Okay, good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Burns, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly online event, a webinar that we broadcast live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time. All of the sessions are recorded, so if you're unable to join us live on Wednesday mornings, that's fine. You can always go to our website and watch all of our recordings. We've got about four years' worth of them out there now every week. I'll save a lot of things that you can watch if you want to. We do a variety of things on the show. We do presentations, interviews, book reviews, little mini training sessions. Basically anything that has to do, that's vaguely related to libraries, we will put it on the show. We have Commission staff that do presentations and we have guest speakers as we actually have today. On the line with us this morning is Stacey Shank. She's from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Hi, Stacey. Hello. Hello. The DHHS has a new website out there. I'm not sure how new it is. It's been out about two years now. Two years? Okay. I have a website there and she's going to take us through some resources that librarians can use on the website to help their patrons. It's all the different services that Department of Health and Human Services offers to our communities. I will just turn the show over to you, Stacey, and go ahead and take it away. Thank you, Christa. Good morning, everyone. As Christa stated, I'm Stacey Shank and I am from the Department of Health and Human Services. For those of you that aren't familiar with our agency, we have a lot of different parts to the agency. What I represent is the Economic Assistance Division, which deals with people that have financial struggles or medical struggles, and we have some problems to help them with things like that. We did start a program called Access Nebraska back in 2008 when we started to work with it. What we want to do is show you some of what we do. First of all, I just want to go over what a community support specialist is. It's a position that was created by Access Nebraska, and there are now nine of us throughout the state, throughout the different service areas, and we're really a liaison for the local community partners, which the libraries are considered a part of. So we're a resource for you if you need to contact us. For those of you that need that resource, just so you have that information, if you ever need to contact me, you can contact me by stacey.shank at Nebraska.gov. And I can also get you in contact with the other community support specialists in your area if they are closer to you. We build and maintain our community partner network. We can provide training to community partners, such as what we're doing today. We can tailor that to the client's needs, or we can tailor that to your staff needs. Really, we do whatever we need to do within the community to help promote and educate people on our services and how to access those. So if you need me to answer questions, update any services, things like that, we are continually changing throughout this process, which you see through this presentation. So we want to make sure that everybody has the most current information about our programs and our services. We also do receive and investigate concerns and complaints. If there's something that's just not working right or somebody is out there in the wind and can't access our services, we don't want them to not be able to do that. So we are a point of contact for that as well. Access Nebraska itself is simply the modernization of our economics assistance services. What we want to do is be able to deliver it in several different manners. So we have added this online process to apply and check on benefits and things like that in addition to the traditional methods of access. So the important thing to know about this is we haven't taken away the local contacts. Actually, there's some things that have been changing lately and I'll explain that as we go to, but you can still access services through paper applications and those traditional phone lines and things like that. But we do have these added benefits now for people who don't have time to do it that way or come into an office. I just want to give you a little bit of history. In 2008 is really when this process all started and it's when the governor began to have us investigate where we could go with our services and how we could provide them more effectively. So they went to different states and looked at some processes that were already in place. And as Nebraska generally does, we took these pieces and put them together in our most effective manner possible and made it our Nebraska way. So in 2008, we did get the online applications up and running on the website. And that was the beginning of this Access Nebraska website itself. Since that time, there's been a lot of changes through the years. In 2009, our work groups began seeing what we could do to make things better. So we began to take all of the paper files that we had that the workers had and image those and put them into the computer so that the workers throughout the state don't have to send files back and forth any longer. They can all access that information right online and help a client no matter where they're at in the state. We also made it so that people could report to us online as well. Instead of just applying, they could provide us information as that information in their lives changed. We selected our customer service center sites and there's actually four of them throughout the state. There's one in Lincoln, which began our pilot process and again taking the calls in Access Nebraska. So they were our pilot for six months to make sure that that would work. The other ones are in Fremont, to Scott's Club in Lexington. We still have our local offices also in place. So that is what we call our universal case management system. We began a phone line at that time also that was a 1-800 number, which was the only number that people needed to know at the time in order to call into any four of those customer service centers. And we use an interactive voice response unit on those phone lines so people can either push the number on the phone or they can actually speak to the phone and it will send them and route them to the person they need to speak to. That's also when our benefit inquiry system began. People could go online and check and see what benefits they're currently receiving. In 2011, the majority of our mail began going through what we call our document imaging centers. Those are for short called an anti-center, AMDI, and those two centers are located in Omaha and Lincoln. So one half of the state just has one address. They don't have to worry about where to send mail to any longer. They all send it to the Omaha address and I'll give that to you here in a little bit. And the other half of our state sends everything to the Lincoln address. There are a few scanners in the rooms that scan thousands of documents in a day and those are scanned in within 24 to 48 hours so that the workers can see them no matter where they're at in the state. We also began being able to receive documents online with the submit documents feature and people could scan them into us as well along with faxing them in. So people no longer have to just be dependent on the mail system and the delays that are caused sometimes by that or the loss of documentation sometimes that's caused by that. Our Fremont and Scott School of Customer Service Centers began taking their calls that year as well. In 2012 it's been a very big year for us. At the beginning of the year we started having all four customer service centers taking calls and start to work as one unit. We converted every single case over to our universal case management system so we did complete that by March. And the new application that we came out with here in October has the ability to create a client benefit account and a more detailed release of information section. So before the clients couldn't give us exactly who they wanted to receive their documentation besides themselves, now they're able to do that. And they can also create their own account while they're in the application itself instead of having to go in and do it later. And I'll explain how that works in a little bit too. We begin to include these pin numbers which are important to setup accounts on our review letters. We have updated our website so that now if a person goes in to do a review, the computer will pull in their information and auto-populate that application for them and then all they need to do is go in and change things so they don't have to sit there for the traditional 20 to 40 minutes depending on how well they are versed in the computer to fill out the application. It'll fill itself out if they've done it before. And then our energy assistance program, this is one of our great triumphs, is now included in what we call the info system. So when the clients call in, that information is also right available in the screen that the workers are looking at. They no longer have to go to another site to do that. So a lot of improvements this year that we're very excited about. The advantages to applying online for the clients are obviously it's a lot faster and it saves them time because once they hit the submit button on the application, that application comes to us and there's a person that pens it. So usually if they submit it in the morning by the end of the day, we have it. Definitely if they're submitting it in the middle of the night, we'll have it the next day as well. It protects their privacy. They don't have to mail things around and worry about who's going to see it. It's all directly to us. And they can gain access to us with any computer with internet. So it's convenient for them whether they're at home, they're on a friend's computer. Where you guys come in to play obviously is they may be at a library. And hopefully when they do come to the library, some of them what we've learned are they aren't very computer savvy. So if you can just even help them just learn how to work the mouse, work the screen, how to log on, things like that. That's really where the libraries are helping us along with providing brochures and things like that. Just so you guys know, I won't go over each of these programs, but the programs that the clients can provide or apply for are such as our food stamp program, which is a SNAP program, energy assistance, social services for aged and disabled, and social services for children and families. Assistance to the aged, blind and disabled are Medicaid programs, child care programs, and temporary assistance for needy families. We do have some cases where we have refugees apply with us and people with disabilities. So there's a variety of reasons people may come into your location to apply for services. And if they're asking about any of these services, then they can just go ahead and get online, and where you would direct them to is our website, which is www.accessnabraspreth.ne.gov. Let me show that here in a minute. The structure of our access to Nebraska, we really are messaging parts of our old system with our new system. We, of course, have those four customer service centers that I spoke of. They generally take most of the phone calls and handle the interviews and the immediate needs and things like that. So if somebody applies and they bring there, that customer service center will go ahead and process the application and handle that. We use that phone system dimension scanning. We're really taking all the technology pieces and putting them together. And we're combining it so that the universal case management, which is what those customer service centers are doing, and putting them into that system. And then if they have a case where they're pending for a while, we're going to have them go to what we call our functional case management, where the workers in the local offices will work on their case. Web services and community partners are also a big part of our structure. So we do like to use the online services whenever possible since it's more effective. And we do ask our community partners, not only local libraries, but we have hospitals and different local agencies that help provide housing and things like that that have computers available. And in those areas, they go ahead and may help people actually apply and walk them through the application process. We do realize that with the libraries, you guys don't want to sit there and know the people's personal confidential information. And we're not asking you guys to do that again. We're just looking at seeing if you can help them navigate the system. The structure of Access Nebraska has changed this month. So this is new information that you guys are receiving that some people may not know yet. But as of this month, we are now taking the pending applications that come in and the pending reviews. And we're going to assign them a temporary worker, meaning we're going to send out a letter that gives them the information of a direct worker and that direct worker's phone number so that they can work with that worker and only that worker during the pending process and get consistent information from the worker. So if somebody would come into your facility and want to know maybe how that works, you can tell them to contact a local office or the 1-800 number for Access Nebraska. And we can update them on how that process works. But because of some of the phone lines and some things that we've had with the phone lines having a lot of different things going on with them, we want to make sure that we're reaching everybody and giving them consistent information. So that's what the change is for. Once the eligibility is determined with those applications, they're going to be placed back into the Universal Access Nebraska system. Once they have another review due, then they'll be assigned another temporary worker. So that's just information just behind the scenes so that you guys know that. Now onto the actual screen that tells you about Access Nebraska. At the top of the screen, you'll see the Access Nebraska website that I mentioned. And then in the middle of the screen, when you log on to that, this is what it looks like for the clients. When they get in there, they can click on enter in English or enter in Spanish. And that will bring them to this next screen. And this is really the screen that they're going to work off of. If you can get them into this screen, that'll really help them. There's a lot of options, some over here on the right. You can see the titles of our programs such as the SNAP program and Medicaid, some community services. If they want a printed application that's over here on the right too, if you see where I'm pointing with the arrow, they can actually print a paper application if they don't want to fill it out online. And we have some community partner information and some information down below on how to contact us directly. For the people that are doing it online, one of the places they can go to is Do I Qualify? And that's a screening site where they can actually see if they're eligible or not. And it doesn't guarantee eligibility, but it at least tells them if they're on the ballpark or not. The application is under the Apply button where that other blue arrow is. So before they apply, they may want to do that screening, they don't have to. It's not a prerequisite. It just gives them some general information and asks them just some general questions about their income and their household size and things like that. Again, it doesn't say for sure they're eligible. It's not the application. So if they happen to be filling that out and if they ask you something, they just need to be clear that that's not the application. If they fill that out, it's not coming to us. We don't see it at all. It only takes about 10 minutes to complete. They don't have to do that. And it just looks like this. And once they get to the questions, they can create a user account. If they go into the actual application, you'll see where this screen starts with application at the top. They don't have to set up a user account. If something happens where they get interrupted or in your locations, if they have a certain time limit for their application process, again, sometimes it'll take them 24 to 40 minutes to do this. And if you can't allow them the extra time because your location is a busier location, then they could go ahead and set up a user account and come back to that application anytime within 30 days. So if somebody else had to get on the computer for a while, they could get on even in another hour or so. Also, if the internet would get disrupted somehow, it would go down. This would help make sure that it was safe with them. So again, they don't have to do that. When they complete their application, if they come in and they don't have any documentation with them and they really need to get the application in, they can do it with their name, address, and phone number. It's just once they do the interview with us, they're going to have to sit with us either on the phone or in person and fill in the rest of the information that they didn't have before. But if they ever ask any of you, can I just do this? Yes. The application itself will highlight if they don't have enough information when they hit submit, and it will make it go into a red zone and it'll tell them, you know, this address is needed or your name is needed. We need to know your phone number. And once they submit that application, that makes it so that posting day you submit it is the business day that we are going by. So that helps. And the nice thing about being able to do these applications is, you know, if somebody is, you know, right now it's Christmas, if it's the middle of the night, Christmas Eve, and they really don't have any money for their kids, and, you know, they're really stressing about different things, they could go in and apply right then and there, and at least it might alleviate some of that stress that they're feeling and hopefully help their day a little bit. And then as soon as we get back in the office that next business day, we'll have that application for them. So that is one of the benefits of doing this online. They also have the opportunity to have somebody help them complete the application. And again, we're not asking you guys to actually sit down and do it for them. Just help them navigate through the computer. And once they get done with the application, make sure they know that they get a confirmation number. Once they get to the end, if they don't get to the confirmation number, it's not a submitted application. They can either print that, write it down, or they can go ahead and just print, save it to like a flash drive or something like that. So it really only helps us to know that they have a confirmation number. It doesn't necessarily help us to find it. We can find that application by other means with their name and social security number, but it really just tells us, yeah, you got to the end. We know you got to the end of it, and it did get submitted. What happens after they submit their application is if it's a type of application where we need to do an interview, we may contact them. If it's not, we may go ahead and just process it, or we may send them a list of what we need if we need paystubs or some other information. We'll let them know that through the mail. Do you guys have any questions so far? Stacey, there is one question, and I think you sort of answered it as you were talking about the online application. I'm not really sure if this is a question for you anyways. But anyway, the question is, what if a person comes into our library and they have no or very limited computer skills? In other words, no knowledge of screens, computers, printing, et cetera. If you have, and I realize some of you don't have enough time, if you have enough time just to set them down and get them on the computer and maybe go ahead and log into the website for them, that would be helpful. And then once they get in there, as long as they can type, and if they know how to use the mouse or if you can show them how to click, the application itself is really pretty simple. So it's really a matter of them getting in. And that's where we found some people are just overwhelmed. And that, I think, is part of what we do as librarians anyways. For many of the things that they come to us for, not just your applications is they come into the library wanting help on having to do all of these things, because many things are moving to being online forms and online systems and applications and first submitting things. So I think it's becoming a lot more common that we are having to deal with people who don't have any of this knowledge at all. We come up with classes and courses and ways to teach them the basics of using a mouse type things. And then that helps them get more comfortable with, when they do have to come along and actually submit a real application for something. So I think that would help as well, yeah. That is true. And that is part of what I'm here for, too, is if there's some communities that need that education, we can come out and do that as well. And then always remember that we have those local offices and those other places where they can go and we can do the paper application with them. And if there's somebody that can't, I mean, there are people out there that cannot use the computer and we know that. Right. So those traditional methods are there. So you still have the traditional paper as an option as well. So if they are completely against computers at all, they can always do that still. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, that's the only thing so far. Go ahead. Okay, great. Okay, and then the interview itself, the interviews do go over the application with the clients. We try to do those by phone. And a majority, I'd say at least 95% of our applications are being done as far as the interview goes by telephone. But we do have those people that like to meet person to person. So we do still offer that. On the application, they just need to mark that they would request a face-to-face. If they forget to do that, they can call in and let us know that 1-800 number for our customer service centers is 1-800-383-4278. And I did add a note to the bottom of this slide because for the last month, we have had some difficulties with the phone lines being overloaded and we're addressing those as we speak with the new system in ways that we're going to do things. But if they have any trouble at all getting through, if the line's busy or if it's on hold for more than 5 or 10 minutes, just tell them, go ahead and just call the local office. And if they need that number, they can call me if they need to or contact me somehow. But I just want to make sure that they know they can go to those local offices still and get that information as well. To complete the interview, if they're doing by phone and they're doing it through that 1-800 number, just so you guys know, they're going to push prompts. And that's the biggest thing. I don't know if they ever come in to use a phone in your locations, but there is a phone cheat sheet. I'll show you where that is a little bit later. But basically to do that, they're going to push number one for benefits and number three to complete or reschedule an interview. And when they get on the phone line, it's going to ask for the last four digits of their social security number. If they don't know that, then they can go ahead and do it a different way and talk to a person and they'll get on to the right location. And the one thing we want to make sure everybody knows, a lot of people were getting hung up on when they got their letter. Sometimes because the mail system's been a little slower, they're getting the application letter from us about the interview after their interview is actually scheduled. So they can call before their interview. They can call after their interview. They just want to call as soon as they can. If they submit an application, part of what we've been recommending is just waiting two days if you submit it online, go ahead and just call in. And you can do the interview even if you haven't gotten the letter yet. Our communication with the Access Nebraska system, again, those traditional methods are still there. We have not taken those away. They can still get us by mail, by fax, e-mail, through the telephone, the local offices, things like that. We've just added those features where they can scan things in to us and we've added where they can call into that customer service center number and talk to people there. So communication, hopefully, they will find a way that's the best for them because some of the younger generations don't like to call and talk to us on phone. They don't like to go into the local office. Some of our older generations prefer to go in and actually speak with somebody in person. So we're trying to open it up to be more open to everybody. If they call in, we do have different tracks for clients and providers, and providers are people like childcare providers, or maybe they provide services in the home. They just have the same phone number, but they have different numbers they're going to push as they go through. So if the clients want to check on their status or report a change, any of those type of things, they can do that fairly quickly through the phone line and the same for the providers. If they need to check on their claim or when their payment's coming, things like that, they can do that. One of our resource development people will talk to them. Those imaging centers that I mentioned, where all the documentation goes to, this is the addresses for them. A lot of the time people like to fax or scan. So this is where the information for you guys comes in handy. If they need the fax number for Lincoln, it's over on the left. It's the<PHONE_NUMBER>. And then the email is simply dhhs.andycenterlincolnatnebraska.gov. And of course the address of mail is up above there too. And the same for Omaha. Omaha's the<PHONE_NUMBER>. And theirs is also dhhs.andycenter. The only difference is it says Omaha at Nebraska.gov. So if they're scanning. The one thing we want to make sure that people know is if they're sending us anything in the mail, don't send the originals because they won't be returned to them. Once they scan that information and once they know for sure that it's in, they will go ahead and shred that information. So we don't want any original birth certificates or anything like that. And we also want to make sure that we can identify the information that they're sending in. If they send us in a paste of, and it doesn't really say who it is, or for some reason they go by a different name than normal, maybe they go by the middle name, and we have them listed by their first and last name in our case, we won't be able to match that up. So they want to either put their master case number on it, or their social security number, or their full name in birth date. So if they forget to do that, we do have a log of the documentation that we've received that we just don't know where it goes. If they know the day and generally the time and what it looks like, we can find it. So it's not lost, it's just in our file that is unknown file. If they don't, again, if they don't know their master case number, usually that's the best thing to put on it. Just make sure they put enough identifying information on there when they send it in. And sometimes they may be sending that information from the library, obviously, through scanning or through the fax. So if you're helping them at all, if you mention to them, make sure they've got something on there if I identify or it helps. Just some tips. If they submit information to us after a case is closed or denied, they need to call and let us know or submit a new application so that we can attach that to that information. If it's closed, there's a reason it's closed and it won't reopen them unless they let us know that they've done something to help us reopen it. Back to that original website screen after they get into the Access Nebraska, there's a report change site. And this is a really handy site for people if they don't want to have to call in and they just have a few minutes. If they go in, all they need to do is put in some basic information such as their name and date of birth and social security in the last four digits. And what it'll do is it'll bring up this screen. And this screen, what it does is it allows them to tell us if they've moved, if something's changed with their income, maybe their child's not in childcare anymore, those type of things. So they just simply click on that and they would type that in for us. Generally, the application is pretty simple to fill out and very little needs to be typed to us. Some tips for that online change report is they have to have an active or pending case. If they're closed, they're not able to get into it. So if somebody comes to you and says, I can't get into my report change, it may just be they need to call us so that we can see what they need to do. Again, it's just a really easy way for people to let us know what's going on in their lives or if there's a facility that's weren't using it just so they know they can report things to us too. It does create a high priority alert for us, meaning the workers work out of what we call a queue and these type of pieces of the information are floated to the top of that queue and they're considered things that we need to look at right away. Verification may be needed for whatever they report to us so we'll probably send them a letter saying this is what we need if we need a new pay stub or you've gotten a new job, those type of things. They can also use the online change report and some of them don't know this to request documents. If they've lost their birth certificate and they need a copy maybe for a housing agency or something, we can send them a copy of it or if they've lost some of their pay stubs, just a quick way to get information back from us. They can still again use those traditional methods as far as contacting the local office and mailing us and things. They can also still call into the customer service center number and this just tells them they're going to push one and two. It just gives them some ideas of how they're going to get through that information. If they want to check on their benefits and where their application is at, they call that customer service center number, the 1-800-383-4278 number or they can go to the client benefit inquiry. If they set up an account, they can actually go in themselves and look at the application, which makes it a little more independent for them. So where that's located is this bottom box down here where the blue arrow is and I'll show you what that looks like here in a second. What they need to do in order to get into this is we mail them a pin number and they only need to use it once to set up the account. Once they set up the account, they're just going to use their own user ID and password just like we do on a computer. So if they come into the library and ask how to set this up, they need to have a pin number with them. If they don't have the pin number, they're not going to be able to set that up. Oops, sorry. So once they choose their own ID and password, then they can check on their case status if it's pending or if it's active. They can find out how much they're receiving currently for their benefits such as food stamps. If they're receiving, say, $240 for the month, they'll know. Historically, if they need to print it out, they can print it out and a lot of the housing agencies want to know what benefits they've received over the last six months. It's a quick way for them to provide that if they haven't kept their correspondence. We've also added a feature where they can see what letters we've sent to them. Some people, again, lose that information and if they need it again, they can print it out. And the nice new feature that we had come into play just this last October is that auto population of the reviews. So if they go in to do that review, if they've set up this benefit inquiry, they can go ahead and have that pre-populated for them and, again, just change what's changed, which will make things go much quicker for them. So we're really highly promoting that. And if there's any way you guys can help them realize that's what they need to do with this benefit inquiry, that's helpful to us. It's becoming increasingly more important and it does make it so they can work more independently so that they'll know what their case is and what's going on in their case. And they can check on, once we add this feature, even the documents that they've submitted, they wouldn't have to call and ask, did you get my driver's license? Did you get my paystubs? They'll be able to look and see that here in the future. Just some pin number tips. Again, they're only used to establish that account. Once they're used, they don't have to do it again. We automatically issue them, but if for some reason they misplace the letter or they just never caught on to the fact that we sent them one, they can just call us and we'll send them a new one. That's not a problem at all. We have no problem with doing that. The only thing is, due to security reasons, we can't give them a number over the phone or email because if John Doe calls in and says he's George, we don't know that. He could be actually somebody else. So we want to make sure that we're sending it to the correct person and how we do that is through the mail with the address that we have on file. So they can call the customer service center, send an online change report, or send an email address to our Access Nebraska questions at Nebraska.gov address. And this is just what that looks like when they set up that account. They just need to go over here where the black arrow is and create a new account to set it up. Once they get it set up, then they can go over here on the left and whatever user ID and password they set up, they just log in over there. And it just works very slick for them. And once they get in and they fill out that information, it just looks like that. It does ask security questions, just like a lot of us have with our bank accounts and things like that. If they forget what their password is that they set up, it can trigger them to remember with some of these extra questions. And then the benefit inquiry screen, just so you guys kind of know what it will look like when they bring it up, this shows that there's a person who is active for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That used to be our food stamp program, it's just a new name that they came up with. And it just shows that they're active and they're getting $200 a month. You go down farther and it shows aid to dependent children. They were denied down there at the bottom. So they didn't get that program or that grant money. And then if they need to view additional information here about each situation and each program, because each one of these is a different program that we have of services that we offer, they just click on this case detail where the red arrow is pointing to and it will bring them more information on who's in that case and who's active. Sometimes one of their children will be active and the other one won't. And this is what that looks like when they do that. It just gives them a lot more information and why they may have not been eligible and things like that. And then our last button on the beginning screen there for the website is submit documents. This is why I think you guys will really be utilizing there at the library. If somebody needs to upload and submit documents to us, they really need to have an account set up with an email address. So if they don't have an email address, they might need some help from you guys and then once they go in and do that, we recommend that they save the document that they're scanning and then send it in an email as an attachment. That seems to be the most effective way for us to get the information if they need any help with that. Hopefully you guys can help them. And we can really accept just about any type of information except for an application itself. So anything they want to send as long as it's eligible enough to be scanned, we can get that from them. The reason we don't accept the applications, the paper applications, is we need their original signature on it. With the electronic application, we're getting an electronic signature, but that's not the case with scanned and fax documents. So it does help again if they scan those ahead of time before they begin the process. And they can be accepted in almost any format now. It used to be we were a little bit limited, but our structure has grown. So we are able to accept about any format. And we will send a confirmation to them, and that's why that email address is important. We want to make sure they know that we did receive the information. And this would go back to the people who don't have a computer. If they don't have a computer, hopefully if they come to you guys, you guys can help them on. We do have computer kiosks in the office. And if somebody really isn't computer savvy, we have workers that will sit down and help them fill out that application. We have some other community partners that actually do more case management type things. They will also sit down with the clients and help them. So if they go to the Access Nebraska website, it will give them a list of our local offices. And it will also give them a list of our community partners that have kiosks and different things that they can utilize. Just so you guys know, I've been using Community Partner Lingo quite a bit in this presentation. Community partners are agencies and organizations that have volunteered to help our clients with items such as the application process, even just the brochures. If any of you don't have our Access Nebraska brochures at your location, I know most of the libraries have agreed to at least provide that information and help people just get on the computer. I can bring out brochures and mail out brochures to you if you request that. So can the other community support specialists? And again, do the Navigator system. Community partners are listed up on our website over here where the blue arrow is on the right. And again, we just let the people know with our website and I'll show you that here in just a minute. How many different locations we have and how that looks. But we want to make sure to let people know if they have a printer. You guys have a printer that they can use, having a computer they can use. It's up to you guys whether you're listed as helping them and handing out brochures. So we always ask all of our community partners if they're willing to be on our website, we appreciate it. It's not requiring anybody to do any more work than you're already doing. We're only asking if you do provide those services to people, it makes a really convenient location for them to look. And we do have some unique community partners. Some of the schools, some of the homeless organizations we even have some of the pharmacies that are community partners for us. So this just kind of gives you an idea of what some of those people look like. And this is what the website looks like when we get into that community partner section. Down at the bottom you'll see it'll show the county and the city and the community partners that's there. What kind of clients they serve. And the little icons above are like the computer monitor, the printer. If there's somebody that's actually going to sit with them and help them just and if they can provide brochures. In this case the two that are listed do provide all of those services. Looks like they provide case management as well. And if a person clicks on anywhere in the map, if they click on say Wayne County which is where I'm at it'll bring up all the Wayne locations.  What we need to do is just have your permission to add you to our website and add you to this list if you want us to. They can also type in the city or type in the county. So there's a lot of different ways for them to get into this map. That other feature that will be helpful to you especially for those that don't know how to navigate through our system. There's a how to tutorial over here on the right. And what that looks like is when they click on it it brings up our phone cheat sheets up here towards the top. There's some frequently asked questions about our automated phone line. The piece that I think you guys will really like is where the blue arrow is. There's video tutorials and computer tips for customers. Of course we've got the kiosk locations and all of that. This is where you find that. But if you go in there these video tutorials there's how to apply. There's a place where it walks them through what our interview is going to be like. It would be the same as you sitting here watching me do this presentation. It's a recorded presentation about all of this. Coming attractions we are going to in March hopefully have the ability for people to request their pin number online. They won't just be able right now they can just call us to get it. This will make it so that they don't even have to call us and we'll send them a new one. And we're also going to try to have the ability to view the submitted documents that were received by us. People are calling in just to see if we got their driver's license and things like that. The computers are going to be more and more a part of what we're doing for a lot of people. Especially as the younger generation start to apply and as they become, I think as they get older they'll probably utilize the computers more and more as well. I think you'll see them more and more in your locations if they don't have one of their own. And then we're hoping to have the ability for people with interim computers. Some of them are just becoming citizens and things like that and they're eligible for services but they don't have a regular social security number yet. So we're trying to set it up so they can also use a benefit inquiry feature. That should be up and running here shortly. Do you guys have any questions about any of this information? There haven't been any new questions that have come in yet. If anybody does have any questions or comments or anything, please type them into the questions section of your GoToWebinar interface. Or if you have a microphone, let me know and I can unmute you and you can ask your question that way. Wait and see if anything urgent comes in yet. Just want to let everyone know while we were going through this, I did in preparation for a recording as we normally do we put any associated websites and links into the Library Commission's delicious account so that that's then available when the recording goes up. So the Access Nebraska website has been added there. So you'll be able to quickly jump to that to explore it and see what it's all about as well. I should tell you guys, we do encourage you to go ahead and play with the website. The only thing you don't want to do is submit an application. You can go through the entire application, just don't hit submit and it'll make you more and more familiar with our site. If you click on that Learn More About Access Nebraska area, when you first pull up the website that brings up all those other menus that I showed with the cheat sheets and stuff in the video tutorials. So play with that as much as you want, we encourage that. Yeah, it looks like there's a lot of good help information on the site itself that people really even if they don't have a librarian next to them or your staff people next to them to help them figure out how to use everything on there. And that's really good, yeah. And even if they call into a library, you guys may be able to just help them that way too just let them know that that's available to them. Right, click over here, look for this. Follow the help guides and it'll help you get through it, yeah. Well, it doesn't look like anything, any new questions have come in, so must have covered everything that they needed to know. I appreciate this opportunity to do this. Yeah. If anybody has anything that's working or not working or any suggestions, like I said at the beginning, we are continuing to improve and grow and make improvements to our website as well. So if you have any of those suggestions, again my contact information is Stacy, which is s-t-a-c-y dot shank, which is s-c-h-e-n-k at Nebraska.gov. So we appreciate any and all feedback. Definitely, like you said, yeah, a lot of changes happened just in the last month to the website to what the processes are, yeah. Okay, I guess that's it, yeah, no new questions. Thank you very much, Stacy. That was actually yeah, very good info so that librarians know how to help the people that are coming in to use this. And you're not the only service that is going more and more online, as I said earlier. So it's good to try and get as many of these people onto our show as possible to get some good information, some good direction for us to keep helping all of the citizens in the state get what they need, get the services that we provide for them. So thank you very much for doing this today for us. I'm going to since you don't have any more questions coming in, I'm going to mute you and take back presenter control here. Thank you again. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so thank you everyone for attending our On Compass Live this morning. The show has been recorded, so the recording will be available later. So if you do want a need to refresher or to hear some more detail about something that Stacy talked about, you'll be able to go ahead and watch the recording later. It will be posted on our website that I'm showing you here. I hope you'll join us next week when our Encompass Live topic is Nebraska's Carnegie Libraries. The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful. Lauren Riedzel, who's a director at Beatrice Public Library, has a presentation about the history of Carnegie Libraries in the state of Nebraska. So that's I think is going to be a very interesting topic. So hopefully you'll join us next week for that Encompass Live. And if you are on Facebook, we do have a Facebook page for the show that you can follow. In addition to posting onto our website whenever we have the new shows coming up and recordings going up, we do have a Facebook page, so if you're into Facebook, you can like us there on Facebook and you'll be notified whenever any shows are starting, new things have been added, when recordings are made available. So you'll be able to keep track, keep up with the show from there if you want to. Other than that, thank you very much for attending. Sign up for our future shows and we'll see you next time. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.


all the way from Los Angeles just to be here for Media Week 2022. It feels amazing to be back in IRL. I've been doing events virtually for over two years. So to see things in 3D, you really can't match the energy and kind of conversation and just casual nature of being back in real life.  Let's prove that this is live and in person. I am a huge people person. Any kind of industry event, I love the chance of learning a little bit, getting to have lunch and people getting to shmooze, meet and really figure out ways we can potentially collaborate down the line. It felt a little weird walking in. I'm not going to lie, but it's actually really invigorating. The energy is exciting. It feels good. It feels much more engaging. Media Week is really great. A lot of informative speakers, some great stage sessions, a lot of energy. It's great to have both marketers and publishers, as well as agencies, together in the same room. The creative juices are flowing. The collaboration, you can feel it in the air. I've learned a lot. Met some good friends who I haven't seen in a while. And connected and learned a little bit more about topics. Sometimes you don't want to talk about it on stage. You want to have a small talk. And it's a great opportunity to do that. Welcome, everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome back. I think some of the most interesting takeaways are in a fragmented and a splintered kind of world. How do you adapt? How do you grow an audience? How do you maintain your vision and brand ID while developing new loyalty? And I think we're all kind of figuring out what the roadmap looks like. Talking a lot about contextual advertising and the replacement of IEDs, it's good to see that marketers are really thinking about how to work closer with publishers to directly use their contextual data as well as their first-party data to help bridge the cookie-less gap that we're facing. I learned a lot about what other publishers are doing in terms of their cookie-less solutions. And I've offered some solutions from our company, which is more location-based and non-ID specific. One enlightening piece of advice I took from one of the sessions, which is we have to all work together and not against each other. I think the biggest takeaway is at this point, it's time to start putting pen to paper and making a plan for what happens in the future with your data.


Welcome to Super Connected with me, Tim Arnold and my special guests. We invite you to join us in an intimate and honest exploration into the theme of connection. What it means to be connected to each other, what it means to be connected to ourselves and what it means to connect in an ever-changing world. Welcome to Super Connected. Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self-Love Narcissism Revisited and a professor of psychology in the Southern Federal University in Russia and in many other universities. He is a physicist and a philosopher as well, professor of finance and former economic advisor to several governments and multinationals. Sam is joining me from Skopje in North Macedonia and I have invited him to come and share his thoughts on social media and human behaviour. Sam, you are super connected. Hello, how are you? Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview. Absolutely, thank you for having me. Just for any listeners who are hearing about you for the first time. I mean I've given a sort of potted biography of what you do but what are you working on mostly at the moment because we've got psychology, finance, you're a philosopher and of course one of the world's leading authors and sources of information about narcissism. What are you working on mostly now? Well, I dropped the economics thing and now I'm concerned mainly with the theory in physics which I've developed in the early 80s and has been taken on by mainstream physicists so that's actually my main concern right now. Then on the sidelines I teach psychology and still pursue my studies of personality disorders. Now expanded, started with narcissism but now it's more into personality disorders which is a whole field. Yes, and we'll talk a lot more about personality disorders because that's part of what led me to finding out about you and all the work that you do and it's fair to say you're a polymath aren't you? Because you've got your fingers in a lot of different pies. Well as I told you yesterday I think we are all forced to be polymaths. We all have two, three careers in a lifetime. We live much longer. We are forced to multitask and so on and so forth and these are excellent definitions of a polymath. Now when I first came across your name I think it was on a Richard Granon documentary. Is that right? Yeah. Might well be. I may have Googled the words social media and toxic. Right, toxic would pertain to me.  I've been working on a project for some time which has been my own exploration through music mainly and film about social media about the narcissistic sides of that in terms of wanting to share as much of ourselves with as many people as possible. There were some wonderful things that you said that resonated with me in a way that I'd never heard anybody talk about it before but I listened to you on the documentary. There are two billion people using social media in the world today. Is that right? More. Two billion people use Facebook. Ah, that was specific to Facebook when you said two billion. Yeah, indeed. It's closer to 2.6 billion. Wow. Yeah. And what struck me was that you compared it to use of Facebook to a virus and you sort of talked about it in terms of a virus and what happens. Can you explain that a little bit to me now? Well, the truth is that we use models from epidemiology and virology to describe various social phenomena which incorporate a pronounced dimension of networking. And so in the case of social media, which are by definition networks, the use of such models is instantaneous and automatic. There is no value judgment by comparing social media to various viruses. We are not making any value judgment. We're not saying they're bad or they're good. We're not making the modes of propagation and the modes of evolution of the networks. Yeah. But one thing which might be of interest now in the days of the coronavirus is that the overwhelming vast majority of viruses are self-limiting. In other words, they have an inbuilt mechanism, the nature of which we are not quite acquainted with, but they have an inbuilt mechanism which stops them dead in their tracks, so to speak. They infect a certain population and then they stop. And we think this is in order to self-preserve so that they can have additional healthy hosts in the future. If comparing social media to viral networks is a correct analogy, this would mean that shortly growth of social media would stall and then they will reverse and then they will become much smaller than these networks. And do you think that's likely? Yes, actually I do. I see signs of people signing off Facebook, closing accounts, going off the grid, going offline. I see a counter-revolution in developing in some parts of the world. And I think people are fed up with the toxic emanations from cyberspace in general and social media in particular. So yes, I do see a counter-culture developing. But the part that I was really interested in is just how we communicate with each other. And you and I now are actually communicating with the help of the internet. So it's not a good or bad thing. It's a container. I guess it's the way it's used by some of the companies. Do you think that narcissism is something that... I mean, obviously, narcissists and echo, the beautiful fairy tale, is as old as anything. It's nothing new, the concept of falling in love with the reflection of yourself. But that's right, isn't it? Because some people get it confused that it's falling in love with yourself. It's not, it's a reflection of yourself, isn't it? Narcissists don't have a self and they don't have an ego. So they are not egotists, definitely. And your definition is the correct one. Narcissists fall in love with a reflection. They fall in love with a reflection of a piece of fiction that they had concocted, a script, a narrative that they had concocted early on in early childhood. And then they project this piece of fiction, this narrative, on to others and they feed off the reflections, the reactions, the feedback, the input that they get from others. And so that sounds like social media is a natural habitat for narcissists. But what I wanted to ask you was, is social media brought all the narcissists out to play? Or is it creating narcissists? That are people who didn't have NPD, any kind of disorder before? I think it would be, I think it's critical to emphasize that social media were designed with addiction in mind. If you regard addiction as a negative thing, then there is malice or malevolence involved in the design of social networks. This has been confirmed time and again by former engineers of social media such as Facebook and others. Google, even Google as a search engine. And these former engineers and system designers and network designers admitted that addiction and conditioning were in mind when they had constructed the network. So that's not an accident. The design of the networks reflects economic and financial decisions intended to encourage the monetizing of eyeballs and creating stickiness. So that people do not abandon the networks and do not revert to other pursuits such as for example intimate relationships such as community activities such as creative works. So social media compete with everything that's good in us and in our societies. They compete with our families. They compete with our friendships. They compete with our communities. They compete with our creative efforts. And this is by design. It is designed and obviously for a reason of monetization. Would that be fair to say? Yes. The idea was to monetize eyeballs. The longer you remain stuck to the screen and this is called stickiness. The longer you remain stuck, the longer your eyeballs rest on the screen the more they can be monetized by selling advertising. And so they don't want you to look at your girlfriend. They want you to look at the screen. They don't want you to look at your friend. They want you to look at the screen. And they don't want you to write music. They want you to look at the screen. Yeah. I mean based on that what you've just said intimacy itself and deep connections are a kind of enemy of the state of commerce I suppose. Well admittedly social networks catered to a growing tidal wave of tsunami of rising narcissism. We've been documented by scholars the likes of Twinge and Campbell and numerous others. Scholars have demonstrated convincingly that in the last 10 or 15 years there's a rising tidal wave of narcissism especially among the young and when we say the young it's 25 years and younger or even 35 years and younger and so these technologies always follow trends. It's wrong to say that technologies create trends. Are they following technologies following our natural evolution as human beings is that what you're saying? Not natural evolution as human beings that's a biological concept but social evolution. So as societies evolve people react by modifying their psychology and their behavior within societies and then technology caters to these needs. People wanted to work in factories so the train was invented and then people wanted to get away from the city so the car was invented and so on and so forth. It's wrong to put the horse before the cart. Technology simply codifies emergent trends both in individual psychology and in social psychology and so social media codified reified the growing tide of narcissism and if you look at social media you see two aspects which are cardinal to narcissism. First of all the element of reflection. Narcissism the narcissist is not a person he is a collective. The classical narcissist is a person who is not a person he derives his existence he derives his ego functions he derives his inner landscape from myriad gazes of other people. He is around grooming people and then harvesting their reactions and he uses these reactions to create a kaleidoscope which replaces what should have been his self. The narcissist is a hall of mirrors and so social media reflects this they are constructed this way structurally they are social media are halls of mirrors they are kaleidoscopes and you have devices such as like and so on which foster relative positioning and provide instant feedback. Could you describe social media as an alternate reality then? Not an alternative reality in the sense that it is a virtual reality no one confuses social media. I mean in comparing it to something like a psychedelic drug that takes you into... To compare it to something much more shocking let's say that social media is an externalised narcissistic psyche and the externalised mind of a narcissist if you look at social media that's precisely the experience of being a narcissist that's precisely, absolutely precisely how a narcissist functions from the inside so if you want to understand narcissism profoundly and fundamentally all you have to do is look at facebook that's precisely how a narcissist mind works and functions. Yeah and I mean it's frightening to me because of a lot of people I care about on facebook I'm on facebook I've had those moments as many have of trying to oh I'm not going to be on facebook anymore because you get an instinct inside that tells you that there's something unhealthy about it but then I don't think I'm speaking just for myself I think a lot of people who have tried to come off then are presented with a kind of isolation or loneliness that makes them fearful and then they return to social media is that loneliness is that imagined is it not real, are we so far away now from connecting in a very human way that we don't realise that that is something that is some kind of withdrawal that we've got to go through in the same way that one might do when they give up drugs Exactly it's a withdrawal symptom but our societies are anomic and atomised they are what used to be called in Marxist philosophy alienated societies these are societies where individuals function as atoms and each atom has its own solipsistic isolated universe self-sufficient and is not in need of any services or goods actually from the outside today with a typical smartphone you can do absolutely anything that used to have been done 50 years ago by publishing companies by media companies you're a one man a one man economy so you don't really need anyone you need people to grow your food maybe but that's more or less it you don't need anyone This was the big thing that you said that really affected me when I heard you speaking in Richard's documentary was that in some time from now in the future there'll be two different kinds of human beings or I mean there's millions of different types of human beings already but you said that you could quite clearly categorise them into those that have followed the social media path into this schizoid isolation and those who have not is that right if I got that right Yes I think you have generally you get things right by the way here's a narcissistic supply for you Thank you You got this one right I think there will be anywhere between 2 to 3 billion people who will not who will fail to win themselves off here they will have become so addicted and so conditioned How many? I think between 2 and 3 billion nearly one third of the world because we're going to be 9 billion in 2050 Nearly one third of the world will be on the grid and nearly two thirds of the world will be off the grid but if you talk only about the adult population it's going to be 50-50 so that's a matrix that's a matrix type model of reality there will be 3 billion people living in virtual reality with virtual interactions and artificial types of connections and another half of the population which would constitute a kind of massive counter culture which will be living off the grid and demonstrably so it will be kind of an act of protest and I think these two irreconcilable lifestyles will ultimately clash Yes I mean it's a kind of terrifying thought to picture what you're saying and I know you say it scientifically speaking and with great research The people who are on the grid on the grid I mean online people who use the internet as the main gateway to the world they consume news via Facebook 46% of them consume news via Facebook they surf they are on social media they use WhatsApp etc etc so these kind of people people who live mostly online these people dedicate much more time to cyberspace than they do to their own children if they have children at all people today spend an average of almost 5 hours a day 5 hours a day compared to 3 hours of television out of the equation and they spend an average of 1.5 hours a day with their children How does it make you feel Sam? How does it actually really make you feel? I don't feel I don't feel either way as I told you I'm not quite sure that the previous model had worked perfectly I mean we did end up with two world wars and genocides and so on we made a hash of it I'm not quite sure because we had a model a very clear set of institutions which were developed mostly during the agricultural revolution and these institutions have survived despite massive technological upheavals this mismatch this discrepancy between technology in other words human capability and the institutions which were supposed to contain channel and amplify these capabilities this discrepancy was detrimental to the human species perhaps it is time to develop new institutions and perhaps these institutions will be highly individualized to the point that every individual will have become his or her own institution and that's sort of happening a lot at the moment isn't it without becoming their own institutions well people have the capacity today to publish a book they have the capacity to broadcast they have the capacity to communicate subversively they have the capacity to flash mob they have the capacity to topple regimes which they have done profusely all over the world with the help of social media so this is the age of the individual I mean I know it doesn't look this way particularly the age of the individual and of course we have malignancies everything in you every phenomenon in human history and human sociology and human anthropology has a malignant equivalent and of course the malignant equivalent of individualism is rampant or malignant individualism also known as narcissism do you think it's comparable to I don't know 1930s Germany in terms of very young people who would have been growing up then and going into Hitler youth without knowing the rights or the wrongs about it that's how they grew up that there are young people very young I mean children you know pre-teens growing up into a world where it's normal to not have privacy to share so much of what you do and sometimes some of those children I think are lucky to have parents who regulate their use of social media but there are many who do not and there's so many young people broadcasting and commoditizing themselves before the age of 13 in some cases online do you think it's similar do you know the comparison I'm trying to make is that young kids are just growing up and they don't know any different well digital natives of course don't know any different and they regard the world as normal I mean the new normal is to them normal however I do see three very worrying developments first of all there's a fascist backlash against individualism so we have movements which strongly resemble authoritarian collectivist movements in human history can you name a few such as Donald Trump is a glaring example but you have to you have numerous such tin pot dictators in the making or in the breaking and so these are but these people reify they embody a social backlash a backlash of the digitally disenfranchised a backlash of the uneducated a backlash of the left out and the cast out and so on so I see this as a problem of individualism growing a battle between our magadan actually between individualism and fascism in any other name I think we're entering a period of massive mega conflicts the likes of which we haven't seen since maybe the industrial revolution and perhaps the agricultural revolution I do like to ask my guests about their favourite music and when I asked you if you could just choose one song oh Superman by Laurie Anderson tell me about your connection to the song why did you choose that song sir I chose the song because of some of the industrial mechanical technological sounds in it it reminds me of the third axis of conflict I mean we have discussed two axes of conflict the rise of fascism against individualism can I just ask you can I just ask you a quick sorry before sorry to interrupt but are you a fan of Anderson in general okay okay yeah no it's just nice to know yeah please camera carry on so we discussed two axes of conflict one was fascism against individualism and one was the rise of men against women and I think the third axis would be the rise of corporate interests against the individual so I think there are two forces arrayed against individualism one is fascism which is the state power the nanny state the intrusive state the authoritarian state on the other hand on the other hand also commercial interests multinationals who prey on our digital data and are as intrusive as a state and very often much more so and as authoritarian as a state and very often much much more so anyone has read anyone who has read the agreements which Google forces you digitally sign before use their services would understand what I'm saying very few people do read them including me I'm guilty of not reading I'm not mentally well so I read them I'm not sure if I'm not mentally well because I've read them but still well it's a good job you did read them because you can tell us about them well they are they are a dictatorship manifesto all of them all ULAS all of them are dictatorial, authoritarian intrusive, confiscatory manifestos the likes of which I think few dictatorships would have dared to issue forth I won't mention by name but there are some tech companies that I've worked for in the past that have very similar ULAS and yes it is it's quite alarming what they tell you you can and can't do Yes and so I think we have two actually manifestations of fascism we have corporate fascism the first time in human history and we have state fascism which is the old variant 100 years old variant and in terms of music which is the most important part of my life for the last 25 years listening to music, making music, writing music and interacting with other people in a very intimate way musically, creatively it's it's existence now the realm of the internet and social media is to me feels very secondary I'm just interested what you felt about that because I might have got it wrong I think some people just say that I'm a bit old fashioned but I keep noticing that it's really hard to share any sounds without showing somebody something they can look at nobody's being inspired to shut their eyes and I think a lot comes from shutting your eyes isn't it because it's a bit like when we go to sleep and you know dreams as you'll know because of your experience as a psychologist as well I mean dreaming is such an important part of what we are as human beings in many different ways and it all happens when our eyes are closed we live in an age of regression and one of the regression multiple regressions in terms of human the history of mankind history of humankind so one of the major regressions is we started off with visuals human art human culture all over the world from Altamira to you name it it was all based on visuals you had cave paintings cave texts and then about 5000 years ago with the Phoenicians and then the Egyptians we transitioned to text there were ideograms and other forms of text but essentially we transitioned from images to text and then there was a period of about 4000 years in which text reigned supreme we were text based cultures and societies in medieval monasteries people preserved text this is the great period of the libraries exactly a great period of libraries and then Gutenberg and the printing press newspapers and newspapers and you know all forms and manifestations of text and textual graphics and everything had to do with text and I think what happened in the past 20 years is again one of the an amazing revolution we are regressing back to the Altamira cave we have a digital cave akin to plateaus where visual shadows play on the walls so we have abandoned text in favor of images and visuals and similarly because music is a form of notation ultimately it's a form of mathematics harmony everything it's essentially a form of text I know it sounds very bizarre what I'm saying no it's all let's put it this way music is much closer to text than to images so music is being abandoned in favor of images everything that is not image and not visual is abandoned as a scientist and somebody that isn't just guessing entirely from their imagination like I do all the time you obviously must make some predictions of what you think may happen in terms of the way people are communicating on social media now and the way music and art will be used in the future what thoughts do you have about it because it sounds like some of the older ways are returning and again I think it's quite important to say there's no judgment on whether it's better or worse it just seems like a lot of the ancient ways that we would have approached life are coming back sometimes there was another old codger by the name of Hegel Hegel proposed the trilateral model of human development development of human societies and ideologies and so on and that's the model of entethesis and synthesis and I think similar trends are happening even if in music for example jazz is an example of a synthesis between the author based model these are the solos in jazz and the group collaboration model so jazz is a pretty recent phenomenon relatively speaking and it embodies a synthesis between the two rival models I think in music I'm giving this as an example because you're a musician and I think similar things are going to happen with regards to human communication and human interaction we are entering an age of augmented reality that is the ability of computerized digital information to be projected onto our reality so that we wear special glasses or maybe contact lenses in the future and we see instead of looking at a screen we see the info or the entertainment or whatever in the air superimposed on real buildings and on real people so I think we are going to synthesize everything ultimately we're going to go to a bar and as we go to the bar we're going to get information from Wikipedia if it still survives about all the important historical buildings on the way and then we're going to meet our friend and we're going to see biographical information about our friend which he had allowed us to see and then we're going to have a drink with that friend and we're going to see hanging in the air a description of the drink it's constituents and ingredients and so on and so forth it's all going to be seamless in the near future it's all going to intermesh and interlace and we are gradually the distinction between real reality virtual reality and augmented reality these distinctions are going to blur they're going to look very artificial I mean the digital natives of 2050 won't understand this conversation at all gosh yes I mean all of those realities would have come under what Arnold Mindell would consensus reality what do you think about alternate realities what do you think about dreaming and social dreaming which is it's something I've learnt about quite recently but oddly was also discovered in 1982 which I know that's an important year for you too isn't it it's the year that I wrote my doctorate in physics yeah do you know about social dreaming yeah what are your thoughts about that I mean I'm fascinated because you've got such a strong scientific kind of view on so much ever since a chap by the name of Descartes in the 17th century we've had this misguided belief that there is reality and there is us like we are observers we are spectators and we we document what we see and what we there was a split in the world he created a schism he broke the world apart he created the duality of the world and us he did admit that the only certainty is that one exists one cannot be certain about reality but he still made this distinction he still broke the world into two big pieces and of course this was very artificial and very wrong we do not perceive reality we perceive internal processes in our brains we are inward looking we are introspective we sample the world by the way a very low betrayed sample which would not pass with any music studio in the world so we sample the world and then we take this bits of info and we insert them we apply models in the brain, mathematical complex models that we have in our brains and we create reality as we think it should be now so we live inside our minds in any case these distinctions between real objective reality and subjective reality and alternative reality and dreaming in the individual and social dreaming and all these distinctions are a misunderstanding of how our brain operates the solution or the answer to your question lies in an obscure field called neuroscience we are beginning to understand the brain and our senses in ways which have defied us for millennia and what we are discovering is nothing less than astounding there is no world the ancient eastern mystics were right there is no world there are just ever shifting kaleidoscopic models of the world which are triggered by external stimuli these external stimuli are of course by definition outside us but the models are where we live we inhabit the models not the world of the stimuli now if we can generate and create stimuli in other ways the other models in our brain will be activated and they are equally valid models it's very important to understand people keep asking the utterly idiotic question is the world a simulation who cares a simulation is reality a simulation has to take place somewhere and consume some resources it has to be in some hardware or if not in some hardware it has to be in some brain it has to have an existence as long as it has an existence its validity as a construct is equal to what today we erroneously call reality and of course whatever the reality is we have to learn to survive in it right yeah the models we have in our brain are survival friendly they are not accidental models and Darwin was right about this these models were created very carefully crafted very carefully over millions of years to aid and abet our survival and to allow us to convey our genes forward in time tokens just before we finish I almost asked you about everything I want to ask you I could listen to you for hours thank you that makes two of us very kind obviously the climate change situation that has gripped all of us probably over the last 20 years but certainly in the last few years is that something you feel where the planet without the human beings on it has its own voice is it trying to say something to us well there's of course the popular Gaia theory yeah I just wondered what you thought about that well we are a part of the planet a very important part of the planet and in this sense we are an organ of the planet and we operate on behalf of the planet we never ever operate the planet whatever happens on the planet is the planet so climate change is an effect we are having on the planet cows have a similar effect on the planet by the way we are having an effect on the planet there is no question about this just before we finish I almost asked you about everything I want to ask you about but I could listen to you for hours thank you that makes two of us very kind it's the obviously the climate change situation that has gripped all of us probably over the last 20 years but certainly in the last few years is that something you feel where the planet without the human beings on it has its own voice is it trying to say something to us that is of course the popular Gaia theory yeah I just wondered what you thought about that well we are a part of the planet a very important part of the planet and in this sense we are an organ of the planet and we operate on behalf of the planet we never ever operate against the planet whatever happens on the planet is the planets so climate change is an effect we are having on the planet cows have a similar effect on the planet by the way we are having an effect on the planet there is no question about this anyone who denies climate change is Donald Trump which is not a compliment in my book but the metaphysics of climate change the philosophy and ideology which were spawned by this indisputable scientific fact they are wrong climate change is a natural phenomenon because we are a part of nature this is the cart this is the cartesian mistake of saying there is us and there is nature no we are part of nature but I really could talk for so much longer but we have only got an hour on the show I have one last question and it is the same question I ask everybody on this show and that is what is the most important connection in your life Sam connection you mean human connection no it can be any books book hands down books yeah I love books I love the smell I love the texture I talk about books the way most men talk about women I make love to them oh well that sounds like a very harmless and healthy relationship look for the books thank you so much thank you for having me and I look forward to talking to you again soon so do I take care bye


IOM has a long history with Columbia. We've been here for over 60 years. We've worked on everything from the peace building process to engaging with the Venezuelan migration challenge as well as engaging on the most recent transcontinental migration challenges. And so this is a place to see IOM at its best and to understand how the partnership with the government of Columbia can really be valuable for migrants and the communities that host them. Columbia has experienced and has really shouldered the responsibility for one of the most significant migration challenges of this decade and certainly within this region. And Columbia has managed to respond to the challenge in such a positive way by really embracing the fact of solidarity with the migrants who've come. And for me they really are a model for other countries to follow. I'm walking away with a sense of hope. In every project I've seen I've seen the resilience of people who've gone through so much difficulty who should really be broken down because of the experiences they've had but they're not broken. They have they have energy and vision for the future. And part of that is because my colleagues here at IOM the government here in Columbia is investing in them. They see their potential. They recognize their value to the communities. They recognize their value to the future. And so I'm leaving here with a sense of hope because if this can be done in Columbia this can be done all over the world.


Okay, so this lesson we're going to talk about mineral-distortion precipitation in one dimension, like 1D columns. So this is different from the previous lessons that we had before mineral-distortion precipitation, which was in batch reactor well-mixed systems. So there's really no dimension, or you can call that zero dimension, because it's in every spatial point they are the same. So here we are talking about 1D. What that means is that essentially you have a column. So we're talking about processes like, for example rainfall comes in, hitting, pentaroc, and things dissolving out, and then over a long period of time, these chemical species release out and rock becomes soil. So I'm going to use this as one example to talk about mineral-distortion precipitation in 1D columns and how we set up these equations. But it's not really only about chemical weathering. It's really about these mineral-distortion precipitation reaction in general. In the short term, these reactions actually change. For example, water chemistry, if you think about groundwater system, it actually tends to, we can see the change if this mineral-distortion precipitation happened pretty fast. But in order to see change in soil, in the solid phase, we do need to wait a bit longer for enough change to happen. So today I'm going to use this system. So I talked about this, if we're thinking about rock transformation to become soil, we're setting up a system that has rainfall comes in at a rate maybe, for example, some rate that is about annual precipitation minus ET, something like that at this flow velocity. And usually we would have unsaturated system in these topsoil, but for simplicity we would just think about everything at the fully saturated system. So it's easier at the beginning. So we have these systems that have essentially two minerals as pen rock. One is quartz and dissolved pretty slowly. Everyone knows about that. The other is K-Feldzbar, which is a very common silicate in rocks. K-Feldzbar has a formula of K-A-L-S-I and then O-3. So essentially you can think about this system. If you think about rainfall comes in, it's dissolving out, and then release the chemical species that you can think about several processes that's happening at the same time. One is advection. So this is the same advection we talked about in one unit said with a chaser. Essentially the flow brings out to the chemicals, but also the dispersing diffusion. This again is the same as what we talked about last time in the AD equations. But then the last one that is different from the previous one are the reaction, which is mineral dissociation precipitation reaction. So essentially this is like combining the AD equation unit with the mineral dissociation precipitation reaction unit. If you need to go back, you're welcome to look at, to review these materials. But essentially this, because these three different processes happen at the same time, but then we also have multiple mineral, we know that quads dissolve pretty slowly, and we can more or less think about this as almost non-reactive because compared to K-Feldzbar it's a relatively very slow reaction. So when we think about the reaction that's happening, the K-Feldzbar will be dissolving out. So you would have this K-Feldzbar, let's say, dissolving out to become release calcium, which is very important to nutrients, metals, cations, and then it will be also released as aluminum plus SiO2. So that's the aqueous. These are species that are going to be coming out. But at the same time, you also think about some of these chemical species when they reach certain level, actually they can precipitate out as solid phase again. For example, aluminum plus SiO2 actually will become another mineral, which we call kaolinite. Essentially it will have the formula of AIL2, Si2, O5, OH4. This is kaolinite. This is one type of very common clay in our system, or if you go digging some soil you will very easily see this type of clay. Essentially you can think about the whole process. You have parent-bed rock, rainfall comes in, release some of the chemical species, but then some of the species also reprecipitate out. So it's almost like a redistribution of mineral. But at the same time, because some of the species dissolving out over a long period of time will change the property of the system, will make this solid phase more permeable and have more pore space for water to flow through. So there is a change in physical property as well. One question we often ask is how does this water and rock change over time and also over space? We want to know how fast things change and how much they change and what they have become. A lot of times we want to be able to predict that. So in order to do that we have to come set up equations, reactions and all that, putting everything together and think about how we solve them. So again, with the system, every time we need to think about the chemical system and how they evolve over time and space, the first thing we need to think about is the chemical species first. So you have several primary species. Again, if you think about, if you review back some of the material we covered before with the primary species, then this system, because we have an aluminum silica, they have to be there. This has to be part of the building block of the system. You have potassium too. And when the rainfall comes in, usually it brings some acidity. So H plus should be there. You would also have CO2AQ. In addition, a lot of times these rainfalls have a little bit of sourcing. So to be representative, we are also putting a bit of sodium chloride in that example, sodium chloride as part of the rainfall. That means also in the secondary species, so we need to decide what complexities will be formed, how much complexity reaction has been, and things like that. So to keep it simple, I'm going to just have potassium and then HCO3AQ and maybe KClAQ as two complexities. And then of course, we also need other species, for example, Hminers. We need the other form of bicarbonate and carbonate. So it's quickly become a long list of species. So if we are talking to these chemical species, we will be essentially solving for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We have 7 primary species. So that essentially means we would have 7 independent equations to solve for. So what I'm writing here is a general type of governing equation for one species I. And again, this first term is we call mass accumulation term that we discussed before. It's the summation of overall change, and then you have the advection term, diffusion term, or dispersion term. This doesn't change because of the system. But it's like some of the primary will change, but the terms wouldn't change. You could have different parasitic phi, or velocity, or diffusion, dispersion coefficient for a different chemical species, but the term itself wouldn't change. And then the last term is new. It's a reaction term. So it would take into account essentially the rates of different type of reactions that this species I is involved in. And you think about how fast these different reactions would change the concentration of species I. And of course, this I need to be written from 1 to NP, which is a number of primary species. So you need to write for this system 7 different equations to solve. But then on top of that, again, you have this number of secondary species you would need to solve for in the form of algebraic relationships. So how does this R-I-G look like? These are terms different from the previous AD equations that we saw this term. Now here this I is a rect term, so you have that. So for this R, it needs to be, if we think about this particular I, let's make this I is potassium. So for potassium means this system, you can think about two reactions involved. One is that the K felts by dissolving out to release out calcium. And then it comes out and it goes. So essentially actually one reaction. So it would be just K felts by dissolving out. So if it's K, then you would just have this rate and then you follow TST rate. So you have probably this complicated K H plus dependence on H plus whatever term empirical numbers K H 2 O and then a water plus K OH minus and then activity OH minus some empirical exponent here as well. So these are the rate law part, early part that depends on pH. But then you again you have surface area. And the last term would be 1 minus IAP over KEQ. Again, this is how fast this is close to equilibrium or far away from equilibrium. So that's the general form of reaction rate law. So when we solve this, this term will be put in there. So this is going to be a complicated term. But also if you think about for example, especially like aluminum or silica, then they're actually involving two different reactions. One is K felts by dissolving out to release these. But a kaolinite also precipitated out. So there's one source structure term and R I term. And the other would be a sink term for kaolinite precipitated out. So it's a sink for aluminum or silica. So we solve all these equations then. What do we come up with is all these C I as a function of time and space. Right. So you have X versus. Essentially once we know all the parameters, initial conditions, boundary conditions, water water comes in, water water come out at the beginning. What's the power water composition in the rock and all that. This will give us this distribution of concentration of functional time and space. And over geological time, when this changes line, when I say geological time, I mean at least thousands of years, thousands or tens of thousands or close to many years, things like that. So over this time scale, you would have these things keep on changing. And then the rock becomes soil property of the prism media change. You have pricity increase typically. And you have also pulmonary change because the water, the resistance of this prism media to water become lower and lower. And you have pulmonary increase as well. So this will be the chemical weathering over long term. Over short term, all these reactions change water chemistry. But the last part of it I want to mention a little bit about the dimensionless number from the mass point of view, how these would change, how we analyze these systems. So last time when we talk about this equation of AD without the reaction term, we talk about the PE or Peckling number, which is the tau advection. It's a tau diffusion dispersion over tau advection. Tau is a time scale. So the time scale of diffusion and dispersion, which is L squared over D. The length of this column over diffusion comes as a time scale for diffusion and dispersion divided by a time, if I do it this way, times 1 over tau A, which is the opposite of length over advection. So that cancels out. It becomes Lv over D. So that's the Peckling number that we talked about before. So this term essentially compares the relative magnitude of advection versus diffusion dispersion, which one is dominant under fast flow or slow conditions. But then because we have the reaction term, we have two more dimensionless numbers. We call them cola numbers. So the first term, because think about it, we have two transfer presses. One is diffusion dispersion of the advection. So the first one is comparing the time scale of reaction, the relative time scale of advection to the relative time scale of reaction. And in that case, again, tau A will be the same as L over V. But then you'll be, this is over tau reaction. For reaction, we are thinking about how much things can dissolve and eventually reach equilibrium. So you would have volume, total bulk volume times prosity, which is how much space you have, post-space you have that can hold water. So that's the water volume times the maximum concentrations that you can dissolving out, divided by the rate constant as the maximum, K times A. So this would be essentially the reaction time, the characteristic time for reaction. And in notes that I have simplified this and you can have that. You can look at these. For the second term cola number, you will be comparing the time scale of diffusion dispersion over tau R. And again, this will be going back to L squared over D, divided by this same thing, because the reserve reaction term will be the same. So if you think about, we typically talk about under fast reaction system, fast compared to transfer versus when you have very slow reaction system. So when you have very fast reaction system, the system tends to reach equilibrium quickly. And it tends to be transport controlled. It will be determined by the bottleneck of all processes, which means it's going to be transport controlled. If the reaction is actually slower, so you will see by this analysis, you will be able to tell how the system would behave, whether it's transport controlled or surface reaction controlled and how these will be changing over distant time will give us some kind of grouping analysis that we can do. So I'm going to end here. You can go back and look at notes. I went pretty fast. So look at notes we have. Do some homework and you will realize these analysis will really help you to understand how things are different under different conditions.


How can I manage courses on my Moodle site? A course in Moodle is a space where teachers add learning materials for their learners. Courses can be organised into course categories. You have a lot of freedom in how you organise courses, so it's worth having an overall plan before starting to set courses up. You can access the course area from Site Administration – Courses. Courses on your site can have default settings and you can specify these from Site Administration, Courses, Course default settings. Editing teachers can change these settings in individual courses. You can add a category from the Add a Category link and a course from the Add a New Course link. By default, only administrators and those with a Manager role can create categories and courses. You can allow other roles to create courses if you really need to. Clicking Manage Courses and Categories, we see that a new Moodle site has a single category for adding courses to. It's called Category 1, but you can change its name by clicking the Edit icon. To the right of the category list, you see any courses within that category. You can click to create a new single course from here and we look in another video at ways to create courses. To create a new category, you click the Create Category button and enter the details. Note that you can have a top-level category or you can have sub-categories. That's why it's important to think through how you want your site organised. You must add a name but the ID number and description are not essential. Click the question mark icons for more information. In this site, there are several categories with courses. You can hide categories, move them, select and turn them into sub or top-level categories. You can also do the same with courses in each category. You can move courses out of a category and into another one. To summarise, courses are where teachers add learning content. They can be organised and rearranged into categories and sub-categories.