these mechanisms alone are not sufficient to attract talent without a larger external branding and recruitment initiative.
- Even with the right hiring mechanisms in place, most public service managers would not know where to find new digital talent or vice-versa. There is a systematic need for a "talent matching service" role that can connect top-flight external digital talent – both new graduates and mid-career professionals – with opportunities within the Public Service of Canada.
Flexible "Tours of Duty"
Info box: Code for America was founded in 2009, and connects technology and design professionals with opportunities to improve digital public services in the United States. Code for America runs a program where small teams of developers and designers work within municipal and state governments for year-long fellowships, building innovative digital services and sharing best practices from the technology and design community with government counterparts. Since Code for America was launched, similar programs have been created in Australia, Germany, and a number of other countries around the world.
Stakeholders expressed that while many people within the technology sector are mission-driven and are looking for ways to have a tangible impact, they are in many instances looking for flexibility rather than permanent career options:
- A sense of mission was identified as being important for many individuals working in the tech sector. While generally not interested in long-term careers within large organizations like the federal government, these individuals are interested in solving problems – particularly ones through which they can see tangible improvements to public-facing services. The creation of programs like Code for America in the United States are very much driven by this concept. Much like military or volunteer service, many professionals are interested in serving their country, even for a short period of time.
- The often-expressed idea that government cannot offer competitive wages to compete for top tech talent would appear, at least in part, to be a myth based on feedback from participants. While a certain percentage of digital professionals are driven primarily by financial benefits that government would not be able to realistically meet, many more are looking for professional fulfillment and meaning that the public service can offer. At the entry level, it was also noted that within the flexibility available to hiring managers in the existing salary bands, these are relatively competitive with entry level positions in large tech companies.
- It was also identified from some participants that public sector work can provide an attractive intellectual challenge for those working in digital, data, and design fields, given the fact that the problems that governments tackle – at municipal, provincial, and federal levels alike – are in many cases large in scale and complex.
Info box: The United States' Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program is designed to attract innovators in the technology sector into 12-month terms within the federal government. The fellowship program is highly competitive, and attracts leading technology experts from across the United States. PIF fellows were instrumental in the creation of both 18F and USDS in 2014.
Engagement with Students and Universities
Participants expressed a concern that the federal government needs to engage with design and digital talent in universities and colleges differently and earlier, as traditional recruitment approaches lag behind private sector competitors vying for the same talent pool:
- While government has a competitive advantage in talent recruitment with regard to the sense of mission that it can offer, there was a consistently-expressed theme that there is fierce competition for the next generation of technology workers.
- The private sector was identified as engaging with the next generation of digital talent earlier and earlier, even putting in place programs to reach students at high-school or younger levels to build brand awareness for future career choices. Too often, post-secondary recruitment by government departments was seen to only take place as students are approaching graduation, by which point many will have attractive offers on the table from leading private sector firms and start-ups.
- While the federal government does take in student placements, these programs have largely been drawing from universities and colleges in and around the National Capital Region, given the geographical proximity to most departmental headquarters. Moreover, it was identified that there is a lack of engagement with computer science, data science, and design thinking programs, skills that are increasingly important for government and which have not been targeted in the same way as programs in public policy and administration.
New Models for Co-Creation
Info box: NETFILE provides an application programming interface (API), a software system that allows other companies to build tax filing software that can send information directly to the Canada Revenue Agency. NETFILE has created an ecosystem where a variety of vendors are providing digital tax filing solutions, competing on the ease of their user interface and the features provided, and simplifying the tax filing experience for Canadians as a result.
Through the engagement sessions it was suggested that there is an emerging "third-way" between developing solutions in-house or buying commercially, which leverages models for co-creation with civic tech communities using open source code:
- Traditionally, the federal government has either developed technological solutions in-house or procured services from the private sector. It was identified that relying too much on either approach has risks: building in-house can result in a failure to leverage state-of-the-art private sector solutions, while an over-reliance on outsourcing can lead to vendor lock-in and the atrophy of in-house technical capacity.
- The advent of open source platforms and distributed models of collaboration were pointed out as having opened up new possibilities for a hybrid model that enables co-creation between government, civic technology communities and/or start-ups and entrepreneurs.
- It was noted by stakeholders that these approaches are not mutually exclusive. Given the sheer size of the Government of Canada's technology requirements – with more than $5 billion in annual IT spending – a mix of building, buying, and co-creating will be required to deliver on the government's digital needs.
- It was also encouraged by some for consideration to be given to the "Government as a Platform" notion coined by Tim O'Reilly and explored further by GDS in the UK. The Government of Canada has taken some early steps in this direction, most notably through the Canada Revenue Agency's NETFILE program.
Talent Beyond the National Capital Region
Digital professionals expressed that if they are interested in working for the federal government, they shouldn't need to be physically located in Ottawa:
- It was pointed out that requiring digital talent to live in the National Capital Region reduces the government's opportunities to work with Canada's best and brightest. New models that were identified to explore include establishing "innovation outposts" that bring together different jurisdictions and external talent in a collaborative manner.
- It was noted that a number of organizations – including financial institutions and large retailers – are moving towards a model where their digital innovation teams are located outside of corporate headquarters. This creates an opportunity to build a different culture, and also allows these organizations to tap into talent in different regions of Canada.
- Many individuals expressed that moving to the National Capital Region to work for government – even for a year or two – would be a significant disincentive. Digital talent in Canada is dispersed across the country, with significant technology hubs in many cities and regions. Participants encouraged the federal government to find ways to tap into talent wherever it is based, not just where the government's existing offices are located. Modern technologies enable employees to work virtually and the Government of Canada should have a national footprint to help sustain the economic viability of local communities.
Fostering Leading-Edge Talent within Government
The public service needs to better leverage the talent already in government, by enabling innovation from within and fostering next-generation communities of practice to improve digital skills:
- Given the large IT workforce within the Government of Canada, opportunities to better harness the existing talent base were identified as an important need. Programs like the GCconnex Jobs Marketplace, NRCan's Free Agent pilot, and micro-missions are a start, but there is a need to go further.
- Continuous learning was an important takeaway from these discussions. Particularly for the existing CS workforce within the federal government, finding ways to build digital capacity and promote professional development is increasingly important. Many of the areas of expertise now emphasized within the private sector – particularly user-centric design, cloud computing, and agile development skills – were identified as still being rare within government. It was offered by a number of participants that building up the skills and expertise of the CS workforce could take place through strategies that include mentorship, coaching, workshops, exchange or rotational programs with other jurisdictions, and job shadowing.
- Beyond the CS workforce, it was identified that there is a need to improve digital literacy across the public service. Given that technology increasingly underpins nearly all policy issues, programs and services, public servants at all levels require basic knowledge of how technology works to provide sound advice and make informed decisions.
Digital Service Design
and Delivery
Developing the next generation of services to Canadians in the digital world means, above all, taking a user-centric approach to design and delivery. While this would appear to be common sense on the surface, it was often pointed out that this approach runs contrary to how governments often tend to operate. Based on the experience of other jurisdictions, focused effort is required to institutionalize new ways of working, by changing the incentives, processes, and the culture of departments. Without these reforms, adopting modern online tools for service delivery amounts to only superficial enhancements to the existing system. More profound changes are required to be able to improve how government delivers services in the digital age, from the user-interface to departmental processes and the data and infrastructure that underpin government programs and operations.
Through engagement across the country, the following five key items surfaced through discussions with stakeholders.
User Needs First
Putting user needs at the centre of all service design was broadly identified as essential, and requiring an understanding of the implications for the culture, incentives, and structures currently in place in government:
- Participants underlined that service design traditionally conducted within government tends to put the needs of departments ahead of the needs of users. Reversing these processes will require a significant culture change.
- A number of jurisdictions around the world have developed expertise in institutionalizing user-centric design approaches, and the Government of Canada can learn from and build on these experiences. The key to many of these successes has been sustained leadership and a willingness to challenge assumptions and change existing processes.
Iterative Approaches
Info Box: The UK's Government Digital Service (GDS) team put in place four standard Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess all of the UK government's online services: cost per transaction, user satisfaction, completion rate, and percentage completed online. This allows GDS to evaluate improvements and changes to these services. In the spirit of working in the open, GDS makes these KPIs publicly available online on a real-time performance dashboard. The Australian Digital Transformation Agency adopted the same four KPIs, creating a consistent approach that could be used to assess digital services in many jurisdictions around the world.
The importance of iterative approaches that build on user feedback at all stages was identified as a key success factor:
- The waterfall development methodology – a non-iterative design process used in software development in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards from concept, to implementation and maintenance – and the drive for "big release and announcement" approaches for many government IT and service delivery initiatives were identified as a major barrier to user-centric service design and delivery.
- Respondents noted how the private sector has taken much more of an "alpha-beta" testing approach – to start small and iterate in software and service design. By definition, this means releasing products that are not fully finished, and improving them as they are tested by end-users. This, in turn, requires government to take on a different type of risk tolerance.
- It was also noted that iterating successfully requires access to user feedback and data on a continuous basis. A number of stakeholders identified the benefits of not only having consistent baseline data across online service offerings, but also the beneficial competitive pressures that can be introduced by making that data available publicly, in real-time whenever possible. It was noted that, in order to accomplish these types of public digital service dashboards, common standards and methodologies for data across services are required, which can be built into software designs to automate data collection and publishing.
Building User-Centric Design Skills
A number of stakeholders identified a skills gap that needs to be addressed in the public sector at the intersection of user-centric design and agile prototyping and development:
- Respondents noted how user-centric design approaches – such as client journey mapping – can be non-digital in nature, even as they play a key role in transforming how governments deliver online services to citizens.
- Others underlined how user-centric design is generally not a skill that the federal government hires for, or formally incorporates into organizational structures. Embedding user-centric design thinking into the organization, and incentivizing and measuring its use, was identified as a potential priority to help drive digital transformation.
Digital Design Standards
Info box: Digital design standards have become a key tool as governments improve the quality of their online services. The UK Government Digital Service published a Digital Service Standard with 18 criteria, which emphasize a focus on user needs, the use of agile methods, open source, and open standards, and performance measurement and testing. Other countries have taken similar approaches: the US Digital Service created a Digital Services Playbook, aimed at increasing how often digital projects are successful, and Australia's Digital Transformation Agency established a Digital Service Standard inspired by the UK model.
Digital design standards can drive change across the whole-of-government, but need to be tailored to the Canadian context. This includes a focus on issues such as accessibility, low-bandwidth access, and official languages requirements:
- Feedback included how many jurisdictions around the world have put in place digital design standards to drive digital adoption and improve the quality of online services. These standards, particularly when mandatory, can play a key role in changing strategies and behaviour across large organizations.
- In the Canadian context, specific issues were identified as needing to be taken into account in the creation of such standards. Federal government requirements related to web accessibility are some of the most robust in in the world and need to be adhered to. Given the geographical reach of Canada, there are also significant regions of the country with low-bandwidth or limited internet access, which needs to be taken into account in the development of design standards. Official Languages requirements also apply to any digital services created by the federal government.
Scaling and Sharing Innovations
Central leadership was often mentioned as being important to help scale innovation by connecting ideas, best practices, and opportunities across the whole-of-government and other jurisdictions:
- While there are pockets of innovation in the Government of Canada, many participants with experience working with the federal public service noted the lack of dedicated resources mandated to scale innovation across the system.
- The cross-Canada engagement sessions revealed that outside of the federal government, there are significant innovations happening at the provincial and municipal levels. At the same time, international governments offer a deep source of experiences and best practices that can be adapted to the Canadian context. There was a need identified to collaborate in real-time across jurisdictions to share ideas and solutions.
Putting in Place the
Right Foundations
As the Government of Canada improves its use of digital technologies, it must ensure that the foundational technological elements needed to succeed are in place. In 2016, TBS released a new IT Strategic Plan and Cloud Adoption Strategy, which provide direction on some of these foundational elements. However, it was noted that not all parts of the Government of Canada IT ecosystem are evolving at the same pace, making it difficult for the Government as a whole to harness the full potential of digital transformation. Feedback from participants and the experience of other jurisdictions underlines that the right horizontal enablers need to be in place to build a truly digital government.
The following five key issues surfaced through discussions with stakeholders:
Challenging Procurement Practices
Info box: In 2016, the City of Guelph launched a new Civic Accelerator program, that connects innovative start-up companies with municipal departments to solve city challenges. The program allows selected start-ups to collaborate with, learn from, and test their new technology solutions with city staff in real-world applications. City staff, in turn, can experiment with and assess creative potential solutions outside of the traditional procurement process. The two initially-selected start-ups have now completed the year-long program, and are bringing their solutions into the market.
Existing procurement practices were identified as preventing small scale, iterative development with the private sector, and as making it difficult for start-ups and non-traditional players to work with government:
- Feedback received indicated that existing IT procurement practices present a number of roadblocks to smaller players. Generally, large-scale Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are issued to minimize how frequently a department needs to go to market. These large RFPs prevent smaller organizations from applying, given the scale, complexity, and associated resource requirements. Providing guidance on how to do iterative and smaller-scale procurement, including for open source software solutions, similar to 18F's micro-purchase framework or GDS' Digital Marketplace, was raised by many of the stakeholders.
- Many start-ups demonstrated interest in working with governments in non-traditional ways, to help solve problems while proving their business models. The federal government remains one of the largest potential markets in Canada for businesses, and many start-ups expressed that while they would welcome the opportunity to work with government, they don't believe they have an opportunity or mechanism to do so. Participants proposed solutions such as government releasing "problems" or "challenges" for which start-ups can pitch solutions – similar to the Civic Accelerator models that the cities of Guelph and Montreal have been piloting.
Info box: Montreal's start-up community launched InnoCité MTL in 2015, an incubator program that accelerates start-ups specializing in urban innovation and smart cities. InnoCité MTL partners start-ups with the City of Montreal and other institutions and companies in the city, helping them develop and improve their products with real-world data and guidance from experts. Several of InnoCité MTL's start-ups have now become internationally-competitive technology companies.
Cloud and Open Source Technologies
The use of cloud and open source technologies were identified as foundational elements for digital innovation:
- Many industry representatives expressed that while the publishing of TBS's Cloud Adoption Strategy in 2016 was an important first step, there remain significant barriers to government use of cloud computing. At the provincial and municipal level, uncertainty about data residency requirements for use of cloud computing was identified as having slowed the adoption of innovative cloud services.
- Participants underlined that open source platforms have become an increasingly important foundational element for digital transformation in public sector organizations across the world. Digital transformation teams in the US and the UK have emphasized the critical role of open source in their successes to date, with the UK's Government Digital Service appointing an Open Source Lead who spearheads efforts to collaborate and share with open source communities around the world.
- While the Government of Canada has taken initial steps towards the use of open source, there remains a lack of familiarity and comfort with the use of open source across the organization as a whole. Key open source projects include the Web Experience Toolkit and the internal GCconnex collaboration platform, which have since been adopted and built upon by other jurisdictions. At the 2016 Open Government Partnership Summit, the Government of Canada committed to share its experiences with open source collaboration platforms, and to convene a virtual conference on open source in government.
Info box: The City of Saskatoon developed its new city website based on the Web Experience Toolkit, a set of visual templates and tools designed to create websites that are accessible, interoperable, mobile-friendly and multilingual. The Web Experience Toolkit was developed by the Government of Canada and is published on GitHub as an open-source project, allowing other organizations to easily re-use and adapt the toolkit for their own websites.
Digital Identity
Digital identity was identified as a key building block to enable better digital services across the Government of Canada and between jurisdictions:
- One of the foundational elements for digital service delivery is digital identity: unless a citizen can easily confirm who they are online, they cannot access services that require identity validation. While any department providing online services currently uses an authentication method of some kind, a lack of consistency across federal government departments was identified. Similarly, a lack of consistent approaches was noted as preventing the use of a shared digital identity that could enable citizens to access services across levels of government.
- There has been some progress on digital identity in recent years that was noted, including Cyber Authentication Renewal and standardized authentication services of SecureKey Concierge and GCKey. These services allow users to use their credential of choice from selected financial institutions or from the Government of Canada to access online government services. The Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada also recently launched a program that allows users to easily switch from one department's secure website to the other, without signing in again. Other progress includes the development of the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework, which standardizes processes for trusting digital identities across jurisdictions.
- Despite these foundational elements, many participants expressed a desire for the federal government to play a stronger leadership role, and to pilot digital identity solutions across jurisdictional boundaries.
Legacy Systems
One of the issues raised by many public sector stakeholders was the struggle that governments have with the need to maintain mission-critical legacy systems while at the same time experimenting and prototyping new solutions in an agile way:
- The Government of Canada – like many other jurisdictions – continues to maintain thousands of legacy IT systems that underpin mission-critical services. While some departments have programs in place to modernize these systems, legacy infrastructure must be maintained until services can be fully migrated to modern platforms.
- Participants underlined that while integrating state-of-the-art digital services with older platforms presents a variety of challenges, work can still be undertaken to build client-facing, user-centric services that are connected to legacy systems.
- Governments are not alone in facing these challenges. It was noted that financial institutions provide a useful point of comparison, as they face similar issues related to organizational size, culture, and dependency on legacy systems. Despite these challenges, many financial institutions have successfully modernized client-facing services dramatically over the past decade, despite maintaining a variety of legacy IT systems behind the scenes.
Digital Literacy
Info box: Ladies Learning Code is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to promoting collaborative, technological learning among women and youth. The organization runs workshops that teach coding and technical skills, and plays a significant role in improving digital literacy in Canada. Ladies Learning Code runs workshops in more than 30 cities across Canada, and more than 25,000 people have participated since the program's launch in 2011. In 2016, the organization announced a new initiative – Canada Learning Code – that aims to teach digital skills to 10 million Canadians within the next decade.
Broader digital literacy was identified as being needed across government, at all levels and functions, to support smart decision-making in a world where increasingly all policy issues, programs and services have a digital component:
- Many stakeholders emphasized that digital literacy needs to become a core skill for every public servant. Public servants at all levels need to understand how technology works to provide sound advice and make good decisions. By extension, digital literacy is critical to understanding the viability, level of effort and cost associated with migrating to new solutions and effective oversight of IT-enabled projects in government.
- It was also raised that the issue of digital literacy should be considered as part of the intake of new public servants. The basics of technology management and coding were identified as something that should be incorporated into the curriculum of public policy schools, in the same way that statistics and economics are now emphasized as part of the basic toolkit of public servants who advise on policy and manage programs in governments.
Continuing the
This report is only the beginning of an ongoing conversation on digital government. As work to develop a made-in-Canada approach to digital government continues to evolve, your feedback and ideas will play an essential role in keeping efforts focused on the needs of citizens. In many ways, this work aims to contribute to a broader sharing of experiences and learnings on digital initiatives, in the spirit of working in the open – from all levels of government and from private sector, academic, and community partners.
If you have ideas on digital transformation, digital service delivery, or any of the topics above, please keep in touch. Share your thoughts by sending an email to: email@example.com
You can also reach out to us on Twitter at @CDS_GC or by using the #GCdigital hashtag.
The thoughtfulness, time, and ideas that were contributed to the discussion by all stakeholders are greatly appreciated. The contributions of provincial and community partners who helped facilitate and host meetings across Canada were also very much appreciated. This process is the beginning of an ongoing dialogue and collaboration that will allow us to continually learn from each other's efforts to build better digital services for all Canadians across the country.


text:
Pro Desk Team is available at:
Extensions: 303, 304 & 305
Outside Sales Professional:
Since 1982, Forest Tek Lumber & Overseas Lumber Supply have been delivering high quality lumber, hardware and building materials to the entire Florida Keys.
Our Pro Desk team is available 6 days a week, and are readily available in person, by phone as well as email.
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Delivery is available for every address in the Florida Keys for only $17.
Manufacturers We Trust
Pro Desk Team is available at:
Extensions: 150, 151 &152
Outside Sales Professional:

subset: commoncrawl


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Apple works hard to make its software secure. Beyond primary protections that prevent malware infections in the first place, company engineers also build a variety of defense-in-depth measures that are designed to lessen the damage that can happen once a Mac is compromised. Now, Patrick Wardle, a former National Security Agency hacker and macOS security expert has exposed a major shortcoming that generically affects many of these secondary defenses.
In a presentation at the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas over the weekend, Wardle said it was trivial for a local attacker or malware to bypass many security mechanisms by targeting them at the user interface level. When these security measures detect a potentially malicious action, they will block that action and then display an alert or warning. By abusing various programming interfaces built into macOS, malicious code could generate a programmatic click to interact or even dismiss such alerts. This "synthetic click," as Wardle called it, works almost immediately and can be done in a way that is invisible to the user.
"The ability to synthetically interact with a myriad of security prompts allows you to perform a lot of malicious actions," Wardle told Ars. "Many of Apple's privacy and security-in-depth protections can be trivially bypassed."
With the ability to generate synthetic clicks, an attack, for example, could dismiss many of Apple's privacy-related security prompts. On recent versions of macOS, Apple has added a confirmation window that requires users to click an OK button before an installed app can access geolocation, contacts, or calendar information stored on the Mac. Apple engineers added the requirement to act as a secondary safeguard. Even if a machine was infected by malware, the thinking went, the malicious app wouldn't be able to copy this sensitive data without the owner's explicit permission.
Though many of Apple's security alerts attempt to detect and ignore synthetic clicks, Wardle discovered that the privacy alerts, even on a fully updated High Sierra system, were not protected. "What is the point of displaying an alert, if malware can simply dismiss it?" he asked.
In the past, malware has abused such synthetic clicks to perform a variety of nefarious actions. For example, the sneaky Genio adware, DevilRobber currency mining malware, and the insidious Fruitfly malware that stole millions of images from infected Macs over a 13-year period all used synthetic clicks to bypass defense-in-depth warnings.
Apple responded to these in-the-wild wares by improving the security of its operating system. Now, in recent versions of macOS, security alerts and prompts will ignore synthetic events. At least that was the idea. In his presentation, Wardle first illustrated how an attacker could abuse a feature of macOS called "mouse keys" that would convert keyboard keypresses into mouse movements. Mouse keys lets a user move a mouse up, down, to the right or left, or in diagonal directions by pressing certain keys as diagrammed below:
However, Wardle illustrated how an attacker or malware could also leverage "mouse key" events to generate synthetic mouse clicks that would be accepted, even by "protected" security alerts. After creating a proof-of-concept attack that could interact and dismiss the keychain's access prompt and dump a user's unencrypted passwords and private keys, he reported the issue to Apple, which released a supplemental update to patch it as CVE-2017-7150. Now "mouse keys" are ignored by security alerts, and keychain access always requires a user's password.
But even after Apple issued the patch, the warnings could still be bypassed. While testing an older attack, Wardle incorrectly copied and pasted some code. Without realizing the mistake, he ran the code, which to his amazement allowed him to post synthetic clicks to security alerts, even on a fully patched High Sierra system. Digging deeper, he realized that his buggy code was sending two mouse "down" events (instead of the typical mouse down, mouse up event).
"The system converts the second mouse down event to a mouse up event" he noted. "But since this mouse up event is generated by the system, it is allowed to interact with security prompts." As a result of this issue, Wardle was able to completely bypass the warnings when doing a variety of things that have serious security and privacy consequences. The most worrisome is bypassing a newly introduced Apple security mechanism designed to prevent the programmatic loading of "kexts," which are kernel extensions that interact with the core of the macOS.
Apple representatives didn't respond to an email seeking comment for this post. Wardle, for his part, said the bypass raises questions about how the company rolled out the improvements. "I wasn't trying to find a bypass, but I uncovered a way to fully break a foundational security mechanism," said Wardle, who is the developer of the Objective-See Mac tools and chief research officer at Digita Security. "If a security mechanism falls over so easily, did they not test this? I'm almost embarrassed to talk about it."
This post was rewritten for clarity and grammar fixes.


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Join Dave & Molly and a panel of creatives as they work along with audience chat to write and finalize a short sketch during the show's two-hour run time. Between episodes, the sketch will be recorded and presented to the audience the next week! Tune into INT. Writer's Room every Monday at 4PM on G&S Live!
Dungeon Masters are a hybrid class: little bit writer, a little bit producer, and a little bit actor at the table. The best ones know how to think on their feet because tabletop RPG stories grow out of the action/reaction of the players as well as their contributions to the fiction. Few players will have Robin Williams or Tina Fey as their Dungeon Master, but these legends got to where they were thanks to several rules of improvisation from places like The Second City and The Groundlings. We've chosen a critical few of these rules that Dungeon Masters can apply to their games along with how they specifically apply to tabletop games.
Say Yes
This is the big rule of improv. When someone makes a choice in a scene, go with it. So often, Dungeon Masters fight what their players want to do because they have a specific vision for their story. That can mean both the small choices like requiring the PCs to do a specific thing to move a scene forward or large choices like setting up plots that players don't engage in. When a Dungeon Master says no, that endangers player buy-in and disrupts the flow of the game.
Saying yes doesn't mean giving the players everything they want. This rule has risen in various gaming spaces as Say Yes or Roll the Dice. This particular version lets GMs say yes until the players get to a point where failure has some interesting meaning beyond "no". Then the dice come out and the story continues on whatever path the dice say they it should.
Yes Is Good, "Yes And…" Is Better
The players and the Dungeon Master are both contributing to the story at the table. Much as players build on and react to things the Dungeon Master says, so too should the Dungeon Master build and react to what they players do. It can be very easy to get specific when a player asks if they can do something and use the rules as a justification why they can't. Or the Dungeon Master can let the players run with their crazy plan and build on the consequences.
This rule also highlights a favorite dirty Dungeon Master tactic; Sometimes, The Players Have A Better Plot Than You. Dungeon Masters should listen during those scenes where the players get back to their tavern or tower and discuss what's going on. They might make a good argument for why the duke is the vampire instead of the duchess. They might remember a detail from three sessions ago that the Dungeon Master overlooked. Building on the player's plot here—saying "Yes, And…" to their theory—not only makes them feel smart for figuring out the story, it makes for a smoother transition between scenes.
Make Statements
Building the story requires there to be story elements in place. The Dungeon Master usually gets the first crack at these because they have the plot in mind. Asking the players can often be helpful for ideas but at the end of the day the Dungeon Master says what's in the room or what the lord of the castle looks like. These statements can be big or small.
There's an element of confidence here that many first-time players and DMs struggle with. People new to the RPG scene often talk about how they are afraid to say or do things because they don't want to be wrong or embarrass themselves in front of others. But Nobody Knows You've Messed Up Unless You Let Them. Dungeon Masters aren't infallible, but as long as they make confident statements and stick to them, the game will continue to flow.
There Are No Mistakes
In an improv scene, there isn't time to go back and fix things. Everything is about forward momentum. Dungeons & Dragons sessions also thrive on that momentum. Stopping to look up a rule or class feature can kill the flow of the game, so sometimes its best for the Dungeon Master to make a ruling in play and then clarify it after the game.
Rulings, Not Rules allow the DM to be flexible at the table, but should also take the time afterward to explain to players if the ruling in play was incorrect. It's okay to play a rule one way and then change the rule later, so long as those changes are clearly communicated with the rest of the table.
Watch and see how the crew on INT. Writer's Room on Twitch uses these rules to make their sketches work!
What is your favorite improv acting story? Let us know in the comments.
Feature Image Credits: Wizards of the Coast
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He writes about kaiju, Jedi, gangsters, elves, Vulcans and sometimes all of them at the same time. His blog is here, his Twitter is here and his meat body can be found in scenic Milwaukee, WI.


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Phil Jackson's Age: an Asset Or a Liability?May 2, 2009
I want to start by saying that Phil Jackson is a great coach with tremendous success. As a coach, Jackson has nine NBA Championships, 11 NBA Finals appearances, over 1,000 regular season wins and a career regular-season winning percentage higher than .700.
Those numbers are incredible; to top it off, his current team is the number one seed in the Western Conference.
But right now, as the playoffs unfold, one has to ask: is he an asset or a liability?
When one thinks of a top-notch coach, a coach who is breaking his back to get his team any edge he can, diagramming plays, watching film until three in the morning. Does that sound like Phil Jackson?
Phil Jackson is sixty three years old. He has coached over a thousand games and played for roughly ten seasons (not counting the season he sat out).
He makes $10,000,000 a year. Let me just repeat that: he easily makes more money than President Obama and any other NBA coach.
And my question is: is Phil Jackson going to work as hard as Erik Spoelstra?
Erik Speolstra is thirty eight years old. This might be the only chance he gets to be an NBA head coach. If he either messes up end-of-game situations, manages Dwayne Wade's minutes poorly, or doesn't notice a key matchup, he could get a reputation as a bad coach.
There are a hundred assistants in the league with gleaming records waiting for the next coach to get fired. Maybe even one on the Heat's bench right now.
Many coaches come and go quickly in the NBA.
Avery Johnson won the Coach of the Year in 2006 for the Mavericks and owner Mark Cuban; he was fired two years later and he is currently an ESPN analysit. I am sure that Spoelstra knows this.
So who is working harder right now? I mean right this instant as you read this. Who is more likely to be working right now?
Is Phil Jackson up at night anxiously watching film and poring over statistical breakdowns, or is Erik Spoelstra, a man whose job security depends on Pat Riley, Micky Arison, and sports journalists, desperately trying to figure out how to win game 7 between Atlanta and Miami?
I'm not saying that Coach Jackson isn't going to give it his all. I'm saying that 100 percent from a 63-year-old multi-multi-millionaire isn't the same as 100 percent from a desperate 38-year-old coach. Teams often take on the demeanor of their coaches.
Do the Lakers look like they are playing desperately to you?
There is also the subject of in-game management. Might Phil Jackson miss a minor detail? As the hundreds, nay thousands, of games he has coached and played in blend together, could he become simply less alert and tuned in to what is happening? He does not look as engaged as Stan Van Gundy or Vinny del Negro.
Consider this: on March 17th, 2009, the Sixers and Lakers played in L.A. Los Angeles lost in the final seconds as Andre Iguodala hit a three-pointer over Trevor Ariza. The Lakers had a foul to give and apparently discussed the right strategy at the end of the game.
Ariza didn't foul and Iguodala made the three-pointer. After the game coach Jackson said "I don't know if Trevor fully understood when I said we had a foul to use, because he did not use it."
The last thing I will ask is this: was it Ariza's fault, or was it Jackson's? At first read I thought it was Trevor Ariza's, but is that correct? Think about it. Whose fault was it?


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Let's take a look at how orthodontists are tackling their AdWords account in Durham, NC.
First up, we have an ad from Smith Orthodontics.
Couple things jump out at us that we love about this ad. Of course, we love that the term Orthodontist is used prominently in the headline. Give the people what they want, right? We also love that the Google ad site extensions are used show they are physically located in Durham, NC makes this Google ad more relevant. We also like the language "Walk Out With A New Smile". That is a great emotion trigger that helps the patient think less about braces and more about the great smile in their future. We also like that they indicate this is not just your "kids orthodontist" and in fact, they have treatments for every age. The only thing that is a bit confusing to us is the ad promotes "Burlington" which appears to be about 25 miles away from Durham. This search was done on a Durham-based device so typically it would be best practice to promote "Durham Orthodontist" but because we are not experts in North Carolina geography we will withhold judgment. Who knows maybe there's an epidemic of crooked teeth in Burlington and they work in Durham?
Next, we found an ad for Peter A. Costalos, Orthodontics on the 2nd page of Google. There are two big problems with this Google ad.
First, you will notice the Google ad is only 3 lines and does not offer much information. Here's what is way worse. This search was done on a device in Durham, NC but the ad is for an orthodontist based in Brooklyn, NY. Hopefully, this was just a temporary Google server glitch. But, it is a good reminder to all dentists and orthodontists to make sure their Google Adwords account is set up to only show ads locally.
Next up have, Hershey & Heymann Orthodontics.
As usual, we like the Orthodontist is prominently us in the headline. We also like that this dentist promotes that they are an Invisalign Elite Provider. That tells the reader a couple things. Invisalign available? – Yes! Plus, the language "Elite Provider" implies this is not just a "run in the mill" orthodontist but instead has elite certifications. There something we don't like about the punctuation in the first line. "Creating Beautiful Smile for You" should end with a "." or "!". Instead, it just blends into call today and looks strange and loses its punch. Finally, we like that the ad indicates there are three locations including Durham, NC. This is a great way of showing this is larger orthodontist that likely has modern technology. (not a small one man show)


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This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2013)
|May 22, 1989
|To maintain and develop the Internet and its unique characteristics. RIPE's activities in Internet governance are based on a commitment to enhance the cooperation between the public and private sectors.
|Mirjam Kühne
Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE, French for "European IP Networks") is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. The RIPE community's objective is to ensure that the administrative and technical coordination necessary to maintain and develop the Internet continues. It is not a standards body like the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and does not deal with domain names like ICANN.
RIPE is not a legal entity and has no formal membership. This means that anybody who is interested in the work of RIPE can participate through mailing lists and by attending meetings. RIPE has a chair to keep an eye on work between RIPE meetings and to act as its external liaison. Rob Blokzijl, who was instrumental in the formation of RIPE, was the initial chair and remained in that position until 2014, when he appointed Hans Petter Holen as his successor. The RIPE community interacts via RIPE Mailing Lists,[1][2] RIPE Working Groups,[3] and RIPE Meetings.[4]
Although similar in name, the RIPE NCC and RIPE are separate entities. The RIPE NCC provides administrative support to RIPE, such as the facilitation of RIPE meetings[4] and providing administrative support to RIPE Working Groups.[3] It was established in 1992 by the RIPE community to serve as an administrative body.
The name is a translation of the English title of a diagram to French by John Quarterman.[5] This was presented in Special Session of RIPE 58.[6]
The first RIPE meeting was held on 22 May 1989 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It brought together 14 representatives of 6 countries and 11 networks[7] At the time European governments, standardisation bodies and telecommunications companies were pushing for the OSI standard and IP-based networks were seen as the wrong way to go. In the academic community (mostly nuclear and particle physics) there was a strong need to work together with colleagues across Europe and the United States. IP provided a standard to allow interconnection and cooperation, whereas the networks offered by the European telecommunications companies often completely lacked that.
RIPE as an organisation was established by the RIPE terms of reference, which were agreed on 29 November 1989.[8] There were ten organisations intending to participate in the RIPE Coordinating Committee, along the lines defined by the RIPE Terms of Reference, though some still needed to make a formal decision. These organisations were: BelWue, CERN, EASInet, EUnet, GARR, HEPnet, NORDUnet, SURFnet, SWITCH and XLINK.[9] At the same time task forces were established to facilitate the interconnection of European IP-networks in the following weeks and months.[10] The four task forces were:
- Connectivity and Routing
- Network Management and Operations
- Domain Name System
- Formal Coordination
One of the results was a proposal on 16 September 1990 to establish the RIPE Network Coordination Centre (NCC) to support the administrative tasks in the RIPE community[11] and the first RIPE NCC Activity Plan was published in May 1991.[12]
RIPE asked RARE (one of the predecessors of TERENA) if they would provide the legal framework for the RIPE NCC. After a solicitation procedure, the RIPE NCC began in April 1992 with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Daniel Karrenberg as manager and only two other staff members. Initial funding was provided by the academic networks (RARE members), EARN and EUnet. The RIPE NCC was formally established when the Dutch version of the articles of association was deposited with the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce on 12 November 1997.[13]
Any document, proposal, procedure or policy that has been proposed and accepted by the RIPE community is published online in the RIPE Document Store.[14]
The RIPE community develops and sets policies for the technical coordination of the Internet and the management and distribution of Internet resources (IP addresses and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs)) through an established, open, bottom-up process of discussion and consensus-based decision-making. The RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP) formally tracks input into and discussion on any policy proposed. The RIPE PDP is transparent and consensus-based. Anyone may suggest a new policy or a change to an existing one. Proposals are then discussed and accepted or rejected by the RIPE community according to the RIPE PDP guidelines.[15]
RIPE meetings happen twice a year in different locations throughout the RIPE NCC service region.[16] The meetings are five-day events in which Internet service providers (ISPs), network operators, government representatives, regulators and other interested parties gather to discuss relevant issues, developments and policies. RIPE Meetings are open to anyone, although registration is required.
The RIPE community has formed a number of RIPE Working Groups to deal with various issues and topics related to the work of RIPE NCC members and the general Internet community.[3] Each of the RIPE Working Groups has a mailing list where topics or questions related to the working group can be discussed. The RIPE Working Groups[3] meet twice a year in dedicated sessions at RIPE Meetings.[4]
The RIPE community refers collectively to the individuals or organisations, whether members of the RIPE NCC or not, that have an interest in the way the Internet is managed, structured or governed.
RIPE NCC[edit]
The regional Internet registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. It also serves as the secretariat for RIPE.
See also[edit]
- ^ "Mailing Lists — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". ripe.net. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
- ^ "RIPE Mailing Lists — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". ripe.net. Retrieved 2013-06-20.
- ^ a b c d "Active Working Groups — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". ripe.net. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- ^ a b c "FAQ: RIPE Meetings — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- ^ Karrenberg, Daniel (2009-05-07). "How the Name RIPE Came About" (PDF). ripe.net. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
- ^ "RIPE 58 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands | 4-8 May 2009". ripe.net. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- ^ "Participants of first RIPE meeting". ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "RIPE terms of reference". ripe.net. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "RIPE: Statement of cooperation". ripe.net. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "RIPE Task forces". ripe.net. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "RIPE network coordination centre". ripe.net. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "First RIPE NCC Activity Plan". ripe.net. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "NCC history". ripe.net. Archived from the original on 2007-06-15. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
- ^ "RIPE Document Store — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". ripe.net. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- ^ "RIPE Policy Development — RIPE Network Coordination Centre". ripe.net. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
- ^ RIPE.net Archived February 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine


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Zoran Žugić was born in 1950 in Belgrade. He completed his elementary and secondary education in Zemun, and attended Šumatovačka school for a while, where he started drawing, using models, and engaged in sculpturing. Upon completion of secondary education he went to Paris, first as a tourist, visiting museums and galleries, and then in 1975 he settled down and enrolled at "Beaux-Arts" Art Academy. In Paris he became familiar with the world art scene. Although he knew what he had always held inside, he indulged in experimentation: Art gestuelle (Jackson Pollock, Willem De Kooning) who were close to him, as well as "Cobra" group (Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, Asger Jorn), while his sensibility was also close to Art-Brut (Jean Dubuffet). Searching for total freedom he turned to himself and his inner being.
Since then, his work has been going in that direction. Zoran's paintings are filled with strange, mineral, vegetal beings and accumulation of organic matter, suggesting collapse of civilization and transformation of the planet. In fact, it is chaos controlled by imagination and intuition. Zoran manages to create images of gentle colors and alluring atmosphere out of dramatic scenes.
Zoran Zugic — When the boundaries of imagination no longer apply
After exhaustive research we have come to the startling conclusion that there is no way to explain how the work of Zoran Zugic could have come into existence. His masterful technique and virtuosi would indicate a mature wisdom and educated understanding of the physical world and how it is represented in art, and all that is certainly in play here. So, how then would an accomplished self-realized artist, much less a human being, concoct images of such dizzying incomprehensibility as to shock and baffle a viewer that has made a life's work out of suspending disbelief?
Zugic's realm is one where infinite varieties of unknown-life-like forms, and semi-physical objects amalgamated beyond recognizability, are seamlessly intertwined to create ghastly yet wonderful being-world-landscape-abstractions that are both realistic and unbelievable at once. His use of light and color may suggest a cheerful impressionistic scene but his decisions about what can be superimposed, juxtaposed, or even proposed at all, appear to have been made from a perspective that defies human nature's tendency to relate to, or even deviate from, something that could exist somewhere in the known universe. The aleatoricism of Zoran Zugic's art lies in the one-in-a-billion chance of his vision, not to mention the unlikelihood of ever coming across an artist such as he.
Aleatoric Art
Zoran Zugic does not paint his dream, he lives in it. I feel solemn in the presence of the paintings, same as everyone, either ignorant or learned, would feel in the presence of a sacral object. And nobody is the same before and after seeing these paintings. They, in fact, evade intellectual reading, and demand from a person only the experience in its purest sense.
What this painter offers to the observer is so much impossible that it must be real. Only a pure being can walk through these scenes, and thus, unpunished, bring back the forms and the light which does not exist anywhere – and be unhurt while doing that. Therefore I am prone to believe that Zigic's identity is a dual one, and that he leads two separate lives interweaving each other with no consequences.
This is a mission in which a good man has been chosen as a messenger from a parallel world, to reveal to us endemic forms, to execute a vivisection of everything existing, to show us what the path to an integral painting looks like. Therefore he is native, unique, intuitive and a monstrously powerful painter. The lack of formal recognition by the official critics can be harmful to them only.
Of course, I am not going to turn to possible relations and associations with any artistic movements. Everything is transformed and it is possible to find roots of everything. And there is nothing new under the Sun. And again – everything is unrepeatable, honest, everything floats in a permanent surprise, in a spectacular and enchanting way. What more can a painter desire? Looking at these paintings we can see a frightening work, mycelium transformations diverged into detailed forms, threatening to leave the narrow dimensions of the painting canvas. Such inspiration and richness are so abundant that they cannot fit into a single human working life. God help his soul and our eyes. And God bless the day when this modest man decided on such endeavor.
Artist's artworks
Oil on canvas, 47.2"x25.6" (Inch)
Oil on canvas, 39.4"x31.5" (Inch)
Oil on canvas, 19.7"x18.5" (Inch)
Oil on canvas, 47.2"x25.6" (Inch)
Oil on canvas, 20.1"x16.9" (Inch)
Oil on canvas, 39.4"x29.5" (Inch)
Oil on canvas, 39.4"x29.5" (Inch)


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25 Cheap But Gorgeous! Diy Gift Ideas
Something as simple as a chopping board can be decorated or custom-made in a matter of minutes. Note your favorite tutorials and try them out the next opportunity you have to give a particular gift.
The holidays are the perfect time to remind him of why you care and remind him about the memories you've shared. Sometimes the most effective gift is one you create yourself! We've discovered a number of creative and fun gift concepts that you can do at residence. There's no need to have any particular crafting skills or tools – these DIY gift ideas are straightforward to do.
Intended for canning, Mason jars serve a unique objective come Christmas! As meals items, candleholders, and more, this classic kitchen staple will maintain you crafting through the vacations. We're sharing our favorite simple Mason jar craft ideas.
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By Rafiq Raji, PhD
Twitter: @DrRafiqRaji
Related conflicts, including criminal violence such as banditry, kidnapping, and political assassinations, are most severe in Nigeria. Pastoralists in Nigeria have invaded farms, colonized villages along their grazing routes and meddled in the local politics of farmer communities with relative impunity. In response, some Nigerian state governments implemented grazing bans. A proposed organized settlement programme by the government for pastoralists in the greener south has been met with political resistance.
Nigerian authorities view the root of the crisis as the shrinking of Lake Chad. Food shortages and violence have already forced at least 2.4 million people to flee the Lake Chad area. In March 2017, the United Nations (UN) Security Council identified climate change (drought, crop failure, etc.) and ecological changes as factors responsible for Lake Chad's instability. The UN plans to facilitate raising $50 billion to regenerate Lake Chad by transferring water from more abundant Central African lakes. One UN goal is to create more jobs in the area.
Lessons from the Arab Spring
Unprecedented mass protests across the Middle East between 2010 and 2012 dubbed the "Arab Spring" is an outlier. Neither is the case related to local farmer-pastoralist conflict, nor are local climate change effects believed to have been a contributing factor. Instead, drought-induced wheat production shortfalls in China led to a global wheat shortage, driving bread prices up to unbearable levels in Egypt, a major global wheat importer, and elsewhere across the Middle East and North Africa. Still, the authors argue that although global warming may not have directly triggered the Arab Spring, it may have generated conflict that fed its flames.
World wheat prices more than doubled in 2010 due to extreme climatic events in the breadbasket nations of Russia, Ukraine and Canada. Due to their low incomes and reliance on imported wheat, many countries in the North African and Middle Eastern regions fell prey to the resulting price increases. Governments that failed to meet their citizens' needs for food security appeared less legitimate, leading to protests and ultimately to violence. Thus, institutional weakness (exacerbated by the use of new communication channels) may have enabled the wave of rebellions and revolutions across the region.
Managing farmer-herder conflicts: The case of Ghana
Farmers and nomadic Fulani pastoralists in Ghana clash violently every year; especially during the dry season from December to March. These conflicts have multiple causes, including scarcity of pasture and water resources due to climate change, cattle rustling and weak laws governing ranching. Ethnic differences are an added cultural factor: "farmers construct Fulani identity as non-Ghanaian." There is a historical basis for this distinction: the Fulani originally migrated to Ghana from Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali early in the 20th century. They did so in search of pasture, water, land and better economic opportunities.
A recent rise in farmer-herder conflicts in Ghana follows increased cow purchases, as a signal of increased wealth from agricultural development. The combination results in less grazing land, yet more cows that need pasture. When we add increased migration of Fulani herders to Ghana from drought-hit Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, we see the seeds of conflict.
Whether in times of peace or conflict, farmers and herders in Ghana have a history of cooperating with one another as "cultural neighbours". This pattern of cooperation takes the form of neighbourly interactions, intermarriages, friendships, trade, and resource sharing. However, recent increases in conflict among members of the two groups spurred the Ghanaian government to institute a ranching programme. This intervention led to a reduction in the number of violent conflicts among members of the two groups in the pilot area of the programme. This success suggests such interventions by the state might serve as a template for other West African countries grappling with similar issues.
Article was first published by the NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies at Nanyang Business School, Singapore. References are in the original article.


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The Beauties of Pope
G. Kearsley, 1783 - English poetry - 278 pages
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ancient appear arms bear beauty behold beſt better bound cauſe common Court death divine draw e'en equal ev'ry eyes face fair fall fame fate fight fire firſt fools give gold grace half hand happy head hear heart Heav'n himſelf honour human IBID juſt kind King Lady laſt laws learned leſs light live look Lord manner mind moſt muſt Nature never night o'er once pain play pleaſe pleaſure Poets poor pow'r praiſe pride proud race Reaſon reſt riſe round rules ſaid ſame ſay ſee ſeem ſhall ſhe ſhould ſome ſoul ſtill ſtreams ſuch taught tears tell thee theſe things thoſe thou thought thouſand trembling true truth turn uſe Virtue walls whole whoſe wife wings write youth
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Page 90 - Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things To low ambition, and the pride of kings. Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan; A wild, where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot; Or garden tempting with forbidden fruit.
Page 33 - Now awful beauty puts on all its arms ; The fair each moment rises in her charms, Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace, And calls forth all the wonders of her face : Sees by degrees a purer blush arise, And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.
Page 153 - Whose buzz the witty and the fair annoys, Yet wit ne'er tastes, and beauty ne'er enjoys: So well-bred spaniels civilly delight In mumbling of the game they dare not bite. Eternal smiles his emptiness betray...
Page 98 - With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest, In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast, In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reasoning but to err...
Page 45 - All side in parties, and begin th' attack; Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, And bass and treble voices strike the skies. No common weapons in their hands are found, Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound. So when bold Homer makes the gods engage...
Page 166 - Are what ten thousand envy and adore : All, all look up with reverential awe, At crimes that 'scape or triumph o'er the law ; While truth, worth, wisdom, daily they decry : Nothing is sacred now but villainy.
Page 49 - What though no friends in sable weeds appear, Grieve for an hour, perhaps, then mourn a year, And bear about the mockery of woe To midnight dances, and the public show...
Page 120 - Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. Who noble ends by noble means obtains, Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains, Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. What's fame? a fancy'd life in others' breath, A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Page 34 - Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; Oft she rejects, but never once offends. Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike, And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide : If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.
Page 90 - Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, And catch the manners living as they rise; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can; But vindicate the ways of God to man.


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For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/09/1969
NRHP Listing Date 11/25/1969
NRHP Reference Number 69000280
On the Middle Fork of the Holston River at Seven Mile Ford in Smyth County, the Preston House (also known as Herondon) was built in 1842 for John Montgomery Preston on land inherited by his wife, Maria Thornton Carter Preston. The property earlier had belonged to her grandfather, Gen. William Campbell, Revolutionary War hero of the battle of King's Mountain. Preston built the structure as a conspicuously grand tavern, placing it on the site of an earlier log tavern. The first building had a dubious reputation, and tradition has it that Preston wanted to rid the region of its stigma by creating a clearly superior establishment. The building employed both Federal and Greek Revival elements, and served travelers along the Wilderness Road until 1864 when it became a private residence for Preston's son. Union troops sacked the house that same year while on a raid towards Saltville and Abingdon.
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: August 6, 2021


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Jeremiah 22:24-30 Out With The Old And In With The New.
Coniah (or Jehoiachin), Jehoiakim's son, would have but a brief reign (598-597), and although the first of the deportations began in 609 B.C., the first invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, would occur during Coniah's reign. The second and final wave would occur under the last of the Davidic kings – Zedekiah in (597-586) (vv. 24-27 Cf. 16:13; 34:20). The nation had made of Coniah an idol, placing their political leadership in the position of the LORD their God (v. 28). The earth itself would bear witness to their captivity (v. 29 Cf. Dt. 32:1). Jehoiakim's death would begin the end of the Davidic dynasty (v. 30 Cf. 36:20). The pastors or shepherds were also at fault for their failure to lead the people according to the law-word of the covenant. They were guilty of causing the people to be scattered and taken captive, and for this they would be punished (23:1-2 Cf. 10:21).
However, despite this near devastation of the entire nation, the LORD indicated that he still had a remnant whom he would eventually deliver out of every place to which they were scattered, to inherit the land as the LORD had promised (v. 3 Cf. 32:36-41; Is. 11:11-12, 16). It was always through a remnant that the LORD's covenant promises of blessing found fulfillment. Along with this return would be the appointment of faithful pastors who would feed the people with knowledge and understanding, so that they would no longer fear or be dismayed, and they would lack no good thing (v. 4 Cf. 3:15; Ezek 34:23). The days would come when the Davidic throne would be re-established, but this time it would be occupied by the LORD's Anointed one, the Messiah – "a branch of righteousness," the King who would "reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth" (v. 5 Cf. Jer. 33:14-16).
Isaiah also spoke of these days (Cf. 4:2; 9:7; 11:1; 32:1, 18; 40:10-11). and the Psalmist (72:1-2). This would be the time when the Branch would branch out and build his temple (Zechariah 6:12). "Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on His throne; so He shall be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both" (Zech. 6:13) The sacrifices of the old temple would cease because the LORD's anointed would "make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy" (Daniel 9:24). The gospels point to the fulfillment of these words in the coming of Jesus in the line of David (Mt. 1:1, 6; Lk. 3:31; Jn. 1:45; 7:42). We know from gospel fulfillment that Jesus is this Branch, and he began this reign when he ascended to the right hand of the Father.
Jesus came as the final hope for the remnant of the people of Israel and Judah. In his days the remnant would be saved and dwell in safety (31:7-8), and his name would be – "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (v. 6 Cf. Dt. 33:28; Zech. 14:11). This salvation would not be based on any righteousness of their own (Cf. Is. 45:24-25; Rom. 3:22; I Cor. 1:30). This point in salvation history would now hearken back to their deliverance from captivity to inherit and dwell in their own land (vv. 7-8 Cf. 16:14-15), because the LORD would do a new thing (Is. 43:5-6, 18-19). For the remnant the captivity was a chastening, the disciplining of their covenant LORD (30:10-11). This same promise concludes Amos' prophecy (9:11-15), which Paul preached as finding fulfillment with the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, to include the Gentiles, and the whole earth (Acts 15:16-18).


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Mesh Networking Home Automation
Overview ESP-MESH is a networking protocol built atop the Wi-Fi protocol. ESP-MESH allows numerous devices (henceforth referred to as nodes) spread over a large physical area (both indoors and outdoors) to be interconnected under a single WLAN (Wireless Local-Area Network). ESP-MESH is self-organizing and self-healing meaning the network can be built and maintained autonomously. Traditional Wi-Fi Network Architecture A traditional infrastructure Wi-Fi network is a point-to-multipoint network where a single central node known as the access point (AP) is directly connected to all other nodes known as stations. The AP is responsible for arbitrating and forwarding transmissions between the stations. Some APs also relay transmissions to/from an external IP network via a router. Traditional infrastructure Wi-Fi networks suffer the disadvantage of limited coverage area due to the requirement that every station must be in range to directly connect with the AP. Furthermore, traditional Wi-Fi networks are susceptible to overloading as…
What is Mesh Networking | Mesh Networking based Car | ESP8266 and ESP32
ESP-WIFI-MESH is a wireless communication network with nodes organized in a mesh topology using the simultaneous AP-STA feature on Espressif SoCs. It provides a self-forming and self-healing network, with ease of deployment. So today we are using mesh networking in order to make a wireless controlled car using esp8266 and esp32. We are using painless mesh library. painlessMesh is a library that takes care of the particulars of creating a simple mesh network using esp8266 and esp32 hardware. The goal is to allow the programmer to work with a mesh network without having to worry about how the network is structured or managed. Link for Painless mesh library – https://github.com/gmag11/painlessMesh Code for Remote – ESP32 Code for Car – ESP8266