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NijFinster Distance Care

In this article I describe some recent e-Health related projects, executed by the Dutch specialised company NijFinster. This is a hundred percent daughter company of Kabel Noord, a regional cable operator in the north of the Netherlands.

'Distance Care' at home care organisation Friese Land.

This is a project currently running. More than a 100 home care clients are connected to a video communication system. The newest generation of video phones is much more user friendly and a lot easier to configure and install. Better still, the system is cheaper than alternative systems presntly used in the Netherlands.

CEO Anja Paap: "With our well developed project concept, supplemented with our current technology and partners, we can serve any organisation quickly and at relatively low cost."

Business developer Gijs van Hesteren says: "We are very proud that we were able to implement this system so cost effectively - for ourselves as well as for the home care organisation concerned. Low cost is very important, especially for the target group. We have worked hard to acquire sufficient funding from innovation funds."

NijFinster video phone project

In this project, clients are connected to the Friese Land Health Care Center. This is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A follow up project is being set up.

Distance Care, enabled by interactive video communication, is gaining momentum in Friesland and in the Netherlands. Health organisations try to assist their clients more efficiently and more frequently.

Virtual polyclinic Wadden Islands

Medical specialst Hilde Royen discusses online with a patient and his island doctor

Patients on the remote coastal island Ameland contact a medical specialst in the regional hospital Sionsberg. Nominated for the Spider Award 2009 of the magazine ICTzorg. Eventually awarded a remarkable shared second place. From the jury report: "(...) innovative use of videoconferencing for direct interaction between medical specialist and patient. Anamnesis and diagnosis are investigated. That shows some guts."

This project was executed at instigation by the Frisian Cartesius Instituteand in co-operation with the Pasana-Sionsberg hospital in Dokkum en general practitioners on the Ameland island.

Second place Spider Award 2009

NijFinster executed project management, consultancy, technology advice, installation of hardware.

More on NijFinster

Kabel Noord increases internet speeds

Cable provider Kabel Noord is planning to raise internet speeds on coaxial cable before the end of this year.

The speeds will be as follows: 'KNID Lauwersland'to 1 Mbps, 'KNID Basis' to 4 Mbps,
'KNID Family' to 20 Mbps, 'KNID Comfort' to 30 Mbps. The new 'KNID Super' will deliver 60 Mbps. To enable these speeds, Kabel Noord has installed a Docsis 3.0-platform in September.

Source: Kabel Noord, 19 November 2009

'Responsive Environments' surprise Domotica fair

My neighbours at the Domotica Fair of the Smart Homes Foundation really made an impression, with their transgressing designs for 'response environments' in the 'adaptive office'. One of the students involved spoke passionately, alsmost as an artist, about his designs. "It's all about making technology more accessible and adding useability," he said, "In a more natural, logical and intuitive way!"
His urgency made an impression on me. We see not a lot of that in this country.


Seen from the NijFinster stand: the boys of 'Responsive Environments'.

Their tables were stacked with prototypes of 'home automation objects'. Under supervision of head design researcher Jorge Alves Lino the project members showed that there's more to home automation (Dutch: domotica) than automatic door locks, clever cable and tubing systems, or intelligent fire alarms.
"This is very exciting," they told me, "A fair full of end products and here we are, with a lot of very unmatured try outs!"

It made me think. For how long already have we been searching ourselves: for video communication hardware that does not deter its users, but invites them to play; for user interfaces that show them the way, in stead of making them lose it?

Their coach of the day Ben Salem was a man of unorthodox opinions too.
"In fact this fair is an oldfashioned event, all its innovative goals notwithstanding. It's well organised, but there would be so much more to gain. Why are all these kinds of technologies exposed so mixed up? Why is there not a team at the entrance that invites the visitors for a tour of the fair? Why are the unique characteristics of this building not used more effectively? The fair is stacked wirh products ready to market. Why not invite more groups like us, who are searching for new boundaries?"

Worth listening to, I thought. Most technology presents itself so dreary and unimaginatively. This was quite the contrary: artistic, long haired young people from all corners of Europe, led by a passionate thinker, with exciting stuff, built out of nothing. Read more at www.jorgelino.com


Responsive environments.

All pictures by www.festinalente.nl - Inge van Hesteren

Dutch version of this article

NijFinster at Evoluon

Great, it's Friday. We're driving home on the motorway. Yesterday, the mobile Vodafone network was down completely, today the KPN-netwerk tries to do worse. Well, nice and quiet, no Friday afternoon emails to handle and I try not to think of twittering. With my SMS service I can tweet comments, in any case.
We got into the car Tuesday afternoon, on our way to the Domotica fair of the Dutch Smart Homes Foundation. A 260 kilometer drive to Eindhoven, to crew the stand of eHealth consultant NijFinster Inc.

Colour TV

Evoluon, from the forth inner ring. Picture by Gijs van Hesteren

That same Tuesday evening my wife Inge and me had erected the NijFinster stand, at the upper, fourth ring of this remarkable Evoluon building. Our actions had taken some patience and inventivity, because of the long lines waiting for the elevator and the complicated staircases. But I prefer to speak well of the building: when the Evoluon was still a technology museum in the sixties, it was there that Inge as well as I saw our first colour television set. And the kids were allowed to turn the dials, which was unique those days. Today, the Evoluon functions as a congress and exposition centre, nothing wrong with that.

Hotel
We spent three nights at the Eindhoven Sandton hotel, at recommendation by the Smart Homes Foundation. Nevertheless, the hotel pretended more than it could deliver. Our room was situated outside of the hotel. We could reach it only after walking along the street. The bathroom was rather smelly, I think something was wrong with the plumbing. There were some unexpected animals in the bathroom. When I tried to choose a breakfast table, a member of the crew snarled: "Other table!" Okay, okay, I'm leaving already. Anyway, the other crew members were all right. For the money charged the hotel was not up to its standards, I think. No second visit for me.

UFO
For two days we worked in the flying saucer. Hundreds of people walked past the NijFinster stand. The second day seemed busier than the first. Both days, the public
seemed very interested and knowledgeable. For me, this turned out to be a fine event. Al this talking got me a dry throat, but the catering service was as good as ever. Try that at any other fair!

Meetings
Nice, to have the stand of Sharecare near us. The owners of that company are old friends. Their concept of a virtual care community fits into the strategy of the North east Frisian region: innovative use of ICT, internet, social media, to improve the quality of living in rural areas. It would not surprise me if a web based application like this would be carried by our prototype videophones with touch screen.


Sharecare-owner Saskia Vermeulen explains to me her thoughts of our videophone with touch screen. Picture: Inge van Hesteren

A funny thing: I spoke to a Frisian guy who moved to work in the southern province of Noord-Brabant. Later on I met someone who was born and lives in Brabant - he wanted to move to Friesland very badly. The grass is always greener...

All on the wings of video communication and innovation. During the fair, I discussed intensely its ins and outs, I was brought to new ideas and received a lot of food for thought. Nevertheless, we can still be proud of what we have done recently with the NijFinster projects. For example with the screen-to-screen project of a hundred home care clients, or with the Spider Award nominated Virtual Policlinical diagnosis. at the Dokkum hospital De Sionsberg.

Fish 'n chips

Dutch version of this posting

Recipe

Heat vegetable fat to 150 degrees Celsius. Mix with very thick french fries (chips) and cook for five minutes. Take them out of the fat. Put them on a plastic plate. Cover the chips with (very good) fish fillet, precooked in the same fat.
Eat with your fingers.

The British love it, sometimes continental Europeans like it too, after a period of adaptation.

Fish 'n chips in Cromer

Pictures of the forum

I've put the pictures I've taken at the International Policy Forum in a Picasa album, click here.
I was not able to take my SLR camera on the airplane, so I especially apologise for the bad quality of the indoor pictures.

Van International Policy Forum

Last plenary of the day

At the end of the day, some reports and evaluations were exchanged in a plenary session. And a lot of people were called to appear before the audience.

Reports on the parallel workshops.



Eise van der Sluis, Vince Muspratt



The opinion of young people.



Hard labourers behind the scenes.



The winner of the lottery.



Last words.

Broadband workshopping

In the afternoon, the conference moved to several parallell workshops. Of course, I chose the one about regional development and broadband. Flemming Just explained the advantages of broadband in peripheral communities. He is from the Esbjerg University of Southern Denmark and a member of the Vital Rural Area project's scientific group.

Mr Just directed the delegates to the website www.connectedcommunities.co.uk.
I was pleased to see, that the Scottish guys of that project had assessed the possibilities of broadband so well. Flemming Just said: "If all these amenities are to be used properly, IT skills are very important."
He produced a table of broadbandishness:


In the end, the acceptance and uptake of broadband depend on demand aggregation, political leadership, education and training, content production and development.

Someone in the public complained about the lack of quality internet access: "When the trees drop their leaves we have access, when they don't, we don't!"

Marga Waanders, mayor of the Dutch municipality of Dongeradeel, mentioned the Stedenlink lobby group, which acts on a European level. That is a typical urban lobby. She recommended a rural alternative for such a lobby. "We need this too!" she said.

Vince Muspratt complained about the slowness of his home internet connection. "I feel like I'm turning a wheel very slowly, while my computer cries please stop this maltreatment! I think that the cost of a normal glass fibre to the home connection, about € 1000, must not be the problem. This can be written off in 20 years, so that must be possible!"

The Danish section added: "Of course there is a very important role for politicians, that is very necessary. But they won't give support out of themselves. They will have to be pushed, informed, educated. The question is not which technology or at what cost, but about what kind of world we want to live in."

Give examples, start test projects, that is much more effective than just preaching all the good properties of broadband. Oh yes, and aggregating demand and more support from politicians.



Afterwards, Ms Waanders and Mr Just continued to discuss broadband issues.

Neo endogenous facilitators

Some remarks made by Neil Ward of the University of East Anglia.

He saw resilience and at the same time vulnerability as strong rural properties. No problem therefore, to implement some 'system shocks', which should act as stimulators for rural change.
Depending exclusively on endogenous facilitators was not sufficient: Ward was convinced that the regions in need should admit 'neo-endogenous' ones. Universities were examples of those. In any case: out of the box thinking, out of the box technology and out of the box partnerships.

All true, I think, and while listening my English has been extended with some completely new terminology.

Local facilitators

Let's not forget the people behind the scenes who help in times of need. Thanks Pat!

Bloggers

Today I am not the only one who tries to report on the conference. Oeds Holthuis from the municipality of Achtkarspelen takes over from time to time. Read his blog here.

Broadband infrastructure acts as innovation engine

Thorben Rune missed his plane. He was one of the keynote speakers of the Policy Forum. Helped by a Skype connection he showed his face to the delegates.
He missed the plane deliberately, stated Marcel Bullinga, day chairman, to show what was possible with broadband. Although the internet connection of the hotel was atrocious, it worked quite well this time. It was remarkable that a posh place like this hotel could not provide better internet connections! Some rural backwardness, I guess. Some others, who were critical of several other characteristics of the hotel, said: "Slow tourism, slow service, slow internet!"

Rune on Skype

After polite preliminaries the connection was reduced to just a voice transfer, so mr Rune could add comments to the presentation slides which were displayed before the audience. He showed some broadband based innovations, which were enabled by the regional glass fibre networks in Denmark, such as data multi screen medical exchanges and translation services.

The 'Filly Salmons five step guide to long distance learning' interested me. Also, the questions he asked of the government in Denmark:
"Why do governments hesitate to invest in digital infrastructure? Is it too complicated, too technical? Is it the EU, which demands a free market? Is it too much like a traditional TV-network? Is a digital infrastructure not really essential?"

Of course he had arguments to waylay these statements. I'll not go into that now, but I do mention his concluding argument, that netwerk neutrality was important! I could agree on that.

"One more minute left!" Bullinga warned halfway the presentation. A pity he was such as strict chairman. For me as representative of a digital infrastructure operator this discussion was very interesting!


Bullinga interviewing Marga Waanders

In a discussion afterwards, Marga Waanders, the mayor of Dongeradeel showed to be proud of the local municipality owned broadband network Kabel Noord. But, the regional networks have not yet reached the real possible bandwidth that is necessary.
"The need for co-investments from local and regional governments is obvious and will become more so in the near future!" she concluded.

My table companion from the province of Friesland was nodding, he too had noticed that even on a national level the Ministry of Economic Affairs had started to encourage active involvement of local government in broadband development.

Coffee break

Rural Identity

Last speaker before the coffee break Jostein Soland discussed 'Rural Identity'. He is from the Chambre of Commerce in Norwegian Stavanger. He was pleading for smarter cities. Okay, but cities are not the communities one expects to find in a rural area, are they?
We should see that differently, Soland said. There is a new urban highway developing, between Stavanger, Bergen and Haugesund. Not urban as in an agglomeration of buildings, but as a structure.
My table companion and I had a feeling that Norway is investing heavily in traditional infrastructures: highways, tunnels, bridges, railways. That is fine, if one has the money, but why not invest in digital highways for virtual traffic? Why not put a glass fibre cable through the tunnels?

Prehistoric passion from a local politician

Dutch version of this story


Alderman Sjon Stellinga described the history of the municipality of Achtkarspelen from the prehistoric day till now. Some 10,000 years ago, there were 30 people in the area, 5000 years ago this number had risen to 3000 already and nowadays about 30.000 live in this Northeast Frisian region.

After telling this, Stellinga became really passionate. He spoke like a church leader, like a modern version of socialist leaders from the thirties, like Domela Nieuwenhuis of Troelstra, and he described the small world of Achtkarspelen, where small people lived small lives in small houses, built of peat and reeds, even until times after the Second World War. Descendants of those several dozens of stone-age settlers, with even their names sounding the same as they did a thousand years ago. And this had always been the right thing to do.

Only now, after ten thousand years, young people dared to leave this cozy, protected region, as if Frodo was finally leaving his trusted and beloved hobbit Shire. Only now the world had really changed for those rural emigrees. City boys and girls would they become, who felt proud in the modern cities of the country centre; they were trusting on their heritage!

After his speech, challenged from the public, Stellinga added: "Give some space to those people who are doing something different! That is an obligation of us to them!"
And of course: "The people in Achtkarspelen tend to work harder, work better, in times of crisis. That's how they'd reacted to crises for centuries. That was a reaction that worked, too. But nowadays perhaps they would better buy a suit, a car and a briefcase and try to find some customers!"

Political welcome words

Derrick Murphy, deputy leader Norfolk County Council, was the next speaker. Change in rural areas is inevitable, he said. He spoke his hopes for a fruitful conference, as would be expected from a politician.

He was followed by Arie Aalberts, mayor of the municipality of Dantumadeel.

Of course, Aalberts too wished everybody a good conference.
After his speech, interviewed by day chairman Marcel Bullinga, he added that the biggest rural problem must be that of housing prices having gone up way too much. On the other hand, as Derrick Murphy added, prices are much lower than in urban areas, so perhaps there will start a population move into rural areas.

A new Vital Rural Area

Futuristic opening

Marcel Bullinga was opening the day. He calls himself a futurist. For what that is worth, in any case he succeeded in making the delegates laugh. So maybe he is an entertainer even more than a futurist.


"Who among you is Dutch?" Marcel asked the public. A great many, that's clear, perhaps because the Netherlands are lead partner of Vital Rural Area.


The rural areas are large, the population is shrinking. But the level of 'happiness' is high.

Worried crew in Norwich

After a good night's sleep (for most of the attendants), it was time now to assemble in the congress room. The sound and video crew looked worried.

Supper and bar time

Finally, it was dinner time. The Dutch time zone is an hour earlier, so in the end we got really, really hungry. Time for the typical English kitchen. Nice buffet, but more salt was needed.

Last stage of the day, a beer at the bar. Bed time for Sigrid, Roeland and Andree too.

Just before dinner

Later in the evening, it was time for some informal talk. Here the Frisian and Flemish delegates discussed the quaalities of holiday park enterprise Landal.The Danish section was taking it easy, except Simon, who is always arguing passionately.

Discussion on rural services

After the conference with the scientific group, the delegates of Work package 3 (Rural services and facilities) discussed their plans for the next three months. Emma Finn was temporarily at the wrong work package meeting, but she was made very welcome.

Reidulf Vignes explained with a map how isolated some Norwegian islands are situated.

Meetjesland maidens

In the picture above, Belgian delegate Peter Haenebalcke is trying to explain the name of 'Meetjesland', before the meeting can proceed. It has something to do with the emperor Charles the fifth being a fan of young maidens. The Meetjesland had to put their 'meetjes' in hiding, to keep Charles from mischief.

Or was it Charles the great, Charlemagne? I'll have to check.

Meeting with the scientific panel

Today (Wednesday) a number of delegates has arrived at Dunston Hall, Norwich. Meeting with them, preliminary to the International Policy Forum tomorrow, the two scientists present, Mr Dirk Strijker and Mr Willem Foorthuis discuss changes in the rural world.

They interrogate representatives from several rural areas around the Northsea. As is to be expected, views on the ways to tackle those changes do not differ very much.
Some soundbytes.

"Regional branding is very important," one of the Meetjesland delegates declares. "Also, the percentage of elderly people is rising."
Vince Muspratt, Norfolk delegate, indicates there is more to this than just the seniority problem. "There are two separated economies developing," he states, "Young people are not able any more to build themselves an existence: e.g. housing is way overpriced. At the same time, they are the ones who are expected to take care of the elderly."

Some people argue, that future urban and rural development should be more in balance, more mutual. "This will not happen," Willem Foorthuis states. "Rural stands for slower, less."

So, there is no such thing as 'rurban'.

Vince Nuspratt again: "Apart from being 'slower' maybe, village people are scared of the urban life. They have not enough confidence and feeling of self-esteem; they don't feel able to cope with the big city life."

"The rural world is gone! We must look for a new vitality", Mr Foorthuis concludes.