#nhsx — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #nhsx, aggregated by home.social.
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🆕 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…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/talking-contact-tracing-at-fosdem/
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#conference #covid19 #fosdem #nhsx #OpenSource #presentation -
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 2025Diomidis 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 2025Diomidis 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 2025Diomidis 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 2025Except 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
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🆕 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 […]
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/pushing-the-button/
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#covid19 #nhsx #retropost #WeekNotes #work -
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.mp4It 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♻️ 4221:18 - Mon 04 May 2020Terence Eden is on Mastodon
@edent
Replying to @edent@peteslater @tobias1087 @NHSX pic.x.com/3wqghy6ctm ❤️ 25💬 5♻️ 017:49 - Thu 07 May 2020I 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.
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🆕 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 …
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/drinking-champagne-with-the-secretary-of-state/
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#dhsc #meta #nhsx #retropost #work -
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/
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🆕 blog! “The Digital Covid Test That Nearly Was”
These are notes that I wrote during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. I've published them a few years later. By now, you're probably sick and tired of shoving a swab up your nose and / or down your throat. You've grown blasé about the little medical marvel as it reacts to whatever antibodies are […]
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/the-digital-covid-test-that-nearly-was/
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#covid19 #nhsx #usability #ux -
🆕 blog! “So, farewell then COVID-19 App”
Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. The UK's COVID tracing app is finally closing. The app was, by any reasonable measure, a success. A team of experts at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick estimate the NHS COVID-19 app prevented […]
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/04/so-farewell-then-covid-19-app/
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#covid19 #nhsx #OpenSource -
Half way on our journey to the new #NHSEngland.
14 months completed.
14 months to come.
1 year since #NHSx was closed.
Today #NHSDigital is closed.Will take a while to settle...💙
Onward!
#WorkingInTheNHS #NHS -
Half way on our journey to the new #NHSEngland.
14 months completed.
14 months to come.
1 year since #NHSx was closed.
Today #NHSDigital is closed.Will take a while to settle...💙
Onward!
#WorkingInTheNHS #NHS -
Half way on our journey to the new #NHSEngland.
14 months completed.
14 months to come.
1 year since #NHSx was closed.
Today #NHSDigital is closed.Will take a while to settle...💙
Onward!
#WorkingInTheNHS #NHS -
Three Things I Wish I'd Known About NHS Technology
It has been a year since I stopped working for NHSX. A few weeks ago, someone reached out to me inquiring about a job there. They wanted to know what they needed to know before joining. As well as the normal moaning about the quality of vending machine coffee, I told them about three things which caught me off-guard when I joined.
So,
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/08/things-i-wish-id-known-about-nhs-technology/
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Weeknotes: Vaccinated – Part 1
I know exactly what I was doing on 9th April 2020. I was worrying about open-sourcing the NHS Covid Tracing app. I was worrying about tech standards for booking test slots. I was worrying if I'd ever see my family and friends again. I was worrying if the NHS websites would contain enough semantic HTML to be useful. I was worrying if the security of 3r
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/04/weeknotes-vaccinated-part-1/
#/etc/ #covid19 #nhs #nhsx #weeknotes
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Men’s health subscription startup Numan closes £10M Series A funding round - Launched almost 18 months ago, Numan joined the growing list of sites aiming at men’s health, such ... - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/MoaoaouNA90/ #erectiledysfunction #vostoknewventures #pharmaceuticals #healthcare #novator #europe #cancer #numan #nhsx #ceo #tc #ro
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CW: Coronavirus / COVID-19
@cassolotl .." in order to be responsible"
Surely the #coronaApp is merely #datamining by #google & #apple ??
Otherwise, #NHSx & #opengov would have developed a #floss application, no?? @librecomms -
Roll out of the #NHSX #Covid19 tracker app is imminent. Read about where we stand on #privacy, where we are heading to, and what we can do about it.
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/nhsx-app-no-news-is-bad-news/ -
Today we have made a formal legal request for the #NHSX app’s privacy assessment, which is still incomplete, despite moving to testing.
If the safeguards for the #TrackingApp are insufficient we will consider legal action.
https://openrightsgroup.org/press/releases/2020/nhs-app-lacks-privacy-due-diligence #Covid19UK
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Today we have made a formal legal request for the #NHSX app’s privacy assessment, which is still incomplete, despite moving to testing.
If the safeguards for the #TrackingApp are insufficient we will consider legal action.
https://openrightsgroup.org/press/releases/2020/nhs-app-lacks-privacy-due-diligence #Covid19UK
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This sounds much more inocuous than it is.
Ravi Naik’s opinion explains that many Government uses of data, including the #NHSX App, may be unlawful.
Transparency is required to show why they are not.
Yet the App this week is in public beta. #covid19uk
This is the core of it:
“a centralised system would result in a significantly greater interference with users’ privacy and require greater justification.”So, justify it first.
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UK privacy and security experts warn over coronavirus app mission creep - A number of UK computer security and privacy experts have signed an open letter raising transparency... more: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mBJPMrLwtZs/ #nationalcybersecuritycentre #nationalhealthservice #computersecurity #unitedkingdom #ukparliament #coronavirus #matthancock #bluetooth #security #covid-19 #privacy #android #germany #europe #health #france #google #apple #apps #gchq #nhsx #ios #tc
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Doesn't everyone have unlimited data?
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/doesnt-everyone-have-unlimited-data/
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It will cost you £500 not to attend this conference
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/it-will-cost-you-500-not-to-attend-this-conference/
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Notes from GovCamp 2020
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Why I make my work calendar public
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/01/why-i-make-my-work-calendar-public/
