In the UK last November, the most frequent locations people with the COVID-19 virus had been prior to testing positive was supermarkets. Two months on, that may still be the case. It makes sense, then, that if you are going to a supermarket, you wear a face mask for your own protection as well as that of everyone else. Unless you have valid exemption, wearing a face mask when in an enclosed public place like a supermarket is also the law now. It seems straightforward enough, right? But … [Read more...] about The uneasy case for face masks and enforced wearing
COVID-19
SDF42: 2020 Caught in the Gaslights
Last week, we published the 42nd episode of the Small Data Forum podcast. As this is December, this is our Christmas Special that, in previous years, we have recorded live from the Olivelli restaurant in south London where Sam, Thomas and I enjoy some outstanding Italian cuisine and wine, during which we put the world to rights, analysing and dissecting the uses and abuses of data big and small that have dominated politics, business, and public life in 2020. This year, the pandemic put … [Read more...] about SDF42: 2020 Caught in the Gaslights
FIR 198: Is #WFH the post-pandemic future?
What coronavirus will do to our offices and homes post-pandemic is a question that prompts multiple answers on a daily basis. If there are ten questions, you'll find ten different answers. About the only thing that's consistently equal in opinion is that there will be change and it will be profound. It's a big topic that exercised Shel and I in the August 2020 episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report aka FIR 198. We anchored the discussion with a broad-brush picture painted by the BBC that … [Read more...] about FIR 198: Is #WFH the post-pandemic future?
FIR 197: A better social network
The July 2020 episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report, aka FIR 197, features Neville and Shel discussing… Emotional Intelligence as an Internal Communications focusAI avatars as a new tool for training and marketingThe latest TikTok newsWhat a better social network might look likeThe rise of Virtual and Augmented RealityThe staggering jobs challenge the world is facing Dan York reports on making video calls better, apps that keep copying each other, Amazon’s new live-streaming for … [Read more...] about FIR 197: A better social network
Boris Johnson’s self-isolating kerfuffle
Yesterday evening, I watched Boris Johnson deliver the daily coronavirus briefing from No 10, with questions from the media entirely devoted to the Dominic Cummings kerfuffle (view on that from the Guardian and the Telegraph). If Boris had thought that his measly statement about it would have been enough so he could move on, he was sorely mistaken. In essence, he robustly defended his advisor saying he had spoken to him at length and was satisfied that his actions in driving over 250 miles to … [Read more...] about Boris Johnson’s self-isolating kerfuffle