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The Inadvertent Blindspot: BAME and BIPOC Labels in the UK

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The categorisation of people based on their ethnicity has always been a contentious issue, often leading to impassioned debates and, at times, spirited disagreements. In the United Kingdom, acronyms like BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) are widely used to signify non-white individuals or groups. While these terms aim to encompass diversity and foster inclusivity, they inadvertently create an exclusionary dichotomy that leaves some communities, like the Anglo-Irish, on the periphery.

Despite their laudable intent, these terms are binary in nature, differentiating people into the broad categories of ‘white’ and ‘non-white’. This oversimplification fails to consider the intricate historical and socio-cultural dynamics that have shaped people’s experiences and identities.

Take, for instance, the Anglo-Irish community. Historically, this group has faced significant discrimination and prejudice in the UK. Despite this, they are typically categorised as ‘white’ and, therefore, left out of discussions about ethnic minority rights and racial discrimination. This omission underscores the inherent shortcomings of terms like BAME and BIPOC. By ignoring the Anglo-Irish community’s unique experiences of marginalisation and ‘othering’, these labels inadvertently perpetuate a form of racism by exclusion.

The Anglo-Irish are not alone in this predicament. There are other communities of ‘white’ ethnic minorities, such as Eastern Europeans, who face similar situations. The broad-brush approach embodied in terms like BAME and BIPOC overlooks these nuances, failing to capture the richness of people’s diverse experiences and backgrounds.

However, the solution is not simply to expand the acronym. Instead, we must acknowledge the limitations of any categorisation system that attempts to encapsulate the vast complexity of human diversity within a few letters. We must push for a more nuanced understanding of ethnicity that recognises the unique histories, experiences, and struggles of all ethnic minorities, not just those who are visibly different.

The challenge lies in striking a balance between acknowledging shared experiences of racism among different ethnic groups while also recognising the distinct histories and challenges faced by each community. While BAME and BIPOC may serve as useful shorthand in certain contexts, they should not be allowed to erase the unique struggles and experiences of any community, including the Anglo-Irish.

Only by understanding and addressing these nuances can we foster a truly inclusive society where every voice is heard, and every story is acknowledged.

Grace Horkan (4th July 1927 – 11th May 2022): A Eulogy

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Good afternoon, 

Writing this eulogy was hard. Much harder than I imagined. Every time I tried to write it I’d be over come with grief and start crying. I was a mess. 

Nan was always tidy, well presented. She liked a floral print dress, and they liked her. I loved and admired Nan. She was incredibly strong. She was determined and she “knew her own mind”. She did everything possible for her children, and me, and my children. She was tireless in providing for the family. 

I haven’t just lost my Nan, I lost my friend. You might not know this but I spent a lot of time with my Nan.

When I was a little boy, Mom and Dad would be at work, and I’d finish school and spend the afternoon with her until Mom or Dad turned up. Sometimes the old fella was there but often he’d be at work too, as would Maureen, and Shirley at school then college. 

Nan loved the cheesy Australian soaps that had stared in the 80s. Neighbours, Home and Away, but her favourite was Sons and Daughters. I’m sure we watched the first and last episodes of that together. 

It wasn’t just Australian day time TV. She loved watching the royal wedding when Diana married Charles; that was pretty damn boring for a lad.

We also spent a lot of time together on holidays, at first at the caravan, but later other holidays.

Nan could be playful. When I was in my teens the family visited the Lake District, where my Mom’s Mom lived. We went to Blackpool and visited one of those sit down fish and chip shops. It wasn’t all that at all. At the end of the meal and after we paid, Nan smiled a mischievous smile at me and lifted up a hanky over her handbag. She’d taken the salt and pepper. I think what was funny was she was enjoying how I shocked I looked.

We also had a series of holidays with Nan, Grandad, Maureen, and Shirley, as my boys were growing up. Andy, Joe, and Billy. We went to Wales, Cornwall a couple of times, and Devon. 

When we went to Wales Andy and Joey and their Aunt Vicky hid a five foot inflatable dinosaur in Nan’s bed and covered it over. Nan played along with the children and pretended to be surprised. They were all laughing and giggling. It was brilliant.

Nan loved us all. But she was mad for my children. She has loved every one of them and she would light up when holding or cuddling them. About six months ago we visited Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens and Nan waited patiently for Leo to calm down. He spent the day running around and gamboling. The usual two year old fun. As we were leaving Leo held Nan’s hand and walked her across the forecourt and to the car. I don’t think I’d seen Nan look happier. She’d waited all day for that and was so pleased. And we all were too.

I realised later in life that Nan was just as much a little girl at heart as most people are and I took to buying her cuddly toys as presents. Something I would not of imagined Nan to like, but she loved them and kept them near to her when she slept. 

Nan taught me a lot. She taught me to knit, to bake, to sew, use a sewing machine, make curtains. The knitting is pretty mediocre, and the baking isn’t anything to write home about, but the sewing and curtain making seem to have stuck.

But she also taught me that real strength is preserving though difficult times with dignity. That sometimes you just have to “get through” and to do that you just keep going. No mithering.

In part losing Nan makes me think and feel about losing Grandad and my Dad again. While she was alive, they were alive in her. Now it’s up to us to remember them all. 

I’m going to miss you Nan. I already am. We will all miss you. Thank you for being such a big part of our lives. I hope I can be as strong as you were and love you all through every adversity. 

God bless you Nan.

Transforming Border Security: The Home Office’s Big Data and Machine Learning Strategy

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In September 2015, I had the opportunity to represent the Home Office and Border Force in a panel discussion at an event covered by Diginomica, where we delved into the transformative potential of Big Data and Machine Learning technologies. Alongside industry leaders from Jaguar Land Rover and Zurich Insurance, I discussed how the Home Office is actively leveraging Hadoop and other open-source tools to modernise its data management and decision-making processes, particularly within border security operations.

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Exploring Real-World Applications of Hadoop and Big Data, with HortonWorks, Jaguar Land Rover, Zurich Insurance, and The Home Office

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In a recent event, celebrating the opening of HortonWorks’ new London offices, three prominent organizations, Jaguar Land Rover, Zurich Insurance, and the UK’s Home Office, were invited to highlight their pragmatic use of Hadoop and big data technologies to extract value from unstructured data. I was pleased to be asked to represent the Home Office.

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Sun Microsystems Leads the Charge on Cloud Sovereignty and Security: Wayne Horkan, Sun CTO for the UK and Ireland, to form Cloud Security Forum

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In May 2009, at the Cloud Expo Europe in London, I announced my intention to form a cross-sector forum aimed at addressing the pressing security issues surrounding cloud computing. The goal was to ensure that cloud computing, especially as it becomes a critical part of the UK’s national infrastructure, remains secure and compliant with UK laws and regulations.

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Come and discuss Data Center Efficiency with The Green Grid at Sun’s London Offices on the afternoon of Tuesday the 9th of June, 2009

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We are delighted to invite you to join The Green Grid (TGG) for an EMEA Members Seminar on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 9, 2009 in London at Sun’s City Offices. Please note that this is a member-only event and pre-registration is required. During the workshop, attendees will learn about TGG’s objectives to improve energy efficiency in data centers, along with TGG’s collaboration with industry and government bodies. Participants will also discuss TGG’s latest research, including:

Places are limited and the event is almost full but if you or any of your colleagues are interested in attending, please email: admin@lists.thegreengrid.org

Feel free to contact TGG Administration at the above email address if you have any questions.

The core details for the event are:

  • Date: 9th June 2009
  • Time: 14:00 to 17:30
  • Location: Sun Microsystems Customer Briefing Center (CBC), 45 King William Street, London EC4R 9AN (near to Monument Tube station, map here)
  • Cost: Free, open to TGG members only and pre-registration is required from: admin@lists.thegreengrid.org

Sun’s liason with TGG is Mark Monroe, and you’ll notice many of the white papers and guidelines available from TGG have Mark as an author, joint author or contributor; Mark is our Director for Sustainable Computing and a member of the Eco-Responsibility Group team working out of SunLabs, our R&D; hot house.

Hopefully I should be around, although I’m currently triple booked for the day and am desperately juggling my diary; however there will be Sun staff members to help and answer any questions you may have, as required.

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EURIM 2009 Annual General Meeting at the House of Lords

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Yesterday I was at the Palace of Westminster, or rather the House of Lords, for the 2009 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of EURIM, the European Information Society Group, which “brings together politicians, officials and industry to help improve the quality of policy formation, consultation, scrutiny, implementation and monitoring in support of the creation of a globally competitive, socially inclusive and democratically accountable information society”.

I brought up three points with the EURIM Board, firstly the disparity of R&D; spending by Industry sector (and the fact that in the UK 75% of all business R&D; is done in the manufacturing industry alone, an industry provides just 13% of the GDP of the UK), secondly I asked what EURIM’s position was in response to EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding’s call for the US to hand over control of ICANN so it can be overseen by an independent international tribunal, and thirdly in regards to the UK stimulation package and it’s support, or rather lack of, the UK’s ‘Digital Infrastructure’ (more on this topic in a separate article as I’d planned for it to be one of my pieces on the economic recovery of the UK).

All three were well received, and I especially enjoyed a discussion that arose around the ‘Professionalism in IT’ agenda, and it’s likely resurgence as a topic of interest across the major stakeholders in the UK after a relatively quiet period of activity.

After the meeting I continued the conversation about IT Professionalism with Michael Gough, Head of Government Affairs at EDS and ex-Chief Executive of the National Computing Centre (NCC) where he spent eight highly productive years (Steve Markwell has taken over the reins of CEO). Of course during his tenure the NCC was one quarter of the “Prof IT Alliance“, an alliance of interested parties looking at supporting the IT Professionalism agenda (along with Intellect, the BCS, and the e-Skills Council UK, the sector skills license holder for IT and Telecoms skills).

I also spoke with industry friends and peers (including those from IBM, Microsoft, Atkins, and others), as well The Lord Renwick, EURIM President, and Dr David Wright, EURIM Deputy Secretary General.

Almost everyone asked about the Oracle acquisition of Sun, and I had to say that due to SEC rulings we wouldn’t be seeing any integration until the deal was sanctioned by the US Government. This sort of thing is the norm in large scale mergers and acquisitions born out of the US and everyone who asked were understanding of this.

The next EURIM event I’m due at is with the Conservative Technology Forum entitled “The Future of the NHS IT Program” event, where we are due to partake in a forum hosted Guy Hains, EMEA CSC Alliance, Pearse Butler, Dir UK Healthcare CSC, Dr Glyn Hayes, President of the Primary Health Care Specialist Group of the BCS, and Stephen O’Brien MP, the Shadow Minister for Health. More on the CSC Alliance here: http://www.csc.com/cscalliance

I took a few photographs yesterday whilst around and about Westminster and from within the Main Hall (the only place guests are allowed to take photos whilst in the Houses of Parliament), and thought that I’d share them with you too.

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The greatest motivation poster ever conceived? 'Keep calm and carry on'

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Friday the 13th Black Sabbath

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Happy Birthday to Black Sabbath’s first album ‘Black Sabbath‘, released on this day 39 years ago; yes that’s right on Friday the 13th, the wags.

Favourite song? ‘The Wizard’ the harmonica at the start is ace. Yes, this post is very short, and, no, it doesn’t contain any technology content.

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The Open Group release TOGAF 9

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Today the Open Group released the latest version of their Enterprise Architecture (EA) Framework “TOGAF 9” (The Open Group Architecture Framework version 9).

It’s been more than a few years at version 8 so an update was due; according to the Open Group the new version has a number of enhancements, including:

  1. Modular structure
  2. Promotes greater usability & encourages incremental adoption
  3. Supports evolutionary release management
  4. Content framework (donated by Capgemini)
  5. Extended guidance on using TOGAF
  6. Explicit consideration of architectural styles (includes integration SOA with TOGAF)
  7. SOA and Security
  8. Further detail added to the Architecture Development Method (ADM)

Allen Brown, President and CEO of The Open Group, said this about the launch:

Today sees the launch of the much anticipated TOGAF 9. From the beginning TOGAF 9 was always intended as an evolution from TOGAF 8 and this is exactly what has been delivered.

A number of enhancements within TOGAF 9 support greater usability of the overall specification. The modular structure of the specification makes it easier for an architect to consider a specific aspect of the architecture capability. In all areas, the specification seeks to add detail and clarity above and beyond previous TOGAF versions.

I wish TOGAF 9 the continued success of its predecessors and extend my thanks and appreciation to all Architecture Forum members who have involved themselves in its development at any level. It is an astonishing achievement and I am delighted to have been able to play a small part.

There have already been a number of reviews and articles about it being released, some of which are well worth having a look at, including Mike Walker’s blog article “TOGAF 9 Release and Impressions” and online IT industry magazine eBizQ’s “Open Group Releases TOGAF Version 9; Ready for SOA“.

As a whole TOGAF 9 is still rather process focused, and I doubt we’ll see a resolution to this in the short term, despite Capgemini ‘gifting’ the new Content Framework to TOGAF. As such I expect that this issue will continue to drive people to adopt elements from other EA Frameworks which are more artifact focused, however given the extensive material on how to integrate TOGAF 9 with other frameworks I don’t see this as a major issue, unless you come from an organisation where there is, or has recently been, an EA “religious war” based around a single EA ideology. If that is the case you may need to take a more pragmatic approach to deliver your EA strategy.

If you are an Architect, or work with Architects, I recommend being familiar with TOGAF and becoming certified (if this is a viable cost option). Principally because I see TOGAFs main value in bringing a common and standardised language, set of semantics and terminology to EA; acting as a “lingua franca” for the architectural community, as well as acting as a standardised approach to EA and as a robust EA Framework in it’s own right.

Sun are a partner of the Open Group and a number of us, including myself, take part in the Open Group’s ‘Architecture Forum‘, the community which defines the TOGAF standard itself.

Downloads of TOGAF 9 and other related documents, such as an introduction and a migration overview, can be found on the Open Group’s TOGAF website: http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/

he Open Group release TOGAF 9

Today the Open Group released the latest version of their Enterprise Architecture (EA) Framework “TOGAF 9” (The Open Group Architecture Framework version 9).

It’s been more than a few years at version 8 so an update was due; according to the Open Group the new version has a number of enhancements, including:

  1. Modular structure
  2. Promotes greater usability & encourages incremental adoption
  3. Supports evolutionary release management
  4. Content framework (donated by Capgemini)
  5. Extended guidance on using TOGAF
  6. Explicit consideration of architectural styles (includes integration SOA with TOGAF)
  7. SOA and Security
  8. Further detail added to the Architecture Development Method (ADM)

Allen Brown, President and CEO of The Open Group, said this about the launch:

Today sees the launch of the much anticipated TOGAF 9. From the beginning TOGAF 9 was always intended as an evolution from TOGAF 8 and this is exactly what has been delivered.

A number of enhancements within TOGAF 9 support greater usability of the overall specification. The modular structure of the specification makes it easier for an architect to consider a specific aspect of the architecture capability. In all areas, the specification seeks to add detail and clarity above and beyond previous TOGAF versions.

I wish TOGAF 9 the continued success of its predecessors and extend my thanks and appreciation to all Architecture Forum members who have involved themselves in its development at any level. It is an astonishing achievement and I am delighted to have been able to play a small part.

There have already been a number of reviews and articles about it being released, some of which are well worth having a look at, including Mike Walker’s blog article “TOGAF 9 Release and Impressions” and online IT industry magazine eBizQ’s “Open Group Releases TOGAF Version 9; Ready for SOA“.

As a whole TOGAF 9 is still rather process focused, and I doubt we’ll see a resolution to this in the short term, despite Capgemini ‘gifting’ the new Content Framework to TOGAF. As such I expect that this issue will continue to drive people to adopt elements from other EA Frameworks which are more artifact focused, however given the extensive material on how to integrate TOGAF 9 with other frameworks I don’t see this as a major issue, unless you come from an organisation where there is, or has recently been, an EA “religious war” based around a single EA ideology. If that is the case you may need to take a more pragmatic approach to deliver your EA strategy.

If you are an Architect, or work with Architects, I recommend being familiar with TOGAF and becoming certified (if this is a viable cost option). Principally because I see TOGAFs main value in bringing a common and standardised language, set of semantics and terminology to EA; acting as a “lingua franca” for the architectural community, as well as acting as a standardised approach to EA and as a robust EA Framework in it’s own right.

Sun are a partner of the Open Group and a number of us, including myself, take part in the Open Group’s ‘Architecture Forum‘, the community which defines the TOGAF standard itself.

Downloads of TOGAF 9 and other related documents, such as an introduction and a migration overview, can be found on the Open Group’s TOGAF website: http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/

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Andrew Gabriel, of the UK Systems Practice, awarded joint Patent contributing to Solaris virtualisation

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Congratulation to the UK Systems Practice’s Andrew Gabriel, who has been awarded a joint Patent entitled “Global visibility controls for operating system partitions”, along with Andrew Tucker, John Beck, David Comay, Ozgur Leonard and Dan Price. Issued as US Patent 7437556, this is the main patent covering the key inventions in Solaris Zones. For those not in the know Solaris Zones are a significant component within Sun’s Operating System Virtualisation capability and have been rolled into OpenSolaris.

For more information on Solaris and Virtualisation there’s the official Sun UK Virtualisation page. Alternately you can get in touch here and I’ll connect you with the right people inside Sun UK if I can’t answer you directly.

This is a great example of how the UK technical community is contributing to Sun Microsystems capabilities world wide. A copy of the patent can be viewed and downloaded at http://www.pat2pdf.org/

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