#nhsx — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2026-05-17 · 11:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source”

Within the UK's Civil Service you occasionally hear the expression "being invited to a meeting without biscuits". It implies a rather frosty discussion without any of the polite niceties of a normal meeting. In general though, even when people have severe …

#ai #gds #government #nhs #nhsx #opensource

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2026-05-17 · 11:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source”

Within the UK's Civil Service you occasionally hear the expression "being invited to a meeting without biscuits". It implies a rather frosty discussion without any of the polite niceties of a normal meeting. In general though, even when people have severe …

#ai #gds #government #nhs #nhsx #opensource

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2026-05-17 · 11:34 UTC

GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/gds-weighs-in-on-the-nhss-decision-to-retreat-from-open-source/

Within the UK's Civil Service you occasionally hear the expression "being invited to a meeting without biscuits". It implies a rather frosty discussion without any of the polite niceties of a normal meeting0. In general though, even when people have severe disagreements, it is rare for tempers to fray. It is even rarer for those internal disagreements to spill over into public.

Which is what makes GDS's latest guidance so surprising. At the start of the month, NHS England made the bizarre and irresponsible decision to close all their Open Source repositories due to unfounded fears of AI hacking1. Lots of people within the NHS were outraged. As were many outside - with this petition against the move gathering over 2,000 signatures.

Within other parts of government there was also alarm. Although I no longer work for Government Digital Service, I was contacted by several concerned people there who remembered all my work on Open Source. The brilliant team in Whitechapel have now published their guidance "AI, open code and vulnerability risk in the public sector".

It is brutal.

They utterly repudiate the NHS's stance and forensically eviscerate it. I'll let you read the whole thing, but here are a few choice excerpts:

Recent public reporting about organisations restricting access to public repositories due to AI-enabled code analysis illustrates how quickly leaders may reach for blanket closure in response to uncertainty.

Basically, non-technical managers need to stop over-reacting.

Private repositories can create a false sense of security.

I think that's the crux of the argument. Closing code doesn't solve the underlying problems.

Making code private is not an appropriate mitigation for lack of ownership, patching capability, or operational assurance, so systems that cannot be safely maintained should be remediated or retired.

If you are so concerned about the poor security of your systems, you should shut them down completely to mitigate the threat.

Closure can become a one-way door.

As I said to the BMJ, "nothing lasts longer than a temporary fix".

Where code has been developed in the open, making a repository private later may not remove access for a capable adversary as popular repositories are often mirrored or forked

Indeed. A friend of mine has already archived all of the NHS's repositories. You can see the ones they've tried to hide.

But the killer blow, I think, is this:

Moving code from public to private as a substitute for investment in secure-by-design delivery, ownership and remediation is a warning sign because it reduces sharing and scrutiny, can slow coordinated improvement across government and suppliers, and does not remove the underlying weaknesses in a running service.

Exactly! Coding in the open has been shown time and again to produce high quality and secure work. The looming threat of AI vulnerability scanners doesn't change that - security is a shared responsibility. Technical teams need to be well enough resourced to create secure systems; hiding code is as reliable as papering over structural cracks.

GDS was created was to be a strong centre with vast technology expertise. This was to counter the frankly shoddy approach to tech in other departments. Back then, a Service Assessment was a way for a department to prove that they were actually capable of designing, launching, and managing a complex IT project.

Most departments have become significantly better at the development and running of these sorts of projects, so the raison d'etre of GDS has somewhat waned. Departments feel more confident in running off on their own. Usually I'd celebrate that - it's important that GDS doesn't become a bottleneck and that the talent is distributed throughout the whole Civil Service.

But NHS England has always been a bit of a weird one. One of the reasons NHSX was created2 was to ensure that the health service had strong expertise in technology and its deployment. As the Head of Open Technology there, I helped craft the policies which embedded Open Source and Open Standards within it3.

I don't know what discussions have taken place within NHS England - although I looking forward to receiving a response to my FOI request. It looks to me like a small group within NHS England have received a report showing some potential vulnerabilities discovered by Mythos. Rather than following their own internal guidance, they've over-reacted and slapped a blanket ban on coding in the open.

I fervently hope that this new guidance will encourage DHSC to bring NHS England into line with best practice. If not, perhaps GDS ought to reassert itself as the technical authority with power to veto a department's incomprehensible decisions?

Of course, all the budget cuts mean that biscuits cannot be purchased for any meetings. Which may explain some of the morale issues within the Civil Service. Thanks Austerity. Thausterity. ↩︎
As of today, they've shut down nearly 200 repositories. More may be coming. ↩︎
I was there right before the start of NHSX and helped set it up. ↩︎
Which, I suppose, is why I'm bitter and angry that all our hard work is being undone. ↩︎

#AI #gds #government #nhs #nhsx #OpenSource

#ai #gds #government #nhs #nhsx #opensource

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2026-05-17 · 11:34 UTC

GDS weighs in on the NHS's decision to retreat from Open Source

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/gds-weighs-in-on-the-nhss-decision-to-retreat-from-open-source/

Within the UK's Civil Service you occasionally hear the expression "being invited to a meeting without biscuits". It implies a rather frosty discussion without any of the polite niceties of a normal meeting0. In general though, even when people have severe disagreements, it is rare for tempers to fray. It is even rarer for those internal disagreements to spill over into public.

Which is what makes GDS's latest guidance so surprising. At the start of the month, NHS England made the bizarre and irresponsible decision to close all their Open Source repositories due to unfounded fears of AI hacking1. Lots of people within the NHS were outraged. As were many outside - with this petition against the move gathering over 2,000 signatures.

Within other parts of government there was also alarm. Although I no longer work for Government Digital Service, I was contacted by several concerned people there who remembered all my work on Open Source. The brilliant team in Whitechapel have now published their guidance "AI, open code and vulnerability risk in the public sector".

It is brutal.

They utterly repudiate the NHS's stance and forensically eviscerate it. I'll let you read the whole thing, but here are a few choice excerpts:

Recent public reporting about organisations restricting access to public repositories due to AI-enabled code analysis illustrates how quickly leaders may reach for blanket closure in response to uncertainty.

Basically, non-technical managers need to stop over-reacting.

Private repositories can create a false sense of security.

I think that's the crux of the argument. Closing code doesn't solve the underlying problems.

Making code private is not an appropriate mitigation for lack of ownership, patching capability, or operational assurance, so systems that cannot be safely maintained should be remediated or retired.

If you are so concerned about the poor security of your systems, you should shut them down completely to mitigate the threat.

Closure can become a one-way door.

As I said to the BMJ, "nothing lasts longer than a temporary fix".

Where code has been developed in the open, making a repository private later may not remove access for a capable adversary as popular repositories are often mirrored or forked

Indeed. A friend of mine has already archived all of the NHS's repositories. You can see the ones they've tried to hide.

But the killer blow, I think, is this:

Moving code from public to private as a substitute for investment in secure-by-design delivery, ownership and remediation is a warning sign because it reduces sharing and scrutiny, can slow coordinated improvement across government and suppliers, and does not remove the underlying weaknesses in a running service.

Exactly! Coding in the open has been shown time and again to produce high quality and secure work. The looming threat of AI vulnerability scanners doesn't change that - security is a shared responsibility. Technical teams need to be well enough resourced to create secure systems; hiding code is as reliable as papering over structural cracks.

GDS was created was to be a strong centre with vast technology expertise. This was to counter the frankly shoddy approach to tech in other departments. Back then, a Service Assessment was a way for a department to prove that they were actually capable of designing, launching, and managing a complex IT project.

Most departments have become significantly better at the development and running of these sorts of projects, so the raison d'etre of GDS has somewhat waned. Departments feel more confident in running off on their own. Usually I'd celebrate that - it's important that GDS doesn't become a bottleneck and that the talent is distributed throughout the whole Civil Service.

But NHS England has always been a bit of a weird one. One of the reasons NHSX was created2 was to ensure that the health service had strong expertise in technology and its deployment. As the Head of Open Technology there, I helped craft the policies which embedded Open Source and Open Standards within it3.

I don't know what discussions have taken place within NHS England - although I looking forward to receiving a response to my FOI request. It looks to me like a small group within NHS England have received a report showing some potential vulnerabilities discovered by Mythos. Rather than following their own internal guidance, they've over-reacted and slapped a blanket ban on coding in the open.

I fervently hope that this new guidance will encourage DHSC to bring NHS England into line with best practice. If not, perhaps GDS ought to reassert itself as the technical authority with power to veto a department's incomprehensible decisions?

Of course, all the budget cuts mean that biscuits cannot be purchased for any meetings. Which may explain some of the morale issues within the Civil Service. Thanks Austerity. Thausterity. ↩︎
As of today, they've shut down nearly 200 repositories. More may be coming. ↩︎
I was there right before the start of NHSX and helped set it up. ↩︎
Which, I suppose, is why I'm bitter and angry that all our hard work is being undone. ↩︎

#AI #gds #government #nhs #nhsx #OpenSource

#ai #gds #government #nhs #nhsx #opensource

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2025-02-06 · 12:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “Talking Contact Tracing at FOSDEM”

I was delighted to be invited to speak at FOSDEM. And I was not at all intimidated to be speaking on the cavernous Janson stage. The audience were lovely, asked interesting questions, and - most importantly - laughed in all the right places 😅.

Regular readers will recognise this as being an up…

#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #opensource #presentation

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2025-02-06 · 12:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “Talking Contact Tracing at FOSDEM”

I was delighted to be invited to speak at FOSDEM. And I was not at all intimidated to be speaking on the cavernous Janson stage. The audience were lovely, asked interesting questions, and - most importantly - laughed in all the right places 😅.

Regular readers will recognise this as being an up…

#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #opensource #presentation

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2025-02-06 · 12:34 UTC

Talking Contact Tracing at FOSDEM

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/talking-contact-tracing-at-fosdem/

I was delighted to be invited to speak at FOSDEM. And I was not at all intimidated to be speaking on the cavernous Janson stage. The audience were lovely0, asked interesting questions1, and - most importantly - laughed in all the right places 😅.

Regular readers will recognise this as being an updated2 version of the talk I gave at EMF 2024 - feel free to watch that one if you want to see if I've improved.

Huge thanks to the AV team and the video-wizards behind the FOSDEM infrastructure.

As I say in my introduction, these are my personal recollections. I no longer work for the Government, so feel free to send any complaints to the circular file.

Feedback

A few pieces of public feedback I got after the talk.

@[email protected]
Stewart X Addison

There's nothing like #FOSDEM. Maybe if you're in a particular community that doesn't have a devroom so doesn't attract so many people it's not the same but finding people you know face to face and making new contacts is so valuable. But there's something for every open source developer.
Talk highlight? I've got to go with @Edent on the UK COVID tracing app. Even if you're not UK based it was a lesson in how government works and dealing with the abuse on Twitter. Superbly presented too.
❤️ 10💬 3🔁 522:46 - Sun 02 February 2025

@[email protected]
Jim Madge

This #FOSDEM I've learned that @Edent, who up to now I have known for @openbenches, championed making the NHS covid app open source 🤯🚀.
Watch his excellent talk https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4411-lessons-learned-open-sourcing-the-uk-s-covid-tracing-app/

FOSDEM 2025 - Lessons learned Open Sourcing the UK's Covid Tracing App
❤️ 4💬 0🔁 013:27 - Sun 02 February 2025

@[email protected]
Johra 🌈

@Edent your talk was part of the wonderful things in this year’s FOSDEM. I look forward to more on health from the perspective of those who understand what’s behind the technology
❤️ 1💬 1🔁 014:57 - Wed 05 February 2025

@[email protected]
philip

That's a wrap of #FOSDEM for me, saw lots of great talks. If you have time to watch only two, consider https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4411-lessons-learned-open-sourcing-the-uk-s-covid-tracing-app/ by @Edent and https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4233-privacy-first-architecture-alternatives-to-gdpr-popup-and-local-first/ by @sitnik_en. I found them inspiring for being a good human and I learned something new in both 🤩.

FOSDEM 2025 - Lessons learned Open Sourcing the UK's Covid Tracing App
❤️ 2💬 0🔁 214:13 - Sun 02 February 2025

@[email protected]
Simon Lucy

An excellent talk and performance by @Edent on open sourcing the NHS COVID app at #fosdem2025 #StreamingFosdem
❤️ 1💬 0🔁 013:51 - Sun 02 February 2025

Diomidis Spinellis
@CoolSWEng

Pragmatic insights (with which the audience's majority also agreed) by Terence Eden from open sourcing UK's COVID tracing app at #FOSDEM: Used MIT license because other departments already used it and it was short and easy for lawyers and the public to understand, ❤️ 6💬 1🔁 013:53 - Sun 02 February 2025

Diomidis Spinellis
@CoolSWEng

Replying to @CoolSWEngadopt Apple's contact tracing API, host on GitHub, squash individual commits between releases (security & privacy).
Also: open source at the day of release rather than from the beginning (reduce noise).
❤️ 2💬 0🔁 213:53 - Sun 02 February 2025

Diomidis Spinellis
@CoolSWEng

Replying to @CoolSWEngOther lessons: bring-in professional moderators for discussions, be careful about controversial code comments, create a foundation for closing-down the system, open source is about community. ❤️ 2💬 0🔁 013:53 - Sun 02 February 2025

Except for one weird heckler who shouted out something incomprehensible. ↩︎
Well, one guy came up afterwards and asked "What exactly is Covid? Can you explain?" I politely suggested he speak to a medical professional. ↩︎
But, yes, still wearing the same t-shirt! ↩︎

#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #OpenSource #presentation

#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #opensource #presentation

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2025-02-06 · 12:34 UTC

Talking Contact Tracing at FOSDEM

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/talking-contact-tracing-at-fosdem/

I was delighted to be invited to speak at FOSDEM. And I was not at all intimidated to be speaking on the cavernous Janson stage. The audience were lovely0, asked interesting questions1, and - most importantly - laughed in all the right places 😅.

Regular readers will recognise this as being an updated2 version of the talk I gave at EMF 2024 - feel free to watch that one if you want to see if I've improved.

Huge thanks to the AV team and the video-wizards behind the FOSDEM infrastructure.

As I say in my introduction, these are my personal recollections. I no longer work for the Government, so feel free to send any complaints to the circular file.

Feedback

A few pieces of public feedback I got after the talk.

@[email protected]
Stewart X Addison

There's nothing like #FOSDEM. Maybe if you're in a particular community that doesn't have a devroom so doesn't attract so many people it's not the same but finding people you know face to face and making new contacts is so valuable. But there's something for every open source developer.
Talk highlight? I've got to go with @Edent on the UK COVID tracing app. Even if you're not UK based it was a lesson in how government works and dealing with the abuse on Twitter. Superbly presented too.
❤️ 10💬 3🔁 522:46 - Sun 02 February 2025

@[email protected]
Jim Madge

This #FOSDEM I've learned that @Edent, who up to now I have known for @openbenches, championed making the NHS covid app open source 🤯🚀.
Watch his excellent talk https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4411-lessons-learned-open-sourcing-the-uk-s-covid-tracing-app/

FOSDEM 2025 - Lessons learned Open Sourcing the UK's Covid Tracing App
❤️ 4💬 0🔁 013:27 - Sun 02 February 2025

@[email protected]
Johra 🌈

@Edent your talk was part of the wonderful things in this year’s FOSDEM. I look forward to more on health from the perspective of those who understand what’s behind the technology
❤️ 1💬 1🔁 014:57 - Wed 05 February 2025

@[email protected]
philip

That's a wrap of #FOSDEM for me, saw lots of great talks. If you have time to watch only two, consider https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4411-lessons-learned-open-sourcing-the-uk-s-covid-tracing-app/ by @Edent and https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-4233-privacy-first-architecture-alternatives-to-gdpr-popup-and-local-first/ by @sitnik_en. I found them inspiring for being a good human and I learned something new in both 🤩.

FOSDEM 2025 - Lessons learned Open Sourcing the UK's Covid Tracing App
❤️ 2💬 0🔁 214:13 - Sun 02 February 2025

@[email protected]
Simon Lucy

An excellent talk and performance by @Edent on open sourcing the NHS COVID app at #fosdem2025 #StreamingFosdem
❤️ 1💬 0🔁 013:51 - Sun 02 February 2025

Diomidis Spinellis
@CoolSWEng

Pragmatic insights (with which the audience's majority also agreed) by Terence Eden from open sourcing UK's COVID tracing app at #FOSDEM: Used MIT license because other departments already used it and it was short and easy for lawyers and the public to understand, ❤️ 6💬 1🔁 013:53 - Sun 02 February 2025

Diomidis Spinellis
@CoolSWEng

Replying to @CoolSWEngadopt Apple's contact tracing API, host on GitHub, squash individual commits between releases (security & privacy).
Also: open source at the day of release rather than from the beginning (reduce noise).
❤️ 2💬 0🔁 213:53 - Sun 02 February 2025

Diomidis Spinellis
@CoolSWEng

Replying to @CoolSWEngOther lessons: bring-in professional moderators for discussions, be careful about controversial code comments, create a foundation for closing-down the system, open source is about community. ❤️ 2💬 0🔁 013:53 - Sun 02 February 2025

Except for one weird heckler who shouted out something incomprehensible. ↩︎
Well, one guy came up afterwards and asked "What exactly is Covid? Can you explain?" I politely suggested he speak to a medical professional. ↩︎
But, yes, still wearing the same t-shirt! ↩︎

#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #OpenSource #presentation

#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #opensource #presentation

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2024-05-07 · 11:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “Pushing The Button”

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in 2020, but published four years after the events. It's May 2020 as I write this. I'm typing to capture the moment. Right now, I've no idea what the impact is. This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of […]

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #weeknotes #work

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2024-05-07 · 11:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “Pushing The Button”

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in 2020, but published four years after the events. It's May 2020 as I write this. I'm typing to capture the moment. Right now, I've no idea what the impact is. This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of […]

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #weeknotes #work

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2024-05-07 · 11:34 UTC

Pushing The Button
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in 2020, but published four years after the events.It's May 2020 as I write this. I'm typing to capture the moment. Right now, I've no idea what the impact is.

This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of them! - to open source the UK's COVID-19 Beta test app.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Open-Source-NHSX.mp4

It was thrilling and terrifying. We'd spent the last few weeks getting ready to open source the repos and then, at the last minute, it all went wrong. The plan was to launch on Tuesday - but fate conspired against us.

The problems fell into three main areas:

Threats and personal safety. This was probably the highest profile code release that we'd ever done. There were already people grumbling online that the people writing the code were "traitors". Did we want to expose our people to that sort of personal abuse? What if they were targets of phishing attempts?
Redacting history. Probably the most contentious issue. We all wanted to release everything from the very first commit. Would that reveal anything dangerous? Had someone slipped and accidentally committed an API key they shouldn't?
Communications. The other most contentious issue! The department were in "crisis comms" mode. Everything was delayed. No one had reviewed the blog I'd written, there was no pre-arranged plan in place for this sort of thing. Understandable really - this was a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle. But it was still frustrating to wait for people to be ready for us to publish.

<

p>We took the pragmatic approach. We took a snapshot of the code, thoroughly scrubbed it of all identifying information and secrets, and prepared to release it. Then we waited. And waited.

Every time we thought we had the go-ahead, there was another delay! There was a strict comms schedule. We couldn't launch now; it would interrupt that other announcement!

I was asked to help rewrite bits of the announcements. This led to some memorable questions from the comms squad. How can you explain to the average user...

what "Source Code" is?
why the Android code is different from the iPhone code?
who are "Git Hub"?

And, the kicker? All these questions came in while I was on a conference call with a bunch of government ministers! The joys of multiple monitors!

It was interminable. I sent texts which went unanswered. Emails. Phone calls. Just a few minutes more. Any moment now. We need to wait for...

And then!

"Can we launch ASAP?"

Yes! The email I was waiting for. But I am a paranoid and cautious Fraggle. Was that "Launch now!" or "Can we launch now?"?

So I sent a reply. "Just to confirm - do you want me to publish now?" And waited.

And waited.

I got an email from my boss "Launch now!"

And a second later, from comms: "Please hold off - no go. Will call you shortly."

How I longed to press that button. I could say that I only saw the first email... No. Maybe. No.

An eternity. During which time I casually glanced at Twitter and read all the angry messages from people demanding the release of the code.

The call came. "Publish it - but don't tell anyone." Weird flex, but OK.

I called my very-patient wife into my home office. I wanted the moment captured. She opened her camera. A few clicks, and it was done.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent

Replying to @peteslater @peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX The source will be released shortly on GitHub.com/nhsx
As you can imagine, we've been working flat out to get this ready, accessibility assessed, and security checked.
It will be released under a FOSS licence.github.com
NHSX
NHSX has 103 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.
❤️ 99 💬 0 ♻️ 42 21:18 - Mon 04 May 2020

Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent

Replying to @edent @peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX pic.x.com/3wqghy6ctm ❤️ 25 💬 5 ♻️ 0 17:49 - Thu 07 May 2020

I did a little dance. Let all of the tension out of my body. And waited for the hate to roll in.

It didn't. The response was... positive! Yes, there were grumbles, but so many people were fulsome in their praise that it was overwhelming. Congratulatory tweets and emails did the rounds, and I had a nice cold ale.

I took the bank holiday weekend off. Well, I obsessively read all the tweets, answered questions about my blog post, and kept half-an-eye on GitHub. I'm not good at relaxing.

Has it worked? Did we make the NHS more open and transparent? Did open source win the day? Did the beta test work? Were lives saved? Or was it a damp squib?

As I write this, we're still in the eye of the storm. Perhaps, when this post is published, we'll know the answers.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #WeekNotes #work

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #weeknotes #work

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2024-05-07 · 11:34 UTC

Pushing The Button
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in 2020, but published four years after the events.It's May 2020 as I write this. I'm typing to capture the moment. Right now, I've no idea what the impact is.

This is the exact moment, on Thursday May 7th, I hit the Big Red Button - three of them! - to open source the UK's COVID-19 Beta test app.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Open-Source-NHSX.mp4

It was thrilling and terrifying. We'd spent the last few weeks getting ready to open source the repos and then, at the last minute, it all went wrong. The plan was to launch on Tuesday - but fate conspired against us.

The problems fell into three main areas:

Threats and personal safety. This was probably the highest profile code release that we'd ever done. There were already people grumbling online that the people writing the code were "traitors". Did we want to expose our people to that sort of personal abuse? What if they were targets of phishing attempts?
Redacting history. Probably the most contentious issue. We all wanted to release everything from the very first commit. Would that reveal anything dangerous? Had someone slipped and accidentally committed an API key they shouldn't?
Communications. The other most contentious issue! The department were in "crisis comms" mode. Everything was delayed. No one had reviewed the blog I'd written, there was no pre-arranged plan in place for this sort of thing. Understandable really - this was a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle. But it was still frustrating to wait for people to be ready for us to publish.

<

p>We took the pragmatic approach. We took a snapshot of the code, thoroughly scrubbed it of all identifying information and secrets, and prepared to release it. Then we waited. And waited.

Every time we thought we had the go-ahead, there was another delay! There was a strict comms schedule. We couldn't launch now; it would interrupt that other announcement!

I was asked to help rewrite bits of the announcements. This led to some memorable questions from the comms squad. How can you explain to the average user...

what "Source Code" is?
why the Android code is different from the iPhone code?
who are "Git Hub"?

And, the kicker? All these questions came in while I was on a conference call with a bunch of government ministers! The joys of multiple monitors!

It was interminable. I sent texts which went unanswered. Emails. Phone calls. Just a few minutes more. Any moment now. We need to wait for...

And then!

"Can we launch ASAP?"

Yes! The email I was waiting for. But I am a paranoid and cautious Fraggle. Was that "Launch now!" or "Can we launch now?"?

So I sent a reply. "Just to confirm - do you want me to publish now?" And waited.

And waited.

I got an email from my boss "Launch now!"

And a second later, from comms: "Please hold off - no go. Will call you shortly."

How I longed to press that button. I could say that I only saw the first email... No. Maybe. No.

An eternity. During which time I casually glanced at Twitter and read all the angry messages from people demanding the release of the code.

The call came. "Publish it - but don't tell anyone." Weird flex, but OK.

I called my very-patient wife into my home office. I wanted the moment captured. She opened her camera. A few clicks, and it was done.

Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent

Replying to @peteslater @peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX The source will be released shortly on GitHub.com/nhsx
As you can imagine, we've been working flat out to get this ready, accessibility assessed, and security checked.
It will be released under a FOSS licence.github.com
NHSX
NHSX has 103 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.
❤️ 99 💬 0 ♻️ 42 21:18 - Mon 04 May 2020

Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent

Replying to @edent @peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX pic.x.com/3wqghy6ctm ❤️ 25 💬 5 ♻️ 0 17:49 - Thu 07 May 2020

I did a little dance. Let all of the tension out of my body. And waited for the hate to roll in.

It didn't. The response was... positive! Yes, there were grumbles, but so many people were fulsome in their praise that it was overwhelming. Congratulatory tweets and emails did the rounds, and I had a nice cold ale.

I took the bank holiday weekend off. Well, I obsessively read all the tweets, answered questions about my blog post, and kept half-an-eye on GitHub. I'm not good at relaxing.

Has it worked? Did we make the NHS more open and transparent? Did open source win the day? Did the beta test work? Were lives saved? Or was it a damp squib?

As I write this, we're still in the eye of the storm. Perhaps, when this post is published, we'll know the answers.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #WeekNotes #work

#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #weeknotes #work

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2024-02-19 · 12:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “Drinking Champagne with the Secretary of State”

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in February 2019, but published much later. My life is weird. Again. Looking out over London from the top floor. The Eye is glittering and the Palace of Westminster is glowing. Someone pours me a glass of (very expensive1) champagne, as the Secretary …

#dhsc #meta #nhsx #retropost #work

Terence Eden @[email protected] · 2024-02-19 · 12:35 UTC

🆕 blog! “Drinking Champagne with the Secretary of State”

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in February 2019, but published much later. My life is weird. Again. Looking out over London from the top floor. The Eye is glittering and the Palace of Westminster is glowing. Someone pours me a glass of (very expensive1) champagne, as the Secretary …

#dhsc #meta #nhsx #retropost #work

Terence Eden’s Blog @[email protected] · 2024-02-19 · 12:34 UTC

Drinking Champagne with the Secretary of State
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/drinking-champagne-with-the-secretary-of-state/

This is a retropost. Written contemporaneously in February 2019, but published much later.

My life is weird. Again.

Looking out over London from the top floor. The Eye is glittering and the Palace of Westminster is glowing.

Someone pours me a glass of (very expensive1) champagne, as the Secretary of State laughs at my witty bon mot.

Is this my life now? People of distinction and influence listening to what I have to say? It isn't an oak-panelled room, with deep armchairs, where cigar-smoking men carve up the world. It's a modest and plain office where men (and women!) have gathered for a bit of mutual backslapping. But I am here. I'm in the room and being thanked.

And why not! We've all worked hard on launching NHSX and are rewarded with a little audience. The chit-chat is awkward - despite the geniality, we're all aware that the boss is here.

Naturally, I believe someone is going to tap me on the shoulder and ask me what the hell I think I'm doing in a room full of proper grown-ups. But, no, people keep asking me questions and telling me their well-practiced anecdotes.

It is simultaneously amazing and banal. I've been at this work-party several times in my career, with dozens of companies, with a parade of CEOs. This feels different. A tiny glimmer of "I've made it a difference!"

I eat my fill of crisps - I am driving later - and slip out. I want to savour the moment, but know too well the perils of outstaying my welcome. I float all the way home.

Proximity to power is a powerful glamour. I understand why some are drawn to it, and some are seemingly addicted.

But I'll be different, I'm sure, as I bask in the experience.

The fizz has come from someone's home. No taxpayers' cash was splashed on booze. ↩

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/drinking-champagne-with-the-secretary-of-state/