The implications for social services departments of the information task in the social care market
The new information task faced by social services departments (SSDs) implementing the 1990 community care policy is huge. This paper notes the breadth and complexity of the early guidance on the subject and then examines the nature of the task and the issues it raised in a shire county. Three aspects are delineated: mapping needs, mapping the market and monitoring expenditure. We found that the county experienced a culture shift in order to accommodate the new requirements, but had difficulty in timing the introduction of its information and information technology (IT) software systems. Change associated with one aspect of implementation had important knock-on effects in others. We highlight the danger of procedures becoming system-driven and of staff being overwhelmed by the call for information. We note that by the end of 1994 (the end of the research period) the county was facing what we have termed ‘second wave’ challenges. We conclude that implementing community care requires an indefinite investment in people and systems and that the process challenges are in danger of diverting attention away from user and carer experiences and from outcomes.
Introduction: Exploiting IT in Public Administration: Towards the Information Polity?
This introduction to the theme issue on Towards the Information Polity? Public Administration in the information age presents the case for the systematic academic investigation of the changing relationships which characterize the ‘information polity’. This perspective on the information polity focuses on the significance of new kinds of informational resources and flows in government, and their interaction with broad directions of reform in contemporary public administration, including the new public management. It is argued that, whereas the literature of business strategy has emphasized the economic logic by which ‘informatization’ encourages organizational transformation, the articles in this issue demonstrate the importance of wider cultural, organizational and political factors to understanding processes of informatization and the changing nature of the emergent ‘information polity’.
Man-Machine Interactions 3, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Man-Machine Interactions, ICMMI 2013, Brenna, Poland, October 22-25, 2013
Keynote Talks.- Speech Man-Machine Communication.- Stochastic Effects in Signaling Pathways in Cells: Interaction between Visualization and Modeling.- Rough-Granular Computing in Human-Centric Information Processing.- Discovering Affinities between Perceptual Granules.- Human-Computer Interactions.- A Psycholinguistic Model of Man-Machine Interactions Based on Needs of Human Personality.- Adaptable Graphical User Interfaces for Player-Based Applications.- Case-Based Reasoning Model in Process of Emergency Management.- Enterprise Ontology According to Roman Ingarden Formal Ontology.- Hand Shape Recognition for Human-Computer Interaction.- System for Knowledge Mining in Data from Interactions between User and Application.- Computational Techniques in Biosciences.- Analyze of Maldi-TOF Proteomic Spectra with Usage of Mixture of Gaussian Distributions.- Energy Properties of Protein Structures in the Analysis of the Human RAB5A Cellular Activity.- Fuzzy Weighted Averaging of Biomedical Signal Using Bayesian Inference.- Fuzzy Clustering and Gene Ontology Based Decision Rules for Identification and Description of Gene Groups.- Estimation of the Number of Primordial Genes in a Compartment Model of RNA World.- Quasi Dominance Rough Set Approach in Testing for Traces of Natural Selection at Molecular Level.- Decision Support, Rule Inferrence and Representation.- The Way of Rules Representation in Composited Knowledge Bases.- Clustering of Partial Decision Rules.- Decision Trees Constructing over Multiple Data Streams.- Decision Tree Induction Methods for Distributed Environment.- Extensions of Multistage Decision Transition Systems: The Rough Set Perspective.- Emotion Recognition Based on Dynamic Ensemble Feature Selection.- Rough Fuzzy Investigations.- On Construction of Partial Association Rules with Weights.- Fuzzy Rough Entropy Clustering Algorithm Parametrization.- Data Grouping Process in Extended SQL Language Containing Fuzzy Elements.- Rough Sets in Flux: Crispings and Change.- Simplification of Neuro-Fuzzy Models.- Fuzzy Weighted Averaging Using Criterion Function Minimization.- Approximate String Matching by Fuzzy Automata.- Remark on Membership Functions in Neuro-Fuzzy Systems.- Capacity-Based Definite Rough Integral and Its Application.- Advances in Classification Methods.- Classifier Models in Intelligent CAPP Systems.- Classification Algorithms Based on Template's Decision Rules.- Fast Orthogonal Neural Network for Adaptive Fourier Amplitude Spectrum Computation in Classification Problems.- Relative Reduct-Based Selection of Features for ANN Classifier.- Enhanced Ontology Based Profile Comparison Mechanism for Better Recommendation.- Privacy Preserving Classification for Ordered Attributes.- Incorporating Detractors into SVM Classification.- Bayes Multistage Classifier and Boosted C4.5 Algorithm in Acute Abdominal Pain Diagnosis.- Pattern Recognition and Signal Processing.- Skrybot - A System for Automatic Speech Recognition of Polish Language.- Speaker Verification Based on Fuzzy Classifier.- Support Vector Classifier with Linguistic Interpretation of the Kernel Matrix in Speaker Verification.- Application of Discriminant Analysis to Distinction of Musical Instruments on the Basis of Selected Sound Parameters.- Computer Vision, Image Analysis and Virtual Reality.- Spatial Color Distribution Based Indexing and Retrieval Scheme.- Synthesis of Static Medical Images with an Active Shape Model.- New Method for Personalization of Avatar Animation.- Multidimensional Labyrinth - Multidimensional Virtual Reality.- Shape Recognition Using Partitioned Iterated Function Systems.- Computer Vision Support for the Orthodontic Diagnosis.- From Museum Exhibits to 3D Models.- Advances in Algorithmics.- A Method for Automatic Standardization of Text Attributes without Reference Data Sets.- Internal Conflict-Free Projection Sets.- The Comparison of an Adapted Evolutionary Algorithm with the Invasive Weed Optimization Algorithm Based on the Problem of Predetermining the Progress of Distributed Data Merging Process.- Cumulation of Pheromone Values in Web Searching Algorithm.- Mining for Unconnected Frequent Graphs with Direct Subgraph Isomorphism Tests.- Numerical Evaluation of the Random Walk Search Algorithm.- On Two Variants of the Longest Increasing Subsequence Problem.- Computing the Longest Common Transposition-Invariant Subsequence with GPU.- Databases and Data Warehousing.- Usage of the Universal Object Model in Database Schemas Comparison and Integration.- Computational Model for Efficient Processing of Geofield Queries.- Applying Advanced Methods of Query Selectivity Estimation in Oracle DBMS.- How to Efficiently Generate PNR Representation of a Qualitative Geofield.- RBTAT: Red-Black Table Aggregate Tree.- Performing Range Aggregate Queries in Stream Data Warehouse.- LVA-Index: An Efficient Way to Determine Nearest Neighbors.- Embedded Systems Applications.- Basic Component of Computational Intelligence for IRB-1400 Robots.- Factors Having Influence upon Efficiency of an Integrated Wired-Wireless Network.- FFT Based EMG Signals Analysis on FPGAs for Dexterous Hand Prosthesis Control.- The VHDL Implementation of Reconfigurable MIPS Processor.- Time Optimal Target Following by a Mobile Vehicle.- Improving Quality of Satellite Navigation Devices.