Learning to do business on smart phone

Karen Dearne interviewed me for an article in The Australian newspaper: "Honing small talk skills" (14 July 2009). This is one of those cases where a good journalist can listen to someone ramble on about nothing in particular and pick out a coherent message. So when I read the result I think "so that is what I was trying to say". In this case the message was that I am teaching students to communcate online, as well as learn about Green ICT:

"CAN you do business on a screen the size of a business card? That's the question Australian National University lecturer Tom Worthington is asking his students.

The adjunct senior lecturer in IT says the advent of cheap, large smartphones will place a premium on short, easily read documents.

"By next year, the normal way you'll look at a web page or read a proposal is on a smartphone screen," Mr Worthington said..."

In the new postgraduate course, Green ICT Strategies, Mr Worthington has begun teaching university students how to work in online forums. ...

Mr Worthington said public servants, in particular, needed to learn new ways to communicate more openly in light of initiatives such as web 2.0 for government.

"My hope is that students will learn to collaborate effectively online in the safe environment of a course, and then be able to apply those skills in the workplace," he said. ...

From: "Honing small talk skills", Karen Dearne, The Australian newspaper, 14 July 2009