<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Excellent topic deserving of more investigation.<div class="">Because maintenance is unglamorous and people would rather not think about it, it is</div><div class="">highly vulnerable to dishonest behaviour, and there is indeed a dark side to it.</div><div class="">In construction one should cite monopolistic cartels in elevator and HVAC maintenance.</div><div class="">Consumable products used in maintenance are also a source of significant corruption</div><div class=""> </div><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div>A N D R E W R A B E N E C K<br class=""></div></div></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 28 Oct 2020, at 11:00, <a href="mailto:themaintainers-request@lists.stevens.edu" class="">themaintainers-request@lists.stevens.edu</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class="">Send Themaintainers mailing list submissions to<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><a href="mailto:themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu" class="">themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu</a><br class=""><br class="">To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers<br class="">or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>themaintainers-request@lists.stevens.edu<br class=""><br class="">You can reach the person managing the list at<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>themaintainers-owner@lists.stevens.edu<br class=""><br class="">When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific<br class="">than "Re: Contents of Themaintainers digest..."<br class=""><br class=""><br class="">Today's Topics:<br class=""><br class=""> 1. Re: Maintenance & Underground Damages (Shu Chang-Xue)<br class=""> 2. Re: Maintenance & Underground Damages (Varun Adibhatla (ARGO))<br class=""><br class=""><br class="">----------------------------------------------------------------------<br class=""><br class="">Message: 1<br class="">Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:38:31 +0100<br class="">From: Shu Chang-Xue <shuchangxue@gmail.com><br class="">To: lee vinsel <lee@themaintainers.org>,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"Varun Adibhatla (ARGO)"<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><varun@argolabs.org><br class="">Cc: themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu<br class="">Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] Maintenance & Underground Damages<br class="">Message-ID:<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><CAHLmT8-gg_Pp4hyB0jeHahT7uKuRfoxpYru6VZkSRAGmjmDu5Q@mail.gmail.com><br class="">Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"<br class=""><br class="">Hi Vroon and Lee,<br class=""><br class="">Thanks for sharing. Please count me in for potential discussions about leaks,<br class="">cracks, and holes and digital systems that offer preventative maintenance<br class="">at scale. I am thinking of engaging young engineer-architects (or students) in<br class="">these topics. I will certainly share your blog post within my milieu of<br class="">engineers and architects.<br class=""><br class="">I am also wondering what does it mean when you say "dark side" of<br class="">maintenance. As you mentioned the damages caused by excavators, I would<br class="">like to understand what kinds of projects (and purposes) the "excavators"<br class="">were really doing for? Are they really "maintenaners"? or, are they just<br class="">conducting projects while carelessly caused (potential) damage on nearby<br class="">facilities like the gas utilities you work on. I feel that in many cases,<br class="">the damages in question are actually caused by the bad coordination between<br class="">different systems of infrastructure, or whatever responsible<br class="">stakeholders/authorities.<br class=""><br class="">Just a thought.<br class=""><br class="">Changxue Shu<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 16:02 lee vinsel <lee@themaintainers.org> wrote:<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Vroon!<br class=""><br class="">I like this a lot. I'm copying the whole list on my reply because several<br class="">people have mentioned over the past few years that they would like to<br class="">explore the dark sides of maintenance. (As Andy and I try to make clear in<br class="">our book, acting as if maintenance is implicitly good is as silly/blind as<br class="">acting as if innovation is implicitly good - after all, systems of<br class="">injustice and, for instance, greenhouse gas emissions also have their<br class="">maintainers.)<br class=""><br class="">I'm wondering if you'd be willing to write your email up into a brief blog<br class="">post. It needn't even be much longer than your original message. Then we<br class="">could share it with a wider audience. And maybe even start a series on<br class="">maintenance's dark sides.<br class=""><br class="">Lee<br class=""><br class="">On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 8:47 AM Varun Adibhatla (ARGO) <varun@argolabs.org><br class="">wrote:<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Hello there kindred maintainers,<br class=""><br class="">Varun here. Hope all of you are well and maintaining thyselves through<br class="">trying times.<br class="">I work at a company that uses Machine Learning and Spatial Analysis to<br class="">prevent Damages to Underground Gas Distribution Assets.<br class=""><br class="">Thought I'd share some insights from the 2 years I've spent working<br class="">alongside some of the largest underground (and oldest) utilities.<br class=""><br class="">The Common Ground Alliance publishes the appropriately named DIRT report<br class="">that illustrates the scale of the Underground damage problem. They cause<br class="">the US Economy upwards of $30 Billion every year.<br class=""><br class="">A lot of these damages are caused by excavators (the folks probably<br class="">opening up your street right now) who "move too fast and break things"<br class="">(quite literally). Here's what I found interesting though. A lot of these<br class="">damages are caused by maintenance work.<br class=""><br class="">Specifically, the installation and replacement of road, water and sewer<br class="">infrastructure that tends to be deeper underground than Gas / Electric or<br class="">Fiber Infrastructure. Often this maintenance work has led to not only fatal<br class="">gas explosions, but also taken out critical fiber infrastructure that<br class="">recently took out Virginia's Voter registration system.<br class=""><br class="">I share this story because it offered me some pause in what has otherwise<br class="">been a celebration of everything maintenance. If any of you are interested<br class="">in talking about leaks, cracks, and holes and digital systems that offer<br class="">preventative maintenance at scale, give me holler @vr00n on Twitter!<br class=""><br class="">Stay well.<br class="">Varun<br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Themaintainers mailing list<br class="">Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu<br class="">https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers<br class=""><br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><br class="">--<br class="">Co-Director<br class="">The Maintainers<br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Themaintainers mailing list<br class="">Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu<br class="">https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers<br class=""><br class=""></blockquote>-------------- next part --------------<br class="">An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br class="">URL: <http://lists.stevens.edu/pipermail/themaintainers/attachments/20201027/a6a00248/attachment-0001.html><br class=""><br class="">------------------------------<br class=""><br class="">Message: 2<br class="">Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2020 10:02:08 -0400<br class="">From: "Varun Adibhatla (ARGO)" <varun@argolabs.org><br class="">To: Shu Chang-Xue <shuchangxue@gmail.com><br class="">Cc: themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"Varun Adibhatla \(ARGO\)"<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><varun@argolabs.org><br class="">Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] Maintenance & Underground Damages<br class="">Message-ID:<br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><CACQpXG7ktfHF0D6ibw+b4bokY2yCqJ7Tfmm6w7Xjr0GQOfQ2Ew@mail.gmail.com><br class="">Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"<br class=""><br class="">Hello Lee & Hello Changxue! Nice to meet you!<br class=""><br class="">@Changxue - You are absolutely right. It's gaps in the coordination of the<br class="">(often maintenance work) that is causing the issue.<br class="">Not sure if you are based in or outside the US / but here every state has a<br class="">one call center that coordinates excavation work. Anyone who digs must call<br class="">811 to call in their dig so that underground utilities can mark their<br class="">assets. Asset Owners are liable and responsible to mark.<br class="">However, In many states, Municipal Excavations are exempt from this process<br class="">and even if they are not - data quality on the location of water & sewer<br class="">assets is notoriously bad.<br class="">So while the governor of Michigan may be spending $10s of Billions in<br class="">repairing water and sewer, due to the bad data, no standards, and poor<br class="">coordination, the very repair breaks other infrastructure leading to<br class="">overall low returns on the investment.<br class="">If a tenth of any government sponsored infrastructure project was also<br class="">invested in building associated data, standards, and coordination<br class="">infrastructure - future maintenance needn't be tainted.<br class=""><br class="">@Lee - Broadening the discourse to explore maintenance's dark side only<br class="">serves the cause even further by maintaining the maintenance narrative? ;)<br class="">Too meta this early in the morning? Ha!<br class=""><br class="">Vroooooon<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 8:39 AM Shu Chang-Xue <shuchangxue@gmail.com> wrote:<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Hi Vroon and Lee,<br class=""><br class="">Thanks for sharing. Please count me in for potential discussions about leaks,<br class="">cracks, and holes and digital systems that offer preventative maintenance<br class="">at scale. I am thinking of engaging young engineer-architects (or<br class="">students) in these topics. I will certainly share your blog post within<br class="">my milieu of engineers and architects.<br class=""><br class="">I am also wondering what does it mean when you say "dark side" of<br class="">maintenance. As you mentioned the damages caused by excavators, I would<br class="">like to understand what kinds of projects (and purposes) the "excavators"<br class="">were really doing for? Are they really "maintenaners"? or, are they just<br class="">conducting projects while carelessly caused (potential) damage on nearby<br class="">facilities like the gas utilities you work on. I feel that in many cases,<br class="">the damages in question are actually caused by the bad coordination between<br class="">different systems of infrastructure, or whatever responsible<br class="">stakeholders/authorities.<br class=""><br class="">Just a thought.<br class=""><br class="">Changxue Shu<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 16:02 lee vinsel <lee@themaintainers.org> wrote:<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Vroon!<br class=""><br class="">I like this a lot. I'm copying the whole list on my reply because several<br class="">people have mentioned over the past few years that they would like to<br class="">explore the dark sides of maintenance. (As Andy and I try to make clear in<br class="">our book, acting as if maintenance is implicitly good is as silly/blind as<br class="">acting as if innovation is implicitly good - after all, systems of<br class="">injustice and, for instance, greenhouse gas emissions also have their<br class="">maintainers.)<br class=""><br class="">I'm wondering if you'd be willing to write your email up into a brief<br class="">blog post. It needn't even be much longer than your original message. Then<br class="">we could share it with a wider audience. And maybe even start a series on<br class="">maintenance's dark sides.<br class=""><br class="">Lee<br class=""><br class="">On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 8:47 AM Varun Adibhatla (ARGO) <<br class="">varun@argolabs.org> wrote:<br class=""><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class="">Hello there kindred maintainers,<br class=""><br class="">Varun here. Hope all of you are well and maintaining thyselves through<br class="">trying times.<br class="">I work at a company that uses Machine Learning and Spatial Analysis to<br class="">prevent Damages to Underground Gas Distribution Assets.<br class=""><br class="">Thought I'd share some insights from the 2 years I've spent working<br class="">alongside some of the largest underground (and oldest) utilities.<br class=""><br class="">The Common Ground Alliance publishes the appropriately named DIRT report<br class="">that illustrates the scale of the Underground damage problem. They cause<br class="">the US Economy upwards of $30 Billion every year.<br class=""><br class="">A lot of these damages are caused by excavators (the folks probably<br class="">opening up your street right now) who "move too fast and break things"<br class="">(quite literally). Here's what I found interesting though. A lot of these<br class="">damages are caused by maintenance work.<br class=""><br class="">Specifically, the installation and replacement of road, water and sewer<br class="">infrastructure that tends to be deeper underground than Gas / Electric or<br class="">Fiber Infrastructure. Often this maintenance work has led to not only fatal<br class="">gas explosions, but also taken out critical fiber infrastructure that<br class="">recently took out Virginia's Voter registration system.<br class=""><br class="">I share this story because it offered me some pause in what has<br class="">otherwise been a celebration of everything maintenance. If any of you are<br class="">interested in talking about leaks, cracks, and holes and digital systems<br class="">that offer preventative maintenance at scale, give me holler @vr00n on<br class="">Twitter!<br class=""><br class="">Stay well.<br class="">Varun<br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Themaintainers mailing list<br class="">Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu<br class="">https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers<br class=""><br class=""></blockquote><br class=""><br class="">--<br class="">Co-Director<br class="">The Maintainers<br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Themaintainers mailing list<br class="">Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu<br class="">https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers<br class=""><br class=""></blockquote><br class=""></blockquote>-------------- next part --------------<br class="">An HTML attachment was scrubbed...<br class="">URL: <http://lists.stevens.edu/pipermail/themaintainers/attachments/20201027/a37eca3a/attachment-0001.html><br class=""><br class="">------------------------------<br class=""><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">Themaintainers mailing list<br class="">Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu<br class="">https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers<br class=""><br class=""><br class="">End of Themaintainers Digest, Vol 56, Issue 12<br class="">**********************************************<br class=""></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></body></html>