text:
Deluxe Rooms

Our spacious De Luxe rooms fully equipped with a beautiful Ludvik XV. or Baroque style furniture with modern elements and offer LCD TV with selected national and international channels, free Wi-Fi, working desk with chair, espresso machine, tea maker, minibar, safe and telephone.

Size: 30 – 40 m2

Max. 3 persons
Extra bed: Yes (Sofa bed) / Baby cot: Yes

Room offers:

  • Free Wi-Fi internet connection
  • Large 32” LCD TV with selected international and national channels
  • Espresso machine
  • Tea maker
  • Baroque style or Ludvik XV. style furniture
  • Working desk with chair
  • Telephone
  • Minibar
  • Safe
  • Private spacious bathroom with shower corner, bathtub, bidet and toilet
  • Complimentary branded Italian cosmetic line
  • Bathrobes & Slippers
  • Hairdryer
  • Cosmetic mirror

Book Now

Boutique Hotel Constans  | Prague | Services

Our professional and friendly reception staff will be very happy to arrange a taxi, sightseeing tours, recommend a great restaurant or help you with any other enquiries you may have.
Boutique Hotel Constans  | Prague | Prague

Located in the heart of historic and government district of Prague just a few steps from Charles Bridge, The Prague Castle and St. Nicholas Church.

Special offers

See all offers

Official website
Book direct

8:00 - 20:00

Garage Parking


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Baanrommai Resort

Be the first one to rate!

1 Like

Little resort @ the end of Samui strip where all the bars and restaurants are, if you do not book a cabin the room is very basic, a bed a fan and a little bathroom with shower. Room is very clean though! Swimming pool is ok, only 3 (little broken) beds. On the corner a 7eleven and across the road you can rent a scooter(do it!) for 150B per day or 3 days 400B. 10 min walk to the central festival and avross the road you can just walk through any expensive seaside beachhotel to reach the beach no problem. Visit the nightmarket behind the central festival on tuesday and wednesday and the one in fishermans village on friday evening. Eat there also, great! And cheap! Let the restaurants be! At the front end of central festival on a little square drink a cocktail and “enjoy” live music. Visit the maung waterfall, and climb the side till you can’t go any further don’t stop at the meeting point

  • TodayOpen Now06:00 AM - 12:00 AM
  • Monday06:00 AM - 12:00 AM
  • Tuesday06:00 AM - 12:00 AM
  • Wednesday06:00 AM - 12:00 AM
  • Thursday06:00 AM - 12:00 AM
  • Friday06:00 AM - 12:00 AM

Write Review

Review recommended to be at least 100 characters.

Get a free qoute

Let us get you the best
deal for your Koh Samui vacation

Select room type

Age of children

Ideal budget in $*

Prefered resorts

Your Name *(required)

Your Email * (required)

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-50
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for November/December 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-4.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
Beginning of main content

Cheap Rental Car Deals in Deauville

Different drop-off location?
Same as pick-up?

24/7 Customer Service

As low as $8.99/day

Low price guarantee

Deauville Car Rentals

You’re finally heading to Deauville and you have your list of underground spots that have yet to make the “best of” roundups. But unless you want to live and die by the bus schedule or hope the ride shares are fast and frequent, your best bet is having your own set of wheels. You can score a cheap Deauville rental car through Hotwire and still have plenty leftover cash to cut across town to that restaurant your friend won’t stop talking about. Better yet, ditch the trendy restaurant and cruise around to find a hidden hot spot that isn’t on everyone’s social feed…at least not yet.

Grab your wheels and go
It’s not about the freedom of the open road, it’s about the liberty to make your vacation what you want. Imagining the wind in your hair as you fly down the highway? Book a convertible. Maybe you want to take the road not taken (or paved)—hop in an SUV. Perhaps, this is the trip where you live it up and a luxury car sets the tone. But if you want this vacation to be full of pleasant surprises, then choose a Hotwire Hot Rate car. You’ll find out the rental agency after you book, but we only work with the best car rental agencies in Deauville, so there’s no risk in rolling these dice.

Trunk full of choices
Maybe it’s all about the make or model. Could be you just want the best rate possible. The car you select is up to you, and so is the way you pick your ride. Filter by:

  • Rate: We have Deauville rent-a cars starting at $8.99
  • Car Rental Brand: Choose your wheels from rental car suppliers
  • Car Type: Compact? Minivan? SUV? Luxury? Your ride, your choice
  • Hotwire Hot Rate Car: You pick the location and car type, let us choose the car rental agency to get you the best value

What’s better than the low price you get on your car? Picturing all the new spots you’ll discover. And if you book a Hotwire Hot Rate car, you can go even more places with the money you saved. Book here at Hotwire to grab the best deals on car rentals in Deauville before your next trip.

Frequently Asked Questions About Deauville

How can I get a cheap rental car in Deauville last minute?

You can always find great last minute deals on car rentals in Deauville. Save big with Hot Rate - score exclusive, unbeatable deals from our car suppliers.

Which car rental companies are at the Deauville airport?

Deauville offers a variety of car rental companies. Add your favorite airport to your search to see all available car companies.

Why should I book a last minute car rental with Hotwire?

When you need a last minute car rental deal, Hotwire's daily Hot Rate deals allows you to easily compare exclusive discounts from a wide range of the most popular car rental companies.

What if I have to cancel my trip to Deauville?

The fastest path to canceling your booking is through one of our self-serve tools found at

† Prices are based on rates available during the past 24 hours for a one-day rental with a pick-up date of tomorrow. Prices and availability are subject to change. Hot Rate prices are only available at airport locations. Hot Rates are different from retail prices. You enter city, dates, and car class. Car rental company revealed only after booking. All bookings final.

* Savings based on median published rate we have found on leading retail travel sites in the last 24-48 hours for the same location, car class and travel dates.


text:
Beginning of main content

Cheap Rental Car Deals in Gémozac

Different drop-off location?
Same as pick-up?

24/7 Customer Service

As low as $8.99/day

Low price guarantee

Hot Rate® Car rentals in Gémozac
More rental deals in Gémozac

Gémozac Car Rentals

You’re finally heading to Gémozac and you have your list of underground spots that have yet to make the “best of” roundups. But unless you want to live and die by the bus schedule or hope the ride shares are fast and frequent, your best bet is having your own set of wheels. You can score a cheap Gémozac rental car through Hotwire and still have plenty leftover cash to cut across town to that restaurant your friend won’t stop talking about. Better yet, ditch the trendy restaurant and cruise around to find a hidden hot spot that isn’t on everyone’s social feed…at least not yet.

Grab your wheels and go
It’s not about the freedom of the open road, it’s about the liberty to make your vacation what you want. Imagining the wind in your hair as you fly down the highway? Book a convertible. Maybe you want to take the road not taken (or paved)—hop in an SUV. Perhaps, this is the trip where you live it up and a luxury car sets the tone. But if you want this vacation to be full of pleasant surprises, then choose a Hotwire Hot Rate car. You’ll find out the rental agency after you book, but we only work with the best car rental agencies in Gémozac, so there’s no risk in rolling these dice.

Trunk full of choices
Maybe it’s all about the make or model. Could be you just want the best rate possible. The car you select is up to you, and so is the way you pick your ride. Filter by:

  • Rate: We have Gémozac rent-a cars starting at $8.99
  • Car Rental Brand: Choose your wheels from rental car suppliers
  • Car Type: Compact? Minivan? SUV? Luxury? Your ride, your choice
  • Hotwire Hot Rate Car: You pick the location and car type, let us choose the car rental agency to get you the best value

What’s better than the low price you get on your car? Picturing all the new spots you’ll discover. And if you book a Hotwire Hot Rate car, you can go even more places with the money you saved. Book here at Hotwire to grab the best deals on car rentals in Gémozac before your next trip.

Frequently Asked Questions About Gémozac

How can I get a cheap rental car in Gémozac last minute?

You can always find great last minute deals on car rentals in Gémozac. Save big with Hot Rate - score exclusive, unbeatable deals from our car suppliers.

Which car rental companies are at the Gémozac airport?

Gémozac offers a variety of car rental companies. Add your favorite airport to your search to see all available car companies.

Why should I book a last minute car rental with Hotwire?

When you need a last minute car rental deal, Hotwire's daily Hot Rate deals allows you to easily compare exclusive discounts from a wide range of the most popular car rental companies.

What if I have to cancel my trip to Gémozac?

The fastest path to canceling your booking is through one of our self-serve tools found at

† Prices are based on rates available during the past 24 hours for a one-day rental with a pick-up date of tomorrow. Prices and availability are subject to change. Hot Rate prices are only available at airport locations. Hot Rates are different from retail prices. You enter city, dates, and car class. Car rental company revealed only after booking. All bookings final.

* Savings based on median published rate we have found on leading retail travel sites in the last 24-48 hours for the same location, car class and travel dates.


text:
Resi's photo

Review Me
London, Greater London
Bring your project to life from £250
Great Architecture For Every Home

page_type: prop_plus_profile
With the unique Resi approach, it’s never been easier to transform your home. Our awesome team of specialists can help you at every stage of your project, whether that’s financing, design, planning, building regulations or construction. We’re proud to have such a comprehensive team of professionals, from architects and planning specialists, to surveyors and mortgage advisors - all under one roof! We use industry-leading technology to make sure your journey is fast, accurate and cost effective. Our in-house tech team built the Resi dashboard so you can follow your project every step of the way. It’s super easy to navigate and lets you watch your project come to life with screensharing, instant messaging and file uploading, all from the comfort of your computer, tablet or phone. It doesn’t matter how big or small your project is, or what stage of the process you’re at, our experienced Resi professionals are ready to unlock your home’s potential. And with 2000+ completed projects behind them, no one is more trustworthy! Take the first step on your Resi journey by booking a free consultation via our website.

Services Provided

3D Rendering, Architectural Design, Architectural Drawings, Basement Conversion, Basement Design, Bathroom Design, Building Design, Complete Kitchen Renovation, Floor Plans, Home Renovation, House Extensions, House Plans, Kitchen Design, Loft Conversion, Loft Restoration, New Home Build, Space Planning, Kitchen Renovation

Areas Served

London, United Kingdon, Manchester, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Leeds, Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol, Nottingham, Leicester, Hull, Cardiff, Derby, Sunderland, Warrington, Bradford, Watford, Burnley, Guilford

United Kingdom
Tailor my experience using cookies

By continuing to browse this site or use this app, I agree the Houzz group may use cookies and similar technologies to improve its products and services, serve me relevant content and to personalise my experience. Learn more.


text:
We value our clients and believe that banking is about relationships. We demonstrate our commitment to you and the communities we serve through unparalleled personal attention and genuine concern for the financial welfare and security of our clients. Your deposits at CIBM Bank are FDIC insured and the bank has a strong capital position with levels above the national average.

User Ratings

GD Star Rating

HSA Program Features

FDIC or NCUA Insured:
Min Balance to Open:
  • Debit Card
  • Checks
  • Online Banking

HSA Interest Rates

Interest rates are unknown at this time

Monthly Maintenance Fee $7.00*
Account Opening Fee Unknown
Account Closing Fee Unknown

* Waived for balances over $1,000

HSA Investment Options

Mutual Fund Platform: close   Self-Directed Brokerage: close   CDs: close   Other: close

Contact Information

General Information

Address 12700 W. Bluemound Road
Elm Grove, WI 53122

Customer Service

Phone Number (877) 925-3030


text:
The truce is over between GPs and hospitals

Jack Serle 3x2

HSJ’s new expert briefing on primary care, by correspondent Jack Serle.

You need to be signed in to read more

Subscribe for unlimited access

With a HSJ subscription you’ll unlock:

  • All of and our HSJ mobile app
  • News and insight on all areas of public funded healthcare
  • Expert commentary, insight and analysis from industry leaders
  • 9 weekly ‘Expert Briefing’ insight emails covering a variety of specialist topics

Sign into your account here


text:
24/7 By Appointment Only
Immigration Related Offenses Your Case Deserves Immediate Attention - Call Hubbs Law Today

Immigration-Related Federal Offenses

Discuss Your Rights with Our Miami Immigration Crimes Defense Attorneys

In today’s political climate, immigration-related offenses are being heavily pursued and prosecuted. If you are facing immigration-related criminal charges or your loved one has been arrested for a federal immigration offense, you need a skilled and experienced attorney on your side.

As Miami immigration criminal defense attorneys with extensive trial experience, we know how to help you navigate the federal criminal justice system. We understand what is at stake—a conviction could result in serious penalties, including deportation of non-U.S. citizens. Hubbs Law Firm is prepared to aggressively advocate for your rights and fight to protect your future.

Call us at (305) 570-4802 or fill out and submit an online contact form today to get started with a free, confidential consultation. Se habla español.

Immigration-Related Criminal Cases We Handle

U.S. immigration laws are complex and often-changing. You may be arrested for or charged with a crime without ever realizing you’ve done something wrong. Additionally, because of the current government’s focus on immigration issues, you could be arrested or charged without sufficient evidence. Regardless of the exact situation you are facing, if you have been accused of an immigration-related offense, it is crucial that you speak to an attorney as soon as possible to ensure that your rights are protected. Remember, even if you are not a U.S. citizen, you still have rights.

Hubbs Law Firm can assist you with the following immigration-related criminal cases:

We understand that being arrested or detained is a frightening experience. With our team on your side, you can trust that you will get the answers you need and the fierce representation you deserve. Our Miami immigration-related crime attorneys provide compassionate, honest legal counsel and direct, one-on-one guidance throughout the process. You will work directly with one of our attorneys for the duration of your case; you will never be passed off to a paralegal or secretary.

Most of all, at Hubbs Law Firm, we truly care about you, your family, and your future. At Hubbs Law Firm, you are not just another case number—you are a real person with real concerns. With this in mind, we work to secure the best possible outcome for your case.

Contact us today at (305) 570-4802 for a free consultation. We are available after hours and on weekends by appointment.

Attorneys E.J. & Erika Hubbs As professional defense attorneys, we take every case personally give every client the deliberate care it deserves. Our clients become part of our family and we fight relentlessly for their rights. Read more about us to find out how we can help you.

Awards & Recognition

  • Avvo Client's Choice 2019
  • Avvo 10
  • Florida Bar - Board Certified
  • The National Trial Lawyers Top 100
  • AILA
  • AV Preeminent
  • National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40
  • 11th Circuit
  • AAJ
  • ABA
  • SDF
  • SuperLawyers

Schedule A Consultation

  • Please enter your first name.
  • Please enter your last name.
  • Please enter your phone number.
    This isn't a valid phone number.
  • Please enter your email address.
    This isn't a valid email address.
  • Please make a selection.
  • Please enter a message.


text:
Wednesday, March 30, 2016

I am going to refer to my yet unknown adopted grandchild as a 'she', although we may receive a little boy. That will suit our family just fine too. Originally my daughter wanted to adopt a baby girl from China but many of those adoption options have tightened or closed. My head is still oriented to a granddaughter so for the sake of this blog post, let me refer to my future grandchild as a girl.

For the last two years, my daughter and her husband have been trying to adopt a child from Haiti. It has not been easy. It seems they have been faced with so many hurdles. An exhaustive home study has been done, the necessary police checks completed, fees paid; their dossier now sits with Haitian authorities. I have every confidence that the good people in positions of authority in Haiti will place a child soon into the loving embrace of her new parents -- my daughter and son-in-law.

Whatever child is eventually adopted will have won the family jackpot. Love and nurture  permeate even the walls of every room in my daughter and son-in-law's home.

My daughter is a committed stay-at-home mother who encourages her children to dare to dream and believe they can become -- become whatever they want through effort and commitment. Our family believes that God puts every human being here for a purpose. Elders play an important role in helping our children find their God-given purpose.

My daughter and son-in-law are finding the adoption process a financial strain. They set up a GoFundMe account to raise $5,000 to help defray the costs associated with the adoption. I would invite readers of the HumanLifeMatters blog to consider a small contribution to help pay for a Haitian orphan to be adopted into our forever family and be an orphan no more. Click here https://www.gofundme.com/poundfamily

Whoever our child/granchild is, she will be raised in a nurturing environment that will encourage her to dare to dream and be her best. Together as a family we will help her overcome whatever challenges she faced as a orphan and come into her own as our daughter/granddaughter.

No comments:


text:
The Hutchinson Zoo announced it was closing at 4:45 p.m. Friday, until further notice due, to the CDC and Reno County Health Department recommendations regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19).

All camps, events, and rentals have been canceled or will be rescheduled.

The zoo’s staff will continue working to care for the nearly 200 animals that reside onsite.

Additionally, according to a release from the zoo, staff will use the time to complete updates and maintenance projects that are harder to accomplish with visitors in the zoo.

As with other local attractions, a deep cleaning and disinfect will occur prior to reopening to the public.

"It really is heart-breaking to have to close to the public again so soon after last year’s flood," said zoo director Ryan VanZant.

"We had such an outpouring of support from our community and have completed herculean efforts to clean up and make changes to serve the Hutchinson community," he said. "I guarantee our staff will continue make changes and improvements to the zoo during this closure."

The Carey Park Golf Course will remain open, but with some adjustments intended to maintain social distancing.

Tee times will be set every 16 minutes.

The club house will be restricted for check-in and payment and the clubhouse restroom closed, though restrooms on the course will remain open.

Flack sticks will be sanitized daily and golf carts before and after use, but ball washers and bunker rakes have been removed from the course.

Bottled drink and prepackaged food will also be available to golfers.


text:
Valentine’s date night

Valentine’s date night

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Maybe you and your special someone like to go all out for Valentine’s Day. You know, flowers, cards, chocolates… Or maybe you’re a bit more low key and just keep it simple. Either way, February 14th is a date that should be in your diary to sink into the hot tub and enjoy some quality time together.

Some people say Valentine’s Day is merely a bit of a scam cooked up by greetings card companies, but at Hydropool Wiltshire, if there’s ever an excuse to snuggle up with the ones we love and relax for the evening, we believe it can only be a good thing!

Bubbles and bubbles: There’s nothing more romantic than switching of the TV, hiding from our phones and sinking into a luscious warm hot tub together – but make it even more special with a glass of bubbly! Whether you opt for a simple glass of prosecco or you treat yourself to a crisp, delicious glass of champagne, it can make your evening even more special and allow you to toast your relationship beautifully.

Set the mood: Maybe you and your partner regularly get into your hot tub after a hard day at work, or perhaps you struggle to find the time these days. Either way, set the romantic mood nicely with some chilled jazz music and soft lighting. Or get in touch with us and ask about our aromatherapy options to see how you can really engage all your senses!

Make time: We are all rushed off our feet these days. Time seems to go so quickly, which means it’s more important than ever to stop every now and then. Take a breather, sit back and enjoy some time with the ones we love. Making time for just an hour or two one evening won’t harm, and will be very much enjoyed and appreciated.

So whether you believe Valentine’s Day is a fantastic day to be celebrated, or just another annual money-making event, keep the date in your diary and give a little nod to your relationship this 14th February by sinking into the relaxing bubbles of your Hydropool Wiltshire tub.


text:
Your Cart is Empty

KBShimmer - Stay Toasty My Friends

2 items left

Stay Toasty My Friends is a warm, rosé-colored chrome that quickly shifts into golden shades of champagne. A strong pink shift and micro bits of holo glitter complete this toasty shade. Best in 2-3 coats.

Type: Multichrome w/Holo Flakes
Base: 5-Free
Glitter Load: None
Glitter Size: None
Recommended Coats: Best in 2-3 coats
Notes:  None

Size: 15ml /.5oz

Please note, while we do our best to ensure colors match on several devices on our end, the device you view this listing on may not accurately reflect the color of the polish.  Photos are provided to us for use by the respective bloggers, and colors may show differently depending on lighting, skin tones, and camera equipment used.

Swatches courtesy of @de.lish.ious.nails, @cdbnails, @nailpolishsociety, @lacquerloon, @pamperedpolishes

Ingredients: Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Adipic Acid/Neopentyl Glycol/Trimellitic, Anhydride Copolymer, Isopropyl Alcohol, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Silica, Benzophenone-3, N-Butyl Alcohol, Violet 2 May Contain: Aluminum Powder, Mica, Iron Oxide, Ferric Ferrocyanide, Ultramarines, Red 6, Red 22, Red 30, Red 28, Red 34 , Red 7, Orange 5, Yellow 5, Yellow 11, Yellow 6, Yellow 10, Blue 1, Black 2, Violet 2 Ext , Titanium Dioxide, Synthetic Fluorophylogopite, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate,  Polyethylene Terephthalate, Polyurethane 33, Silver, Chromium, Magnesium Fluoride, Bismuth Oxychloride.


text:
Class: Street Stock

Chassis: 1984 Monte Carlo

Body: 2008 Dodge Ram Pickup

Biography (racing experience):

I started racing at  the Hythe Motor Speedway mid 2010 race season and have been there ever since. Last year I had 3 first place finishes and finished 4 over all for the season

Filterco Services, GFW Auto Repair, Imagination Play and Learn, Toreo Contracting, Stick it and Dip it, Beaverlodge Lawn and Snow Removal

#50 - Josh Wallace


text:
Backyard Dragon Boating: How to make your own water tank for dragon boating training

Posted on the Hornet website on July 02, 2020

Guest Blog Post by Laura Thornquist

Like every single dragon boat paddler I know, I was feeling very depressed about not being able to paddle.

Not only was I missing my teammates, but also the feel of my paddle moving through the water. Paddling is a very meditative experience. The rhythmic movement of the stroke and the need to quiet your mind and focus solely on the present. There is no other activity in the world that fills this void for me.

Along with several of my teammates, I am a breast cancer survivor. Dragon boat paddling has become an integral part of my life. It’s a sport that helps survivors in so many ways. My team, Catch-22, in Vancouver, Washington, was really building momentum and expanding out outreach to survivors this year. We have been creative and are still finding ways to meet survivors and get them excited about trying the sport.

I started researching ways that I could build a device to paddle in at home. There was not much out there, only expensive huge systems built for indoor training.

I saw people sitting on the sides of swimming pools and docks trying to paddle. This works in a pinch, but you can’t paddle with good form doing it that way. I didn’t want to build new habits that would be hard to break later.

I decided to try and just build a simple tank system. At first I really over thought it and worried about the water movement in the tank, thinking I might need to build some type of contraption to keep the water moving in a circle. I scrapped that idea and decided to keep is basic. I could always modify it later if needed. I went down to the lake and took some measurements from a dragon boat. I wanted to know the approximate height of the bench and the length to the foot pegs.

1. I went down to the lake and took some measurements from a dragon boat. I wanted to know the approximate height of the bench and the length to the foot pegs.

2. I looked around for a suitable tank. I Decided to go for a simple 6 ft tank from my local feed store.

3. I enlisted my husband Mike to help me build a paddling platform. I drew a terrible picture of the basic idea!

4. Time to use power tools!!

5. Once the box was finished, it needed some varnish to protect it from the elements.

6. Wow, it didn’t take long to figure out that using a regular paddle wasn’t going to work well. Every stroke was a challenge. I grabbed an old damaged wooden paddle and started making some modifications. I kept adding more holes to make the paddling feel more similar to paddling in a real boat.

7. After several days of experimenting and changing up a few things, I have my tank!

8. It’s working out great for a coaching tool as well. I can really help my paddlers get into the correct position and make corrections on their stroke. My good friend Paula put on her mask and came up for the first coaching session. She and I are preparing to go to New Zealand with our team in 2022 to participate in the next International Breast Cancer Survivors race.

9. My back yard is a happy place now! Luke and I turn on some music and paddle away. I think I can survive until we can get back in the boat. We are all waiting for that day. I know it will be soon!

Do you want to know more about how to make your own water tank? Contact us at

578 views1 comment

The IBCPC is an international organisation whose mandate is to encourage the establishment of breast cancer dragon boat teams, within the framework of participation and inclusiveness.

Address: PO Box 319, Christchurch 8140 New Zealand

Sign up to our newsletter

© 2020 Website by Outcast Creative


text:
The reasons that companies replace their old security vendor with ICD

Is it time to say goodbye to your current security vendor?
Is it time to say goodbye to your current security vendor?

It is no secret that throughout Asia, many security managers and facility managers feel their security vendors provide an unsatisfactory service for both project implementation or system maintenance. Below is a list of the most common reasons that our clients have given over the years for deciding to replace their previous security services provider:

“We sensed the security vendor was not committed to supporting us for ALL our sites throughout Asia.”

Many of our clients felt frustrated that the service of their previous security vendor was inconsistent across regions. A typical complaint was that for certain sites, the security vendor was difficult to reach by phone.

For high level security sites where security system issues required an immediate response, being unable notify their security vendor about security issues was a major concern for our clients.

“We did not receive enough support from upper level management.”

Another common complaint was that there was no clear communication channel with the upper level management staff of the previous vendor. This made it difficult to provide feedback when the security vendor’s service was unsatisfactory.

“The vendor did not offer comprehensive training programs to their employees.”

Security companies with inadequate training structures are less likely to have a large number of certified engineers able to support major security management platforms. This makes it difficult to ensure that their technical staff is qualified to maintain their clients’ security systems effectively.

In this situation, system issues may be unresolved for a long time, which often caused serious vulnerabilities for our clients’ sites while they were working with their old security vendor.

“The vendor’s customer service administration infrastructure was underdeveloped.”

Detailed documentation is crucial to helping our clients assess security issues and take constructive actions. Security vendors that didn’t provide detailed documentation often did so because they did not offer a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) system to help them manage service cases effectively and generate standardized document templates.

Another common issue was that the vendor’s regional footprint was not developed enough, meaning that for many sites throughout Asia, there was an insufficient number of locally-based service engineers available to deliver maintenance support.

Insufficient support infrastructures were often a significant reason that the security vendor was unable to deliver a satisfactory service.

“The vendor had limited regional inventory management capabilities.”

Security vendors without comprehensive inventory management infrastructures such as regional product warehouses frequently find it difficult to control product lead times for system implementation projects or to provide emergency replacement products in the event of an equipment malfunction.

For this reason, many clients felt that they were getting inadequate support for either both project implementation or system maintenance from their previous vendor.

“Our end users had a poor customer experience.”

Many of our clients were unsatisfied with their previous security vendor because the individual end users in the company felt that the vendor’s employees lacked a customer service mindset and were generally unwilling to offer solutions proactively.

Clients were also unsatisfied when service engineers did not arrive on site within the guaranteed time period, or the vendor’s guaranteed response periods were too long. But one of the most important reasons given by our clients was the unhelpful attitude of engineers when they arrived on site.

A lack of a customer service mindset and a poor customer experience among the client’s end users were key factors that led our clients to consider other service providers.


text:
07 February 2006
Amsterdam (The Netherlands) - The Board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has decided to award the Erasmus Prize 2006 to the French graphic designer, Pierre Bernard.
Amsterdam (The Netherlands) -

Click here for the French version of this release

The Board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has decided to award the Erasmus Prize 2006 to the French graphic designer, Pierre Bernard. The Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person who has made an exceptionally important contribution to European culture, society or social science. The presentation of the prize will take place on 24 November 2006.

The field in which the 2006 Erasmus Prize will be awarded has been described as 'Design for the public domain'. This includes the realm of the state, politics and the common good. In making this choice for the public domain the Foundation did not consider the designer who functions as a specialist in form, fashion and market, but rather the designer as thinker who, during the design process, is conscious of forms of interaction with other disciplines, users and commissioning parties.

Pierre Bernard was one of the inspiring leaders in the design collective Grapus that valiantly promoted the renewal and professional enhancement of this field in France. After the dissolution of Grapus in 1990, Pierre Bernard established the design studio Atelier de Creation Graphique in 1991 - one of the successors of Grapus - which he has led ever since.

The work of Pierre Bernard concentrates on the public domain, and on all its sectors: communication between governments and citizens; communication in the public sphere; use of and orientation in the physical space of town and country; presentation and representation of current cultural productions and the cultural heritage. He researches not just form, but also content, context and the process of the commission, and, in so doing, gives preference to experimentation and innovation.

Pierre Bernard's body of design work is fed by the diverse cultural traditions of Europe and is informed by non-dogmatic, critical thinking. These values have taken form not only in the sciences and the arts, but also - partially due to Bernard - in such a modern discipline as visual communication. "Graphic design will not turn the world into a paradise, but it may contribute to a more humane world".

For further information please contact:

Foundation Praemium Ersmianum

Images :
Images of works and portrait are available on demand.
Please ask Etienne Bernard
T: 00 33 1 40 03 94 70

About Pierre Bernard
Pierre Bernard was born in Paris in 1942. After graduation from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in 1964, he received a scholarship to study poster design with Henryk Tomaszewski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and completed his studies in 1971 with graduate work at the Institut de l'Environnement in Paris. In 1970 he founded Grapus with Francois Miehe and Gerard Paris-Clavel, whom he had met during the May 1968 student movement; Alex Jordan and Jean-Paul Bachollet joined the group in 1976. Grapus sought to 'change life' through a twofold dynamics of graphic arts and political action. In 1984, 1985 and 1988 Grapus designed the corporate identity of the Centre National des Arts Plastics, the Parc La Villette and the Louvre Museum respectively.

From 1978 on, Grapus showed its work in major exhibitions at the Musee de l'Affiche in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Aspen Conference in Aspen, Colorado, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal.

He also received numerous awards and prizes: at the Warsaw Biennale in 1978 and 1980, the Brno Biennale in 1978 and 1982, the Lahti Biennale in 1983, the Colorado Biennale in 1983, Agraf in Zagreb, the Art Directors Club in New York and at the Triennale of Toyama in 1988.

In 1990, the year when Grapus decided to end its activities, he was awarded France's National First Prize for Graphic Arts. Pierre Bernard then founded the Atelier de Creation Graphique with Dirk Behage and Fokke Draaijer and was responsible for, among others, the visual identity of the French National Parks.

Pierre Bernard now heads the Atelier de Creation Graphique which responds to a wide variety of commissions in the fields of publishing, poster design, signage and visual identity systems with the conviction that graphic design fulfils a cultural mission of public interest. As of 2001 the most important client has been the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

A member of the international Graphic Alliance since 1987, Pierre Bernard presently teaches graphic design at the Ecole National Superieure des Arts D coratifs in Paris. He is currently one of the Art Directors of the International Poster and Graphic Arts Festival of Chaumont.


text:
Yu-Gi-Oh Shirt Boys Graphic Tee Youth Anime Apparel

Regular price $23.99
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Only 1000 items in stock!

Solve the Millenium Puzzle along with Yugi in this Yu-Gi-Oh Shirt! The Yu-Gi-Oh Youth Black Shirt is an all black boys tee with a crew neck, short sleeve design that is stylish and comfortable to wear just about anywhere. The Yu-Gi-Oh Boys Graphic Tee features a bold, bright, soft hand print graphic of the Millenium Puzzle across the entire front of the tee. The Yu-Gi-Oh Anime Apparel is made of cotton material that is soft and comfortable to wear. The Yu-Gi-Oh Cartoon Clothing is available in youth boys sizes XS - XL and is a great gift for any boy on any occasion!


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
⇓ More from ICTworks

Our 5 Guiding Principles for SurveyCTO. What Are Yours? – Your Weekend Long Reads

By Guest Writer on April 13, 2019

As a social enterprise funded through user fees from hundreds of different organizations, we at Dobility have an unusual degree of freedom: for the most part, we don’t have donors or investors to answer to, and even individual users have limited power to drive our decisions. It’s a great place to be, but it means that we’re fully responsible for charting the path that best serves our overall user base, the sector, and our social mission.

Since the beginning, a set of core principles have guided the development and evolution of SurveyCTO, but they’ve never been publicly summarized – until now. None of these principles are entirely static, but we tend not to adjust them very often. I welcome feedback and even push-back in the comments. The principles are:

  1. Data security: private data should be kept as private as possible. Only people who legitimately need to see private data should be able to see it, and that generally doesn’t include our own server administrators or engineers (and it certainly doesn’t include hackers).
  2. Data quality: data collection should be transparent and carefully monitored. Improved transparency in data collection, coupled with timely and effective monitoring of data quality, is vitally necessary to combat the natural forces that push toward poor data quality.
  3. Data use: effective visualization and analysis requires other tools designed and built for those purposes. We don’t seek to compete with other products in the database, visualization, or analysis spaces. Rather, we prefer to integrate well with tools like Google Sheets, Airtable, Salesforce, Tableau, Power BI, Stata, SPSS, and R.
  4. Reliability and support: our users deserve a product that works reliably, and to get the help they need. Our users have more than enough challenges in their lives, so we have to work 24×7 to make sure that SurveyCTO creates as little stress as possible (and, generally, reduces stress instead).
  5. Empowerment: we should empower those who need to collect data to use our technology directly, with as few intermediaries as possible. The research, M&E, and field teams that use SurveyCTO know best how to design, deploy, and improve their data-collection instruments, so we should empower them with great technology they can themselves use; IT teams and outside consultants should serve as facilitators and supporters, not intermediaries or gatekeepers.

Below, I expand a little bit on what these principles mean in practice, and how they make us different from other vendors in the data-collection space. (Apologies for the length of this post, but I thought that concrete examples would be useful throughout.)

1. Data security: private data should be kept as private as possible.

Our approach to data security is simple but also radical: even though we host servers and data for our users, we ourselves don’t want to be able to see sensitive data (not our server administrators, not our engineers, not our support team, not our Amazon Web Services cloud providers, not hackers who might someday gain access to our servers or other systems, none of us).

After all, most of our users make confidentiality pledges as part of their data collection, and we want to respect those pledges. The first step in respecting them is assuring that a minimum possible number of people have access to view confidential data.

In practice, this means that we strongly encourage users to generate their own 2,048-bit public/private encryption keys, and to use those keys to secure their data. What’s more: we never want to see the private keys, because we never want to, ourselves, be able to decrypt the data. In terms of implementation:

  • In SurveyCTO v1.0, we added a key-generation function to our desktop application, SurveyCTO Sync, so that it could be used to generate keys offline, including on cold-room computers totally disconnected from all networks. Later, for ease-of-use, we added an option directly into our server console, but even that we designed to use Javascript to generate keys in the local browser, effectively offline, so that the keys themselves would never pass through our servers.
  • In SurveyCTO v1.17, we added options to publish data directly to .kml files in SurveyCTO Sync, so that it would be easy to visualize GPS data in Google Earth, even offline (and without having to send sensitive data to cloud providers like Google Maps).
  • In SurveyCTO v1.22, we added the ability to exempt individual non-PII fields from private-key encryption, to allow for easier publishing and sharing (e.g., to dashboards) – without having to lower the overall level of protection for more-sensitive data.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.20, we added our Data Explorer for easy, in-browser data monitoring and exploration. This included the ability to decrypt data safely in-browser and view GPS and other data online, but in a fundamentally safer way than in other cloud products. Decrypted data is held in-memory only, on the user’s computer, and nobody outside the local computer can see that data. Google Maps provides map tiles on-request, for example, so Google does see evidence of the general areas being viewed, but the actual GPS locations (the actual pins) are never sent to Google or anybody else.

A hallmark of our approach has been to avoid producing features that would tempt users away from protecting their data in the best possible way.

For example, years ago we could have very easily added the kind of cloud-based map view that basically every competitor platform has offered; but that would have required that (a) users either don’t use their own encryption keys to secure their GPS data or share the keys with us, and (b) GPS positions be shared on the cloud, with Google and potentially other providers.

In fact, there was tremendous pressure to provide these kinds of features, and we lost out on a fair amount of business because we didn’t offer them. The argument was always “well, you can at least offer these features for unencrypted forms, can’t you?”

And it was true: we could have. But then we would have been building in a powerful incentive for people to not use encryption and to share their data more widely than seems prudent.

It took us several years to build what we considered to be a safe solution for viewing GPS and other data online, in-browser, but in the end we were able to pull it off. And we think that our technical approach has struck the right balance between safety and convenience.

2. Data quality: data collection should be transparent and carefully monitored.

In the field, when people are collecting data, there are so many things that can go wrong: the data can be entirely made-up, the wrong person or facility might be interviewed or inspected, questions might be asked in the wrong way or not asked at all, answers might be recorded incorrectly, etc., etc.

The challenges are many, and because fieldwork is some unfortunate combination of boring and difficult nearly everywhere in the world, similar challenges arise in nearly every setting. And sadly, all natural forces seem to push in the direction of poor data quality. Without visibility into the data-collection process, it’s very difficult to assess the quality of field-collected data, let alone manage for quality.

So a big part of our job has been to constantly improve the visibility. This means not only collecting richer data and meta-data in the field, but also making the process of reviewing and learning from that data as easy as possible. And here, “easy” means fitting into the challenging realities of field project management.

So for example, a great many data-collection projects are difficult to get off the ground: they are running behind-schedule, there are still changes to instruments up through training and piloting, and generally there’s not time to think about back-end data systems or QC monitoring before data starts streaming in.

Very few teams seem to be able to pre-plan for QC processes, so our job has been to try to require less and less pre-planning. In terms of implementation:

  • In SurveyCTO v1.0, we added options for random audio auditing as well as text audits that saved detailed meta-data about the time spent on individual fields or questions. We also introduced support for auto-generated mail merge templates for Microsoft Word, along with features to auto-merge incoming data with those templates in SurveyCTO Sync. This rendered incoming data more readable for those reviewing the data, allowing for a human scrutiny/QC process akin to those traditionally used in paper-based data-collection workflows.
  • In SurveyCTO v1.17, we added options to publish data directly to .kml files in SurveyCTO Sync, so that incoming data could be easily reviewed by geographical location.
  • In SurveyCTO v1.30, we added the new concept of “speed limits” to flag cases where forms are being completed too quickly, and to automatically trigger audio audits based on speed-limit violations. We also added a suite of “automated quality checks” (otherwise known as “high-frequency checks” or “statistical checks”) to flag potential data-quality issues based on the full distribution of responses so far. So, for example, if one enumerator’s responses are different enough from others’ (statistically speaking), then that enumerator’s responses can be flagged for further review.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.20, we added the Data Explorer as the safe, in-browser way to review incoming data – both in aggregate and at the individual level. Importantly, this new interface allows for seamless movement between aggregate views and individual submissions, formats and labels individual submissions for effective review, and includes information and media from automated quality checks, audio audits, text audits, speed limits, and more, all in one place.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.40, we added a new review and correction workflow, so that our users can not only catch data-quality problems, but also correct them. It allows for systematic quality-control processes to be more easily put in place, and for key corrections to be made before data is released to dashboards or analysis.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.50, we added powerful new sensor meta-data options, like the ability to capture the percentage of interview time that seemed to involve conversation or how much noise, ambient light, or movement there was during the interview. By combining this data with the ability to automatically flag outliers for review, field QC processes can be even more effective.

We believe that the right kind of visibility into the data-collection process is needed for managers to effectively manage their own field teams, but we also believe that it’s vital to correct long-standing problems in the overall market for field data collection.

Most organizations outsource data collection to firms that specialize in building and managing field teams, and, for those organizations that do the outsourcing, there has been far too little visibility into the data-collection process itself. Without visibility into data quality, it has been impossible to contract on data quality or enforce any kind of minimum standard.

Contracted firms deliver “clean” datasets to their clients, and the clients have very little ability to distinguish when they are or are not receiving accurate, high-quality data. We have steadily sought to provide technology that offers greater visibility, allowing for better client-side monitoring and an expanding range of potential contractual terms.

We’re excited about the progress we’ve made to-date, and we’re even more excited about the potential for continued improvement. For example, we’re actively thinking about how we might use machine learning technologies to build upon traditional methods of quality control and provide powerful new monitoring options to our users.

Whether it’s fancy stuff like machine learning or just getting better at the human-centered design process for presenting the right kinds of information to the right people, we’re looking forward to continuing to innovate in this area of data quality. After all, the quality of the data we collect plays a key role in driving the quality of our decision-making. Low-quality data is not only of questionable value to us, it can even be harmful.

3. Data use: effective visualization and analysis requires other tools designed and built for those purposes.

So this is a tough one, because a lot of our users would like an all-in-one, end-to-end solution, and it’s never easy to say no. It’s also never comfortable to admit that you’re not the best at something.

But the fact is that our users use the data they collect with SurveyCTO in a dizzying number of ways, and while the mainstream tech world has left offline, illiterate populations effectively unserved, there are massively-well-funded efforts to provide data management, visualization, and analysis products that can work for our users.

It’s not at all obvious how we, as a small social enterprise operating in this space, can effectively compete with platforms and tools like Google Sheets, Airtable, Salesforce, Tableau, Power BI, Stata, SPSS, and R. Moreover, it’s not at all clear that we should even try.

Now, yes, mainstream products can sometimes be expensive, and so we’re sympathetic to those who want all the features of Product X but would rather pay a low, SurveyCTO-style price. But more and more mainstream tech companies are offering compelling nonprofit discounts, and many have CSR initiatives that offer grants for funding nonprofit adoption of best-in-class technology. Fundamentally, these programs seem a better way to get that kind of great technology into nonprofit hands, vs. a small organization like Dobility trying to duplicate all of that technology at a lower price point.

It’s also true, though, that smaller teams with lower technical capacity might have trouble integrating multiple solutions; for them, an all-in-one might be all that is really technically feasible. Here also, we’re sympathetic – but we still don’t think that reproducing best-in-class reporting or analysis functionality would be the right approach. At the very least, the more time and effort we put into that functionality, the more our prices will have to rise… which would then put SurveyCTO out-of-reach for many of the smaller teams we had originally hoped to serve.

What we’d like to do is get better and better about how we integrate with other solutions. We’d like deploying SurveyCTO+ProductX to be as clear and simple as possible, so that less and less technical skill is required. While we don’t think that SurveyCTO will ever be a true “all in one” that operates independently, we’d like setting up an overall system and workflow with SurveyCTO to be as close to “all-in-one easy” as possible. That will require more technical work for our R&D team, but then also better materials (checklists, videos, etc.) to support those who are setting up these systems.

And finally, we know that we can’t avoid all data visualization, analysis, or management. After all, we recognize that our data quality mission (above) fundamentally requires that people be able to monitor and correct the data effectively. This actually requires quite a lot in terms of real-time visualization and analysis.

So, on the surface, you’ll see us continue to build in ever-more-sophisticated visualization and analysis, and you might think that it should be easy to expand to include a wider range of visualization and analysis options.

But the thing is this: while there are aspects of visualization and analysis for monitoring and data quality that technically overlap with aspects of visualization and analysis for data use, the fact is that we can do a far better job delivering on our data quality mission if we stay focused on those needs as opposed to being dragged down the slippery slope toward the myriad ways that our users might use the data they collect.

At the end of the day, it’s all about where we fit in the world. Our focus is on secure, high-quality data collection. That already includes quite a lot – more than enough to keep us busy. And it is also an area that other companies tend to neglect. So we’d prefer to focus our energies there, and integrate with other solutions for data use and management. That way, at the end of the day, our users get the best overall solution for the best possible price.

4. Reliability and support: our users deserve a product that works reliably, and to get the help they need.

Free open-source software can often be less reliable than professionally-supported software, but even professional software seems to have gotten less and less reliable over time. New versions are pushed onto users constantly, and they too-frequently introduce new problems and headaches. In terms of reliability, standards seem to be falling. And meanwhile, the quality of technical support seems to be falling even faster.

At Dobility, we understand how incredibly stressful and complex field data collection can be, and we understand that those engaged in that work need to be able to rely on the technology they use – and be able to get effective help when they need it.

So much of the work we’ve done, from the earliest days of SurveyCTO, concerns reliability and support. When we began building on Open Data Kit’s (ODK’s) strengths, we started by fixing bugs and improving performance for long, complex surveys; we added redundancies to protect against data loss even in the most challenging settings; and we architected our server hosting environment in a way that we knew would prove costly but also expected to be fundamentally safe, reliable, and scalable.

Even today, with thousands of teams using SurveyCTO, every subscription has its own back-end database, its own software version, and its own server memory space. And every paying user has access to free, expert support 24×7.

In the early days, it was only me, a part-time developer, and a part-time QC person. To answer user support queries in a timely manner, I would wake up before dawn, I would pull my car over mid-drive to peck out a quick response, I would respond from the tops of mountains when on holiday. As the team slowly grew, that level of dedication to responsiveness has continued.

And in fact, I’ve had the pleasure of being slapped on the wrist by newer members of our support team when my own responses are not sufficiently quick or helpful; when I jump in on a support query and get something wrong, I get in trouble.

And because SurveyCTO has grown so much over the years and is relied upon in such a vast array of challenging settings, it really does require a team approach to continue offering timely, helpful support; most queries still, behind the scenes, involve multiple people collaborating, suggesting, correcting, or, later, critiquing.

Our QC and R&D teams are also pulled into support cases whenever it looks like there might be some kind of product problem. Often it can be difficult to distinguish between software problems and, for example, form-programming problems. So our developers are continuously pulled into cases. It’s a huge time-sink and it distracts attention from new feature development, but we view it as absolutely critical to maintaining a high level of reliability and support. It’s a price we’re willing to pay.

Also, when there is a software problem, we generally drop everything and move heaven and earth as needed to get it fixed. As the CEO, I remain actively involved in helping to prioritize and roll out essentially every fix; and I try to reach out and personally apologize to anybody who’s been inconvenienced by some problem that we allowed to make it through our QC processes.

It’s a major focus of mine, and it’s distracted attention from, for example, building up the sales and marketing side of our business. But if you want to provide a reliable, well-supported product, then there is a price you have to pay as an organization. To-date, we’ve been willing to pay that price, and I very much hope for that to remain true even as we continue to grow.

5. Empowerment: we should empower those who need to collect data to use our technology directly, with as few intermediaries as possible.

Back when digital data collection technologies required technical experts to “program” digital forms, there was a lot of friction and expense that stood between the researchers and M&E professionals who knew what they wanted and the technology that could meet their needs.

Those who needed digital forms would describe or document their needs, experts would wield the technology on their behalf, and ultimately that technology would be deployed in the field. If problems or potential improvements were discovered in the field, often it was too hard to fix those problems or implement those improvements: there was just too much distance, friction, and expense between those using the technology and those who served as the technical gatekeepers.

So one core goal of SurveyCTO was to make the technology more directly accessible to those who actually need it – those who will actually use it – so that they can be more empowered to design, manage, and revise digital forms as they see fit. We wanted to eliminate layers of intermediaries so that the researchers and M&E teams would be able to wield the technology themselves. In terms of implementation:

  • In SurveyCTO v1.0, we introduced a hosted version of ODK that (a) could be automatically launched as-needed by anybody filling out a simple sign-up form, and (b) had an entirely new user interface that simplified common tasks. Everything from learning about the platform to creating new forms to using cold room computers to creating encryption keys to creating field-validation expressions to using Microsoft Word’s mail-merge features for reviewing data became easier.
  • In SurveyCTO v1.30, we introduced “automated quality checks” so that those without a high level of statistical training could still benefit from statistical checks that are important for monitoring data quality.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.0, we introduced an entirely new user interface, in part because we’d added so much to the original product that the interface was becoming too complex; we needed a new design in order to keep adding new features and flexibility without making the product too hard to use. We also added a web interface for previewing forms, which was an important step in making it easier to develop and test new forms.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.10, we added the online, drag-and-drop form designer, in order to make SurveyCTO accessible to a broader range of new users. Even for those users who will ultimately prefer doing a lot of their work in Excel or Google Sheets, we wanted to provide an easier, more-structured way to get started in form design.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.20, we added the Data Explorer for being able to monitor and explore incoming data in a flexible and powerful way, without the need for expertise in outside visualization or analysis tools.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.30, we added a new “enterprise” feature-set to make managing multiple projects and teams easier.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.40, we added the new review and correction workflow, in order to further simplify the process of not only detecting data-quality issues – but also correcting them.
  • In SurveyCTO v2.51, we expanded the form designer to include a powerful new test view, which combined our original web preview functionality with powerful “inspection” tools that help users catch problems before they reach the field.

We’re proud of the work we’ve done in empowering users, in taking ODK’s core capabilities and extending them to be accessible by a broader and broader range of users. But, of course, our job here is never done: there is so much more we can do.

So, in the coming months and years, we’re excited about bringing in additional UI/UX design talent and further improving our product’s interface and accessibility. We’re going to keep making it more powerful and flexible all the time, and, ideally, we’ll keep making it easier to use at the same time.

Please feel free to comment below – even if it’s to push back!

By Christopher Robert and first publish as Guiding principles for SurveyCTO

Filed Under: Thought Leadership
More About: , , , ,

Written by
This Guest Post is an ICTworks community knowledge-sharing effort. We actively solicit original content and search for and re-publish quality ICT-related posts we find online. Please suggest a post (even your own) to add to our collective insight.
Stay Current with ICTworksGet Regular Updates via Email

6 Comments to “Our 5 Guiding Principles for SurveyCTO. What Are Yours? – Your Weekend Long Reads”

  1. Would love to hear about others’ guiding principles. Please do comment!

  2. Neil Penman says:

    Excellent article Chris. It is impressive how you have applied these principles to build such a coherent high quality tool. And I remember receiving, many years ago, your prompt support when I asked a question about a SurveyCTO enhancement that had been applied to ODKCollect.

    The first principle Smap uses is “1. make it easy to collect and use data”. So we do offer that cloud based map. As you point out this can conflict with your principle number 1 on security.

    However a second principle is “2. never to lose customer data”. If the customer data has been encrypted with their key and that key is then lost then presumably the data would also be lost? Do you find this to be an issue?

    Another potential issue we see with end to end encryption is that it pushes the clear text view of data to the end points. Which may be the least secure part of the entire system.

    Those quality assurance features SurveyCTO has sound fantastic. One problem we face from time to time is where the customer expectation of what is on the system differs from what is actually there. A classic case was when a baseline survey had to be suspended for 6 months and no one looked at the data until almost a year after thousands of interviews had been completed. Advanced QA tooling doesn’t really help, if an enumerator did not complete all of their allotted interviews.

    To address this we are trying to encourage data to be used almost immediately, real time monitoring with real time decision support. We think it is a better way to use digital tools rather than just using them as a more efficient alternatives to paper.

    • Thanks, Neil! Focusing on ease-of-use and avoiding-data-loss makes a ton of sense, as does the push for more-immediate use of collected data. I’ve also witnessed the many ways in which those long lags between collection and use prove costly.

      The point you raise about potentially losing data because you lose the keys is a really good one. It’s frankly a terrifying risk, and I think it’s one that holds many users back from enabling form-level encryption. I only know of one case, however, where somebody did lose a key, and where it looked like a lot of data was lost – but, luckily, after a few days of extreme stress, the key was found, having simply been named incorrectly and saved into the wrong directory. One thing we’re looking into is integration with safe and secure key-management solutions, so that we can help users manage their private keys with less fear that they’ll lose them.

      In terms of the end points being the least secure, I definitely don’t disagree that end points can be major points of vulnerability. But, speaking from personal experience, I have never lost control of my credit card info, but Target has; and I have never lost control of my passwords, but LinkedIn and several others have. Cloud systems (and passwords in general) can be really vulnerable, despite the best efforts of those running the services. So I still think it’s prudent to doubly protect sensitive data from potential exposure between the end points.

      Thanks again for your reply. One great thing about a competitive ecosystem of technology providers is that we can all choose to focus in different ways, and then users can choose the provider that most meets their particular needs and preferences. Definitely our particular mix of principles have had up-sides – but then plenty of down-sides as well!

  3. Michael Downey says:

    In the past several years, companies that leverage free & open source software to drive their core business have develeped what’s now a standard guiding principle: giving back to the open source communities that make their success possible. These have taken many forms from code contributions to financial donations to supporting events and contributors to those platforms.

    Would be interesting to hear from the author about how SurveyCTO is contributing back to the OpenDataKit community to help maintain the public good that helps to enable their success.

  4. Great question!

    I personally have a view of open source as not only offering to reduce the up-front development costs of a platform like SurveyCTO (to the benefit of users, when the lower cost is passed on to them), but also offering a mechanism for constructive collaboration that can continue lowering the costs of ongoing innovation and maintenance (also to the benefit of users). So it is an ongoing disappointment to me that, today, we neither contribute to nor benefit from the ODK community in the ways we did during SurveyCTO’s early years.

    If you’re curious, two main factors seemed to undermine our ability to collaborate effectively with the broader community. The first was that we were simply pulled in different directions: concern for our growing user base pushed us to emphasize factors like data encryption, performance for long, complex forms, and consistency across different platforms (primarily Android and web), whereas the bulk of the community seemed drawn to other concerns; that made it really hard to agree on priorities or designs for new features. And then, when the ODK project transitioned out of the UW CS department a few years back, there was a fork in the road, and it seemed that the community was inclined to look at the ecosystem of user-fee-supported tools like SurveyCTO as a problem to solve rather than a strength to leverage; during a three-day workshop in Seattle, I failed to make the case for a thriving ecosystem that nurtured and built upon a shared foundation, and reluctantly concluded that we needed to basically go our separate ways.

    So I obviously haven’t made open-source contribution a key guiding principle here at Dobility. If I had, I honestly think the company might have gone under by now – rather than continuing to grow month-by-month, year-by-year. Our fanatic user-orientation has definitely helped us, as has our ability to move quickly and decisively. But it’s a disappointment to me as well, and I’m always looking for new ways to collaborate, particularly as we grow. I was just on a call today, in fact, regarding a potential open-source collaboration. Perhaps some day it will become a guiding principle..!

  5. Neil Penman says:

    Is ICT4D getting the benefits from open source that it should?

    This concept of a “thriving ecosystem that nurtured and built upon a shared foundation” put me in mind of the bazaar in Eric Raymond’s book “The cathedral and the bazaar”. In ICT4D we seem to be creating a few open source cathedrals built with top down control from large donors.

    Ok within each good open source project it can work as it should and you do get bottom up development to create high quality tools. But at the whole of industry level, where the benefits of innovation could be an order of magnitude greater, it does not seem to be working well.

    Maybe open source without the “thriving ecosystem” has become part of the problem. That is when you have a large donor saying: here is a tool, its open source so no lock in, everyone has to use it so we can get economies of scale!


text:
Google recently released—and immediately pulled—its official app for the iPhone and iPad in the App Store. After a long time coming, Google finally got on the ball and released an App Store app for its popular email service, but not before realizing that there were several bugs that needed fixing.

While many called Gmail’s app “fantastic” and “wonderful” at first glance, more than 5 minutes with the app will show you what an utter disgrace this app is for Google…

Google has never been known for having good design aesthetics, so I’m not setting the bar too high here. When I downloaded the Gmail app awhile ago I expected to a slightly different email client with many of the native iOS UI elements I’ve come to expect from clients like the stock Mail app.

Instead, the Gmail app is a half-baked web port mixed with an ugly UI shell that would make Steve Jobs turn over in his grave. (Sorry if that analogy is too soon, but it’s true.)

On the iPhone, Google has implemented what is essentially the mobile web inbox interface inside a dark border. While I like the look of the top navigation bar, opening the Menu on the left (which can’t be done with a swipe by the way, just a tap of the button) reveals the really disgraceful part of the app.

Google is clearly borrowing pages out of Facebook’s playbook with this sidebar navigation pane. Here’s a comparison with the recently updated Facebook iPhone app:

Looks pretty similar, right? The only difference is that one sucks and the other doesn’t. In the Gmail app, text for long labels gets broken off mid-word in the sidebar.

In terms of navigation elements in the app, there’s very little iOS-like animations. Bringing up a new window is like re-loading a webpage—because that’s essentially all Google is doing—and bringing up the options to flag, mark a message as read, etc. feels just as forced.

I also noticed other bugs, such as an error window that pops up every time I open the app. What the heck, Google?

The app does have pull-to-refresh. I’ll give it that.

Other than that, navigating through the Gmail app is a pretty terrible experience. On the iPad, it’s basically the iPhone experience with a little more real estate. Google did nothing to really optimize the iPad version for a larger screen, and the sidebar on the iPad remains just as ugly.

O, and did I mention that the app only supports one Gmail account at a time?

There’s also no integration with Notification Center on iOS 5 that I could find. Notifications is apparently the reason Google already pulled the app, so hopefully that aspect will at least be fixed.

The bottom line is that you have no reason to use the official Gmail app on the iPhone or iPad. Unless you’re an absolute Gmail addict that can’t live without Priority Inbox, there’s no reason to switch from the stock Mail app.

I personally have multiple email addresses with multiple providers, and I don’t see the advantage of using a Gmail-only app when I can have all my accounts together in Mail.

The release of Google’s Gmail app seems rushed and sloppy. This is evidenced by the fact that Google has already temporarily pulled the app.

Here’s some more reactions from across the web, courtesy of TechCrunch:

And there’s plenty more where those came from.

What a disgrace. Hopefully the app will stay pulled.


text:
Despite a massive legal spat between Apple and Samsung over who copied whose tablets and smartphones, the two frenemies remain dependent on each other’s business. Samsung makes Apple’s in-house designed mobile processors and supplies the iPhone maker with massive amounts of displays and flash memory chips for iOS devices.

A new report suggests the Apple account is worth a whopping 8.8 percent of Samsung’s revenue, making Apple Samsung’s largest customer and perhaps giving Cupertino some added leverage in its business and legal dealings with the South Korea-headquartered conglomerate. The next biggest Samsung client? Read on…

Authors Ian King and Adam Satariano, writing for Bloomberg, explain that computer maker Hewlett-Packard is Samsung’s second-biggest client, accounting for 3.2 percent of its revenue.

No wonder Apple is the #1: the company files as the world’s biggest purchaser of semiconductors and will increase its orders by fifteen percent to almost $28 billion, according to research firm IHS iSuppli.

Bloomberg’s data is based on its supply-chain analysis.

Now, people refer to Apple and Samsung as frenemies for a good reason.

Samsung is the world’s second-largest semiconductor maker, after Intel, and the sole supplier of the A-series processors Apple designs in-house and uses inside iPhones, iPads and iPods. It is also the word’s largest vendor of smartphones, cell phones, mobile displays and flat panels.

Samsung’s plant in Austin, Texas churns out chips that power Apple’s iOS devices.

Gartner estimates that Apple may spend about $2.1 billion on A-series chips this year alone and Samsung will get nearly all of this money as an exclusive manufacturer of these processors.

The Apple v. Samsung trial revealed last week that about twenty percent of the iPhone is comprised of Samsung technology.

Here’s a useful backgrounder from the Bloomberg piece:

Samsung and Apple’s interdependence traces its roots to the beginning of the iPhone. Ahead of the 2007 debut, Apple realized it needed a processor better tailored to the device. A microprocessor acts as the brains of a device, determining how fast it runs and letting it perform critical tasks. Apple turned to Samsung, then ramping up a division that makes so-called logic chips, which handle the devices’ other functions.

The two companies, which had already worked together in screens and memory chips, cut a deal that resulted in Samsung becoming the sole manufacturer of the so-called A-series of chips, which are at the heart of the iPhone and iPad.

The rumor-mill’s been clamoring for Apple to take its valuable chip making contract to rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), but yield problems have reportedly prevented TSMC from taking over the responsibility of producing tens of millions of chips for Apple each month.

Furthermore, a jump to a different fabbing process would require a substantial redesign of the A-series chips from the ground up, possibly introducing costly teething problems with the new silicon.

Here’s from chipmaker Applied Materials exec Michael Hasler, who now lectures at the University of Texas at Austin:

There’s an incredible cost to doing that, and it would be very difficult. On the surface it seems like an obvious thing to do, but actually executing it would be very expensive.

Besides, TSMC is said to be currently unable to provide sufficient capacity to its existing 28nm customers. Hit-and-miss DigiTimes reported in May that Apple won’t be able to drop Samsung for A6 orders until at least 2014.

Apple recently secured half the manufacturing output from Elpida, a struggling Japanese maker of dynamic random access memory chips. The move immediately wiped out $10 billion of Samsung’s market cap over fear of orders stoppage that Samsung immediately debunked as false.

Apple with the iPhone 4S also began using memory chips from SK Hynix. And though the new iPad uses a high-resolution display panel made by Samsung, Apple’s been adding other suppliers to the mix and may have even asked Foxconn to keep Sharp alive as it looks to tap Sharp’s cutting-edge plant for advanced IGZO display panels for upcoming devices.

What do you think, will Apple and Samsung come to some sort of resolution?

Is Apple really going to take its business elsewhere over time?

And if so, could the move backfire?


text:
best pph company

The Best PPH Company

How to find the best PPH Company

Finding the best PPH Company takes a lot of research to determine if the PPH site and its sports management software comply to your needs for a better bookie operation. The best PPH Company will help you, as a bookmaker, to manage your business efficiently by giving you and your bettors the sincerest services available the sports management software has to offer.

One of the goals of your research is to find out if the PPH companies on your list are legitimate companies of the trade. The start of your search is to make sure that you are looking for a legitimate PPH entity that will narrow the search for the best PPH company.

Be aware of the red flags that indicate an illicit PPH company. Watch out for these signs:

1. PPH site scams will require you to purchase their program or equipment from other companies. Don’t fall into this trap; certain PPH companies provide the PPH software for free to their clients.

2. Fake PPH sites entice you to use their software without presenting the payment schemes of the company they carry. Do not commit to this system as you can not back out from the program once you are in it.

3. The best PPH company communicates with its clients professionally. The language used in their correspondence is straight and ethical, not text messages or informal use of the English lingo. They have no clear response to your queries regarding the company and their shady deals.

4. An illegitimate PPH scam site promises significant returns for your investments. Original betting sites understand that there is no assurance to gambling, only calculated risks that may or may not work out to your expectation. Scam sites will offer their deals that you did not ask.

5. Email communications do not have return addresses and lack contact information making it a spurious entity out to make a run for your money. The PPH company will not immediately respond to your questions with alibis of developing their websites, or their servers are broken or under maintenance.

6. The pressure selling method is one of their scheming ways to have you sign a contract stating to use their software. They seem to be always in a rush to get things going and take your money as soon as they can. Once they have your money, they disappear and remain untraceable.

7. Scheming PPH scam sites ask for your personal information as part of their money-making strategies. They will use your confidential data to do other illegal transactions at your expense. Do not give away your personal information to avoid future financial problems.

8. Follow your instinct. The first line of defense from getting scammed is your instinct. Trust in your analysis to avoid the swindling antics of the false PPH company.

9. The best PPH Company have customer satisfaction feedbacks that talk for their efficiency and advantages. Fake ones do not have these manifests from customers they please.

Be aware and mindful of how these fake PPH scam sites operate. They will keep you away from companies that will dupe you and save your hard-earned money.

Now that you have the option whom to choose among the list of the best PPH companies, you can now base your choices on what they can offer your business. The best PPH company will provide you with real services and help in the ease of operations of your PPH business.

best pph company

Here is what to look for in your search for the best PPH companies:

  • The best PPH company has service-oriented goals. They want their bookmakers to succeed in their business by providing them the best bookie management software.
  • The company sees the clients as the most critical partners in business, and the best PPH company sees to it that it delivers satisfactory service to the client’s needs.
  • The best PPH company listen to the feedbacks of their clients to improve their operations. The feedbacks gathered will help in developing their services thereby addressing the needs of their customers efficiently.
  • The bookie and the best pay per head company work hand in hand. If the bookie wins,  the best PPH company handling it also succeeds. If the bookmaker loses, the company fails as well.
  • The best PPH Company always work for the interest of its bookies. Bookie support is as essential to the goals of the best PPH company. The bookie’s success is the company’s success
  • You can ask and demand that the best PPH Company customize their services for you. The sports betting company will agree to make the software management work for you and your business. Your convenience will bring in more bettors boosting the entry of new clients.
  • The best PPH Company can give you a test account for you to determine if you can work with the tools that the business provides you. They will be providing you with login codes and passwords so the first-hand experience of their software and services will be available to you. The test will also allow you to monitor the player’s’ conditions, the odds, player statistics, the weather condition, injury lists, strengths and weaknesses of individual players, the weather condition, and timing for the bets.
  • Efficient PPH Companies have high-end data centers that take care of their operations and having backup servers in case a failure happens to their primary frames.

On top of the best PPH companies

Topping the list of the Best PPH Company is the pay per head services company. The PPH site stands for International Data Solutions and is the top choice of most bookmakers. IDSCA started with us since 1997 and reviews refer to it as one of the pioneers of sports betting. Its transition bloomed into a more efficient and one-stop sports betting company making it the best PPH company in the market.

The best PPH website should have all the features that you are looking for to help you serve your clients better and see the business grow. has a robust platform that provides bookies adequate information and online technology to manage the business efficiently. It developed its PPH services in sports, casinos, horseracing, Esports betting and bookmaking to stay on top of the rest of the sports betting companies.

With IDSCA’s multilingual staff, it offers a wide range of betting clientele across the globe serving more bookmakers and develop their businesses. More bettors for the bookies means more the revenues and profits. The best PP company has more than 1,200 events per month and over more than 100 markets per play where our punters can enjoy more games in live sports betting.

Results of the events are in the real time that is convenient for your bettors. Funds derived from the previous games will automatically have the opportunity to put it on the next event leading to an increase in sports betting volume. It is indeed the best PPH company any bookmaker can ask.

One of the features of the best PPH company is the vast array of betting coverage. The sports betting opportunities with IDSCA are with NFL, NHL, NBA, NCAA football and basketball, Major League Baseball, Tennis, Golf, and other sports events make it exciting and enjoyable for sports enthusiasts.

Another feature that makes IDSCA the best PPH Company is its real-time grading and scoreboards that updates the scenario of sport online. The feature gives the punters live decision-making options for betting. An overview in one page is available to monitor the scoreboards and see sporting events unfold. The summary provides bookies all sporting events in play on a single page by categories with respective odds and number of markets in a game.


text:
IEU FUNDING Telegram 28 Nov 2016

Our telegram headlines today*:

  • EU Commission: Public Consultation on the mid-term evaluation of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF)

  • 2017 EU budget gets EU Council approval
  • €435 million returned to European farmers from the Common Agricultural Policy budget

  • Plan d'investissement pour l'Europe : 75 million d'euros pour des bâtiments économes en énergie en Finlande
  • Structural Reform Support Programme, ESFI for jobs and growth: committee votes
  • ST 14667 2016 REV 1 Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Regulations (EU) No 1316/2013 and (EU) 2015/1017 as regards the extension of the duration of the European Fund for Strategic Investments as well as the introduction of technical enhancements for that Fund and the European Investment Advisory Hub - Updated Presidency compromise text
  • Public investment in Europe: the EU can and must do more! - European Economic and Social Committee
  • BusinessEurope: Investment Plan for Europe – are we there yet?

  • From Startup to Scale-up: Mobilising Finance for Disruptive Innovation - Carlos Moedas
  • Research Headlines - Fixing the faults in immune systems
  • Events - Revolutionary innovation: how could innovation change our world? 7 December 2016, Brussels
  • Understanding the Human Brain: A New Era of Big Neuroscience - European Parliamentary Research Service
  • Success Stories - Europeans will be able to compare cancer care

# HORIZON 2020

  • Evaluation and Monitoring - EU funding for research and innovation attracts ever more interest, report shows
  • New projects supporting the Creative Industries and Gamification
  • Horizon Magazine: Stem cell ‘patch’ could help doctors mend a broken heart

  • Call for proposals restricted to Member States for law enforcement cooperation between Member States and relevant third countries along the Silk Road Migration Route to better address and improve the detection and apprehension of migrant smugglers

  • 16 outstanding projects in the European Digital Skills Award 2016 final

  • Looking into the future of European food safety and nutrition policy
  • GNSS mobile apps: Data outputs and Galileo
  • Country-specific advice to strengthen entrepreneurship and scale-up companies
  • Science and policy collaborate for health

  • Polish 'bio-sensing' project wins development award

  • Editorial Support services for Press Releases and Web stories. - European Economic and Social Committee

  • 90% satisfaction rate confirms the success of the SME Instrument Innovators Summit
  • EU Commission gives boost to start-ups in Europe

  • Can you read what they wrote during the First World War? - Europeana Professional

  • Switzerland – Sweden Call for Project
  • Merus N.V. and Aquila BioMedical to receive €1.5 Million Eurostars grant
  • Knowledge for Growth 2016
  • 14th Annual International Conference on SΜΕs, Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Management - Marketing - Economic - Social Aspects
  • Argentina Globalstars Call for Proposals

  • EP Opinion - Annual Report on the Financial Activities of the European Investment Bank - PE 589.330v03-00 - Committee on International Trade
  • EIB renews cooperation with Komerční Banka to support SMEs and midcaps investing in youth employment in the Czech Republic
  • Official EIB delegation led by Vice-President Dario Scannapieco visits Serbia

  • EP Working document - on European Court of Auditors' Special Report No 27/2016 (2015 Discharge): Governance at the European Commission - best practice? - PE 593.815v01-00 - Committee on Budgetary Control
  • EP Working document - on ECA Special Report 19/2016: Implementing the EU budget through financial instruments - Lessons to be learnt from the 2007-2013 programme - PE 585.498v02-00 - Committee on Budgetary Control

  • ### DG RTD
  • Draft agenda - Monday, 5 December 2016 - PE 594.204v01-00 - Committee on Culture and Education
  • Amendments 1 - 163 - Implementation report on Europe for Citizens - PE 594.106v01-00 - Committee on Culture and Education
  • Motion for a resolution on support for reform and on cohesion policy - B8-2016-1303

Our telegram is published delayed by one day. It shows the headlines of our monitoring content, only. You can buy the full version of this issue here. To ask for a weekly trial of this monitoring mail -- sent directly to your mailbox on the day of publication -- please fill in this form.

IEU Environment Telegram 20 November 2020

IEU Energy Telegram 19 November 2020

IEU Environment Telegram 11 November 2020