About Pulpp.
plan . understand . learn . practice . pass on

[insert about me]

I have tried lots of ways to describe Pulpp. Here is the simplest…

Pulpp is a solution that holds a repository of curated and continually updated useful knowledge about digital transformation in the public sector, specifically the NHS and shared between, and supported by, a like minded community. It uses a wiki as its central repository and builds content based on the needs and requests of its community.

I know, I know. There's a lot of text on this website. I build and write contracts and other long dusty tomes. I am overly keen to try and get every little bit of thought out of my head into these pages in the hope that you will have all the information you need. I know it doesn't work like that but hey, everyone learns differently. That's why each page has a video that you can quickly watch to get the same thing as reading all the words.

I do find it is important to provide a written record of what Pulpp is and why I have made it. I will work to make more summaries of the long stuff and try and improve on what is already here.

This one is simple. You can read more about this on the Plain Text Public Sector Project Page. Where pictures are needed for a genuine purpose they will be in here, but you won't find pictures for the sake of it. This website tries to keep its footprint down and lower the resources needed to run it (I get that the videos are bigger but they are useful and support a visual learning style whereas a stock image of people working in an office serves no purpose at all!). More importantly, this whole website is made available as part of Plain Text Pulpp which allows you to easily set up you own version of Pulpp.

I love plain text, I think we are missing a trick in not resorting back to these simpler technologies. I can build this whole site in my text editor and control everything with software development tools. Its easier, quicker and means I can run Pulpp with a lot less resources.

Pictures are great and they do speak a thousand words but they need to be saying something useful.

I have been a commercial and procurement advisor for many years to NHS Trusts. I have often had to duplicate efforts, answer the same questions, and provide the same support to different clients. This is inefficient.

I have also seen suppliers create entire business models out of the lack of sharing and collaboration between public sector organisations. I have observed different organisations make the same expensive mistakes because they did not publicly share their lessons learnt. I have seen freely available government documentation repackaged and sold as "advice" from "experts". We have all seen silos of information, locked away, privatised, licenced and all have felt the negative impacts of these practices.

We need more open systems to share knowledge widely and effectively.

Pulpp will pull together all my knowledge into a single location. Document templates, useful websites, document reviews, training material, contract mark up, interesting data, all of it will be pooled into a central location. All original content will be fully open source allowing subscribers to take anything from within Pulpp and reuse it for their own needs - no charge, no restrictions.

I have a number of projects in mind that provide some direction and content but Pulpp offers a place for subscribers to submit their own queries, requests, and clarifications. I will help to build and answer these as part of your subscription.

Unlike the past where the outputs of my work would go to only one client, the outputs of all work will be available to all subscribers. If one client wants a review of a new government guidance document, every subscriber will get that review.

Pulpp will become a place to share knowledge between all sectors and improve collaboration at a time when funding and resources are hard to come by. By accepting open standards and a shared mindset of open knowledge I am confident we can create a sustainable community driven solution to knowledge silos

The value of Pulpp is in the content, not in any sort of vendor specific software solution that locks you in and requires you to learn new skills. Our tools are primarily open source and focus on using existing technologies with a very low barrier to entry. We will be focussing on using Mediawiki (the same software that powers Wikipedia), email using GNU Mailman for those that want to engage in longer form conversations, and WhatsApp, to provide a simple notification channel (we know this one isn't open source but WhatsApp is ubiquitous and very easy to use - it's perfect for this simple use case.

There's no secret about the technologies we use because the benefits of Pulpp. are not tied up in a specific solution. Our idea is openly sharing knowledge and community building around the principles of openness and collaboration for the benefit of the NHS, and more specifically the outcomes for NHS patients if we all do our jobs well.

To learn more about the tools we use please follow the link below.

Our Tools…

As always the answer to solve all

Pulpp curates an online repository free to access for all clients. This repository is filled with information from various 'Pulpp Projects'. Each project collects, organises, and formats information in its own way to fit into the repository. For example, the Pulpp Clarifications Project uses simple email to generate a monthly set of responses from across the Pulpp community. The Electronic Services Information Project has a basic template that can be filled out by suppliers and submitted. the Lessons Learnt Project has both a template approach but offers more interactive and engaging interviews.

All this information from the projects are brought into one easy to use wiki portal giving you access to a broad and continually evolving knowledge base.

The best part about using a wiki solution for the knowledge base is the ability to link everything very organically and therefore find new information related to your area of interest. You shouldn't need to know the answer to ask the question. Pulpp aims to help you find information easily and based on relationships and not on whether you already knew of its existence.

Pulpp. is built using as many open source tools as possible and is committed to making all content within the knowledge base open source too. All content will be licenced under Creative Commons CA BY-SA (learn more here) which will allow users to take any of the documents or entries in the knowledge base and freely share and adapt it. You can even use the content in commercial products or as part of a paid for service.

This is a core feature of Pulpp and will be protected forever. Our aim is to allow for greater openness, freedom, and collaboration of knowledge and data. By building the best tools and sharing the best know how we can create a reliable and robust source of knowledge for all.

For more information on how open source is the cornerstone of Pulpp please follow the link below.

Open Source Principles

Pulpp is owned and operated by David and Keith Mizon, both of whom have worked as commercial and procurement advisers to the NHS. Pulpp is totally owned by those operating it and has been specifically set up to be useful as a community asset from the outset.

Pulpp's creation is about providing a positive disruption to knowledge management first. Its success as a commercial enterprise is important only to maintain the community. Pulpp will not be sold and plans for how Pulpp can be handed back to the community have been developed and will be enshrined in the Pulpp Constitution.

For more information on the governance of Pulpp. please follow the link below.

Ownership and Governance

I created Pulpp to serve a community interested in collaborating and creating open source tools. Pulpp is first and foremost a community based on information sharing and collaboration. Communities are vital for building enduring relationships and sustainable, long-term change. Having a space and agreed principles helps to create a focus for the community and offer a framework in which we can operate.

Pulpp works with its clients to help them share their useful thoughts and information for the benefit of all other clients. Unlike most government information shares, Pulpp includes the private and academic sectors. This allows for better collaboration, sharing, and cross-pollination with key stakeholders in transformation.

As the community develops, Pulpp may be able to open up more and allow the community to generate and curate its own content. The beauty of the open source principles of Pulpp are that the ability to develop and improve Pulpp is already baked into the solution. If there's something you think can be done better you can simply make the change yourself and tell the community!

Pulpp is a "libre" solution that is 'Free as in free speech, not as in free beer'. That being said, I believe Pulpp is affordable and value for money.

Pulpp is open source, the content of Pulpp can be freely copied, adapted, or even sold on (you can build your own improvements on Pulpp outputs and sell them). Once its built you have access to it for life. Pulpp offers clients solutions to take monthly downloads of all Pulpp data. If you choose to leave Pulpp you keep everything that you have downloaded. You simply lose access to the ongoing future content. For more information please see the licensing information. That might seem like madness but that is why there is a subscription. It allows the content to be curated, reviewed, moderated, and updated regularly.

Pulpp offers clients the opportunity to pay a much smaller fee for advice and supporting information than traditional consulting by sharing the outcomes of all its work with all clients. Instead of one client paying a lot of money for advice (and then keeping that advice to itself) the cost is spread over the community and so is the benefit.

The charges for Pulpp cover the cost to build and curate all the information in the first instance. It covers my time to research and understand the latest guidance and to continually review and update the content.

The charges also allow me to create a model that is fairer and more useful. Open source has its risks for me as the 'developer' but offers immense benefits for the community. Charges help me keep Pulpp professional, keep my focus in the community, and delivering continual improvement.

In the future, Pulpp may move to a full sponsorship model which will support the best of both worlds. I will be able to maintain focus and professionalism of the service and subscribers will have free access to Pulpp as a genuine 'free-to-all' community service.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of Pulpp, please use the contact page to reach out.