In order to eliminate the "risks" involved when it comes to maintance & management, setting up 'Standard Operating Procedures' are a good start, as long as those that need to execute thse SOPs are properly educated.

What is a SOP ? According to Wikipedia a SOP is a set of instructions (with the force of a directive) covering features of operations that lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness.

So in plain English it comes to a well structured worflow that consists out of triggers, prerequisites, actors, actions, output, tools and management, that will guide those that need to execute the SOP through a management task without being 'to lawfully'. The goal is setting up SOPs that click together without be to obligatory.

A practical example of a set of SOPs that flow into a process:

A new employee has been attracted by the company, this involves a number of IT tasks that need to be executed before that employee can start working.  

So all these SOPs flow into a complete process (f.e. Setting up new employees within the IT Department), it is not only the goal to roll out high quality easy to follow SOPs but they can even be combined into (for example) a Six Sigma project that provides you with the capacity to look for (financial) improvements.

Before a SOP gets on the way, there has to be a trigger that crosses a treshold. Within a management context of a virtualized data center, this comes to planned or unplanned maintenance or a project request. What ever type of trigger occurs, it is important that these triggers are recorded in a ticketing system. In general there are three triggers:

• Planned maintenance: upgrades, fixes, rollouts, rollbacks, implementations, ... in general these planned triggers occur after the approval of a customer, a business unit or a manager. There is clearly a formal approval necessary before you can start with this planned maintenance.

• Unplanned maintenance: an event that has not been planned (for example hardware failure, ...) that requires an immediate action from the operations team. Within this case no formal approval of a customer, business unit or manager.

• Project Request: this is probably the widest of the three triggers, this ranges from setting up a new VM over creating a new vDisk, provisioning of a new server, ... In most cases the Project Requests can be planned well in advance and are based on a formal approval of the customer, business unit or manager

Now that the trigges have been defined, it is important to indicate which prerequisites need to be met before the SOP gets to work. These prerequisites are often documents or approvals from the involved party, except for the unplanned maintenance triggers. The prerequisites should also include scheduling (if possible).

Once the prerequisites have been met, it is important to indicate those that need to execute the SOP. This can be a system administrator, an IT manager, a helpdesk coordinator, IT Ops, ... make sure that you assign job roles to these actors instead of specific names.

The next step are the action steps, these steps should be prescriptive, actionable and concise, furthermore those tools that need to be used should be documented. It does not help to work out a book of actions, you should have confidence in those that take the actions as you have educated them on the actions.

• Bad example: Login to management console X, click on the server with the issue, right-click, ...
• Good example: Login to management console, put host into maintenance mode, verify no VMs running, apply patch, ...

• The goal of the SOP has been met (for example applying a patch)
• Ticket status within the ticketing system
• A formal notification
• ...

One aspect till now has not been covered: testing. Make sure you test these SOPs before you rmove them from a draft version into a final version. If testing shows errors, issues, ... change the SOP before  you move them to the final stage of implementing the SOP. When implementing these SOPs make sure that all involved parties have received the necessary training. If you have the time (you should make the time !), do a testrun with the SOP.

Also it is very smart to implement a prioritization for the SOPs, some SOPs solve bigger issues that other. For example setting up a new VM should have a lower priority than solving a security SOP on a running VM.

Do all SOPs need to be documented, as long as there is no technological solution for this, yes. Within the near future, vendors will provide the necessary tools to automate certain SOPs. For virtualization one of these tools will be Citrixs Workflow Studio. It will offer the capacity to automatically start-up new VMs when the load increases, eventhough this SOP will be automated it might be important to keep a copy of the SOP on paper.

What is the value of a SOP to a channel partner (VAR, reseller, integrator) or even an IT department with internal customers

Not only will SOPs offer, those servicing others, to increase their profitability of the system engineers executing the SOPs (locally at the customer or from remote), it also offers better 'invoicing capacity' (SOPs are ticketed, ticketing means timestamping, timestamping means invoicing). Furthermore tasks get documented, which offers the capacity for the SEs to jobrotate increase the satisfaction of the personnel.

On a commercial level it offers the possibility to increase credibility with the customer and it even opens doors when it comes to upsellin. (f.e. SOP for adding a new VM, results in the VM not being created as the hardware does not meet the prerequisites). 

Call to action

If you have any SOPs, which you wish to share with other virtualization professionals, feel free to forward the location where they can be found and we will make sure that they get the necessary visibility. We will publish a number of SOPs in the near future, in the mean time start SOPPING (not meant in literal way). 

Example set of SOPs

• Build VM
• Commission VM
• Decommission VM
• Server maintenance (multiple SOPs)
• Incident respons (multiple SOPs)
• Contact supplier / vendor for support
• Add LUN
• Remove LUN
• Patch template
• Create snapshot
• Revert snapshot
• Disk Add
• Disk Expand
• Disk Remove
• ...

In 2004 the media was full of accounts of the abuse, torture, and even murder of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison by Military Police. Photographs surfaced depicting prisoners naked and wearing cloth hoods, and being forced to masturbate, stand on boxes for fear of electrocution, and forming human pyramids. Twelve soldiers were convicted, and the commanding officer at the prison, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, was demoted to the rank of Colonel. Errol Morris’ documentary Standard Operating Procedure attempts to examine the atmosphere surrounding the abuse, the people involved, and whether it was all down to a few “bad apples”, or if it was reflective of the American military as a whole.

Morris keeps his authorial influence to a minimum, instead allowing his subjects to speak for themselves. He has interviewed several of the soldiers involved, including Lynndie England, who can be seen in many of the photographs smiling, pointing, giving a thumbs up. She and the other soldiers interviewed describe, with remarkable candour, what it was like living in Abu Ghraib prison, their relationships with each other and the prisoners, and the events and tensions surrounding those incidents depicted in the photographs. It all paints a picture of the prison as a dark and stifling environment, one just waiting to bring out the worst in people.

The real centrepiece of the film, though, are the photographs. Even four years after they dominated every front page and bulletin, they have lost none of their power to appal and disgust. Some, like the picture of a man forced to stand, arms outstretched, on a box with a cloth bag on his head, are surreal. Others, like a photograph of Sabrina Harman giving a thumbs up over a dead prisoner, are simply disturbing.

And hovering above all of this are the OGA, or Other Government Agencies, an often used euphemism for the CIA. It was during the CIA-led interrogations that the most heinous of human rights infractions were most likely carried out. But there are no photographs of these incidents. Standard Operating Procedure raises the point that it is these individuals who should have received the full brunt of the punishment, but it was simpler to lay the blame on lower ranking officers like England and Harman.

It is here that the main point of contention with Standard Operating Procedure arises. It is true that no one above the rank of Staff Sergeant was convicted. And it is true that this should not be the case, that those higher-ranking officers who let this abuse play out under their noses should be held accountable. But Morris tries to divert too much of the blame away from those who were convicted. While England, Harman and the others were just following orders and living in a deeply affecting environment, they are also human beings endowed with free will. They could have said no at any time, and just walked away.

That Standard Operating Procedure raises these arguments means that it is worthy of our time. It presents the facts as perceived by those involved, never itself commenting or judging. It leaves that to us, so that we can make up our own minds. So that perhaps we can learn from the mistakes made by others, and prevent them from happening again.

Long, well documented and highly informative. If you wonder a bit about how homo sapiens can be textually or visually oriented read this!

Photo weaponry, just great stuff.

Here is the link to Errol Morris' web site!

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• Errol Morris on "Photography as a Weapon"
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Standard Operating Procedure: The People Behind the Abu Ghraib Abuse

Academy Award winner and documentary filmmaker Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure is an inquiry into the prisoner torture and abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison. It is, predictably, a very bleak and depressing movie. But the very scale of Standard Operating Procedure, which in its expensive-looking production values, special effects and elaborately choreographed re-enactments, shows that Errol Morris has grown weary of working in the dimly lit outer fringes of motion picture productions, to which documentary filmmakers are still too often relegated.

Standard Operating Procedure is a big, provocative and disturbing work, although what makes it most provocative is that its greatest ambitions are for its own visual style. In sweeping strokes, the documentary addresses many of the issues that abound when government-authorized torture is accompanied by that very government's public denial of responsibility, leaving young male and female soldiers bereft of anything except their own poorly-informed tactics.

Morris explains that a major force driving the project was the profusion of photographs that were taken by the American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison that document, in horrifyingly graphic detail, the prisoner abuse that those very soldiers helped to perpetuate. Morris and his documentary crew "set out to examine the context of these photographs," attempting to uncover what had happened within the accepted narrative about the torture. For him the photographs functioned as both an exposé and a cover-up because while they revealed the horror, they also "convinced journalists and readers they had seen everything."

Morris wasn't convinced that he had seen everything. He made this movie, which at its finest and most focussed, tries to investigate how seeing both does and does not evolve into understanding. To that end, Morris employed two familiar documentary strategies: direct-address interviews and re-enactments in which actors re-enact actual historical events. As a tactic, the interviews with some of the soldiers who actually carried out the torture and abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison could have enabled the documentary's subjects to speak for themselves, to raise their own voices.

Unfortunately, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that even when those subjects are able to speak from the vantage point of looking back in retrospect, they are only capable of providing, or willing to provide, anything more than defensive testimonies on their own behalves.

It is testimony to a government's pervasive moral vacuum.

[wpvideo D6PuxOlu w=460]

Standard Operating Procedure: The People Behind the Abuse

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Abu Ghraib Iraq Prison Abuses, 2003

Technorati: 9/11, Abu Ghraib, Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse, Abu Ghraib Torture, Iraq Abu Ghraib prison abuse, art, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, photographs, photography, culture, cultural issues, cultural, documentary, film, movie, Errol Morris, Iraq, Iraq war, legal, legal issues, multimedia, politics, psychology, CIA, CIA interrogation techniques, social, social issues, social life, society, Standard Operating Procedure, torture, abuse, video, world

Please Remember Me and Bookmark This:

John McCain has asserted on numerous occasions that he would run an honourable campaign.  He keeps saying it, insisting that he will not be dragged into negative campaigning no matter what dirty, sneaky tactics are employed by Barack Obama. 

McCain has attacked Obama's patriotism saying, "He'd rather lose a war in order to win a campaign,"   compared him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, used ads containing Barack Obama's face printed on US currency, lied about supporting MLK Day, accused Obama of playing the race card when McCain's own campaign highlights the words "More Foreign" next to Obama's photo.  Way to be honourable, John.

Sadly, the title of my humble blog has never seemed more apt.  It not only conquers nothing, the truth simply doesn’t matter. They’ll keep swinging dead cats of various tail lengths - race baiting, fear mongering, appeals to war hero POW patriotism, rile up the Hillabots, crank up the religious right, gun nuts - looking for the three or four percent they apparently need in the swing states.  And that, among all the stunning, facepalm moments...how in the fuck are these evil fucktarded motherless shitheads not polling somewhere near Dubya's approval rating?
Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Gonzalez, Miers…these fuckwits shredded the constitution, thumbed their noses at Congress and set about conducting illegal wars based on lies; kidnapping and torturing suspects, denying habeous corpus; wiretapping their own citizens without warrant, firing federal prosecutors for not being eager enough to launch investigations into political opponents…they’ve even been so fucking petty as to add the name of a reporter who questioned the “No Fly” list TO THE “NO FLY” LIST!!!
GOPSOP. It has no limits. It is infinity sticky, like the floor in Larry Craig’s fantasy mensroom.

The will of the people is merely something that needs to be gamed, controlled, manipulated.  GOPSOPed.
John McCain is an unprincipled, lying, senile, unstable, warmongering, backward, fuckwit anachronism.   Principles?  Please.  This honourable war hero act is a filthy sham as ugly and false as the idea that George W. Bush was a strong, war time president; a decider; competent; not a bumbling moronic chimpanzee insulated from the facts and sufficiently dim to parrot the shit he was fed. 

GOPSOP.
And since it reminds me of Suess, here's the opening bit from my favourite of the Good Dr.'s and a linky clickit'n go for the rest...

At the far end of town
where the Grickle-grass grows
and the wind smells slow and sour when it blows
and no birds ever sing excepting old crows…
is the Street of the Lifted Lorax.

This morning on the subway I read an account so unsettling I almost fell over.  It is about a bunch of young gangsters, recently jailed, locked up and tortured in the prison laundry room by a group of inmates, while the guards look on.  I won’t quote from it because the passage is intricately constructed and extracting one or two of the more immediately disturbing lines would sensationalize the writing.  But my stomach dropped as I read, my knees felt week, and I had to stop and rest the galley on my hip while drawing a few deep breaths.  We were under the East River.   I spent the day wondering whether I should be reading such things.  How is this sort of reading any different from tabloid consumption or reality TV?  Does reading about atrocities make us callous, or does it help us understand?  Are responses beyond the knee-jerk “this is bad” even necessary?  We know the murders are bad, and we know, to use a similar case of recent nonfiction writing, that the torture Philip Gourevitch describes in Standard Operating Procedure is bad.  Is there any point in pushing beyond that?

The thought that I come back to is that if, too use a metaphor that’s perhaps simplistic, there is really a monster under your bed, ready to attack, you’d best pull up the covers and get a good look at it.  Then it may turn out to be only a pile of dirty socks and junk mail, no monster after all.  Or, is the case here, it may be that the accretion of familiar objects has really coalesced into a malignant creature, and maybe you can disassemble it or at the very least remain separate by maintaining your ability to see, really see it. 

Also that, in writing the horrific, narratives, at least traditional narratives that purport to make sense of things, may read like arrogant nonsense.  A recitation, hewing as closely as possible to the bare facts, is all we can swallow.  As Bolaño’s novel draws closer and closer to the murders, it seems less and less like a fiction. 

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

Errol Morris, 2008

Frederick Wiseman this is not. Nestled somewhere between effects-laden TVdocutainment and the awful personality-driven narratives of fucking Nick Broomfield (but nowhere actually near them) lies Errol Morris & The Interrotron. Whether you consider his super-stylised styles the epitome of created non-truth or the apex of fact-driven first-person revelation, one must volunteer that his tinkering with methodology and his consideration of subject is masterful, and in turning the art of interrogation on the original masters - Morris, here, investigating the prisoner torture and subsequent imagery that emerged from Abu Ghraib - he unveils one of this fascinating though supremely upsetting work's sleeve-aces.

Ostensibly its own investigation into the investigation of the participants' involvement with said imagery, it spends much time presenting us with proof of the evil that procedure made, leading to the shattering legal assertion that, actually, most of the images are often merely documents of military procedure, and therein lay his chief accusation: under the Bush regime's war on terror, even basic military procedure is scandalous, and as Phillipa Hawker rightly asserts, there is at least as much power in the interrogative usage of the images - of the act itself - as there is in the subsequent images' content.

Also, he has lately been pre-occupied with the nature of still imagery, particularly its relationship with the elastic affair of memory and, for far longer, has been pre-occupied with the notion of representation within the documentary structure, and both of these feed into one of Standard Operating Procedure's other aces: it's largely about horror film imagery, its thrust being that the horrific imagery that surfaced across the world in 2004 is the real deal; truly the true terror of so many lurid Saw's and Hostel's. Taking DP Robbie Richardson's trademarked hot-ass highlights and shaping it into some arrestingly recreated re-enactments of most of the most controversial images (and scattering them amongst the nauseating originals), Morris slyly submerges us in the viewer's contract; our role in the spectacle of cinema always one of participatory acceptance and, subsequently, the second-hand evolution stemming from such experience and the coping mechanisms that enable us to sleep that night, and the inference that these recreations are a narrative's way of communicating the truth of these images speaks, awfully, to the strength and elasticity of human acceptance in the face of brutality.

Opens today at Cinema Nova.

Well, one can't see five shows in a day at Edinburgh Film Festival without wanting to blog/brag about it, but the trouble is, one is tired.

A couple of days ago I started to flag, feeling quite ill during STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (Errol Morris said he aspired to make a film that would rob an audience of the will to live, and maybe he's done it). But I got my second wind and have been combining the odd meeting, plenty of socialising, a bit of partying, and a ridiculous amount of film-going, reasonably well. But it worried me, the tiredness. "How will I cope with my first feature film as director, should it happen, if I can't handle a ten-day film festival (with a two-day lead-in of press screenings)? But I was chatting with Martin Radich, who's just made his first feature (as director AND cinematographer) and he reckoned the fest was much harder work. So that's good.

Today was hard not just for the eleven-hour span of events, but for the fact that four out of five shows overlapped. But since nothing ever starts EXACTLY on time, even at film festivals where there are no ads and trailers, I was able to get from screen to screen without missing anything most of the time. This was made harder by the fact that no two consecutive screenings were at the same cinema, and each cinema is five-fifteen minutes' brisk walk away from the other. Bystanders would have seen a blue streak of Cherenkov radiation go by as I broke the so-called "light barrier".

The trickiest part was the two unrepeatable events which were on simultaneously with each other. This is a conundrum that has baffled some of the greatest filmgoers of our time, but I reckoned that with SUFFICIENT CONCENTRATION it should be possible to attend both events at once.

It was slightly strenuous, but anything worthwhile takes a little effort.

Posting ini sekaligus menjawab pertanyaan #wuri :

Dalam konsep Buy the Service, ada kontrak layanan yang harus dipenuhi oleh pihak operator. Kontrak layanan ini mencakup juga Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) yang meliputi :

1. Standar Operasi Pelayanan dan Pengoperasian, yang meliputi : standar kendaraan (syarat umum, syarat teknis, dan perlengkapan kendaraan), standar operasi layanan (tata cara pengoperasian), standar keselamatan, standar pelayanan jasa kepada penumpang, dan standar pelaporan (mekanisme pelaporan dan evaluasi).

2. Standar Pengemudi/Pramudi, yang meliputi : standar persyaratan minimum pramudi, standar tata cara penerimaan pramudi, standar pelatihan keterampilan, standar seragam dan perlengkapan, standar pelaporan dan koordinasi.

3. Standar Perbengkelan, yang meliputi : standar dokumen bengkel, standar fasilitas bangunan, standar SDM perbengkelan, standar peralatan dan perlengkapan, standar suku cadang, standar bahan dan material, standar pelaporan.

4. Standar Administrasi, yang meliputi : standar dokumen wajib dan standar administrasi keuangan.

Standard Operating Procedure

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Errol Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of suspected terrorists at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.(IMDB)

The story of Abu Ghraib is still shrouded in moral ambiguity, but it is clear what happened there. The Abu Ghraib photographs serve as both an expose and a coverup. An expose, because the photographs offer us a glimpse of the horror of Abu Ghraib; and a coverup because they convinced journalists and readers they had seen everything, that there was no need to look further. In recent news reports, we have learned about the destruction of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation tapes. A coverup. It has been front page news. But the coverup at Abu Ghraib involved thousands of prisoners and hundreds of soldiers. We are still learning about the extent of it.

The Hartford Courant gives it 5 stars, read it here

Do not give Doris Lessing any more prizes.

Nude men on film, must be a gag.

The underground movement of gay hip hop.

David Thomson writes a tribute to David Lean.

Mike Tyson is reinventing himself - through documentary.

Sasha Frere-Jones discusses the genius of Arthur Russell.

No love at all for Speed Racer on Screenjabber.

The Independent talks with Jodi Picoult about her new book.

New Zealand as pop mecca?

Harper's asks questions to Errol Morris.

Eddie Izzard talks to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Emmanuelle Seigner talks to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Finally, download the new episode of Silence in C Minor right here.

Jackie Clune comments on the Johnny Vegas incident.

Another day, another interview with Tina Fey.

LIZA!

Spike Lee is blogging for The Guardian from Babelgum.

Daisy Lowe and the rock 'n' roll IT girls.

Alex Turner may have dilemma on his hands as to which of his bands is better.

The Times recommends the 'Asian Bjork'.

It also profiles some bands plying their trade away from the beaten track.

Neil Diamond returns.

So do The Roots, natural successors to Diamond's crown?

As the economy falters, the art world is booming.

Richard Price discusses Lush Life and The Wire with The New Republic.

Sasha Frere-Jones is ga-ga for laser bass.

Also folks, try and keep up with Pedro Almodovar's blog which is just great.

Salon, like everyone should, urges watching Ira Glass' This American Life.

Slant has an interview with Errol Morris.

also on the subject, the new Errol Morris film (SOP : Standard Operating Procedure) tackles that subject.

Iron Man

From the very first frame, it’s clear that Robert Downey Jr.’s reputation for hazardous behaviour is going to play a key role in forging this new superhero franchise: we see him bouncing over Afghanistan desert with U.S. troops in an armoured vehicle while balancing a glass of Scotch in his hand and acting up like a celebrity bad-boy. Downey plays Tony Stark, a boy genius who grows up to become a Howard-Hughes-like industrialist and the world’s foremost arms manufacturer. His life changes in Afghanistan, when Stark's convoy comes under attack and he’s shredded by shrapnel from his own weapons—which he’s alarmed to see have fallen into the hands of the Arab evil-doers. Imprisoning the wounded Stark in a cave, his captors force him to hand-craft one of his company’s fancy new “Jericho” missiles. Instead Stark secretly forges a suit of armour so he can barge his way out of captivity. Once he’s safely back home, he publicly denounces his firm’s arms business before locking himself away in his lavish home workshop to construct a more sophisticated version of the robo-suit that he created in the cave.

Iron Man is a Popular Mechanics wet dream. It’s a special-effects movie where the effects have a heavy-metal industrial charm. Essentially, Stark is building a rocket-powered suit that works as an intricate exo-sketeton, turning him into a kind of human Transformer. Some of the film’s most satisfying action is in the sheer assembly of mechanical components. He works with voice-recognition robots, which exhibit an over-eager, puppy-dog loyalty to their master. Shades of R2-D2. Downey finds a light touch amid the heavy metal. As his mad inventor undergoes slapstick bouts of trial and error, his quicksilver pratfalls remind us this actor first rocketed to stardom playing Charlie Chaplin.

Aside from the sexy robotics, Iron Man’s chief attractions are the lead performances. Aside from Downey, there’s Jeff Bridges—unrecognizable with a shaved head and a long grey beard—who plays the villain, a treacherous executive in Stark’s company. Bridges is so good at being evil you wonder why he hasn’t done more of it. Then there’s Gwyneth Paltrow, who serves as Stark’s loyal and worshipping assistant, Pepper Potts. I don’t know where Paltrow has been hiding, but after submerging from a a series of forgettable roles, and almost vanishing from Hollywood’s radar, here she supports Downey’s miracle recovery with a startling comeback of her own. With long, golden tresses and saucer eyes, she projects the magnified allure of a comic book babe while somehow maintaining her dignity. She looks stunning, acts smart, and pulls focus in patient close-ups with a poise and grace that remind us she’s a movie star.

But the reason this review falls far short of a rave is the script, which is much less sophisticated than the tech. I’m not going to quibble with the credibility of a comic book premise, or even the notion that those Taliban types feel they could conquer the world if they could just get their hands on a dozen of them robo-suits. But it’s a shame to see a film armed with technical prowess and sharp acting flounder in a scrap heap of cliché. The portrait of the cave-dwelling Arab terrorists as a gangs of bumbling idiots and goons seems all to familiar, if not racist. It’s the kind of caricature you’d expect from wartime propaganda. And the plot itself is clunky. The whole movie feels like a bit of a throat-clearing exercise, an attempt to get a new franchise up and running. I have no doubt it will be a hit. Downey updates the superhero prototype with a unique blend of bravado and wit. Armoured with that deflective repartee, he has always acted like the smartest guy in the room. Here he plays an uncaped, unconventional crusader whose only superpower, aside from his wealth, is his intelligence. Iron Man is really Irony Man. And as he dons the turbo-charged exo-skeleton of re-salvaged stardom, it will be interesting to see if he will stay the course, or crash and burn.

Fugitive Pieces

I’ve seen this film twice now, first at a screening before last September’s TIFF premiere, then just recently to see the recut version being released in theatres. By now I’m utterly confused. Unlike millions of readers, I found it difficult to engage with the novel, which I felt was too enamoured with the beauty of its own language. And, at least on first viewing, I found it difficult to engage with Jeremy Podeswa’s film, which I felt was too enamoured with the beauty of the novel.

The story has a split-level narrative. Electing to tell the story through the eyes of Jakob, one of the book's two protagonists, the film toggles between flashbacks to his childhood as an orphaned Holocaust survivor and his adult life as a writer tormented by his past. To me, the flashback sequences work wonderfully. I couldn’t get enough of the relationship between the young Jakob (played with remarkable delicacy by Robbie Kay) and Athos, the benevolent Greek godfather who rescues him (superbly portrayed by Rade Serbedzija). But I found it hard to care about the fate of the adult Jakob (Stephen Dillane). No matter worthy his plight, it’s hard to warm to a character who’s is so priggish and self-involved. And unlike his younger self, he exists in a kind of vacuum, one occupied by ghosts. Two beautiful women enter his life. The first, Alex, (Rosamund Pike), loses her patience with his uncharitable gloom and quickly moves on. The second, Michaela (Ayelet Zurer), succeeds in supplanting his ghosts and leads him into an enduring love, but it’s hard to get a grasp on their relationship, which has a deus-ex-machina quality to it, especially with the re-jigged ending.

Regardless of the new ending, I enjoyed the movie more the second time I saw it. But perhaps that’s because I’d already processed what had irritated me the first time around. Also, knowing that it had been recut, I kept wondering what had changed, unable to find anything until the final scenes, where the absence of the cataclysmic event that originally ended the film came as a weird non-shock.

Podeswa sounds defensive in justifying the recut, which his producer Robert Lantos may have been more insistant on. Podeswa keeps pointing out that 97 per cent of the movie remains unchanged, which is an odd way to describe. As one critic cruelly commented to me, "That's like saying that we've left 97 per cent of Citizen Kane in tact, and we've just cut Rosebud."

For more on what motivated the eleventh hour surgery to Fugitive Pieces, and how it figures in Canadian cinema’s ongoing struggle to adapt CanLit, go to my article in this week’s magazine: But then why did they have to die?

Standard Operating Procedure

Errol Morris returns to his investigative roots with a film that, like The Thin Blue Line, amounts to a stylish expose of wrongful conviction. I wrote about it at length in last week’s magazine, in an article that includes an in-depth interview with Errol Morris. To read the piece and a separate transcript of the interview, go to: Shooting the Messenger

Parlem de la llibertat de premsa, de Forges, de Marlango, de les Jornades Tecnològiques de Vallfogona, Prodig,.. i repassem, com cada setmana, l'agenda cultural de les comarques TDI.
Primera part:

Segona part:

Tercera part:

Alternate Title: Blowup

Story: The Interrotron sounds like a torture device out of Star Trek, does it not? Errol Morris, the Oscar winning director of Fog of War and the amazing Thin Blue Line created a unique lens device where the subject looks directly at Mr. Morris' image and not at the camera when they are being interviewed. This allows for a more intimate portrait of the interviewee.

This time out Errol Morris tackles the national disgrace we all know as Abu Ghraib. Yes, you remember those awful images and you may have seen interviews on TV with those involved or perhaps have seen the made Rory Kennedy documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.

Morris, in a slick, breaking out of the mold, documentary presentation, interviews six of the soldiers who were directly involved and recreates some of the prison scenes.

Morris' interview technique is minimal. He asks a question and lets the camera roll. Inevitably, the subject will continue speaking when an interviewer does not interrupt. This is terrific filmmaking.

Do we learn anything new? I learned that General Sanchez, head of the operation over the prison, allowed a one day amnesty, for anyone at the prison to destroy CD's, photos, hard drives or anything else that might otherwise implicate them or anyone else. I learned that no one above the rank of Staff Sergeant was convicted of anything and I learned that these soldiers have no remorse. They were, as we all know so well, just 'following orders.'

You can probably add this fine film to the long list of Iraq War films that will not be seen by the general public. They probably prefer their War movie to be more in the line of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Sigh.

If you are not going to see the film at least spend two minutes and watch the trailer:

Acting: You will recognize the faces of those involved if you have watched this story unfold over the years. Lynndie England, Javal Davis, Sabrina Harman, Tim Dugan, Megan Ambuhl Graner, Jeremy Sivits, Janis Karpinski and Brent Pack are some of the talking heads.

Predilection: I am a political junkie.

Critters: Two very scary military police dogs.

Sex Spectrum: There is only simulated sex photos to debase the prisoners. There are many photos of naked prisoners as well. The images are very disturbing.

Blatant Product Placement: It turns out 'be all that you can be' is not such a good thing.

Soundtrack: An at times, over the top soundtrack by veteran Danny Elfman.

Theater Audience: About 50 other mesmerized theater goers at the Angelika Theater on Houston Street

Squirm Scale: It does not get much more squirmy than this.

Drift Factor: It could have been edited.

Oscar Worthy: Perhaps. It is probably released too early in the season to be considered for next year's award season. We have very short memories.

Big Screen or Rental: Rental is fine and you would do well to rent all of Morris' other films too.

Length: Two hours.

LOBO HOWLS: 7

In journalism, the credibility of interviewees is usually damaged when money is exchanged for their thoughts, raising the notion that they will say anything but the truth. Many news organizations have rules prohibiting such payments. That said, it is not uncommon for media outlets to pay for photographs or in some cases, videotape.  The entertainment divisions of big American TV networks have also been known to dole out cash for big celebrity interviews.

When I was the Executive Producer of CBC-TV News in Saskatoon in the late 1980s, I produced a controversial documentary with reporter Simon Gardner about the off-work activities of a senior officer of the Saskatoon Police department.  We had secured audio tape of a liason between the officer and a prostitute.  The relationship had been going on for awhile and was clearly inappropriate given his position with the police department. 

Just before our report was to be broadcast, I received a call from the woman's boyfriend pimp, demanding money for the information she had provided.  I said no, explaining it would be unethical and that such payment would raise questions about her credibility.  After our documentary aired, I was interviewed by a Star Phoenix reporter who asked me bluntly whether we had paid for the information.  I replied truthfully that we had not.  (Later, the officer was quietly dismissed by the city and a once promising police career ended.) 

How to make your own Judd Apatow movie.

Here's an interview with Amy Poehler.

Gervais vs Fey vs Lowe. Nerf War.

Shockingly enough, Eli Roth is aiming to hit the blockbuster circuit.

The new Dark Knight poster... I'm not loving it to be honest.

Brian De Palma's The Fury is being remade.

Guillermo Del Toro will officially be directing The Hobbit.

Jimmy Fallon to replace Conan?

Ewan MacGregor to join cast of Angels & Demons. Ewan...

A new trailer for Don't Mess With The Zohan has turned up. Adam Sandler? It's a no.

Wesley Snipes will serve 3 years. One of which must be attributed to Blade: Trinity.

SpoutBlog has a review of The Wackness.

The AV Club loved Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure.

Finally, the return of the cock!

The BBC pegs Errol Morris' Stardard Operating Procedure film to the notorious 4 year anniversary of the photos seen round the world, the Abu Ghraib torture pictures.  The BBC, conservative by U.K. standards, pulls no punches in applying the word torture to the images unlike the American press which is shamelessly mired in admistration euphemisms like enhanced interrogation.

It's Scorsese-related punnage this week.

I honestly cannot think of a worse film idea than this off the top of my head. Rob Schneider and some chick from The Hills.

Horton Hears a Who is doing really well.

A Hell Angels founder is suing HBO.

Joel Silver has got some new folks working on a Wonder Woman script.

GreenCine has some information on Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure.

You can check out the trailer for Glass, a Portrait of Philip in 12 parts.

Crank 2 has been cast.

The trailer for Henry Poole is Here is doing the rounds.

The AV Club lists sixteen unanswered television questions.

The Guardian conducts an interview with Mike Leigh.

Finally, here's the teaser for The Spirit.

2 - One of the best things about comic books being made into movies is the release of movie generated action figures. Here is some pics of the new figures from The Watchmen. Not really sure how I feel about the Nightowl one, but Rorschach is going on my shelf right next to my sweet collection of Jeff Goldblum figurines. [via Film School Rejects]

3 - I'm a big fan of David Bowie, but almost never as much as when he was rocking the space-age persona of Ziggy Stardust. Now Bowie is set to release one of the most memorable live performances from Santa Monica via 1972. Let's get the Spiders from Mars together, it's about to get galactic! [via Starpulse]

4 - Continuing with the theme of things I am a big fan of, Stephen King has decided to make a totally separate site only about The Dark Tower series. The culmination of fact and fiction in one story is the backbone to King's entire career, even though it is still going, and anyone who hasn't experienced it should begin right away. Admittedly, The Gunslinger, the first book in the series, is a little tough to get into, but push on and you shall be rewarded, sai Gunslinger, for the journey is one of the most important you shall ever take. [via Lilja's Library]

5 - I'm fairly sure this video speaks for the majority of the nation. [via Defamer via YouTube]

6 - What does Jon see in that second frame? Why does it scare me so much???. [via Garfield Minus Garfield]

7 - We've seen Snake Eyes, now here's Scarlett from the upcoming G.I.Joe live action movie. I'm feeling a little better about this every day. [via ComingSoon via JoBlo]

8 - Turing 18 years old can be a great time for anyone, but for Emma Watson it holds an even bigger banner in her life. She now has control over the $20 million dollars she has made in the first five Harry Potter films. Yep, color me envious. [via Perez]

9 - If Hitler's speeches were actually like this, I'm fairly sure he would have had more of the world on his side, or at least a contingent in South Central. [via GorillaMask via SpikedHumor]

10 - Errol Morris, the master documentary filmmaker behind The Fog of War and Thin Blue Line, is back with the world's first "non-fiction horror movie", Standard Operating Procedure (which arguably would be a fantastic title for any horror movie). His new doc details case by case and line by line the treatment of the prisoners in Abu Ghraib, so be prepared to gain a little more distaste for those in power right now. Evidently civil liberties and humanitarian rights are only things that randomly popped up in their Alpha-Bits. [via JoshSpear]

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

what's better than reading an interview with errol morris and then reading an interview with werner herzog? reading an interview with errol morris conducted by werner herzog!

in other "standard operating procedure" press junket news, harper's has an excellent review of the movie.

this movie can't come soon enough. may is entirely too long a wait.

            Universitas Bengkulu melalui visinya menyebutkan bahwa UNIB mengedepankan pelayanan prima kepada stakeholders, baik stakeholders internal maupun eksternal. Namun, visi yang amat luhur ini masih terkendala oleh berbagai factor antara lain oleh inefisiensi dalam melayani stakeholders serta banyaknya keluhan stakeholders tentang lambatnya pelayanan di UNIB ini. Dalam rangka mencapai pelayanan prima, yang ditandai oleh kepuasan stakeholders, adanya akuntabilitas publik dll maka perlu dilakukan evaluasi sejauh mana prosedur kerja telah dirancang, dilaksanakan dan direvisi serta bagaimana pelaksanaan SOP di lingkungan UNIB.

            UNIB bertekad untuk menerapkan prinsip-prinsip tata kepemerintahan yang baik (good governance), sehingga diharapkan akan mendorong terbentuknya manajemen UNIB yang lebih efisien, dan terbentuknya profesionalisme. Untuk mencapai kondisi tersebut, maka perlu adanya evaluasi  SOP yang telah ada dan merevisinya jika diperlukan, dan membuat SOP baru jika memang belum ada. Kata kunci utama dalam pembuatan SOP adalah disusun berdasarkan kebutuhan stakeholders, baik internal maupun eksternal.

Apa itu SOP?

            Standard Operating Procedure merupakan satu set pedeoman dalam suatu organisasi yang menjelaskan prosedur kegiatan rutin. SOP sangat dibutuhkan oleh suatu organisasi untuk mencapai tujuan organisasi secara efektif dan efisien. Sebelum membuat SOP, maka pada tingkat pertama UNIB  harus membuat kebijakan mutu layanan yang biasanya tertuang dalam visi, misi, dan Renstra UNIB, yang kemudian dituangkan dalam ”quality manual”.  Quality manual memuat kebijakan kualitas dan memberikan tinjauan umum dari proses-proses inti dalam suatu organisasi. Kebijakan mutu kemudian dijabarkan ke dalam SOP-SOP (tingkat kedua). SOP adalah prosedur-prosedur standard yang mendefinisikan bagaimana eksukusi berbagai tanggungjawab dari unit terkait yang relevan dengan investigasi mutu layanan. Agar SOP dapat dilaksanakan, maka perlu dibuat jabaran SOP secara teknis yang tertuang dalam instruksi kerja dalam suatu unit kerja (tingkat ke 3). Pada tingkat terakhir (tingkat ke 4) dapat dibagi menjadi dua. Bagian pertama meliputi formulir-formulir yang diperlukan untuk mendukung kegiatan layanan di UNIB, serta dokumen-dokumen pendukung terkait. Bagian kedua meliputi records yang berfungsi sebagai bukti bahwa langkah-langkah inti dari mutu layanan telah terpenuhi. Records berguna untuk analisis data dan peningkatan layanan yang berkesinambungan.

Manfaat SOP

1. dapat digunakan sebagai sarana untuk mengkomunikasikan pelaksanaan suatu pekerjaan di UNIB.
2. dapat digunakan sebagai sarana  acuan dalam melakukan penilaian terhadap proses layanan di UNIB.
3. dapat digunakan sebagai sarana pelatihan bagi staf baru sehingga mengurangi waktu yang terbuang untuk memberikan pengarahan.
4. dapat digunakan sebagai sarana mengendalikan dan menggantisipasi apabila terdapat suatu perubahan sistem di UNIB.
5. dapat digunakan sebagai sarana audit sistem informasi di UNIB.

Pembuatan SOP

A. Penilaian kebutuhan SOP

            Langkah pertama dalam membuat SOP adalah penilaian kebutuhan SOP. Jika di suatu bagian/sub bagian belum ada SOP-nya, maka pertanyaan yang perlu dicarikan jawabnya adalah ”SOP apa yang dibutuhkan oleh suatu bagian/sub bagian/UNIB? Jika sudah ada SOP pertanyaannya adalah ”Apakah SOP yang telah ada mampu memenuhi kebutuhan organisasi UNIB?

B. Pengembangan SOP

          Langkah-langkah pengembangan adalah sebagai berikut:

1. Pembentukkan tim dan kelengkapannya
2. Pengumpulan informasi dan identifikasi alternatif.
3. Analisis dan pemilihan alternatif.
4. Penulisan SOP.
5. Pengujian & Review SOP
6. Pengesahan SOP

Gambar 1. Model Penilaian Kebutuhan SOP

          Pengumpulan informasi dan data yang diperlukan untuk membuat SOP dapat dilakukan melalui brainstorming, focus group, wawancara, survey, benchmark dan telaahn dokumen. Pada tahap ini, perlu dipahami apa Tupoksi yang ada di UNIB? Perlu diidentifikasi jumlah layanan yang ada di UNIB. Setiap jenis layanan dapat menjadi SOP tersendiri, atau dapat pula jenis layanan yang sejenis/berkesinambungan dikelompokkan. Nah, layanan yang sudah dikelompokkan dibuatkan SOP-nya. Identifikasi apakah layanan telah sejalan dengan tupoksi? Identifikasi apakah di UNIB  sudah ada SOP-nya? Jika sudah, apakah sudah sesuai dengan  visi-misi UNIB yaitu memberikan pelayanan prima? Apakah layanan di UNIB sudah sesuai dengan kebutuhan stakeholders? Apakah layanan yang dilakukan telah efisien dan efektif? Adakah masalah dalam kegiatan layanan di UNIB? Efektifkah prosedur yang telah ada? Bandingkan dengan prosedur di tempat lain? Jika ada masalah, bagaimana prosedur-prosedur itu seharusnya berdasarkan data dan informasi yang ada? Dan lain-lain! Sebagai contoh, ditemukan bahwa di bagian kepegawaian terdapat masalah lamanya proses kenaikkan pangkat/jabatan fungsional, dosen kesulitan dalam mengurus kenaikkan jabatan/pangkat, dosen tidak tahu cara menghitung KUM, staf bagian ini kurang terampil, pimpinan menghambat, sidang senat universitas tidak jelas dll. Masalah-masalah ini kemudian dicarikan akar masalahnya, keterkaitan antar masalah dll., dan berdasarkan hal ini kemudian dibuat SOP yang mampu mengatasi akar masalah tersebut.

          Setelah kita mengumpulkan informasi dan data yang dibutuhkan serta telah mengidentifikasi apa yang terjadi, apa akar masalahnya, maka tahap selanjutnya adalah menganalisis dan memilih alternatif-alternatif prosedur (untuk memecahkan akar masalah dalam layanan) yang berhasil diidentifikasi untuk dibuatkan standardnya. Dalam tahap ini kita menganalisis a) kelayakan prosedur: realistik? Implikasinya? Reaksi yang mungkin timbul? Dll!, b) Implementasi: dapat diimplementasikan? Perlu training? Perlu sarana/prasarana baru? Perlu jabatan baru? Dll., c) Kesesuaian dengan peraturan perundang-undangan, d) kelayakan politis: mencerminkan aspek akuntabilitas? Mempengaruhi citra UNIB? Dll. Hasil kegiatan ini dapat dilokakaryakan untuk mendapatkan masukan dari berbagai pihak.

Tabel 1. SOP yang disusun oleh UI

          Setelah dianalisis maka tahap berikutnya adakah pembuatan SOP. Dalam hal ini perlu dipertimbangkan sebelum membuat SOP yaitu tentang apa tipe SOP yang akan dibuat, format SOP yang dipilih. Seperti yang telah saya sampaikan bahwa setiap jenis layanan dapat dibuatkan SOP-nya, tetapi dapat pula layanan sejenis dikelompokkan kemudian dibuat SOP-nya. Untuk cara yang terakhir, SOP disusun dalam bentuk modul. Jika terdapat 10 layanan, maka dalam satu SOP terdiri dari 10 modul. Modul dalam SOP terdiri dari nama modul, tujuan, ruang lingkup, referensi, sarana, prosedur kerja, flowchart & lampiran. Misalnya, di subbagian regristrasi terdapat 6 layanan seperti daftar ulang, penerimaan mahasiswa PPA & PBM, regristrasi mahasiswa PPA & PBM, penerimaan mahasiswa lewat SPMB, penerimaan mahasiswa diploma, pembuatan KTM non reguler. Maka dalam SOP ini terdiri dari enam modul. Bisa saja setiap layanan dibuat SOP-nya. UI misalnya, mengidentifikasi bahwa di UI untuk 12 fakultas dan 1 PPS terdapat 2000 jenis layanan. Pada tahap pertama UI membuat 17 prosedur seperti yang tertera dalam Tabel 1.

          Format SOP bervariasi diantara organisasi. Tidak ada format baku yang wajib dianutnya. Pada umumnya SOP (adminsitrasi) mempunyai kelengkapan sebagai berikut:

1. Sistem penomoran: penting untuk pengintegrasian SOP individual ke dalam  seluruh sistem.
2. Kategori SOP: misal penanganan data (DATA), administrasi (ADM).
3. Tanggal efektif: tanggal dimana SOP secara resmi digunakan.
4. Tanggal revisi: tanggal diperlukannya revisi secara periodik jika diperlukan.
5. Halaman judul: judul, nomor identifikasi SOP, tanggal pembuatan/revisi, tanda tangan dan tanggal penandatanganan oleh pejabat.
6. Daftar isi
7. Prosedur terdiri atas: a) tujuan, b) dapat diterapkan: mengidentifikasikan kapan prosedur yang telah disusun harus dilaksanakan, c) ringkasan, d) definisi: mengidentifikasi beberapa definisi yang digunakan dalam SOP terkait, e) kualifikasi personel: mengidentifikasi beberapa kualifikasi yang harus dimiliki oleh pengguna, f) kriteria, checklist atau standard lain yang harus diterapkan: menidentifikasi semua langkah langkah dan bahan-bahan yang dibutuhkan untuk menunjang prosedur, g) pencatatan: mencatat format yang digunakan, lokasi tempat file, dsb. Dapat pula dibuatkan latar belakang pembuatan SOP sebelum menulis tujuan.
8. Kontrol kualitas dan jaminan kualitas: menggambarkan beberapa langkah pengawasan dalam proses pengiriman atau penerimaan suatu produk.
9. Referensi

Adalah penting bahwa sebelum membuat SOP, UNIB perlu membuat SOP untuk pembuatan SOP di lingkungan UNIB.  Hal ini  bertujuan agar terdapat keseragaman format dalam pembuatan SOP di UNIB.
Contoh 1. SOP Pengajuan Cuti Tahunan (Format simple steps SOP)

Standard Operating Procedure