Blob
>the personal blog of david n wallace
[aka Dave the Lifekludger]

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Put another way, you could say things are generally the same here in Darwin as home in Adelaide – aside from the obvious one, the weather.

There are differences obviously – but the weather really seems to be the only big difference.

There’s still the same stupid hiccups caused by miscommunications between different layers of staff. Qantas staff on phone are great and promise the earth assuring everything will be rosy and yet the people on the ‘ground’ obviously don’t get that message. What it seems like is a big company with lotsa little ‘groups’, all having their own internal ‘customer education’sessions on how to put the ‘company line’ yet not having enough interaction overlap to give a cohesive ‘customer experience’.

The best analogy I could give is it’s like a big game of ‘chinese whispers’.

The people do their best and are very congenial but there’s gaps in the system that generally you wouldn’t see, but travel with a disability and they become instantly obvious.

Besides which people either just don’t use common sense or have no real world idea of who they’re trying to serve – or maybe both.

And it’s not just in the air transport. The Hotel gave me the same type of experience. The needs were clearly outlined ahead of time to someone on the phone and somehow got missed, overlooked or just muddled up. Nothing was `life-threating’ or more than an inconvenience, but again it was clear that systems to ensure continuity of experience just weren’t either up to it, or the people just don’t care about details – even though they appear to.

‘It’s the little foxes that spoil the hedge‘ is how the saying goes. And, likewise, ‘The devil is in the detail‘. And that’s the upshot of it – the detail, the ‘little’ things.

In a world of ‘same-ness’ it’s the details that are going to make the difference.

And I’m not talking about details and little things in terms of mints on pillows, or smiles on faces, inflight treats or glib company catch phrases. I’m talking about every person in a company or organisation saying what they mean, meaning what they say and making sure it happens consistently down the line – paying attention to the details in the conversation.

Oh, I arrived fine, pretty much unstressed – even though I had to wait over an hour and half for a taxi at the airport, but really, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at that – it’s the same story in Adelaide. Luckily I was going on holiday and the time didn’t really matter. But if I had been on a schedule I would’ve been utterly stuffed and the rub is it would not have been due to a lack of detail planning with the information I had, but a lack of attention given to my detailed planning.

And so it goes. The saying ‘He who fails to plan, plans to fail‘ is holding less sway in my estimation of valuable things to remember….especially when it seems you’re dealing with systems whose value is on appearance rather than substance.

Dave

[tags]darwin, disability, travel, qantas, service[/tags]

Okay, caught a glimpse of a link (of the web ‘hyper’ kind) that got my mind linking (of the cerebral kind) all these things together.

I’m gonna try and get them down before the latter (cerebral) ones give out on me. Follow the links (web) and try to keep up with my thoughts.

I wrote in my previous post about how the problem getting people with disabilities involved in a conversation in the CRC was generally an empowerment issue to partake (consume) in the opportunity:
Empowering a conversation based on Focused Intention

That post pointed to Lloyd’s blog about the CRC. Lloyd previously blogged about strategic commercial advantages in developing technology after chatting with Mark Bagshaw:
Strategic thinking in Technology Development

Mark Bagshaw, Director Accessibility for IBM Australia & New Zealand, has been on about the commercial untapped market that exists in people with a disability for ages:
Smart Thinking And Money

So, the Tourism people are getting wise:
Tourism for the disabled regarded as a new niche tourism market

Okay. Tourism issues from the proprietors’ angle is largely about access to a built environment and transport. These businesses recognise that their premises are their business – using it is the thing they sell – access to and in and around their premises by people, even if they have a disability, is a value proposition.

Now we just need the ‘wiseness’ to spread. Last week I drove past 3 different places that weren’t accessible to go to a place that was to buy a particular electrical item. I was having lunch too at that time, so neighbouring businesses serving food also missed out on my moola. More and more, I just bypass places who don’t want my money because they don’t bother to see me as a consumer, and I spend it somewhere that does.

I think the key reason why the Tourist people are starting to get it and others aren’t is that for those others they don’t see their premises as part of their business. They see their business as selling food, or selling car parts, or selling gadgets…not selling building space (which is basically what accomodation owners do, albeit on ashort term basis). To them, the building is just a thing in which to put the stuff they want to sell.

All businesses need to start seeing that their business isn’t about selling ‘stuff‘ at all, it’s about people. Then the people will be their focus and doing things to remove barriers to getting the people to their ‘stuff’ will be seen as a value proposition.

Markets are conversations? If I can’t access the seller to talk about what their selling we can’t have the conversation and I can’t ‘consume’. Market-gone…..to someone who will have the conversation with me!

See, it’s not just a virtual market we’re talking about.

Caught up with Dr Lloyd Walker today. He was in at where I work with some 5th year biomedical engineering students he gives lectures to about rehabilitation engineering so he dropped by my office.

We were talking about the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) bid and the desire to engage people with disabilities, and those whom to the CRC will be potential ‘end-users’, as an integral part of the CRC operations. Blogging and emerging citizen publishing and communication mechanisms is expected to play a big part. However the bigger question is what are the barriers for participation and being involved? What stops the conversation?

The goal is to get input from the end result – lets call it ‘5‘. However this requires enabling those you are wanting results from to be at a level of ability – this end result – this ‘5‘. But not all will be. Sometimes they’ll be starting at ‘3‘ or ‘2‘ or some even ’1‘.

Empowering the people with technical and even moral support that goes beyond (or even behind) the actual end result that is trying to be achieved is a huge part of enabling the conversation in my thinking and experiences.

There are some things you can’t get straight at. Sometimes you cannot get ‘second‘ things simply by seeking them. Often you have to do ‘first‘ things first. Even further than that, some things are only ever a RESULT of doing ‘first‘ things first and ‘second‘ things evolve naturally as a result of those actions.

Now Lloyd and I totally agree we need this. But the question we were pondering is how do we show or put up a good case that investment in the arena of getting from ‘1 to 5‘ is worthwhile and neccessary?
How do we do this so we can agrue that the CRC bid includes funding for those activities?

It concerns me that CRCs are so ‘output‘ focused that those ‘inputs‘ required that are sort of ‘outside’ the scope of what would traditionally be seen as ‘core’ business, will be overlooked. Or it might be argued that it’s ‘easier’ or more ‘efficient’ to bypass such empowerment and building.

This would be such a waste, both in terms of the potential of the relevence of the ‘outputs‘ from the CRC but also in the lost opportunity to build the ‘inputs‘ – the real people’s skills and abilities and talents and self, to be raised to new levels for the long term.

What we need is someone like Seth Godin onboard to challenge the ‘traditional’ thinking.

While it might be seen as a different context, I see similarities to what Doc Searls’ termed the ‘Intention Economy‘. Doc says …

The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers.

We have an intention for a CRC to build technology for independent living to improve people’s lives. In effect we have people saying ‘build us widgets so we can have a better life with this disability’. The ‘buyers’ here are the people and organisations who will use the technology.
The ‘sellers’ will eventually be the companies formed out of the CRC endeavours, but at this bid stage the selller could be considered as the CRC.

Doc also outlines that …

The Intention Economy is built around truly open markets, not a collection of silos.

The whole CRC concept is about developing and growing a ‘market’ around disability based on research outcomes. The crafted mechanism to deliver that needs to be driven by those it is intended for -and to do so it must include them! To come at it from the other direction, the traditional way, is to build a silo. And we all know what silos are used for – to store stuff – not distribute it!

For the CRC to build and grow the market it aims to, it must engage all the ‘buyer’ groups and individuals in its’ ‘economy’, and it must do it in an environment and ‘spirit’ of openness – in an ‘open’ (not merely transparent) way.

The CRC should be all about the people in a holistic sense, not just about ‘outputted’ technology.

People-centric not technology-centric.

[tags]crc, lloyd+walker, intention+economy, disability, disabled, independent+living[/tags]

The government should forget trying to get tourists to come to Australia by using the ad slogan “So where the bloody hell are you?” – you can’t even get bloody books down here!

The following is a direct crosspost from my Lifekludger blog. If you get the impression I’m not happy… you are right!

Virtual Geographic Kludging

Here’s the story. I had been hearing lots aboiut David Allen’s book “Getting things done”. I had heard it was available through audible.com and so wandered over there, credit card at the ready, to purchase a audio download of the book.

Having a disability that severely restricts my ability to handle physical “paper” books, the prospect of an audio book meant this would be more accessible to me. In fact, there is no way I would buy the physical book.

Little was I to know.

As it turns out, audible is more inaudible. It appears that because I have an address that is in Australia, and I foolishly gave my true address, the system will not let me access the audio book.

You can read below what audible said when I enquired.

A lot of bloody good that does me! All these publishing people may have their “legal” reasons for justifying their geographic discrimination, but whatever justification spin they want to put on it IT STILL DOESN’T HELP ME ACCESS THE BLOODY BOOK!

Just more barriers to overcome!

So, as a kludge I am asking anybody who does not live in Australia who may be willing to have a “virtual boarder” reside with them and donate their address for the sole purpose of lying to audible so I can actually PAY them to get access to a book.

Anyone who feels they will be able to help me out in this, please email me or leave a comment and I will email you.

Dave – Lifekludger

(I wonder what someone like Seth Godin would make of this response)

—————————————————————
Subject – Geographical restrictions

Discussion Thread
—————————————————————
Response (Arun V.) – 02/26/2006 08:59 PM
Dear David,

Thanks for contacting Audible, the world’s largest online destination for downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment.

I apologize for the inconvenience. This one is an issue of Geographical restrictions. Not all books are available worldwide.

When publishers decide to publish a work, they acquire the rights to distribute that title in certain parts of the globe. Sometimes they buy “world” rights, but frequently the rights for a book are split among several companies, each of whom publish for certain countries. As a distributor, we need to abide by the restrictions that publishers assume when they publish a work. Thousands of our titles are available for “world” distribution. You can find a catalog of our “world” titles at or by clicking on the “View All Categories” link on our left nav bar on our homepage.

If you need further assistance, please try our online Help Center, where you’ll find quick answers to many common questions and issues. You may also contact us directly during our regular business hours:
Mon – Fri we are open 24 hours
Sat & Sun 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST.

We appreciate your interest in Audible, and wish you many hours of great listening.

Sincerely,
Arun

[tags]publishing, drm, subversion, barriers, lunacy, gtd, david+allen, seth-godin, disability[/tags]

Things happen so fast in this Web2.0 world it sometimes makes my head spin.

If you’d looked closely at my Flicker photos you would have seen some shots of a conference between James Farmer (edublogs), Mike Seyfang (Learndog) and myself (Lifekludger) resulting in James graciously offering to host the enableblogs site – a concept which had been burning in my brain ever since seeing a blog and imagining what they could do to empower an individual voice and link and grow conversations and ideas. In the enableblogs case, the conversations would be around disability and issues of ‘enablement’ generally.

That conference was barely 2 weeks ago.

Then last Friday,4 days ago, while chatting with James online, he switched on the WPMU magic for enableblogs to come to life.

The timing couldn’t have been better – it was a mere 30 minutes before I met with Lloyd Walker from Novitatech to take him into the world of blogging and what I think it has to offer his bid for a CRC here in Adelaide.

The meeting went well with Lloyd and by the end he was ready to sign up for a blog. How marvelous it was then to be able to plug him straight into an enableblog – the platform and environment where I envisage just such a project and blog should be.

Lloyd seems to have embraced the idea, including his first post a couple days later. I am sure when he gets a handle on things more and more good information will come out of Lloyd about the CRC proposal.

[tags]enableblogs, james farmer, edublogs, learndog, disability, lifekludger[/tags]

This erks me.

Qantas under fire over restricted access for disabled passengers

If it erks you too…..please go here and tell them!

Temple Uni does a good Disability Blogs Roundup and this blog and Lifekludger get a wrap in roundup #4…

Disability Blogs Roundup, #4

I’ll start the roundup this month with a welcome to some new disability-related blogs. Australian David N. Wallace has put up TWO: blob is his personal blog, and LifeKludger is specifically for posts about strategies and technologies for barrier-busting. Samples: the former has a nice post on the concept of disintermediation as it relates to the history of disability rights; the latter has a recent post about the kinds of specialized robot arms Wallace would like to see developed.

Thanks Prof.

It’s amazing how I know so little. I came across this word, disintermediation, while reading comments about what Mike’s trying to pull together over at LearnDog

As I look around at what’s going on in what Mike terms this “Web 2.0 world of disintermediation“, it occurred to me to draw a comparison to a situation closer to home.

In recent years many of the people with disabilities that had spear-headed advancements in independent community living, home care, integration and raising the status and lifestyles of those living with disability in South Australia, have died. They took with them many experiences and stories about their lives, exploits, defeats and victories.

As part of trying to get funding to get a history of disability project off the ground at work, we have captured a few short stories of current people we know as well as talked about the exploits of those recently passed. In all instances they leave me inspired. In effect, these people who were pioneers, or champions, of their time are today heros. And tey deserve recognition as such.

Most of their efforts forward were to be without a ‘middle man’ – in their case the ‘system’ and community attitudes of the time. And their foresight, vision and desire, mixed with huge doses of courage, is what got them nearer to where they wanted to go and empowered others to do so.

It occurs to me that the pioneers, or champions, of today are the heros of tomorrow.

Put your wagons in a circle troops!

1, 2, 3

Going back a few posts under the title upright drifters I wrote about a presentation involving my life-tools and other things I was preparing for an OT class.

Well that’s been and gone but there was a request for the powerpoint file, so I thought I’d put it up with a link from here.

Here’s the presentation file.

The presentation acts mostly as a guide to give direction for me on the day – a lot more is said than appears on the preso. So if anyone wants more details please contact me using one of my email addresses on my blog profile page or my personal web page. Or if you want to discuss something please leave a comment below.

I was actually heartened to see so many people who were genuinely interested in the profession they’re studying and some passion about inequity. I was impressed by some of the knowledge of current disability issues and in particular the discrepancies between the Australian Building Code (ABC) and the Australian Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the work being done in that area. All in all it was great.