dhis2-users team mailing list archive

[Arthur Heywood <arthurheywood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Aha ... at last a point of (semantic) disagreement!!
We ARE talking about a district health system .... that DOES involve
people, governance, leadership etc .... all the WHO building blocks .... of
which the District health Information System is a key one (the main one for
us HISPers) .....
As I see it, the DHIS Software is merely a great piece of software to
support that district health information system

Maybe we should talk about the DHISS when we talk about the software??

Yours semantically
Arthur

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On 2 May 2013 14:37, Jason Pickering <jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I am all for calling "it" what you want, but I do think "system" might be
> going a bit too far actually.
>
> DHIS is simply the software. What it is not, is the "system" which
> supports the software, the typical distinction between the "Health
> Information System" and the "Health management information
> software/system". In some cases, "system" and "software" are
> used interchangeably, and often a lot of focus is placed on the software,
> while the "system" which the software simply supports, is not provided the
> same level of thought, and is often much more complex because it involves
> people.
>
> Regards,
> Jason
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 8:24 PM, Lars Kristian Roland <lars@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
>> As an example of an abbreviation that has changed meaning, I would
>> mention GSM, which I believe first meant Group Speciale Mobile (excuse my
>> french) and later Global System for Mobile communication.
>>
>> I would support Prosper's observation that District may not cover the
>> distributed system that DHIS2 has become.
>>
>> MobiLars
>> On 2013 5 2 15:12, "Knut Staring" <knutst@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> There is indeed a long history, as Jason points out, and the "district"
>>> focus took its inspiration from the WHO Alma Ata Declaration from 1978 and
>>> its focus on Primary Health Care and "Health For All"
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Ata_Declaration
>>>
>>> Furthermore, the very first versions of DHIS came out of close
>>> collaboration with three pilot districts in Cape Town:
>>> http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/research/networks/hisp/hisp-history.html
>>> http://folk.uio.no/patrickr/refdoc/BraaHedberg02.pdf
>>>
>>> http://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/research/networks/hisp/integrated-health-information-architecture.html
>>>
>>> However, by this stage, it seems to me that the acronym DHIS has also
>>> acquired quite an identity of its own, a bit like e.g. IBM, a name much
>>> like others, which could be used without necessarily going into "what it
>>> stands for".
>>>
>>> Knut
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Jason Pickering <
>>> jason.p.pickering@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Proper,
>>>>
>>>> Remember, with open source software, you are free to call it what you
>>>> want! I know of a private company who has now forked DHIS2 and are calling
>>>> it something entirely different, for their own reasons. In other countries,
>>>> DHIS2 has been  branded differently, according to their own acronyms.
>>>>
>>>> I would however, not expect a change on this, given the long history. :)
>>>>
>>>> My two cents,
>>>> Jason
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 7:41 PM, Prosper BT <ptb3000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear team,
>>>>>
>>>>> Quite often end users especially below and above the district level
>>>>> have asked Why 'District' and we have struggled to explain this by first
>>>>> telling history. In passing someone suggested renaming District to
>>>>> Decentralized and Software to System.
>>>>>
>>>>> What it if in respect of maintaining the acronym it becomes
>>>>> "Decentralized Health Information System - DHIS?
>>>>>
>>>>> 'Don't kill the messenger'
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Prosper Behumbiize, MPH
>>>>> Phone:        +256 414 320076
>>>>> Cell:            +256 752 751776
>>>>>                    +256 702 762707
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-users
>>>>> Post to     : dhis2-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Knut Staring
>>> Dept. of Informatics, University of Oslo
>>> +4791880522
>>> http://dhis2.org
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-users
>>> Post to     : dhis2-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~dhis2-users
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>>>
>>>
>
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