Welcome once again to this series of five episodes on the Central Vista and thank you mother for joining us here and Madhav Ravan who is an architect and who's been a pioneer right since the beginning when this movement started against the redevelopment of the Central Vista and you know all those issues that were raised. I think it was two years ago when this discussion started and two years down the line we have now some work being executed. So in the execution phase actually Madhav just to tell you that we have been able to interview a few of your architect friends and you know we have been able to cover some of the important elements of this redevelopment for example Romy pointed out that look it's more to do with Vastu that's why they're so determined to go ahead and you know time frame is so important. Then of course we had Vivaan Sundaraman who said you know it's a kind of metamorphosis from the era of anxiety to the era of fear where you know era of anxiety produces creativity but here actually we are witnessing the murder of creativity either we are killing that creativity and then we have seen also the Supreme Court judgment to one and then again people going knocking doors of the Supreme Court and then the high courts asking that look at least in the pandemic spare the people. But then we've seen what the judgment has been and a finding post on the petitioners. So given that as a background but we have also seen the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs the minister himself actually defending this project very vociferously and saying look this is the new era the modern era that we're talking about and you see once we refurbish all this I mean it will be very iconic. So I think let's start from there I mean I mean I mean what what the minister has said and not to actually miss the point that one of the important elements that this government has been advocating of course it comes in very in a disguised form it doesn't mention about the Prime Minister's mansion you know the SPG all that stuff not the public spaces that I just calculated before starting this interview mother and please correct me if I'm wrong but I think what I could calculate is it's nearly 120 acres of public land which is being usurped you know and where government buildings I mean the period that you had sent to me I mean I was just going through that document and actually this is what I could make out maybe just correct me if I'm wrong it's massive 120 acres right in the heart of the national capital you know and you are transforming this land from public land to government offices and terming that the government offices are also public but I think let me just start by asking you there are certain guiding principles that this government is saying you know they're five important guiding principles and according to those guiding principles the government says look this is how we are going to refurbish the central Vista and you should allay all your fears and all that that is being actually the spread are outside I mean I mean it's it's it's not the way I mean I mean like you and all of us we are projecting so I think what is your take on it I think that well thank you to Kendra for having me over this is the second time like you pointed out it almost a year and a half since we spoke and sadly you know the thing is that I you know you say movement and these are grand terms but the fact is that what troubles me most about this project as it did one and a half years back was how the government or let's say the CPWD since they are the people driving this project seems to have a very fast and loose grip on what is legal and illegal and permitted and not permitted as per the bylaws I mean I don't need to remind you to go back too far but in the years 2006 and 2007 in Delhi there were massive demolition drives for unauthorized construction massive sealing drives for illegal occupation for use land use violations these matters went up to the court then also since now we are being told that the court I mean that is also an incorrect reading of the court judgment in fact it gives very it's disrespectful of the court judgment the way the ministry says that it's got a green signal from the Supreme Court but my point is in that time 2006 2007 Delhi High Court they basically declared that 80% of Delhi was illegal because people weren't taking land use and permitted authorized construction seriously and this is a fundamental way if you're going to turn a majority urban country in a few years then urban and municipal laws are at the basis so I want to first unpack what the ministry in its response causes calls guiding principles of this project I think we should understand that these are we're not expecting government to give us guiding principles for a project of this scale and nature and impact we want them to first at least hit the low lowest denominator of being legal so that they don't have to live in the ignorance government changes of two years that denominator means the basic statutory laws that are existing okay so in these guiding principles you actually are seeing the government treat law like it's some philosophical position so let's look at what they first start with they start with heritage conservation yes you see when you say guiding principles it allows you know like I don't know if you've studied philosophy but if philosophy needs to evolve you cherry pick from various philosophies to evolve philosophy forward this is history of philosophy so but you can't cherry pick law you see law is what the statutes carry at the time of that act it is not retrospective it is not speculative it is what it is at that point in time and right now they say the guiding principles I believe the first one is heritage conservation well if then let's look at the heritage conservation law and see how well they've done by the supreme god itself their own so-called green signal the majority judgment the minority judgment unequivocal that everything the government has done is illegal there's no doubt in the minority opinion it's the majority that even they are troubled by the way this government treats heritage law by insisting that they get clearance from a heritage conservation committee that finds its origins in law you know it's almost like if you you know fail to show up for your examination the the question paper and the answer sheet is sent home and said you just fill it up sign at the bottom and send it back to me so my point is that you know we all have these statutes in place to preserve and to improve the quality of our collective lives heritage is a very important part of our quality of our lives built heritage particulars so they've evaded I think there are various articles written about how they've tried to evade using you know fabrication of authority by making CPWD a local body so that it doesn't need to go to NDMC for sanction and so on I won't get into the details actually no I think I just wanted to ask that question also I mean pointedly to you mother because you know that's a serious error because I have been a deputy mayor of Simla and I know I mean even if you have to construct a house you know the kind of transparency that is required is like the phenomenal phenomenal but here and actually it's a local body it's a local body which is which is which is in trying the task absolutely as a mayor of Simla if you had to deal with unauthorized construction you would order your commissioner to take a bulldozer and go and demolish illegal construction right now that is how that is how the that is how local bodies assert their policing authority that's how they they enforce their master plan now the fact here is the the ministry seems to think it's perfectly all right to make CPWD which is really the construction arm of the government of India it's like a contractor it's a developer is going to self sanctioned by virtue of it being recognized as a local body by Delhi Urban Arts Commission and Delhi Urban Arts Commission isn't even authorized to give such recognition so you fabricated absolutely yeah now my point is all of us when we build our buildings if we encroach on public land if we violate bylaws if we build more than what is sanctioned we face the threat of demolition actually right and and if if I have to look at the signal national signals this is the this is the premium national space it's that democratic heart do you and I want to live in a country where the democratic heart the the the space that represents well they call governance I call democracy in in in this country to live in the ignominy that that is going to be an illegally occupied illegally constructed space forever Mr Puri refers to it as being there for 250 years I can't imagine a greater shame than to say that something has been built so illegally and you see the Supreme Court was not asked whether the buildings comply to bylaws or they comply to development regulations the Supreme Court was asked whether they felt the government had moved in a way in which it is empowered to do so or not now but they they have mother invoked the provisions of the you know that the government building activity denied they had denied in their statement this is actually some very astute people have identified this trick of allowing CPWD to be local body yeah they have denied the fact that they're using government building act they insist that this is as per democratic norms now my point is I'm not on democracy that is for the lawyers to argue I am on what architects need to consider and what we all as beautiful citizens trying to adhere to a master plan and development controls all commit ourselves to that is civic consciousness that is civic responsibility civic duty that you don't build illegally now in a government that are making us they're now in the process of making the next master plan 2041 what is the value of that piece of paper it's not worth the pay but it's printed on because of this project you they they talk about guiding principles right so heritage we spoke about right there is a deliberate malafide intention and action on the government in terms of reducing what is called the central vista heritage precinct into a collection of heritage buildings they're not going to touch the buildings they say but you consider that the new parliament is going to be three stories higher than the old parliament you don't touch it but you definitely reduce its glory you definitely violate its sanctity as a heritage space it's like building a glass tower next to is it is it is it is it the reason why we find you know playing with the MPD the master plan of Delhi I mean you know that if they are from 120 to 200 I mean this is this is how how we conclude that is it you see I'll tell you the other trap of appointing a contractor as your local body which is what they've done with the CPWD you you look at the submissions they've made in the environmental impact assessment they have said that the permissible FAR here is 200 and they have declared we have achieved 200 but if you bother to divide the numbers they have submitted themselves it comes to an FAR of 300 which are violating of 50% that means you're allowed to make a three-story building you make a five-story building yeah these these see now that's a you know these errors have a remarkable way of helping this project forward rather than you know if I made errors in my submission to local body my project would stop they would steal the building but somehow the nature of these errors is such that it gets them approvals now you and I can have different opinions on why that is happening or we can have a same unspoken opinion on how these approvals are being got but the fact is the error remains on paper they cannot they cannot fudge the numbers they've submitted themselves so the this is why you need an independent local body and another point they make about the NDMC being a nominated body and not a elected local body I beg to differ the NDMC has 13 members in its council yeah they have elected people yeah yes and they have three elected people and four members who are supposed to be eminent personalities appointed by in consultation with the chief minister so there's a fair bit of expertise independent expertise and independent local revenue I would say it's it's it's worse than the elected institution but it is better than the CPWD oh definitely absolutely yeah you can't expect the contractor in no condition as an architect I'm telling you the contractor is not incentivized to stick to the law they have to be penalized into compliance that is the only way because they're profit motivated people okay so the second principle I think mother which way we should jump from heritage is you know what they're saying expanding public space I think it's not an error it's a scandal what they're mentioning and they're blatantly mentioning it I mean what is it that is happening so I think impunity this yeah yeah with impunity yeah how do you get this impunity by dumbing down the public infantilizing us now public space comes under two categories they can be public space that is privately owned and public space that is publicly owned so say temple grounds which are privately owned temple could be public space because you allow mailers to happen but it's owned by the by a private individual or a private legal person public owned a public space that is governed on public space is actually public owned public space they have a fiduciary response someone is just a fiduciary just a custodian yeah ministry has a feudal mentality they are the people with the colonial hangover they are the people with the white man's complex I'm glad I'm glad you brought in this whole I mean I mean we call it jargon I mean the terms of feudalism and feudal mentality yeah absolutely they you can see their statement you see even in court the government the Solista general representing the ministry claims that they are landowners now if they if being a government in a democratic system you are a government in power for five years so that ownership of land is transitory and it is fiduciary that's the important thing you're holding it in trust right now in that trust you have allocated land use now we'll come into public public land being defined by use you can have recreational public land and you can have public semi public use that is for museums health center galleries he they say we are increasing public land all they are doing is if there was a x amount of land to be the district park and recreational park in central vista they are actually what they have done is they have violated heritage norms by changing the plot lines of ignca building adding two acres to the central rajpat lawns but on the other hand removing one third of it for surface level parking so net we are in a loss of green area but we're passing it off as an increase in public land and all other compensatory greens they have taken over district park to build parliament also yeah so all the compensatory greens are where they are located if you look at the land use change in this thing Timarpur in chandraval nagar so that's where we find our recreational space and i think the from here another principle and i think the mother where we really need to i mean it's a big scandal if that is true because that's what i saw in their reply and the minister which has who has been advocating it's a TOD yeah you know that so one of the guiding principles happens to be a TOD because you have a a metronome connecting all this stuff and this is exactly what they said i mean the reverse that they said in the supreme court that it's not and TOD for us of course for an architect for a planner people know but i mean they know but not the people i'll explain isn't it land monetization yeah so they've surely gone they've they've submitted in supreme court they don't intend to do TOD here but the minister and the ministry themselves are now making public statements that is a transit oriented development guided project yeah guiding is not what we need compliance i'll say that again compliance TOD has certain specific requirements there is a 30% mandatory residential company 30% of your FAR generated has to be residential are they going to now house ministers in there so yes that's what i'm asking so it doesn't qualify as TOD yeah i'm saying it's TOD doesn't make it so it has to comply to TOD to get the TOD excess FAR that is what they want the guiding principle is can they be guided to the excess FAR but you can't just get it like that you know it's a give and take you have to then the second thing is you have to have reduced parking TOD for government use takes parking norms from two cars per 100 square meters of FAR use and brings it down to 1.8 the parking they've submitted in their EIA is 40% more than this norm so it doesn't it so just calling it TOD is just basically they have decided to reward the CPWD with extra FAR and they have no way of justifying it so they use jargonized words like TOD TOD is meant to develop underdeveloped areas it's not meant to completely demolish our national heritage it's meant to malign this policy this policy yeah sorry yeah just correct me TOD also means land monetization no well of course i mean are you not realizing i mean this could be one of the features could be you know you allow some space when you're when you're creating this large FAR to be further commercialized so if you look at chapter scale of the master plan of deli transportation there's one entire segment called development control regulations for transit oriented developer that is the law by law now they're allowed to monetize that is 10% of the FAR they generate can be leased out to companies for private that's it yeah so what better what better to have community to the parliament ministry is trying about some notional rent of 1000 crores which doesn't exist by the way all the ministry i've i've looked at each ministerial address they all exist on buildings and premises owned by the lndo so the rent that each ministry pays they pay to lndo lndo comes under ministry of housing ministry of housing provides it as income to the government of india and so the balance book balances so it's a circular end it is a complete fabrication the existing ministry building every minister sits in an office that it belongs to the government of india there is no private rent here this is this is a complete fabrication so and also this 10 thousand crores of rent if they're bringing in people the eia documents suggest they're only adding 10 000 people to the existing 50 000 here so are they saying they're paying 1000 crores rent currently to house 10 000 employees that's ridiculous then each of them is sitting in a you know the most prime real estate in the country at that rate so that's what you were saying that 1000 crore what what they what they've been advocating that will be will be actually saving this one yeah i think and the fourth and the fifth one that they speak about you know the green buildings and the inspiring works modern technology again cherry picking how how environmental law has very very strict they have spent their entire time budgeting environmental law submitting proposal the new parliament is submitted as an extension of old parliament in one to one authority to another authority is submitted as a new parliament there is constant flexibility what height are you going to how many trees no one knows how many trees are getting cut the eia suggests that there are about the there was a tree cutting tree transplantation tender which actually says there are approximately 3000 but we don't know the numbers it's up to the winning bidder to ascertain so ulta chor kotwal kodante i mean or whatever the chor is the kotwal you're telling him to tell you how many trees he's going to transplant successfully i mean that it's just it just defies all so the whole problem stems with a government of india ministry of housing urban affairs cpwd looking at the statutes and laws like they are philosophical discussions we are in the face of climate change and pandemic there are changes to our work style right you know you may unlock construction sites but offices are still largely working from home as long as we have a third wave fourth wave coming in yeah you see the reason of they say oh greater efficiency do they not use computers and personal devices are they going to have a pigeon delivery system parindepal they'll attach a letter and it'll fly down the corridor and is it like harry potter with mail delivery by outs you know what are they talking about co-location for you know there are 260 conference rooms in this complex 260 eating 55 people why don't they like you and i are having a virtual discussion yeah courts have virtual hearings then what is this idea of having co-location for greater efficiency you look at the per employee allocation of space thickened if you look at what they've submitted in their EIA yeah they are they are providing 195 square feet per employee you know 80 percent of the bureaucracy in a ministry is actually less than grade c employees yeah so they don't have that luxury so it's actually the senior bureaucrats and the senior ministries who are giving themselves palatial offices that are the size of bigger than a normal Indian apartment they've got yoga rooms they've got music rooms they've got state of the art gym and this is being done as a essential service because we feel that if bureaucrats have music rooms and yoga rooms they will somehow work for the benefit of our country that is broadly what I can understand from this set of you know both the both what I read in the paper that the ministry is saying and what they they have submitted in the environmental impact assessment so it's it's you can't thank you thank you thank you mother for really I mean bringing out the facts to the fore and lastly I think what is important you know one of the one of the reasons that the minister has been pointing out is that it's quite environment-sustainability I wish somebody could actually map the kind of construction activity that is going on the total quantum of cement and the total point of construction material that is going to be used in this entire process and let me remind our our audiences that you know if you see the total carbon emissions in the last three decades 50 percent of the total carbon emissions in the history of our evolution actually has come in the last three decades and just 20 companies in the world are responsible for 33 percent of these emissions and both and and these 20 companies are paying into cement and fossil so you have more cars I mean I as as the person who have who has served the city for five years I would tax people for they have to come in the car actually what we require is a different kind of mobility a different kind of of habitat that we are creating I think this is you're setting the standards way too high for the CPWD I'll be very honest with you it's a very simple thing in their environmental impact assessment where they are trying to do an environmental management plan with no qualms they have admitted they're going to demolish four and a half lakh square meters of building space their intention is to construct approximately 16 and a half lakh new construction you looked at carbon footprints 50 percent of damage yes has happened in the past I will go even further 30 percent of that is linked to new construction and construction absolutely so if required yeah so if you know we feel we should be leading the world in terms of green policies we are trying to solar electrify ourselves we are doing so many things but these are all at the consumption end you know one of the principles if we are talking about philosophy that's why that's why I added those yeah carbon principles is reuse reuse reduce recycle so reuse and one of the guiding principles of government office chapter in master plan is the decentralization of government so if they want to have guiding principles they should stop looking at laws and trying to give them philosophical interpretations I think I think mother we also need to build this argument in the context of those sustainable development goals the 17 SDGs that we are talking about this is completely divergent too yeah I'm deeply saddened by this project as a practicing architect because it takes my city's master plan and tears it to shreds it takes whatever work anyone is doing on the environmental front you know I being an architect I'll be the first to admit construction by definition kills the environment there is no way of escaping it but all of us are trying various ways to build more conservatively to build more frugally to make buildings that are significant so that they last and last not just you know I mean on one hand this they keep saying that these buildings are 100 years old they're demolishing all the ones that are only 40 years old or the last the last biggest the 2011 is a state of the art cutting edge green building green building and and big and 250 crores was spent in 2011 building that building and they're demolishing it without a quorum so this is not even green wash this is just just a fabrication and obfuscation and this is either one can conclude that the CPWD is extremely incompetent or it is extremely malefied there are only two conclusions that can be drawn. Now this is what I'm asking everyone I mean I mean I mean wherever I'm able to interact with our guests what do you think is the future? The future? Yes of this project of this project yeah. So I won't see the thing is that it's off late because of the construction going on during the pandemic surge it has come up into much political discussion I just as a genuine responsible citizen of this country who wants to not allow something that is my most sacred democratic space to be argued about with the politics of the day I want to have a longer term perspective on this my biggest problem that deeply saddens me taken there more than anything else is that is the ignominy is the sheer what do I say the humiliation of having our capital complex where we will draft laws where we will legislate from where we will administer this glorious vast federal country with so many stakeholders from a place that will forever be illegal because now they have done the deed of so-called getting it sanctioned the only way they can redeem it is by declaring it illegal and then trying to regularize it which is shameful with 70 years of democracy in this country down the drain with this project. Thank you mother for speaking to us and I wish I mean because you I wish that the fate that we saw with the world child in Germany I mean Albert Speer and Hitler I wish something of that sort could be repeated. In the long run Germany has done a lot to remedy the excesses during the war. The UK does a lot to remedy the excesses although arguably not enough but to remedy the excesses during colonial so every government eventually history will judge from a distance of time I am just saying as a citizen of this country living today responsible for my future generations and future citizens of this country I feel the biggest shame I will carry with this project is the fact that it will stand illegal. You can have discussions about buildings being legal and they're not there but once they are there you bear the shame you bear the shame. Thank you mother it was very nice being with you thank you so much. Thank you thank you for having me take me.


So my name is Gri as you heard, I've now been with Moodle for just over eight months and it's been a journey of learning, eternal learning. Today I'm possibly not going to talk about as much detail as Martin was hoping that I would but I want to talk about the process and specifically about how we can get you guys involved in the process. I'm just going to quickly learn a little bit about you guys, talk a bit about myself, a bit about the different teams, talk about roadmap processes, what I see as challenges in regards to road mapping in the traditional sense, some of our key initiatives and then back to how you can get involved with it. First of all I just wanted to remind ourselves why we're all here, we're all here about empowering educators to improve our world. What is it now about ten months ago when I was contacted by Moodle, I couldn't believe my luck that I actually found somebody, a company in Perth, that did exactly what I had identified as my purpose in life, which is to bring quality education to everybody globally. So we'll go more into that detail. So I just wanted to get a show of hands of the type of who we've got in the room, I know Martin did it earlier today as well, but can I see how many developers we have here? Right, so if you sprinkled through I think you're all upstairs before were you? Educators, and what about educators in the sort of corporate learning management systems all that's kind of a few there as well. What have I missed now? Designers? Do we have any designers? Oh cool, instructional designers as well. Cool, this is good. I need all you people to get involved in our roadmap process, right? What have I missed? What sort of other roles have we got around here? What have I missed? IT people. Oh yeah, there's a few of us around. And sort of Moodle administrators. Yay, got a few around here. So press the wrong button. I really want to explore how we can extend the way we're working together now, the way that Martin has set this awesome organization up to involve and engage the community to be involved in the processes throughout, not just from a developer perspective but from educators and from design and testing things. That photo is from where I come from. So I was born about 100 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle in Norway. My teachers, my parents are teachers, my grandparents are teachers. For whatever reason I decided not to become a teacher, so I studied computer science instead. Interesting subject for an extreme extrovert in case you hadn't noticed. Anyway, I started my career, I actually started, what do I do? Put my teeth in. We moved around a lot in Norway because my parents always got jobs as teachers running in a new place every couple of years. That's a bit odd to see yourself down there. We moved around a lot when I was young, when I was about eight, we moved down south to the tropics of Norway. We call that in the north, where the weather is always nice. At least I remember the weather as nice. It's nice in winter as well when it's snowing, right? At 13 my parents rooted us up. When I was 13 we went to Africa to live there for a couple of years where my parents were teachers. God, they must be my teachers, my life teachers or something. So that was a fantastic experience to go to a local school. They see how schooling was done. This is a long time before digital, but you learn along the way. Itchy feet were born and I ended up studying in the UK and then back to Norway. But I just wanted to talk a little bit about that journey because in that journey what I've learned is that with everything we do in life education is at the core of it. And I think that it's really important. I started my work career in Norway working for the big nasty corporate software companies like the oracles and control data of this world. And then I moved into smaller companies that were global, which is kind of my sweet spot where it's 100 to 200 people that we work globally and we can work with people across the globe. Actually get the opportunity to move to Australia because of oracles. I'm not bagging them too much with that. So I landed in Sydney. I'd never been to Australia before actually. Thought I'd come out for a couple of years, fell in love with the climate. You know, this is the real tropics compared to the Norwegian tropics. And then in about 2004 I contacted a friend in Perth from Sydney to say, you know, where can I buy an investment property? And he goes, oh, maybe you want to move over here. And that's when I met the mining industry, so mining software industry. That's all there is in Perth. Well, I thought until just about a year ago. But in the last five years or so, I've had my own digital health start up. And at the same time contracted in digital health, delivering primary care services to remote and rural Australia. So I do understand how important education is as part of delivering health and quality of life to people specifically in cultures that are not as connected as we are centrally. So I am inspired to deliver quality education to every adult and child in the world. But I also think that it needs to be powered by people and technology together. So bringing that real connection between people and technology. I know that Ron already said this, but I see my role to empower and enable and inspire my colleagues to work together and to work with the community to deliver moodle products that address real world problems so that we can actually create a sustainable business and reach more people. I shouldn't be looking at that one, should I? So one of the things that I've learned about moodle today is that we have a bunch of really awesome people inspired and inspiring people. We have a product with a large and dedicated community that just want to help the world, to inspire the world to improve. And then we're continuously experimenting with our processes and involving people in that process. I'll come back to that one. So a little bit about the teams. Unfortunately, I hadn't joined that this time. I think it was just before I joined. I'll go through just the product teams for now, although I have pressed. So most of you guys are probably most familiar with moodle core or the core LMS, which is led by Sandra Bangma. In Perth, we have team members in Perth and in Spain and the Czech Republic and Belgium and Netherlands and US. Sandra's updated my slide, I can see. So we've got a team of 22 people there, and I put in the numbers, but this is the core system that's underpinning all our teaching and learning platform. Then we've got the moodle workplace product. I don't know, a few of you guys were obsessed. It's really about the organization and learning and development. And it's based on the core LMS with plugins and it's streamlined or fine-tuned for organization and learning and development. We have a team primarily based in Spain, but we've got team members in the UK and Brazil as well. So you can see we're a truly global organization. Eight people in that team, I think it's not actually, it's seven. Counting again. We also have a tiny little apps team that look after the apps both for moodle LMS and for workplace, and we have in that. So if anybody's looking to have their own presence in the app store and things, we have a branded app. So you can either run the standard app or a branded app over the top of it. You can see I've borrowed Martin's pretty pictures from this morning. Our moodle cloud product, if you haven't had an opportunity to meet Lee, he's our new product manager for moodle cloud. So he's here at the fair. He's been with us for, I think it's his fourth week now. So he's one of the lucky ones that get to meet you all in his first month. Then we've got moodle net now. Who here knows about moodle net? Oh, that's not so much. So it's, I expected all of you to say yes. So moodle net is a social platform that enables educators to share, curate and discuss educational resources. It's currently in beta. We've validated some of the assumptions around it, and we're launching it at the global mood in Barcelona.  With LMS, we've got so many customers and users across the world. The ones that we know about is 100,000 sites and 150 million users, are just the ones that have voluntarily registered for the product. There's one tiny little team. No customers, no users yet. Well, apart from the ones that are on the test systems. So we could run this process very differently. It's very experimental. It's very lean in the process there. Moodle education. You must have all met the lovely Solange here today. Tiny little team, mostly in North America, I should say. But we do have a few virtual team members across the organization. Basically, that is our competence-based research-informed education program. How many of you guys were in the session yesterday here? Quite a few. Did you enjoy it? Did you learn something? It says the facilitators are here. Great job by the facilitators and Solange. We also have a UX team, and I'm going to talk briefly about that. As you can see, I'm the acting lead for that. So typically, we would have empowered multi-discipline teams that would work together. So you'd have designers and developers working together. We've chosen to have an affinity or an alignment between all the UX people across the organization. So Ash, Barbara and Hina are all based in Perth. So they primarily work with the core and LMS system and the Moodle cloud system. We've got Raphael, that's our UX UI designer-developer for Workplace. He has a lot of experience. He's worked with Emilio, who is our product manager in partners and delivering workplace solutions in the past. And Ivan is our Moodle net front-end developer and UX designer. But for each project that we work on in Moodle core or any of the products now, we will assign a UX developer. So they have plenty to do. You should see Ash and Hina have been around here for the whole time. And tomorrow, if you're interested in user experience and how we do that, we've got a session tomorrow called The User in the Moodle. Right. I'm going to talk about road map processes. So we always think of road maps as a straight road forward, right? That's a road map. It's all very linear, because all roads are very linear. If any of you have ever been to the north of Norway, you know that roads aren't necessarily linear. They go like that around the fjords and around the mountains. And I don't even know what's around the corner there. The typical road map is based on output. So it's typically a list of prioritized features that we want to develop.  I'm not saying these things are bad. I'm just saying that they don't always work. And they come down from management. So what happens is that they're very linear. Somebody comes up with an idea, then management decides that it's going to happen, then the UX team work on it, and then they come up with the designs, and they do the testing of the designs, and then they chuck it over the fence to the developers, and the developers go... And we've got some really awesome developers, both in the community and within Moodle HQ altogether. But it's kind of that linear thing. And then it comes to the end, just about to release, and it goes to the QA cycle, to the QA team. And then they're going, and documentation, oh, I've got to make this work now, sort of thing. So it can be a bit challenging at times, and it's also... You know, it can lack buying, and it's not very empowering for the team. So what we're trying to do is actually change that around and get involvement much earlier from the developers and the designers and working together across teams with our customers and with our community as well. Because sometimes we actually forget that not all our product ideas work. Because you can have a brilliant idea. I reckon if I do this fantastic feature, and it could come from anywhere, it could come from a teacher, it could come from an administrator, it could come from a developer, it could come from a product manager, heaven's forbid, a product manager who hasn't done their research, right? But they don't always work, and it's only a small percentage. So you need to test and validate, test and validate. That's why it's been really interesting to watch what we do with MoodleNet at the moment. That's off. I have a timer here, and it's off. So it's been interesting to watch what MoodleNet are doing with much more sort of iterate, much faster iterations in the development, because they don't actually have to look after all the customers that are there already. We need to validate the customer value and make sure that customers are in. Then even when you've got a really damn good idea, like for example, group messaging. I think it's a great idea. Group messaging that we came out with in 3.6, I believe, but it still takes multiple iterations to get it right. Now there's a reason that we do have roadmaps. We need to make sure that we're working on what's the highest value to be first, and we also need to have some sort of a time-based view of it. This is why most roadmaps are reviewed on a quarterly basis, which is something that we will continue to do. We obviously need to address all of these issues. Now, we all know that roads aren't necessarily straight, right? You don't have to go to Norway to find curvy roads. What I've found at Moodle is that I kind of inherited a product portfolio of six very different products, all the way from a core, open source, massive. I don't want to say old. Can I say wise about a system? I usually use wise instead of old, but a system that has grown over years and has had a lot of contributions. We've got that as the core elements. Then we've got the refined version of it that's specialized for workplace. Then we've got educational content and curriculum, and I'm going, ooh, what hit me here? I was developing a system that was there to break down the silos in the child health space. I thought that was hard. This one's more complicated, but we are addressing the same kind of needs. I think one of the aspects that we've always worked at is actually outcome-based roadmaps. Roadmaps that are focused on the objectives and key results and focused on business objectives, or business objectives, product vision that drives the roadmaps. In a way that it ensures that all the product ideas are aligned with our business objectives so that we can empower the product teams. It's really, really important to empower the product teams. The product teams that consist of the developers, the designers, the product managers, and the users per se. I usually say that I try to get the right mix. The right people, the right product, and the right process. Would you believe it? That other slide that I had up earlier, I wrote that before I wrote this one, sort of magically. We do have inspiring and inspired people in the organization and in the community. I think we can make that product absolutely right for a number of different needs, if you like, so that if we slice and package our product up like we've done now with Workplace, we could do that for higher education, we could do that for K-12. We can work with our partners to make sure that it's easier for them to roll out and create value-add services for our customers to create value for their learners and basically get education out to as many people as possible. And then, as I said, we are continuing to experiment with our processes. I just wanted to reuse my slide that I made earlier. So there are some key drivers to what I want to do here because one of the things that we tend to forget, and I have worked, you know, I hate to say this, but I have worked in the software industry for over 30 years, no matter how good our intentions are, because all our intentions are usually good. We want to solve problems, but then we jump straight to solutions. I've got, well, let's do it this way. And so we forget to look at the risks first and you have to get the risks up front, specifically when you're doing product development that's not just for a single customer. And then we need to remember that defining and designing products is a collaborative process. It's not that linear process. It's not something that somebody can't... You know, so where's Martin? There you are. You have come up with some awesome ideas through the years and managed to deliver them, but I do still think that it's been a collaborative process between you and the community and that develops always. So what I'm trying to do is, like, tap into that, use that, and have a little bit more intentionality as you'll see it towards then. And then I want to talk about solving problems rather than just developing features again because we tend to chase features and we tend to chase features but I thought Martin touched on it briefly this morning that we might not go for so many new features. We'll probably look... We're looking at let's get things right for the things that we're doing. Let's make it really, really, really good, but still do some new features because you always have to keep on innovating and coming up with new things and working with the community and partners and plug-in developers and integration partners as you did. Yep. So there's four types of risks that I've... that I typically look at. The first one is really about the customer value. If you develop something that the customer doesn't need, you're kind of dead in the water, right? So what do we have to do to ensure that the customer would buy it or choose to use it? And then we have a massive focus on user experience. I know it's been a critique sometimes of products like Moodle. I'm not saying Moodle particularly, but products that are that configurable, which is awesome because you can make it to do whatever you like. But it's kind of hard to design it for fantastic user experience. And then, of course, that's that big thing. Can we actually build it? Is it technically feasible to build this product? Let's get the developers in on the process very early in the process. And then, obviously, does it work for our business? Is this something that we need to do? Is it aligned with our vision and business objectives? So customer value, what does that really mean? I've seen so many beautiful products developed through the times, but it doesn't actually solve a problem for a customer, right? It looks great. They go, oh, that's really nice. That's really what I need, and then you get to the end, and they didn't actually need it anyway, so you can't... there's no uptake for it. So it's really about understanding who we're developing for what problem we're solving for them and why we need to solve those problems. Not just about developing cool products. Usability, how do they use it? How can we, you know, keep on doing user testing, user research first, find out about the problem, test our prototypes, do user interviews, do usability testing at the end, but you really need to make sure that they can use it. You guys can talk to... I keep looking over at our developers, but there's plenty of other developers here, but it's hard to develop stuff if you don't know who it's for as well. So I think that understanding what they... who the customer persona is, the user persona is, they'll be using it, what their skillsets are, it's really important, and then whether it's actually technically possible to do it. And then obviously the business viability is in line with our business objectives. Going back to that. So I wanted to put our product, our process at a glance. So the first thing we do is we collect ideas. We've done this for years. We keep collecting ideas. We've got so many ideas. They're coming out of our ears sometimes. But we've got so many ideas from you guys, from the community in general, from the forums, from Tracker, we'll go a bit through that. Then we need to validate those ideas, and that's kind of where we get into the, okay, who's it for? Then we prioritize ideas. We look at that typically internally, but we take input from our community on that. We want to get you guys even more engaged in that process. And finally, deliver products. So I think to date, although we've kind of done all these things, we've not done it intentionally, so what we want to do is over the next few weeks, we'll be posting out what the process is, where we would like to invite you guys to get involved with our process and give us input and help us prioritize. And we'll keep that up to date. So it's more about the process than actually promising we're gonna have this particular feature ready at this time, you know, because we might find, and this is, I come from a startup world as well, so it's kind of that lean startup thing and go, okay, well, hang on, that didn't work. So that wasn't the right choice then. So that's also an okay choice.  It's okay to make that decision that it's not the right thing to do. So you guys are all familiar with that, but we're doing a lot more market research, competitive analysis, we get input from our partners. Anybody at Moodle has an idea whether it's a developer, a designer, or a Martin, or me, or Solange, or Fiona at the back here. So anybody can come up with ideas. We look at the priorities that the Moodle partners give us. They have an opportunity to do that in the system. We look at analysis of RFIs, so tenders and things from higher education, for example. There's a few players out there that are selling in a different way to what we've done, because Moodle is so configurable and you can use it for anything, and others are kind of going in and knocking on our doors, on the doors of our customers, I'm sure I've heard from a few people here over the last couple of days. Have you got many people who are members of Moodle User Association here? One, two, three, four. Oh, good, good to see. Because by being a member of the Moodle User Association you actually have the opportunity to vote in a different way and vote on projects and be part of that process. And finally, what Martin's doing directly after this, the Moodle Mood brainstorm wish list, so brainstorm sessions, which I can't wait to participate in and see how they run. When it comes to validating ideas, I've already gone through this in some sense, but we start with the why. So why would the customer use it, and why should we do it? But I think the core thing that we need to look at is really who is our customer? Who is the user? Can we actually understand what job they're doing? And by that, I don't mean being on their screen, on their keyboard, I should say, not tapping on their screen, although some people might, too. It's not how they use the product in itself. It's actually what problem they're trying to solve. Are they trying to engage their students? Are they trying to talk to somebody that's in a remote and rural area that doesn't have access to the internet all the time? So it's about getting that narrative up and understanding what that is. So that should then inform our ideas. With prioritization, we need to be driven by product vision. I have written up the product vision. I'm going to publish all these things over the next couple of weeks. The product vision for all the different products, how they're all linked together and things. Linking things with the business objectives. And then we have a combined criteria that we've set up, about business sustainability, how it aligns with our business goals and objectives, what the demand is, what the effort is, and what the risk is. So that's actually something that we do internally amongst the management team at Moodle, and then we publish that out to the wider community once we've gone through that process. We're not quite there yet. I haven't quite landed the process and got it out to you guys yet. That's my number one task. I've now got the whole right team working on their individual things and they're starting to converge as well. So I like the space we're in now. It's been a bit of a scramble because I had, when I came on board, there was three products that were launching in the first three months of 2019. So I wasn't doing it myself, but I was kind of trying to understand all the products and support the teams in getting these products out. We've done it. We're getting better and better. And then I keep talking about empowered teams, but I just think it's so important they understand the risks, they understand what the customer value is. They are driven by the product vision and their business objectives, but working together and bringing in the bigger teams from the community. Okay, so this is as close as you'll get to a roadmap now. I'm going to talk about some key projects and product timelines. There we go. We have some themes that we're working or initiatives that we're working across the products. Guess what? Engage community. The other one is, where's my UX designers? There's one. Lost one. So there you are. I couldn't see you behind all these people. Thank you. So I call it delighting our users. We want to delight our educators. We want to delight our course creators so that they create engaging learning experiences for their learners. We want to deliver customer value. So basically understanding the customer problem. We're working on learning analytics across the board. What do we need to capture and what are the metrics we need to capture in the system? Accessibility. Have I spelled that right? Accessibility is something that's going to be regulated and compliance tested. And then some of the key things that are saying the integration and interoperability between our own products but also with other products. So some of the integration partners that we're rolling in with the product and hopefully creating better value both for the other partners and for our customers. But also integrating our own products. So basically MoodleNet into Moodle Core using Moodle LMS or a core for our MEC and using MEC to sell... I don't mean sell as in sell for money necessarily but like set up the system and educate people in the use of the product. And finally the one thing that's now coming together for me is that all our products are starting to converge again. So that helps me. It's not so important to everybody else but I can see both the LMS and Workplace and Moodle Cloud and MoodleNet. So they're coming together. All right, so I'm going to quickly go through the product vision for each one of the products. So to be the number one open source teaching and learning platform I think we are globally. So no surprises there I hope. So I just set up this. This is kind of like the closest we get right now because we want some more input on where we're going over the next few years. So we have delivered 3.6 and 3.7 already. Some of the, so the forum project is kind of one of the big projects that we've been working on so that started out with the re-architecting. We're working with the Moodle User Association on that. So as you can see there for our 3.8 delivery we are specifically working on the advanced forums so building on the re-architecting that we did for 3.7. We have focus on H5P. Anybody here want H5P? I thought so. Important stuff. So the team has done an initial assessment. They started working on it. They're working with the plug-in that's there but also looking at how we integrated even more. Martin is heavily involved with that because this is one of his passion projects. Martin gets to decide one project for release, right? Most of them. Then I try to let the team decide the rest. But learning analytics is another key area that we're kind of looking at more and more to evolve and work with you guys. So one of the things we're looking at is kind of like a smart border student assistant to come in. Don't know if we're landing it in 3.8 because we've just decided the last couple of weeks that we're just going to focus on a couple of key projects and then we are looking at, you can see at the bottom there, the continuous improvement activity chooser. Anybody love the activity chooser in its current form? Anybody not love the activity chooser in their current form? So that's... And we've done some initial work on that and some initial designs that we'll be testing out for that. Relative dates, so relative to when the course started and relative to when the students started. We're trying to look at this one's may not all land in 3.8 or in the next, what is it, 15 weeks or something? 70 odd days. But we are doing the planning for the next releases. So what we're trying to do here is a process of continuous discovery and delivery. While we're working on the others, we're planning out the next ones for the next releases. All right, on to Workplace. So I always do them in this order. It might not make sense to everybody else it does to me. It's really to be the number one platform for organizational learning and development but building on Moodle LMS platform with workplace specific features and benefits. So what we did this year was we had the MVP announcement and we've just done the production ready version that's with our key partners. The partners that have been involved in the development, you all know that Moodle Workplace is a collaborative project between Moodle HQ and partners who wanted to be involved with it. They've gone through, and a lot of these partners have extensive experience in organization learning and development or corporate learning. And so we've taken the brains trust and worked with them. I'm not saying that others couldn't have been involved in that, but we've worked with them very closely to get that key, the core set of functionality that was required for Workplace learning. And so our first version, three points. So you can see we have the same versioning as for the LMS because there are dependencies there. It has those key features and it's an entry-level product but it's really nice as Moodle and what you call a tidy. A tidy user experience has got a theme that's specific for Workplace, it's targeting Workplace. It's got course formats and course templates that are useful for that. So our next stage is really about delivering more migration tools, more integration with LMS and recertification, which is linked to the others. I have put as a placeholder on all of these ones now that we will be working with the community partners and customers to determine what the best priorities are. We've got a whole long, long, long wish list for all the products of things we think we should be doing, but we actually want to work with you guys to validate those ones. Does anybody here have a branded app for this? So we've got a whole apps team in Spain, but does anybody have... I know there is one customer here that has a branded app, but I don't know if he's still around here. So do you know what a branded app is? Anybody not know what branded apps are? Okay, well then I don't need to explain it. What we do is we basically take the standard app which is there so that we can ensure that people who don't necessarily have access to networks at all times can download and access their courses so we can bring learning to regions and places where people wouldn't normally have access to it while they're not at school. And then we can take the branded app. There's a version of that, a little bit more advanced features, but it also allows the institution or the organization to have their own branding on it and their own app in their app store so that it's, I guess, for larger educational institutions, it would be a sales tool if you like to get students in, for example. But talk to Fiona if you guys are looking after... want one of those things and our partners. So it's aligned with LMS, but we're looking at some improved features for the branded app so we're doing a campaign at the moment to generate awareness and leads around it, but we're also looking at identifying pro features. So we are working with some of our... so, for example, for the Workplace app, we'll be doing a manager view for higher education. We're looking at doing a teacher view that will allow you to do the more grading and more setup and things while you're on the go as an educator. And then we're doing some partner enablement on that. Okay, Moodle Cloud. We want to provide the most affordable, robust and easy to use Moodle hosting for small to medium-sized organizations. So at the moment, we've got a few different packages there. We're looking at creating more packages, simplified onboarding. Did anybody find it super easy to sign up and set up their Moodle Cloud site? One person found it really easy. Two, three. Oh, that's good. I'm happy. But you guys are the experts. So we are doing some work to simplify the user experience and make the onboarding easier. But the other thing as well, we're doing some, I guess, purpose-built packages for different customers. But we'll be working with the partners there. I'd encourage you guys to go and have a look at the MoodleNet resources that we've got online, especially for the educators. It's a whole different kind of Moodle, but it actually brings the Moodles of the world together so you can share resources in a... I was going to say in a fun way, but in a way that you haven't been able to do before because it's a federated system, so it links in with your different Moodles there. We're launching that in later this year. It'll be integrated Moodle so that you can share and load resources into Moodle. At the moment, we're running some controlled pilots for that. To be the preferred curriculum and accreditation program for digital conferences for educational institutions and trading organizations worldwide, we've been working with a bunch of partners. I don't know if you've talked about focus groups, but we're working with some focus groups to get input and feedback to the system there. We are looking how we can work with you guys to reuse the fabric, if you like, of this and cut new patterns in it.  How can you guys help? We need to work with people to make sure that we verify the customer problems and needs so that we can understand the customer value and help our partners help you to get the right tools out there and, I guess, engage learners and provide quality education. So that would be user interviews, it might be testing, it might be writing up, checking our requirements and that sort of stuff. We have some designers here, didn't we? There was people that put up their hands. If you're into UX design or UI design, please reach out to us and we have only a tiny little team of designers so we can always do with more there. UX and usability testing, this is critical. This is about seeing what features, you know, as we're developing them and coming up with new designs so it's early access to prototypes, giving input into the product direction so that we can decide on that together. Functionality testing, I don't know. Do any of you guys get involved in this QA cycle for the LMS? I'm happy to hear that some people get involved with that. We can always do with more people. We'll run a process right at the end. We'll be running much more of that throughout because we're getting more agile again. So we'll be churning out functionality and asking people to get involved with testing but we will be reaching out to see if we can get people specifically involved with that. And for the developers in the room, we want you to work with us on the key projects, on the roadmap priorities. And that can be our key projects and we can also be specific. So we might go and say, well, we're going to work on database now as an activity now for the next two sprints. I might not say now. In two sprints, we're going to work on database, for example. I'm not saying that that's going to be the one that we do, but we might be working on that from a usability and from a development perspective and getting people involved. So it's about having some intent around the products that we're working on. So it's a social proof. So nobody buys anything nowadays unless they hear it from their friends, they hear it from people that they trust. So if you are having good experiences with Moodle, please go out there and give us a review on Keptera or other products or just give us some testimonials. We are always looking for case studies. And here's my favorite. I want to work. So one of the techniques that you can use to actually identify the customer needs is you can write a press release in advance, but I actually really like the customer reference letter. So you start working. You can invent your own future customer reference letter or you can actually work directly with customers. So I'd love to work with the partners in the room and with customers in the room who are looking to go to use a new feature and let's work out and write the requirements in form of a reference letter in advance before we've done it, because that gives us intent for our development, intent for our design. If you do want to get involved, we've got a web page on Moodle.com called Get Involved. It asks a little bit about your role and what you do. And then we'll be contacting people about specific projects for that. Are you going to start, Jess?


So the addition and subtraction of signed numbers is a big topic, and so this is part 2. So just a quick recap, the additive inverse of a written minus a is the number that satisfies a plus the additive inverse is equal to zero. Addition of integers is both associative and commutative. For any integers a and b, a plus the additive inverse of b is the same as a minus b and a minus b is the same as the additive inverse of b minus a. And finally an important and useful idea. You can have anything you want as long as it's paid for. So let's try to find five minus the additive inverse of four. And again in order to subtract the additive inverse of four, we have to have an additive inverse of four. So we can have anything we want as long as it's paid for, and in this case the price for the additive inverse of four. Well, we know that the number plus its additive inverse is going to be zero. And so that tells us since zero is four plus its additive inverse, and we can always add zero. It's free. So five minus the additive inverse of four. Well, that's the same as five plus zero minus the additive inverse of four. Zero is the same thing as four plus the additive inverse of four. So we can replace it, and here at the end we are adding the additive inverse of four, and then we're immediately taking it away. So that last bit just drops out, and so we have five plus four, which is equal to nine. And again, we might take a look at the numbers involved, five, four, and nine, and we note that five minus the additive inverse of four is nine, which is the same as five plus four. And so this suggests the following result. For any integers a and b, a minus the additive inverse of b is the same as a plus b. So let's take three minus the additive inverse of four. Now, because one of our main theorems is that the addition of the integers is associative and commutative, it's actually easier to think about everything in terms of addition. So anytime we have a subtraction, we're going to want to rewrite it in some fashion. And so our theorem says that for any integers a and b, a minus the additive inverse of b is the same as a plus b, which is this beautiful addition. So I can rewrite this additive inverse of three minus additive inverse of four as additive inverse of three plus four. Because addition is commutative, I can rearrange this as four plus additive inverse of three. We also have a theorem that says a plus additive inverse of b is the same as a minus b. So this is going to be four minus three, and we know what that is. This last operation brings up an important idea, which we can introduce as follows. We want to find the additive inverse of the additive inverse of five. Now you might read this as subtract the additive inverse of five and think about the theorem we just introduced. The problem is that this is not actually a subtraction symbol. And the reason being there's nothing here to subtract. Subtraction requires two numbers. There's only one number here. So our theorem is actually not useful. Instead we have to go back to our definition of the additive inverse. So our definition of additive inverse says that whatever this is, if we add it to the additive inverse of five, we should get zero. But we also know that five plus the additive inverse of five is equal to zero. And because of commutativity and associativity, we can also rewrite this as additive inverse of five plus five is equal to zero. And let's compare these two equations. Both of them are sums equal to zero. Both of them have additive inverse of five plus something. And that suggests that our sum things have to be the same. And so this suggests that as a general rule for any integer, the additive inverse of the additive inverse is just the number itself. So for example, let's say I want to find the additive inverse of the quantity three minus the quantity eight minus one. So the thing inside the parentheses has to be done first, eight minus one, that's seven, everything else stays the same. Now I have to find three minus seven. My theorem says that's the same as the additive inverse of seven minus three. So that gives me the additive inverse of four. And I want the additive inverse of the additive inverse. And so that's going to be four. So what about additive inverse of eight plus additive inverse of seven? So we might proceed as follows. This is an addition, but unless we actually know what the answer is, we have to do something to change it. So let's see what our theorems say. So we have a plus additive inverse of b is the same as a minus b. A minus b is the same as additive inverse of b minus a. And a minus the additive inverse of b is the same as a plus b. And the thing we might notice here is that our original expression is plus an additive inverse. And so that suggests we can use the first theorem. A plus additive inverse is the same as a minus number. So additive inverse of eight plus additive inverse of seven is the same as additive inverse of eight minus seven. Now what? Well, this is a subtraction, and we do have this theorem that says a minus b is the same as additive inverse of b minus a. I can reverse the order of the subtraction. And so additive inverse of eight minus seven can be reversed to additive inverse of seven minus the additive inverse of eight. But wait, there's more. I am subtracting an additive inverse. And I have a theorem that says if I subtract an additive inverse, it's the same as adding the corresponding numbers. So this seven minus the additive inverse of eight is the same as seven plus eight, which will evaluate, and get our final answer, additive inverse of 15. And again, if we look at our numbers eight, seven, and 15, the relationship that we seem to have here is that the additive inverse of a plus the additive inverse of b is the same as the additive inverse of a plus b. How about minus four minus eight? So pulling in our theorems. So this seems to be a subtraction, so I'll use the theorem that a minus b is the same as the additive inverse of b minus a. So I can reverse the order of the terms additive inverse four and eight. This will be the additive inverse of eight minus the additive inverse of four. But I'm subtracting an additive inverse, so that becomes a plus. This is eight plus four. And I can evaluate the term inside the parentheses as 12. And so my final answer, additive inverse of 12.