In security, Bandits return to Kaduna Abuja Highway, kidnap over 30, as 10 feet killed in Kasina village. And corruption, probing Umar Farouk, edu authors and answers Nigeria's global image just is Aheko. I am Borla Oba Anfis, is plus politics. Bandits on Sunday attacked travelers on the Abuja Kaduna Highway and abducted over 30 people, witnesses and community leaders. Said, the abduction took place at Dogon Fili near Katari along the Kaduna Abuja Highway in Kashia local government area of Kaduna state. This is the first time in months and ten months when the security along the Abuja Kaduna Road atri was breached. A former lawmaker, Sinetoshie Woosani confirmed the attack on his ex-page. It disclosed that two of his friends narrowly escaped the kidnap, narrowly escaped being kidnapped by the bandits. Sinetoshie said, quote, just when we felt safer, last night Sunday kidnappers returned to the Kaduna Abuja Road. They blocked the road and abducted scores of persons at 9pm near Katari village. Two of my honorable friends from both the ruling and opposition parties had to run through the bush like Usain Bolt. But despite this incident, there is a stronger security presence along the route than it used to be in the past, unquote. Similarly, suspected bandits have left 10 persons killed and several others wounded at Kukau Babangida village in Jibya local government area of Kashina state on Thursday. Among those killed were the Kukau Babangida village at Zone in Kashina along with his four biological children. Residents told reporters that the bandits invaded the village in the early hours of Thursday at 1.30am when most of the residents were deeply asleep. The Kashina state police command was yet to react to the attack at the time of filing this report. To look at this is a security expert, Augustin Hega and a public affairs analyst, Muamed Abdulahi. Gentlemen, welcome to PLOS Politics. Hello. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. How would you start giving this saddening reportage from the Abuja Cardinal Act 6 and the Kashina state? What would be your initial response to this report? Yes, it's quite very unfortunate because in the past, two years, if I'm correct, the issue of bandits or kidnappers on Abuja Cardinal Highway looked initially stopped because I'm a regular traveler on that highway. In fact, at least two months or so I'm on that highway traveling between Abuja and Cardinal. So I'm telling from experience that at least in almost the past 24 months, we've not had this kind of occurrence of kidnappings on that way. And it was basically because there was a holdout of patrol on that highway. You know, there are many security posts. I think I mean, for what I've seen so far, there are many security posts along that highway from the stretch of Abuja. All until Cardinal. I could only wear this kidnap, I mean this recent kidnap to place. That Qatari access is actually very very dangerous, you know. They are very very dangerous. Seriously, that has been, that Qatari access as well was where the train was attacked almost four months ago. So that access has been very dangerous. I mean, in terms of banditry and then kidnapping. So like I said, I've seen a holdout of security apparatus. I mean, even soldiers come here and there, patrols here and there, you know. So it's quite disturbing that this recent attack took place, I mean, three or four days ago. And at alarming rate. Mohammed. Thirty people are to go. If the paraphernalia of security on that road is as pronounced, as you just stated, and this is a first-hand account, as somebody who often used the road. One would then presuppose that it's about time that the security architecture would look beyond just enhancing the presence of security personnel on that road. Because if the intelligence were to be right, the people who attacked to orchestrate that unfortunate incident would have been, would have been pinned down before getting to the road. You know, because as much as, you know, you have also validated the opinion shared by Senator Shaywusoni that now we stand in the breach, the presence of security on that road seems to be better than it used to be. But this has also shown us that if we're just waiting, believing that because we have high presence of security personnel, these guys may look for, you know, a lacuna of the sword and strategically just eat that point and eat our own of the sword. What do you think? Yeah, I think the challenge is that it's very obvious that perhaps these criminals like I used to, like I choose to call them seems to be a bit smarter than our security apparatus. Yeah, it's, there's no two way about it, you know. Because this is a calling issue, you know, the Englishman says once beating twice shy. But come on, we've been beating more than like a hundred times or even a thousand times, kidnapping seems to be like the order of the day. So we want to believe that these few criminals are more smarter than our security apparatus is our security agencies. Perhaps it is so, even if we don't want to admit because I think like you rightly mentioned, what we need to do and what we need to do first is go beyond just human security. What do I mean by human security?  That would definitely not solve the problem seriously. Because these guys know they are human beings. They know that perhaps there will be a time that they will be pressed. There will be a time that they will fall asleep. There will be a time that perhaps there will be other issues across the country that they need to be the quick to go and attend. So bam, what if they are not there, they strike. That's what is. Okay. But what we need to really look at. Okay mama, mama, I'll get back to you. Let me also bring your colleague, Augustine Aga in. Augustine, what would be your take of these unfortunate incidents, both Kadunaw, Abudia, Road Aksiks and Incasina State? Your first take. Hello Augustine. Is Augustine there? Okay. Mohammed. Yes. Oh, okay. There's a whole lot of network issues. I think, you know, just let's take it as we get it. Is that Augustine? I can hear you. Yes, I can hear you. Oh, fantastic Augustine. Okay, Augustine, how do you want to start? Your initial response to all the remarks, you know, first of all made, you know, on the show. Thank you. That line is cracky, cracky, cracky. Hello. Can you hear me sir? Yes, I can now. Alright. What I'm saying, my own security in the most, even in the most secure nations, they still have times where they have lapses. I am not collaborating with the Nigerian police or maybe they have some deficiency that led to this. But what I want to analyze objectively is that from the time the guys operated, the day of the week, it was a Sunday from the, what I've seen so far, it was a Sunday. It was around 9pm. And they said the operation lasted for 45 minutes. And that is that for the five minutes like up to 10 o'clock in the evening. I think they have actually profiled the system because these people look for opportunity to strike. They profiled the system and we all know that on Sundays, people don't travel much. Or you see sometimes you travel a long distance. You don't even find law enforcement along the routes. If you are someone who travels a lot every Sunday or every weekend, it's a quiet time. And this time was even a festive time. So I want to see that they took opportunity of the day of the week and the timing too. They have done their survey, they have done their intelligence, they have done their profiling before this incident happens. That is my own understanding of what is happening.  And to be honest with you, nobody can fault the logic of your submission. It's perfect, you know. But it is, however, also speaking to the fact that even a spot like you can analyze the fact that those guys struck when after the most profiled, you know, the operational methodology of the security apparatus in that axis, somebody at the management level of those who are there, or those who posted them, they ought to be playing scenarios too. You know, scenarios that, you know, there may be days like that of peak that these guys may be opportunistically prepared to take advantage of their relaxed security architecture.  I'm just thinking aloud now. And I'm sorry if it seems like I'm putting you... No sir, you're absolutely correct. I was getting down to that.  You are actually 100% correct on this. This is something that they need to do from their strategic and operational level to know the level of... In fact, we can see that all the military coups that have happened in Nigeria happened on weekends. And most of the high level incidences against security happened during the weekends. So this is enough to inform the authorities that they should prepare better, especially in that axis of the route when we've had a lot of problems. So I would say that I am not letting out those in authority regarding the security of that route. They ought to have done something on their own. The government is aware and they have placed their law enforcement to do something to save lives and property along the route. So we are not shifting the blame away from our own Nigerian police. Or whosoever the authority is sending that area. Fantastic. I'm not shifting my blame because we cannot. The government have profiles. People have been delegated to do their job. People have been assigned in their job. So where were they? We are talking about 45 hours operations. 45 minutes. I know it was a slip. I know it was a slip of tongue. Yes, yes, it's a slip. So 45 minutes operation is too much for that we don't have a response force. For 45 minutes they are operating. Five minutes is enough for bad guys to do what they want to do. But we are talking about almost an hour. Let me just quickly add something to the fantastic points we are making. I think it is imperative that this juncture to let our viewers know that it may not only be the police. We may have way blocks that are manned by the army or some other services too. Because it may be a bit unfair. To just note it all on the place. The security architecture especially in that specific particular axis transcends the place alone. I want to believe that. Yes, I think I... Okay, let me go to Mohamed. Mohamed is a regular user of that road. Mohamed. Yes, I can hear you. Your factual this thing will be helpful to myself and Augustine here as somebody who regularly uses the road. Is it only the place or the other security agencies also deploy personnel in that axis? Definitely it is not only the police. The most visible security apparatus that you will find on the road. Since the train attack has even been in the army. You have a Nigerian army base actually not too far from the scene of the train attack. Which is closer. The scene of the train attack is much closer to the road than the train track. So you have even the Nigerian army patrol man. Sometimes you see 2, 3, 4 on both lanes of the road. Mohamed. Perhaps. Mohamed. Yes. Somebody who according to you, somebody who often travels between Abuja and Kaduna and given the seeming noisy coincidence that you have just, you have just pointed for me now. Which is the fact that the Sunday incident happened somewhat approximate to the point where that infamous train attack took place just by the same vicinity. And I'm thinking, I'm thinking, is there a particular topographical or any document that areas that vulnerable. You should know somebody who… Nothing really spectacular. From my continuous usage of that road. Nothing really underwhelming or overwhelming in that area. In fact, what we just have is that perhaps it's a bit rocky and then it's a bit like a valley. But like I mentioned earlier, there is even an army base that has been instituted there since the train attack. I can really confirm this, you understand. But like I said, we keep hopping on humans, human security. At this age and time, we need to go past that. We need to go past that. Seriously, why human security is fantastic? You can't do it. You can't do it without it. But we need to employ a role of technology. And we need to be very discreet about that. It is not fine for me, even though I'm not a security expert that whenever the army buys, for instance, a particular machine or a particular aircraft or a particular security machine, it goes all over the news. I don't think it's a wise idea, you understand. Because we need to be very discreet about what we do in terms of our security agencies. And at this age and time, we need more of technology. I come back to you. I come back to you. I'm having two intellectually engaging guests this evening. And I'm the apia for it. Augustine, hello Augustine. I'm with you. Fantastic. Augustine, you are the security expert here. And like Mohammed just opined. Umint, that is human intelligence is good. But technology now is so democratized, democratized open source, that is awesome. Open source intelligence that people like you should be in the know. Should also be given advice now to security agencies that this see don't look and wait for the bad guys to come and attack portraiture. It's becoming untoward. Why are we not using intelligence? What would be your response to my notices opinion? Yeah, it's good because from the description of the area, what Mohammed just said, the topography is actually favorable for criminal activities like that. It says rocky and it's a valley there. So it makes that place vulnerable. And it also shows that it's a getaway point for them. Where you have valley, you have rocky, it's a place they can't conceal themselves easily. So haven't known this. If Mohammed is not a security expert, it's able to even access the reach there and tell us what is the topography of that area. I think we learn. Profiling should be done by the national police and the DSS. Mohammed is saying this are the capabilities that you build. And intelligence is good, but intelligence have to be actionable. And that's one point the most note. Another point is that intelligence like policing. It's very important. In fact, it's key to modern day policing. Intelligence like policing is very, very important. It's strategic. And since they've known that this area is vulnerable, all the whole road is vulnerable, they need to build the capabilities of intelligence like policing along that area. And like you said, the open source, they can incorporate this open source thing that they will get information randomly. Around those people living there. So it comes to the point where we need to ask how do they spend our budget in terms of securing lives in that kind of an area. The second point I will make is that I am concerned with the response time. I am very concerned and disappointed with the response time. Okay, if let's agree that in all of the things they have done, something is still happened, then the response time, the response falls should be able to help us out of that situation. Response can be by using vehicles. It can also be so that you will use very little manpower to do very much. This is effectiveness. Augustine, to agree with you, 45 minutes and apart from that, they practically took away 30 human beings reportedly. 30? They must have had the whole day to themselves. At least in terms of security vulnerability from what you have said as an expert that 5 minutes is even too long. I don't know what they will tell their commands that we know some of the bank robberies, they have a duration of 5-10 minutes and they will cut away with a lot of resources. But we are talking of human beings stopping the vehicle, taking them out, channeling them through where they need to pass, to where they want to keep them. And it happened 1, 2, 3 to 30 human beings and to a particular place. I mean it's something we really need to, it's not something that we can defend anybody. And just using my journalistic, the unfortunate thing about some of the traits that some of us get involved in is that just using my journalistic mind and as you know, pain is kept it now. Is this speaking to maybe conspiracies or some, I don't know. Okay, my back room told me it's about time we ended this segment. Gentlemen, I really want to say thank you. Mohamed, it's been lovely engaging with you. Thanks for the information. And Augustine, we surely will be having you guys back. We couldn't even go as far as Kasina, Abudia Kajuno Road eventually took most of our time. Thank you. We got a short break now. My pleasure. Thank you. We got a short break now. And one way back, the show goes on.


So let's try this problem. It's a little trickier than most of those conversions that we've been doing. It says convert 1.8 inches squared to centimeter squared, okay? So you'll notice that inches squared, that's an area, right? It's a length times a length, so that's an area. But anyway, so that area, let's just say 1.8 inches squared. And you'll always get this conversion factor here, 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters. It's a good one to kind of keep in your head. And it wants it in centimeter squared, which is also an area, of course, right? So the thing you want to make sure you do is remember that this isn't just inches, it's inches squared, okay? So when you convert, you're going to have to take that, or cancel that inches out twice, okay? So in order to do that, so we have this conversion factor, 1 inch, 2.54 centimeters. So when we do that, that doesn't cancel out both of them. It just cancels out one of them, right? So we're going to have to do it again. And so when we multiply this times this, we get centimeter squared as our unit. So again, a lot of times when I do these ones, people think, oh, it's so obvious, but when they go home and do it by themselves before they try to get here. I got 11.6, so we're going to be 12 centimeters squared. So I multiply it 1.8 times 2.54 times 2.5. And that gets you, in this case, the calculator gave me 11.6, and now it's going to round up. But the units, of course, are centimeters times centimeters, giving you centimeters squared. Are there any other questions? Just square the conversion out, right? Yeah, you could take this conversion and square the whole thing. Yeah, so I mean, another way to do this, short hand. Questions on that one? Questions, questions?


The best government programs for teaching English abroad Teaching English abroad is now a popular career option for many people of all ages While there is a strong demand for TEFL certified teachers in many different regions of the world, there are certain countries who have implemented government-funded programs to attract foreign English teachers Through these programs, qualified English teachers are placed into schools around their countries where they are employed for a set period of time Here is a list of the best government programs for teaching English abroad Epic for Teaching English in South Korea The epic program in South Korea is one of the largest and most popular teaching programs and stands for English program in Korea This scheme is run by the South Korean government and places foreign teachers into schools across the country to work as English language instructors The program offers competitive salaries, attractive extra benefits and the chance to live and work in a unique cultural environment in East Asia Requirements and more information about the program Teachers sign a one-year contract that runs from one of two start dates, either at the end of February or the end of August Salary based on qualifications and experience ranging from 1.8 to 2.7 million KRW, currently $1,500 to $2,300 USD per month Fully furnished accommodation, not including utilities Paid air fare in and out of the country 300,000 KRW settlement allowance 18 days paid leave plus all national holidays One month salary bonus on completion of contract You must be a native English speaker with a passport from one of the following countries, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK or the US You must hold a university degree and be able to prove a clean criminal record In addition, you also require at least one of the following TEFL TESOL certification of 100 hours or more, preferences given to those with a teaching practice component BA or MA degree in education with a major in teaching, TESOL, second language studies or education Teaching license gained in your home country One year of full-time teaching experience How to apply To apply for this scheme, please visit the official EPIC website TALK for teaching English in South Korea TALK stands for Teach and Learn in Korea, which is a government-sponsored program that places foreign nationals into elementary schools across South Korea TALK is a similar program to the much larger EPIC However, the TALK program differs by focusing on placements in underprivileged areas that might otherwise struggle to attract foreign teachers Requirements and more information about the program Open to college graduates or current undergraduate students who have completed at least two years of a degree course Applicants must also hold a passport from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Ireland Minimum age requirement is 19, but no official upper age limit, although those over 35 are typically encouraged to join the EPIC program instead A national criminal record check must be submitted during the application process Participants sign a one-year contract that starts in either February or August Prior to the start date there is a one-month orientation program A monthly stipend of KRW 1.5 million, currently United States dollars 1,300 per month Furnished accommodation, typically a studio apartment, not including utilities Flight allowance of KRW 2.6 million to cover transport in and out of the country Settlement allowance of KRW 300,000 for teaching English in Japan The Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, JET, is a government-backed scheme that has been operating for more than 30 years Through the scheme, around 5,000 foreign nationals are placed into schools right across Japan with the intention of raising the language skills of young people Unlike many similar programs in other countries, the JET program also has a strong focus on cultural exchange between participants and the local population There are three types of position available through the program The most common, at over 90% of applicants, is working as an assistant language teacher, ALT Duties of an ALT include assisting a Japanese teacher in the classroom, preparing teaching materials and participating in extracurricular activities such as sports or language clubs If you have a good standard of Japanese language skills then you can also apply as a coordinator of international relations, sir, while sports professionals can apply for the role of Sports Exchange Advisor, C Requirements and more information about the program Open to college graduates up to the age of 40 A minimum of a bachelor's degree, or alternatively a three-year teaching qualification at either primary or secondary level A strong emphasis on youthful energy and a desire to fully embrace the Japanese culture, language, and overall way of life Pre-tax salary of 280,000 Japanese yen, currently $25,000 United States dollars, in your first year, plus airfares for travel to Japan and homeward flight on completion of the contract The program is a paid holiday time between 10 and 20 days, plus all national holidays Working hours are approximately 35 per week from 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday How to apply Visit the official JET program website to apply for the JET program TAPF for teaching English in France Short for teaching assistant program in France is a government initiative that places applicants into French state schools to work as teaching assistants The program provides a great opportunity to live and work in a country where long-stay visas can be difficult to secure for non-EU citizens For those who meet the necessary criteria, the TAPF program could be the perfect way to fulfill your dream of living and working in France There are more requirements and more information about the program Open to those aged between 20 and 35 Participants work 12 hours per week in up to 3 different elementary or secondary schools for a period of 7 months, running from October 1 to April 30 Each position comes with a work visa that is valid for the length of the contract, plus health insurance and a monthly stipend of 790 euro The application's suitability is evaluated via the following criteria French language skills, a level equivalent to be won on the common European framework of reference for languages is required Level of university education Previous teaching experience Experience working with children Experience living abroad TEFL-TESOL qualification, not compulsory but highly beneficial As the requirements are subject to change, you should visit the TAPF program website for the most up-to-date information As well as being evaluated on the criteria stated above, applicants are also required to submit the following 500 word statement of purpose in French Scan of valid passport Scan of university transcripts Language evaluation from University French professor Letter of recommendation from academic or professional $60 United States dollars application fee Cultural ambassadors program for teaching English in Spain The cultural ambassadors program, also known as the North American Language and Culture Assistance Program, is run by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport The program places 2500 North Americans into elementary or secondary schools across Spain to work as assistant language teachers Due to the difficulties for non-Europeans to secure a work visa in Spain, this program is very popular among Americans and Canadians looking to live and work legally as an EFL teacher in Spain As this is a very competitive program there is no guarantee of acceptance and more information about the program Open to American and Canadian citizens aged between 21 and 60, the upper age limit for placement in the Madrid region is 35 Contracts last from early October until May 31, June 30 in the Madrid region, teachers work a set number of classes per week in return for a stipend of 700 euro per month, plus health insurance coverage and a long-stay work visa Airfares and accommodation costs are not included An applicant's suitability is also evaluated on the following criteria A practical demonstration of Spanish language skills, college transcripts, high school records and Spanish language certificates can be submitted to provide extra proof Physical and psychological suitability, a medical form is required Academic achievement, BA or BS minimum, university junior, senior or graduate Previous teaching experience Experience working with children Experience living abroad TEFL-TESOL qualification, not compulsory but highly beneficial For the most up-to-date information regarding the application process you should visit the official website of the Cultural Ambassadors Program To complete the application you will need to supply the following documents 250-300 word statement of purpose in English Copy of a reference letter from your employer or university Copy of your degree diploma or an official academic record Copy a valid US or Canadian passport CETP for teaching English in Hungary If you are looking for something a little different that is slightly off the beaten path, then the Central European Teaching Program CETP in Hungary may be worth a look The CETP is a long-running program that places applicants into schools in Hungary to work as English language teachers Requirements and more information about the program Open to native English speakers from the US, Canada, the UK or any other EU country No official upper age limit This is a particularly good option for older teachers who might find it difficult to secure jobs in some other European countries The standard program runs for 10 months from September to mid-June with an orientation week prior to the start Also 6 months, positions available from January to June Teachers receive a regular salary that is equal to local co-workers, no income tax is required, plus national health insurance and paid holidays The work visa also allows you to travel across Europe Teachers also receive a private, furnished apartment with all utilities covered for the duration of their contract Partners, friends or families can often be placed together How to apply If you are interested in the program and would like further details you should visit the CETP website In order to be accepted on the program applicants must submit the following documents TEFL Tezol certification that includes at least 20 hours of practical classroom teaching Letter from doctor confirming your good health, work visa requirement Notarized copy of your university diploma Background check Net scheme for teaching English in Hong Kong The Net, native speaking English teachers scheme is a recruitment program initiated by the Hong Kong Education Bureau that places qualified teachers from overseas countries into state-run schools The scheme recruits hundreds of teachers every year to work in either primary or secondary level schools across the territory Requirements and more information about the program You must be a native English speaker or possess an exceptionally high standard of English language competence Applicants must be less than 58 years of age at the contract start date Monthly salary of between Hong Kong dollars 25,000 and 60,000, currently United States dollars 3,200 to 7,700, dependent upon relevant experience Assistance finding suitable accommodation plus a housing allowance of around Hong Kong dollars 20,000 per month Paid round-trip airfare from your home country, including up to four family members Relocation allowance to assist with the transport costs of personal belongings Stipend for medical insurance coverage The scheme is split into two separate areas for primary level teachers and secondary level teachers known as PNET and SNET Applicants for the PNET scheme work with primary students aged from 6 to 12, with a typical class size of 30 to 37 The qualifications required for these positions are a degree in English, a teacher training qualification in primary education, and a TEFL TESOL certification In the event that not enough teachers meet these requirements, those with a lower level of qualifications are considered If accepted on the SNET scheme you will work with secondary students in an average class size of 40 to 45 The stated criteria for these positions are a degree in English or education, a postgraduate diploma in education, a TEFL TESOL diploma, and at least one year of teaching experience at secondary level Once again, if recruitment numbers are not met then applicants with fewer qualifications are considered How to apply? Please visit the official NET scheme website to apply English opens doors program for teaching English in Chile Chile is one of the most stable and prosperous countries in Latin America and has long been a popular destination for ESL teachers The popular English opens doors program, EODP, is sponsored by the Chilean Ministry of Education and the United Nations Development Program and places foreign teachers into schools across Chile on a volunteer basis Participants on the scheme work as teaching assistants with the aim of improving the English language skills of children ranging from 10 to 18 years old Requirements and more information about the program Open to native or near native English speakers between the ages of 21 and 35, applicants outside this age range are assessed on an individual basis You must possess a bachelor's degree You require sufficient finances to pay for transportation to and from Chile as well as living expenses during your stay Any teaching qualifications or experience of international travel will also be taken into consideration when applying for the program All housing costs and meals are covered if you choose the homestay option Monthly stipend of 70,000 Chilean peso, currently $110 USD plus free visa, free health insurance and free online Spanish lessons Week-long orientation course in Santiago. Free transport within Chile. How to apply To apply for this scheme, please visit the official EODP website Are you ready for teaching English abroad? Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today


Hey folks, thanks for tuning in. My name is Todd Hunter, Assistant National Communications Director for DAV. Now, we normally like to do these information seminars with all of our members at our annual midwinter conference in Washington, D.C., as well as our national convention, wherever that might be. This past year, scheduled to go to Dallas, but obviously because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we unfortunately had to cancel. But that doesn't mean we don't want to get some information to you, and that's what we're doing here today. With me, my special guest is DAV's Inspector General Ed Hartman. Ed, thanks for joining us today. I'm hoping you can just introduce yourself a little bit to our audience. Absolutely. Thanks, Todd. Of course, many folks will know me as Ed Hartman. I've been DAV's Inspector General for the last 12 years. Prior to my appointment as Inspector General, I'd served 13 years in many capacities to include a National Service Officer, National Appeals Officer, and our Director of Voluntary Services over the last 25 years. So it's been a good, long career for me. I enjoy it. And as our Inspector General, tell us a little bit of kind of what that entails for you. As DAV's Inspector General, it's very broad. It's primarily to maintain our positive image in the community and to ensure that all of our members, chapters, and departments are in full compliance with the Constitution and bylaws of our organization at all levels. Okay.  We rely solely upon the very generous donations of the American public to continue our operations, giving free services to the men and women who served. Tell me why some people donate to our entities? I think it's, we have a very pure mission in terms of what we do as an organization. And I think that the general public sees that, understands that. And as a result of that, rewards us in terms of providing donations to us. Over the last 100 years, we have been widely known and very highly recognized as being the premier organization of providing services to disabled veterans and their families of all eras. Not just a particular era of veterans, but any veteran of any era. And of course, we do that through a variety of methods, whether that's through our service programs or advocacy programs. So, we've developed and have polished a very good reputation over the last 100 years that people can see what we do. They know that when they give to DAV, we are going to put their money to good use and certainly do all that we can to assist disabled veterans and their families at all levels throughout the country. Okay. So, what kind of activities can DAV departments and chapters support? So, typically DAV departments and chapters are really more focused on programs and services provided at the local level in their communities. So, in many instances, it's a matter of supporting their service officer program, whether that be their chapter service officer, their department service officers. It could be their DAV transportation network for which we are very widely known. Yep. Every year we provide, you know, better than 100 vehicles and vans that are donated to VA medical centers across the country. We provide the volunteers to drive those vans out in the communities, pick up veterans, getting them to their health care appointments at VA facilities to get the care that they're entitled to. And in many instances that are is really a life-saving care. They can also support our VAVS programs, of course, which many of our chapters and departments do, where our local chapter members go into VA facilities throughout the country, provide recreational opportunities for the inpatients at the hospital, volunteer in the outpatient clinics during the course of the day. They also provide the same services at state operated veterans facilities and nursing homes across the country as well. So, in addition, of course, DAVs over the last probably 20 years or so has been very well recognized for involvement with our rehabilitative events associated with the Winter Sports Clinic and more recently the T-Tournament. So, all of those things that are DAV branded, that DAV is in one way, shape or form associated with, those are all activities that DAV departments and chapters can certainly support without any question in terms of anyone coming back to them and questioning where their donation went that it wasn't necessarily spent on a DAV related activity. So, we also have our national service program, our charitable service trust and Columbia Trust, which are all DAV exclusive that DAV chapters and departments can certainly continue to support in the future that would absolutely qualify as a DAV appropriate expenditure of funds. Okay, you talk about acceptable expenditures of funds. Tell me, can you run down a little bit of kind of what kind of expenditures are considered unacceptable? Sure, there are a good number of unacceptable expenditures. One thing that we have to remember is when we go out from the community and we present ourselves as the American public, whether that be in front of a Walmart or a fan's club or a grocery store and we ask for donations. We're doing so using the name of DAV. So, it's our responsibility to spend those funds as provided by the donor. One thing that we should absolutely never find ourselves in a position of doing is providing those donated funds directly to other veteran service organizations. So, it makes no sense for DAV members to stand out and conduct forget-me-not drives to raise money to support DAV programs in their communities to simply turn around the very next month and provide a blanket donation or a general donation to another non-profit veteran service organization. If donors wanted those funds to be provided to another veteran's organization, they certainly would have provided them directly to them. They provided those funds to DAV and so they have an expectation and we have an obligation to ensure that those funds are spent on DAV specific programs. Now, that's not to say that DAV departments and chapters cannot support very unique and specific programs that are provided by other non-profit organizations. For example, if there's a homeless veteran stand down that's being sponsored by another veteran service organization or a homeless veteran's program or a food pantry of some sort that benefits exclusively disabled veterans and their families, we can absolutely support those so long as those donations are earmarked and very specifically for those programs so that in the future if the public comes back to us and they catch wind of the fact that we may have supported another organization, we can say yes, we did so but for this very specific purpose which is in line with our chartered purpose of providing services to disabled veterans and their families. One of the other big no-no's that we see if you will for lack of better terms are donations to organizations that have absolutely positively nothing to do with veterans or their families or anything affiliated with our chartered purpose. So every once in a while we will see donations made to police unions, firefighter associations, churches, youth groups, while each of these organizations are very worthy and very commendable organizations. Donations to those organizations certainly do not fall within any purview of DAB's chartered purpose of assisting ill and injured veterans and their families. Okay. So how is spending by various chapters across the country? How is that tracked and who's responsible for that oversight? Well, one of the accountability is very important to DAB at all levels and it's very important to our donors. Each and every year every entity of DAB is required to provide an annual financial report so that we can show the general public what we are doing with their funds. At the national organization level we have the responsibility of reviewing and providing oversight of all of our 52 state departments which are all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and a good number of the 1,300 local chapters and communities across the country. Those chapters that bring in more than $50,000 during the course of the year and their fundraising efforts they are required to provide an annual financial report to the national organization as well. And at that time we look at and we validate what they are doing with their funds to ensure that they are spending those funds on appropriate DAB related activities and programs. And then of course in the rare instance when we identify questionable contribution or support of a program that is completely unrelated to DAB we are very quick to contact an entity, remind them of our chartered purpose and get them back in line with supporting truly all DAB related programs. Department leadership also has a very responsible part of renewing these annual financial reports of their chapters because at the end of the day each of those chapters is the subordinate entity of those departments. So we really rely upon our departments to do exactly what we do at the national level when they get those annual financial reports. Look at them, make sure that the expenditures are in line with our chartered purpose. Everything is accounted for so that we can reassure the American public that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing with their money. Okay, awesome. Before we go you got any tips for some of the chapters on how they can be good stewards of our donated funds? Absolutely, I think probably the very best thing to keep in mind is to remember or develop a mindset as a DAB leader, whether we're the commander, the adjunct or the treasurer or the members that are voting on issues at our chapter meetings on what programs we're going to support. Develop the mindset that this isn't our money. This money belongs to the general public. We're just the funnel for which those funds make their way from the public to disabled veterans and their families in the community. So if we can always put that first and foremost in mind that we have an obligation to spend our donors funds in line with their wishes, we'll probably never go wrong. And at the end of the day, as long as we're supporting very specific DAB related and branded and sanctioned programs, we can never get in trouble with the public. We can never get in trouble with the internal revenue service. And one of the things that I always like to keep in mind is that service to veterans is very broad. And of course it varies from community to community. There might be a need in one community for homeless veterans programs. There might be a need in one community for a food pantry. So we don't want to ever find ourselves in a position of telling or dictating what a chapter or department should do with their funds that they bring in from the public. So long as that they are providing those funds in a reasonable way for the benefit of ill and injured veterans and their families of all areas across the country. So if chapter's departments just ask themselves the one very simple question before considering making a donation to any particular program or activity is does this donation from our chapter or our department benefit disabled veterans and their families. And if the answer is overwhelmingly yes, then we are not going to have any problem justifying to the American public the decision of that chapter or department to support that very particular program. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate your time today at this would have been, you know, as much as we all wanted to be in Dallas to be with our members at the convention this year obviously it couldn't happen. But you know we're doing these virtual seminars because we want to get them some and I appreciate that. No doubt there are going to be folks who see this who have additional questions and they want to get a hold of you. So can you put what's the best way to get a hold of you for those? Absolutely the best way to get in touch with me is call National Headquarters and ask for me or simply probably the best way to ensure a very timely response is to shoot an email to me and my email address is simply E-Hartman at DAV.org. Ed Hartman, DAV's Inspector General. Thank you so much for your time today and hope you stay safe through all this and, you know, we'll see each other again. All right, sounds good. Hey, thank you very much, Todd. Take care my friend.


There are definitely trans fetishization elements and also like child sexuality Elements of the story that may not be what you want to hear So if you don't want to hear about that I guess I would leave the room for ten minutes and then come back I won't be offended even though I am actively enraged in every one of the world. I promise Hi Alright then First bad decision. I was in Portland.  I Made a firm decision to not see him after dialing his number the previous night and having the following change Interchange and so when I talked to tricks on the phone I have this really faggy voice and so I Always try to sound like this Hey, man. This is Sid Sid Yeah, you wanted to get together while I was in Portland. We were texting. You sold my ad over my boy What did I want to see you for? Sorry run number I Look at my phone. I look at the tux because I'm not always smart. I text again Sorry seem to have caught you at a bad time. Let me know if you still want to meet up I receive back. Sure. I do. I'm looking forward to our booking. Give me a call.  So, yeah, like what were the plans that we had? The same ones we were talking about via texts. Could you remind me of those? Although I have made a lifelong habit of pushing past every dangerous sign that has ever arisen in sex work It occurs to me that something is not going well. I Hang up. I don't text I tell my best friend something really sketchy just happened But he is zeroed in on the TV in front of us He places his head on my lap and looks up at me pick me. He said pressing my fingers against his face. I Filed this as one of several possible encounters with law enforcement that it's best to pretend has never happened The next day the same number texts me. Why didn't I hear from you?  So whenever tricks are like, let me pick you up and drive you for 45 minutes I'm like sure that sounds like a great idea The tram goes through Portland streets till they are no longer busy with food trucks and bars Arriving in an area of long fences and houses painted fresh deep reds and teals The last triumph stomp is at a mortuary his luxury black car in the parking lot of a banks next to it They are so close that when I look over to where he stands waving. I mistake him for a funeral driver Grant is in his fifties white another face in the sea of gay men who I meet as an escort His energy is forceful. There's an edge that is hard to connect to I wonder if it's meth or something less temporary He's very interested in me as a transgender at the topics of transgenders in general. He's very connected to gay ink He knows that my people have a problem with it. He says I don't think many People know how much affirmative we action we do in hiring transgender persons If you look at our staff, many of our higher-ups are from your community. I Look out the window as the car goes around the hills carefully tended lawns rolling out in front of those big white houses He drives into the carport of a two-story The garage door opens to a room that reminds me of my aunt Sydney who wasn't my real aunt but rather my grandmother's lesbian friend I lived with her often on was a child after my mom died Her apartment was large with rooms that smelled of mothballs unlike my grandma's apartment where I slept in a cot next to the closet Sydney's had furniture that felt like it was from another century I remember laying on the iron wall carpet underneath the stained wood table Six marching carved chairs with silk cushions. I would pretend to be a princess trapped in another kingdom's castle Waiting for the doors to open for me to be brutalized by an unknown adversary Grant's house is decorated like this, but without the carpet being tread into a matted-down surface Chandeliers sparkle light off gold accents of cabinets in front of me is another boy younger than me brown skin Slim and white pants with an expensive haircut. I moved to shake his hand. Grant says that's how sway Don't worry. He won't be joining us Our hands touch and I slightly roll my eyes and attempted camaraderie during my smile, but he looks at me blankly Upstairs Grant talks about how he's been taking care of Hossway He's been letting me know dance. He's been letting him live downstairs for four months after his parents kicked him out of the home Nasty business they aren't dating. He's just a benefactor. I look at the Dean Brown silk sheets of his bed Do you want a bathrobe? He asked me. He hands me one while he heads to the bathroom I take off my clothes and they sit awkwardly in a pile next to my backpack filled with packets of lube condoms bits of weed and colored pencils The carpet feels so soft on my feet and the robe gently brushes against my flesh. I Try to position my limbs organically and suggestively on the high high bed Does he want me to be butcher femme?   I just don't possess the fucks or the finesse to work out the mechanics With grant I can't tell I can tell that this isn't going to be a natural 10-star review First he gets really whiny about barebacking something I admit to doing in the past But in a quick cost-benefit analysis decide that this scene is already too much He switches to a new more perverse role play where I tell him about how dick hungry I am it goes like this Tell me how you went into the bedroom at bathroom at school so you could look at dick. How old were you? Yeah, I was 16 and I would sneak in after science class Hide behind the lockers then I would wait till the boys came after sucker practice and watch them masturbate Because that's what boys do in the bathroom Pretty soon in the dirty talk my age rolls back to 14 and I'm still a drooling cum slut There's a certain legitimacy in this in my diary from that time.    I know where this is going You know you could show him it would be a real hoot Yeah, I mean that's cool. I don't need to do that I'll give you an extra $50 if you show him just for a second. He won't touch her anything Because I'm already fairly dissociated and besides $50 for a small humiliation with someone I'll never seem again kind of seems worth it I get into the bathrobe again, and he goes to prep his friend.  I Open my bathrobe and hosue looks at me sheepishly. Mmm. Wow, okay We are both having a hard time displaying the kind of childlike innocence our ringlighter leader has in mind You look so much like a man, but have a vagina. He says weekly. Yes I know that is that is part of being transgender Ha ha We hug at an angle grant looks like down While I get dressed he asked me about the phone calls. I tell him about the weird voice on the line Oh, yes, he says. Well, it's very likely that my phone is getting tapped. I Start to get excited about the prospect of blackmailing him In the car with heated seats as he takes me back He and his not boyfriend argue about their plant their flight Sorry, he and his not boyfriend argue about their flight to Palm Springs this afternoon I put my hand in my pocket filling the bill's fault against each other and thank the goddess for the patronage of transgender people like myself By gay incorporated. Thank you very much


That's what's printed in the schedule. It's actually kind of a working title, so I think meaningful design feedback is more the approach I'm going for. But anyway, so you're here because you're interested in collecting design feedback, maybe using it for your site, and just ensuring it happens in some form. So in this session, we'll define what design feedback is and how do you collect it, how to use it, that sort of thing. And also, I'd just like to thank these people. They really helped with my session. I did a lot of chatting with them. And the other thing I did is I did a run through of my session and they had some great feedback. And I'm a big fan of feedback. I asked them to focus on the content and the flow and because I don't get terribly excited by fonts. So great feedback. OK, so my name is Lisa Rex. I'm a user experience researcher at Acquia. Formerly a sort of design editor. I've done front ends. I've done some triple site building. I was also a genealogy researcher, which has been a kind of interesting juxtaposition with my current role. But some of my biggest failures in my design career have been because I didn't get the right design feedback. The story that springs to mind is actually my first sort of web design role. I was tasked with building the internet. And it's hard. And so my friend and I, we kind of got together and we ran down to the kitchen and we made toast and we were all excited and we built the whole thing. And then we showed it to people and we kind of missed the mark on content and visuals. And the whole thing was scrapped. So good lesson there. So this is the design team at Acquia. We're definitely focused on products, things like Acquia Cloud, Acquia Network, Commons, Spark, Drupal Gardens. And our process, this is the story basically of our process. And it's definitely, our process is a work in progress. But we're growing, we're learning, we're adapting. And it's actually really quite fun. These are our UX interaction designers. Their focus is largely on the visual and the interactive part of things. They do a lot of the design briefs and style guides. And then they also do the visuals and the prototypes. And that's everything from wire frames to clickable prototypes. We have lots of approaches to the way we do things. And we just decide based on the needs of the project and timelines. And then there's the UX research team. And there's three of us at the moment. We are doing the research planning and conducting the studies. We do a lot of sort of more basic studies, like kind of like click test, if that seems appropriate. And we're actually talking a lot with our customer-facing team. So support and the technical account managers. So, I mean, this comes together with our feedback processes pretty broad. We are mostly focused on the qualitative and not the quantitative. So it's great to use Google Analytics or ClickTail or anything like that to see where people are clicking. But it doesn't tell you the why of things. So that's why we're more focused on actually talking to people directly. So design feedback is anything from written emails to tweets. But actually, we prefer actual conversations with our stakeholders and users and potential users. So yeah, everything from gut reactions to really planned studies. The reason for this is that we recognize that we are not necessarily our users. And that's the same for everybody. You can't know what your users need until you talk to them. So lots of things you can learn from feedback. One of the things I find really useful is to figure out the actual needs of your users. So your brand new user, he comes to your site. Things might be a little difficult to figure out. But maybe over time, it's learnable. The next time he comes, he's whizzing through, great. And then we have the power users. She comes along. And she's been using your site or your product for a long time. And she doesn't need all this kind of introductory stuff. So it's working out how their needs vary. This is kind of a fun example. It's the dupal.org admin. It's the user permissions page. So it's not public facing. But I think it's fun because most people don't get to see it. Obviously, what works for a few doesn't scale. So that's what I mean by scalability. I mean in the UI. You see this a lot on forums and other social sites occasionally. But as you probably know, the dupal module will let you generate reams of content and stuff of it into your theme and make sure nothing breaks. So nodes and comments and users. The other thing that you can learn is just whether your content is actually working. This is a big deal. That's the main reason people are coming to your site or coming to your project. Just figuring out what's the right amount and what they need is the messaging right. Is the tone working for them? Maybe they're, I don't know, maybe it's like you're talking down to them. There's all kinds of things you can learn. And then the other thing is the UI text. So that's things like on your forums and just labeling can be confusing unless you check with people. So I approached this talk like I did, like I would a research project. And so I talked to nine different people. Seven of them were actual designers from around the drupal community and at Acquia. And I also talked to two product managers because I thought they would have an interesting take on things. So yeah, I did interviews with them and I looked for some common themes. So here's, well first, some quote from my colleague who's just super smart. He points out that feedback is the sort of difference between design and art. So with that in mind, I was like, yep. OK, so common themes for my interviews with these people. Number one is that design feedback is absolutely essential. And what's interesting is not all of them start out off thinking that way. And in your career as a designer, you might think you've got it all figured out. But one of them said, as often as I think I'm right, I'm usually not. So it happens. And then the main reason that feedback is essential is that it just saves time. The faster you can uncover problems before you start getting other people involved, making putting stuff into code, the better. So talk is cheap. It's not always what they say. It's what they do. So this major airline, they decided that they would survey customers or their passengers to find out how they could improve their long-haul flights. And in the survey, one of the questions was what sort of snack would you like mid-flight? And the overwhelming response was fruit. So the researchers thought, well, let's ask the flight attendants. So they did. And the flight attendants were like, no, no, no, no. They want cookies, warm cookies. So the researchers thought about this. And I think they realized that their passengers were saying that they wanted fruit, but they were probably at home, surrounded by family, thinking about being healthy and safe. And it was interesting how you want to be able to observe your users, not just ask them. The other thing that we learned from these talks is that during design feedback sessions, people don't know quite how to behave. They don't know what to say. They say too much. So I'll talk about how we can deal with that. OK, so you may be familiar with this meme. People see inspirational photos of baking projects that professionals have done on Pinterest. It turns out it's harder than it looks. So people tend to think of themselves as a designer. And it turns out it's really quite hard. So if you're gathering feedback with people, just a little tip on reining in the designer and everybody. There's a few reasons. It's wonderful that they have ideas and definitely take them all down. But at the same time, they probably don't have all the information they need, such as if there's been some existing research or design patterns or anything like that. The other thing is that a flat design, just like a drawing or something, it probably doesn't have all the interactions. So the designer still has work to do, even if someone hands over a drawing. And then the main thing is that they could have found spend that time finding other problems. So one of the people I talk to is she used the phrase monkey hands, like design monkey hands. Don't make me think I'm just these monkey hands. So let your designer be the designer. OK, so let's talk about actually getting meaningful design feedback. OK, let's say your client or your stakeholder says, hey, let's make a thing. And for the purposes of this, we'll say it's a home page redesign. So as I mentioned before, everyone wants to feel like they're part of this successful design thing. So it's great. It's super great. Definitely, definitely get your team involved. We encourage the support. We get a representative from support, from QA. Definitely, the designers, even if it's not the lead designer, including the lead designer, but the other, their peers, tech leads, developers. It's great. Get everyone involved. And marketing too. So one of the first things we do is we start with a creative brief. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because you've probably seen these before, but these are the headings in our creative brief. So we talk about what the problems are, like what it is we're trying to solve, and then sort of the goals of the project. And that's super important. Get everyone aligned on those. Success criteria, dependencies. Dependencies are things like if you're, one of the developers isn't available until a certain time. So anything that could introduce risk to the situation. And then kind of break down the aspects of this design or this new feature, whatever. The must-haves, the should-haves, and whatnot. So the must-haves, this is interesting because the story or the project can't be considered ready to ship until all the must-haves are met. And the should-haves are things that you could release without it, but then you won't be done until you've done those. Also must not have. So there's probably instances where it just shouldn't have something in there, so be sure to declare that up front. We also talk about who our competitors are. That's just an awareness thing. And then any deadlines and who you're targeting and inspiration. So I'll talk about that in a second. And then notes. Just people can take notes as you have these reviews. So we recently released these notifications here. And some of our inspiration for these things we're looking at, like Facebook and LinkedIn and Jira, Twitter, a well-established design pattern now. So it's helpful to look at that for inspiration. And then I mentioned success criteria. Here's some examples. Starting with something vague, like a higher conversion rate, as an example, we like to make them smart goals. And that's specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. So here it's just like from 2 to 5 by quarter 4. And I've just made these things up, but just as an example. So now let's say you're working on your design brief. And at the same time, you want to start looking and thinking about your feedback and research plan. Don't be tempted to skip this step. It's really, really important. So again, these are headings from the document for the research planning. We first talk about the goals. These will match, hopefully, to the goals of the design brief. Then we take input from the stakeholders. And your stakeholders are whoever the product owner is or the client. And that input could be things like what they want to learn or if they want something kind of validated in particular. Next thing is your methodology. So that can be anything from usability testing to one-on-one chats to if you know you don't have a lot of time, then you just want to do something really fast or do the quick and dirty testing. Absolutely fine. Then depending on those top three things, then you'll decide who your participants are and how you'll recruit them. And then lastly, it's just like what are you asking? And it's really helpful if you're talking to a series of people to have those questions written down. I mean, start with maybe a kind of a briefing for the participant, just introducing the study to them and then all your questions and that sort of thing. So I don't know if you've ever had a situation where people couldn't agree, but possibly. One of the great techniques I just learned from my colleague Christine is this KJ method. And it's really super forgetting people all kind of to reach consensus. So let's say that you just wanted to find out what research goals or how to focus the research for something. So what you do is you get everybody in a group with this KJ method. Everyone in a group. And you ask them the focus question. So for example, we asked what would you like to learn about customers in the next quarter?  And then as a group, they sort these sticky notes into categories that sort of make sense. And anything related. And then the next step is they label these groupings and then they vote on them. So they can have three votes. So three X's for their number one and so on. And then at the end, you can just add up and see which groups won. So and there you have it. Like, everyone worked together. They had opportunities to change groups, mix up groups. And you can read more about it. There's a link here. Jared Spill wrote a great article. Also in your sort of recruiting methodology, you want to think about who do you need to make happy. So for people in the agency setting, it's going to be probably heavily client-centric. Your clients are the ones who are paying the bills and that's who you need to make happy. They have their business objectives and that sort of thing. Paul Boag is another designer who has written and he's podcasted and has an e-book about this client-centric approach. So I would check that out if you get a chance, if that's of interest. And then obviously there's the user-centric approach and I think for most people it's going to be a mix of the two. So you decide what that mix is. I mean at Acquia we definitely do a mix. So, okay. Now let's say that the design brief has been signed off and design begins, again, get everyone involved. So in this example, we started off with like I think 12 people and we divided up into three groups and we started drawing, making sketches and like sort of over a couple sessions. You know, it took several hours but we got there and we distilled it down into two kind of quite robust drawings. And I realized this photo that one of my colleagues put a bird on it and so if you watch Portlandia, I think it's Portlandia and if you say in Portland if you put a bird on it, you can just call it art. So anyway, I left that in. Oh, put a bird on it.com in case you need that emergency bird. So now let's talk about the research execution. So your designer has something to show you and to show others. So what we usually do is start with the stakeholders and you know, the stakeholders are the people that have like specific deadlines and goals and so they're gonna care about all these things in any like design change that are gonna impact timelines and budgets. So we tend to do sort of three different things. Design reviews, design check-ins which are just sort of shorter and more frequent and then we use like commenting tools. But first let me talk about design reviews. So this is where things can go awry. So the best thing is if you're the one who's like leading the session, you wanna set expectations up front. So if you have an hour, just like explain like we're gonna spend 10 minutes going through the design brief, then we're gonna spend 30 minutes you know, talk actually getting your feedback and then the last time it will like think about like what's the sort of next steps. So yeah, I always think it's a great idea to go through the design brief together just to remind everybody like what the goals are, you know that sort of thing. As the person who's collecting the design feedback, you're gonna sort of facilitate and take lots of notes and let the designer present his or her vision. Another quote from Matt, he's really quotable. He said that you know, you'll get a lot of probably a lot of talk coming at you in the session and you just have to like, you know as a designer and as the facilitator you'll learn to kind of focus on what's important. So actionable feedback, sometimes there can be opinion wars but what you wanna do is just ask them to focus on the problems and the goals and not focus on any solutions or try not to jump to any solutions yet because that comes later and actually that's really the designer's job. A good example is if you were doing a car design, you'd want the feedback to focus on things like the brakes and the steering wheel and not the headrest. If the design review isn't working, you can have like shorter, more frequent check-ins like I think maybe every other day might be good and then have like one sort of mandatory session once a week just to avoid any surprises. The other thing we use is something called envision and I think there's other similar products out there but it allows you to just upload a bunch of static screens and link them together. So you have a sort of clickable prototype and people can add comments directly to the screen so it's like nice and in context and this is, well this is the sort of the backend view I guess you could say, but we use it for commons and because we also needed like public, you know, the community comments so we use this and it worked out really, really great. So now I want to talk a little bit about actually talking to users. Christine says that the best way to understand their goals and attitudes is to have people watch. When I say people watch, you know your, watch people using your products. So I mean getting like a developer in a room to watch and take notes is really, really powerful. So yeah, they'll definitely understand what people need. So I think of user feedback as like that harsh, glorious feedback from the only people who can like really make your design better. They're in a really good position to tell you what needs improvement. Users are always coming somewhere with a purpose and you know that's what you're gonna uncover. The other thing is that I think most people are really happy to provide feedback. I've never, I always ask in person and I rarely get it, no, but people are motivated to help and they like to help and if there's something they have to use frequently then they'll probably be really, really happy to do so. The Drupal community I know is just really passionate and it's just, it comes through in a lot of different ways. Also customer hugs are awesome, I have to say. So you're gonna like need to find these people to talk to, it can be people off the street but it really, you know, it's like thinking about like what your goals are and in your process you are also thinking about who you need to talk to and how you're gonna recruit but that's why I mentioned asking in person. Thinking about if you need to talk to designers or developers or you know whatever type of person that is and also offer incentives so it could be anything like, we do Amazon gift cards but maybe you just buy them lunch or coffee, beer, they all work. And then just make it a conversation, make it fun. So you have your users or you have your customers or whoever it is that you wanna talk to that's not the stakeholder and the next thing is to think about whether you wanna do in person or remote. I prefer in person just because it's easier to sort of establish like a rapport and it is a little more fun. It's easier to communicate as well, there's a lot of non-verbal communication that goes on when you're face to face with people and also it's a little easier to deal with interruptions. I had the doorbell ring once and it scared me a lot and they didn't know what was going on and they kept talking and so yeah, that sort of thing. The cons of trying to do it in person are the logistics. If you're not in the same place then there's gonna be travel and that sort of thing. So remote, we do a lot of remote I have to say. So we use things like Skype or WebEx and it's just convenient. All you have to do is really schedule them and hope they have a, everyone has a good wifi connection. But sometimes there's issues with the audio and sort of things like that. But you know, so what can you do with customers? So aside from doing like usability studies and just like interviewing them and getting their feedback, you can also do things like validating their priorities. So we did this recently, we showed them some roadmap items in a spreadsheet and we had them like record their responses. I mean, I think what we did is we said, pretend you have $100, how would you allocate this? And we did that, we just hid the previous participants' columns and it was really, really great and I think we will definitely do that again.  It can be really open-ended, you could start off with like do whatever you would do normally if you first encounter a site and then you might have them do a few specific tasks, but what I think is great is just to have them like give them a goal and just see where they go, how they get there, record all the sort of deviations and hesitations and that sort of thing. Yeah, just definitely watch what they're doing. I've observed people like clicking in one spot, even though they weren't saying anything, I saw this clicking happening, it was like, okay, that could be a problem. And then the other thing is to use measurable metrics. So at AQUIA we've been doing everything on a one to five scale, so one is poor and five is excellent. So as I observe, I'll come up with the rating from the effectiveness point of view and then I'll often ask the participant like kind of like how is your experience and what's funny and it's pretty consistent. If I observe something to be like a three or four, they'll be like, oh, that was a five. So like, oh, that's nice, but you don't have to protect my viewings. The other thing also is just to communicate your findings visually. Reports are really boring and your stakeholders are likely not going to read them. So I always, I like to do sort of annotated screenshots or if you've been recording, you can take video clips and that's awesome. So if you are doing usability studies, what's really great is just to start setting up repeatable ones. So if something changes in the design, you can run the study again and see how it alters. But if it's exactly the same as it was before, you can just see if it went up, hopefully it went up. Also, some of our studies where we have people like actually editing content on a Drupal site just to test things out. And you can use something that, if you have a Drupal site on a multi, multi environment hosting provider, you can use that to just like revert the database back so it just resets to where it was. That's a big time saver. And if you have any kind of studies where they're like actually altering settings on modules, you can use Drush to just revert back to the default. So a couple of pro tips. Always, always keep your stakeholders involved. Don't go it alone either. I always think it's great if you can get someone else on your team to come in and observe and take notes.  And then always record your conversations with your participants. WebEx is what we're usually using, but if you have to just use the thing on your phone or any kind of voice recorder, the reason is that for whatever reason, your note taker can't capture everything and you're trying to like ask questions and listen and be able to come up with additional questions. You can't also take notes at the same time. It's hard. I wouldn't recommend it, so definitely record. Couple things, if you're interested in learning more about usability testing or kind of UX, undercover UX is another great one. There's a couple of books there and then this video, the square weave, it's called The User Is Drunk and it shows some examples of pretending if your user is drunk then it'll help a little bit with like the design. I think it's funny, so. And then, excuse me. Adam Conner and Aaron Irizari, they talk about design critique a lot and actually they're presenting today at WebVisions and I saw them last night. So there's a link there that I think is Adam talking about critique. But yeah, they've done a lot on that so definitely look at that because that feeds in quite nicely to the whole design reviews and that sort of thing. Okay, so let's say you've got all your research and you've got it and you're happy, you've talked to enough people, that sort of thing. Now gather it all up and start sort of synthesizing it, like look for the high level themes and then show these to stakeholders. So what you can do is sort of group everything by the original questions they may have had and then as a group you'll decide what to act on. I mean this process does take a little bit of time but if you focus on the big ones, like forget about the things that maybe one person said or two people said but if like five people mentioned something then it's definitely something that you wanna focus on. If you can't decide, you can always run a KJ again to decide like well what are we gonna act on so that works too. So when you start gathering this information you can do things like develop these sketch personas and these really only come from having like a deep understanding of who your users are. Sort of the difference between a regular persona is that these are in flight, they're never, we're always learning so they're not final. And how we usually start with like the person's name and what they do, a little biography, a little bit of their day to day life and we talk about their technical profile. So something like how well they do Drupal to do these version control, are they comfortable in the command line, that sort of thing. And then task profile, so these are the things they actually do on your site or your product or whatever and I've broken them down into sort of primary and secondary so another way you could break it down is like the sort of things that are crucial but less important and then the ones that they do all the time. And then just generally like their kind of concerns and challenges to do with their job. Security comes up a lot, that sort of thing. What is great though is I've, once your team starts recognizing these names and these profiles, they really absorb it, then they've become like able to defend this person. So I've seen that and it's really fun. Like well no, Dave would never do that because Dave, you know, so. And then I said mentioned like visually communicating. This is like an example of a journey map and this is, you know, it could just map to one of your personas but imagine there's all these tasks on your site and you know, after you've done usability testing you know that certain tasks are frustrating, certain are happy, usable. So yeah, just, you know, break them out. So like on the X axis we have the one to five rating and then across the bottom we have phases and these phases, you know, they're gonna depend on your project but you know, phase one might be like brand new user, the first time they encounter it and then like phase three is like, you know, they're like there every day so. So now you've got your design feedback, you've identified the problems and now you gotta act on it. So I think the hardest thing is like to actually just commit to a percentage of your time of the, you know, the development team's time to actually incorporate the feedback. It's always tempting for them to, they're probably really excited to work on new stuff but it's gonna be important that they kind of work on the things that making the site better too. So that feedback, you'll just wanna translate it into just chunks of work. Again, like you'll, you wanna prioritize those and get them on the development schedule. So I think it might be a little early here but your turn. So I want to see if people have done any design validation. Has anyone done this before? Or feedback, usability testing? A few? Yeah, okay, good. Yeah, so just think about a project, the parts you're not sure about, what you can do. I'd love it if people came back to me like some time later and they said that they ran some feedback and got some good information, that'd be great. We're also doing ongoing usability studies on our products, on Drupal, where there's a greater sort of Drupal UX team. So if you're interested in doing anything like that, for the aqueous side, there's a URL there. So definitely sign up or come talk to me. And then for the Drupal side, we're actually having a bof today at 2.15. I forgot the room but it's on the board. And you can learn if you wanna become part of the team that's improving and growing aqueous UX, that would be great. So we've identified a lot of the problems with the current process of contributing to Drupal UX and now we're looking for people to help like come up with solutions and I think the answer is going to be like doing more work at the local level. So if we can empower people who wanna do UX, like they could do like a run a usability study at a camp or something, that would be amazing. So, but anyway, I think we'll get together and we'll brainstorm some ideas there. So that's all I have, but if anyone has any questions, you can come up to the microphone. Can you explain the process that you go through when it comes to accessibility and people with visual impairments when you are trying to decide what your clients priorities are and how to bring them down to earth that way it's more accessible? Okay, so the question was how do we do accessibility feedback and balance the client's priorities versus what is your client's priorities like? Are they concerned with accessibility or not? Yes, of course, they are concerned with it. Yeah, we have, it's a pretty big deal at the university where I work at for the visually impaired especially. Okay. Yeah, I mean, we don't, that's not a thing I work on at the moment but in previous roles we would just build in time to do accessibility testing and so that was just like making sure it could run on the screen readers. I mean, actually it was started off by just, there's a lot of like online tools to check it. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I would say just try to make sure there's time and get the team, I mean that would be part of the design brief I would imagine. Did you guys ever have like or ever have actual blind people or say older folks trying or any testing in that regards? We've, so for, well for Drupal we have, yeah, definitely. Yeah, so we've, go ahead. Did you find that valuable? Yes, yeah, no, they uncovered a lot of problems. I know like right now there's a views issue right now about the, I think it's about something like the tables and the descriptions so. Yes, yes there is. Yeah, okay. Thanks. Sure. So what would your advice be for dealing with a client that says when we already do design validation we have, you know, 4C or one of those other, you know, pop up things that comes up on your site that says rate the site experience from one to five. How do you explain them? Well there might be something more to get from design validation than just one to five ranking. So the question is like if the client says they already do design validation because they have something popping up on the screen and asking them to rate the experience.  And then the other thing to ask them is like what are you learning from that? And they might learn that oh well, you know, it's getting a low rating but they don't know why. So the whole thing with like this sort of qualitative design feedback is you can get out the why. Why things are or why people feel why blue doesn't work or whatever. So yeah, so just try to see if they say no, I don't want to know why that's a problem then. I don't know, yeah. Hello, I have two questions. The first one is what percentage of user testing do you do on the admin side versus like the non-admin side? And then also how do you incorporate feedback that you get from social media like Twitter and stuff like that into the design process? Okay, so the question was don't run away. I'm gonna just double check. So the first question was the sort of public facing versus the admin testing. Okay, so for something like commons, we definitely need to test the admin interface because the people who are gonna be downloading and evaluating commons are the people who will have to set up the site. So we haven't gotten into a ton of that yet but so I'd say for something like commons, it'll be some like, I don't know, 60, 40 maybe? 40% admin, 60% public, something like that. Yeah, and then for something like, Octavia Cloud, it's all whatever the user interface is that the lead developer, whoever's using that, that's like, we consider that public facing. So what I'm hearing is that it all just depends on the project basically. Yeah, yeah, so. And sorry, what was your second question? Social media. Yeah. Okay, so if someone tweets and says something like, well, we just keep track of it. Like, we've certainly had feedback that's come through in different formats, comments and tweets and things like that but we wanna make sure it comes into this greater pool of feedback because if we start hearing things over and over again, then we know it's a priority and if it's just like a one-off, then we can't do everything. So just. Okay, thank you. How would you handle a situation where you have someone, a stakeholder, probably a manager or your CEO or someone like that in your organization who really wants things to be a certain way, really likes a certain feature or wants it to work a certain way and your usability testing either goes contrary to that or isn't really indicate one way or the other. So how do you balance that out? Very carefully. So the other question is like, what happens if someone higher up in the organization or a stakeholder wants things a certain way but your user testing and user feedback doesn't exactly match that? Well, you can go back to like, what are the goals of the project? Think about what your success criteria is and if the user testing doesn't play out with the success criteria, then there's that. I mean, the other thing is like, they're not the end user, so if you can gently remind them that. So I guess there's probably more you can do but that's where I would start just explaining like, well, we think it'll work better for these guys because, so, does that answer your question? Yeah, as best as it can be answered, I think. Okay, if you have specifics, we can talk afterwards. I mean, there's also the point that sometimes they're just gonna say no and you're gonna have to accept that. Sometimes they'll say no. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Dictators. Hi. I just wanted to ask, how does all this fit into an agile process? So when you do a design, does the whole thing have to be completely finished by the time you go into the first sprint or do you undo parts of it and then implement some of it, say, in the first sprint? And then the second question, because I think I know what the answer is to the first one, how do you communicate that to the client and to make sure that they don't, you know, if they're used to working with more old fashioned sort of waterfall methods, how do you just give them the, what's the word? How do you give them the certainty that the whole thing's gonna be finished by the end of the project without them actually seeing pretty much the whole finished project in photo shop or something? Okay, so working with agile. Well, I'm glad you asked. That's a good point. I think you've got to sort of maybe set up some sort of milestones where you start showing them designs early so that there's, again, no nasty surprises. First, a lot of stakeholders, it's hard for them to envision things at an early stage. So, you know, maybe, maybe you don't, yeah, I guess it depends on your stakeholders, but, I mean, I would definitely like start showing them things earlier if possible because then if it's starting to go in the wrong direction, you can make that correction. And, you know, in terms of like sort of hitting those milestones, like that's why you have, like in our design briefs, we have the must-haves and the should-haves and the nice-to-haves. So, focus on the must-haves first and that way, if you run out of time, you're not, like, you know, it's not going to be a disaster. It's just, you know, there'll be something that maybe you just work on it in the future. Do you work at a relatively early stage with, like, Photoshop designs or do you go to the customer with wireframes or how do you do that? And then how do you communicate to them that I'm just thinking sort of a personal experience a bit of an issue with, if they do have properly-layouted Photoshop designs, how you kind of tell them, well, this bit's finished, this bit is kind of in the open and I find it difficult myself. I'm working with designers when you sort of think, hang on, which bit of this is actually settled and which bit of it is still open? Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, designs are always in flight. I mean, we have our stakeholders are all internal for the most part and we'll start off with, well, like this recently, we actually had them drawing with us. So that was actually pretty cool. And then from there, it gets translated into, we started doing like kind of in parallel with two designers. One person doing like the Photoshop or Fireworks, I should say, you know, really like detailed and then one person doing the sort of more interactive code prototype at the same time and then kind of they come together. So that was tricky because people are like, well, which part should I pay attention to? So, yeah. Oh, thanks, that's really interesting. Anybody else? A quick question that might be related to the discussion we just had. How do you, how are customers and clients ready to pay for usability? How do you put that in your offers and how do you price it, et cetera? Sure. I mean, so that isn't a thing we do at Acquia, but in previous roles, in my previous job, we would, you know, strongly encourage it because it was like, you have a better chance of success. This project will be more successful if we can take the time and show it to users, you know, take their feedback, incorporate it and I don't know, it's a balance.  You know, you might just scale it back, but you can't, I don't think it's a great idea to. And at Acquia, do you do it differently there? Yeah, at Acquia, so it is part of the process. It just is. Because it's the product. You do the, because you develop the products or also for clients. Yeah, no, we're only internal. We don't do usability for clients, but yeah, so, yeah, everyone's pretty accepting of that. Sure.


I'd like to start by also acknowledging the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander custodians of the lands on which we're all currently meeting and to their elders past and present and I extend that respect to other indigenous people who are present. I acknowledge and respect their continuing cultures and their contributions they make to the many regions represented here today. We do as Natasha said we have a tight schedule and I really only have a few words to say but they're about something which is really important to us at ARDC and we feel pretty confident it's also important to you and that's the nature of how we as a community and network of partners will actually pull off this grand exercise of raising the e-research and data skill levels of the Australian tertiary research sector. Our earlier research on potential ARDC focus areas including the skills summit last year and the breadth of interest and attendance at this summit reflect really how important it is to get this right and the level of interest so as you embark on what we hope is a pretty engaging agenda over the week talking about tools and techniques and impact and sustainability we need to also think a bit about how we all operate together. So ARDC the company has as its aim the creation of the Australian data commons Rosie referred to earlier with the purpose of that being to make our researchers competitive and successful as possible. For this commons to work we need competent and capable researchers able to use that commons and to enable that we work with you. ARDC is not a training organisation but we are deeply interested in ensuring the best training covering all the required bases is made available to researchers and to this end we have the ability to bring people together to develop strong communities and meetings like this to help in the development of excellent training materials and resources and to participate strongly in workforce development around skills that promote the effect of use of innovative and pioneering technologies and resources. We've been really excited to hear people describing this meeting as their summit organised by ARDC but owned by the community and we really want to encourage that development of the strong community and network of skills providers and thinkers with the support from us as well as our institutions and perhaps from the ARDC's perspective if we're lucky we might even get to lead in some things. We're very pleased to be part of the team and in the next session on the skills landscape we're really looking forward to seeing what you think about the work that has been done excuse me on defining where we think we might all fit and why but we as ARDC propose to do within that system and the sorts of results we hope we can get how we measure them and how we demonstrate them. So I hope you have a very useful conference thank you all for attending and back to you Natasha.


These series of images look at the process as a dancer and someone who uses movement as a medium of artistic expression who's reflecting on what process looks like as a woman, as a woman of color and what finding space looks like within that process. Particularly when making work, finding spaces to comfortably explore ideas and artistic work and then how the product or how the movement manifests through a female body which I describe as a visible invisibility. So even though the body is being used and used as a tool of artistic expression what kind of things within the movement are seen or not seen are invisible to the audience. And I'm constantly exploring what that means as a female artist of color the visible invisibility that I feel when trying to share my work and trying to reach audiences in the most in-depth way but also intentional way. So these series of images reflects not only the physical process of finding spaces to do that but also the metaphorical process of sharing the work. Sometimes things don't go as planned. Sometimes your partner has to work.  Sometimes you lose track of time. Sometimes you're doing the best you can. Sometimes you have to pay the rent. Sometimes you get stuck on the train. Sometimes you don't feel like talking.  Sometimes you're getting older but you still have a body.