First Canberra JavaScript Meetup

Web application design company Icelab hosted the First Canberra JavaScript Meetup last night at its Civic office.

Christopher Giffard talked about Behavior Assertion Sheets (Bas), for integration testing of web applications. Uses CSS syntax as a declarative language, accessibility. As example would be to make sure headings of a web pages are readable to a specified level.

Ben Williamson of Reasonwell demonstrated parsing URLs to extract user data (such as user names) This has an addition benefit that invalid URLs (according to the constructed Parser) are rejected rather than producing some unexpected result.

A prototype of the new Blogging platform Ghost was demonstrated. It is implemented using some concepts from the Haskal programming language.

It was interesting to see esoteric concepts which computing students grumble about learning, but applied in real world applications.

The meetup was held in the the Icelab office in civic, in the Canberra Innovation Precinct next to ANU. This area has expanded beyond the planned City West development and is spreading organically into the adjacent city offices. Icelab have a typical high tech startup office with beanbags, Aeron chairs by Herman Miller, Ball Chairs by Eero Aarnio (for that Austin Powers look), a sofa and bicycles in the corner.

Australian Industry Innovation Precincts Proposed

The Australian government has proposed up to ten Industry Innovation Precincts at a cost of $500M to "drive productivity, improve connections between business and the research sector and mobilise Australian industry to compete more successfully in global markets." Each precinct will have a research organization (university or CSIRO) as well as business, to foster mobility between academic institutions and businesses.

Available are:

1. Executive Summary
2. The full statement: "A Plan for Australian Jobs: The Australian Government's Industry and Innovation Statement
3. Media release: "Industry Innovation Precincts to create jobs of the future", Media Release, Minister for Industry and Innovation, the Hon Greg Combet AM MP, and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Hon Joe Ludwig, 17 Feb 2013

Many local, regional and national governments have tried to reproduce "Silicon Valley", with limited success in these Silicons. In 1996 I visited Cambridge (England) to see how the technology companies around the university developed. This became known as "Silicon Fen" through a process known as the the "Cambridge phenomenon". In "Building Arcadia" I suggested how this could be emulated in Australia, laking use of locations such as the Australian Technology Park (ATP) in Sydney. Later NICTA, was set up at the ATP to foster innovation in the ICT industry. Australian governments have so far invested $1B in NICTA at several sites across Australia.

In Canberra the "Innovation ANU" program was et up to teach university students how to turn a scientific discovery into a business. This was later was was broadened to "Innovation ACT" for students at all Canberra's universities. I suggest that program could be broadened again and delivered on-line to students at all the ten new Innovation Precincts, and elsewhere across Australia. Such a program could combine nationally delivered on-line materials with local "un-conference" events, which bring people from different fields together. A good example of an unconferecne is BarCamp Canberra, this year at the Inspire Centre, University of Canberra, 16 March (purpose built for this type of learning event). A national innovation program could offer participants a formal university qualification, counting towards a degree.


The new policy mentions CSIRO, but curiously does not mention NICTA. The investment of $50M per precinct proposed in the new government policy is minimal compared to the cost of initiatives such as NICTA and CSIRO. However, this would be useful in making linkages between research and industry, if used to accelerate already emerging precincts. An example is "City West,  with the ANU Exchange development, to the west of the Canberra CBD, where the ANU campus is blending with government and private enterprises, related to education and research.

Dejan Andrevski on Pitching an Innovation

Greetings from Innovation ACT at the Australian National University in Canberra, where Dejan Andrevski is facilitating a workshop on Refining Your Pitch. This is to help teams of Canberra university students and staff who are competing for prizes based on their presentation of a business idea.

The six questions Dejan suggested you need to present are: what is the product, who is the market, where will revenue come from, who are you, who is the competition and what is you advantage. He suggested limiting the pitch to about 200 words. It seems to me that the pitch needs to be about as long as  Tweet, which is 140 characters (allowing for abbreviations used in text messages this is about the same as 200 words of spoken text). Dejan suggests including something visual, preferably a demonstration.

At question time the participants put Dejan on the spot by asking him to give the pitch for one of his start-ups. I did a quick search and found a video made about one of these "GiftaBall". It is not a video of the pitch, but instead an short video about the product.

Last week, at the 2012 Walter Burley Griffin Memorial Lecture, both Lucy Turnbull and and Professor Alastair Swayn (ACT Government Architect) mentioned the role of universities in promoting innovation and spinning off new industries. The ANU was mentioned in particular. The Innovation ACT events are held at ANU Commons, a new building on the edge of the campus, in the innovation zone between the formal campus and the Canberra CBD. This is becoming a zone for innovation industry.

As part of the learning experience I made up a product idea, so I had something to try pitching:

Team BooKs: Our product is online accredited courses for masters and PHD university students. Universities now have to compete globally for students. Those students want vocationally relevant and accredited qualifications, usable across the world. We offer universities packaged on-line courses branded with their logo, pre-approved by global and leading national professional standards setting body. This allows universities to avoid complex national approval processes and offer a global qualification as part of their program. We charge the university a fee to use the course. We are a team of award winning professional educators, with the contacts to navigate the complex approvals processes. Individual universities and some consortia offer accredited courses for some countries, but tend not to address global requirements. Some universities and non-profit bodies now offer free online courses, but these are not recognised by accreditation bodies and have a high drop-out rate.

New management learning centre in Canberra

The Australia Institute of Management opened their new training facility in Canberra's City West Precinct. This part of the city is rapidly developing with the ANU Exchange, providing accommodation and entertainment for Australian National University students. As has happened around other major universities, hi-tech companies and commercial training providers are moving in to be close to the skills and clients the ANU attracts.

AIM's new training center has the "airport executive lounge" look now popular for education facilities (featured in many presentations at the 2011 Learning Commons Development and Design Forum). This has a muted color scheme, with polished stone, light colored wood.

AIM have inside the front door a reception counter, a library (with real books, as well as eBooks) and a kitchen counter. Opposite the reception desk is a large space which can be divided into two training rooms, by using movable walls.

One corridor has small four to eight seat tutorial rooms (with LCD panels for presentations). The rooms have large glass sliding doors on both sides, so that when not in use the space can be opened out. There is a glass wall to a courtyard beyond, which can be used for functions. As a result, it is possible to use the whole space for large functions, or divide it up for separate classes.

The layout looks well thought out. While the materials look high quality, they are also hard wearing. Unlike some university learning centers, there are no gimmicky circular learning pods, or cones of silence. Everything is rectangular to be easily divided, to make maximum use of space. An example of detail in design are that some of the bookshelves for the library are on wheels, allowing the library space to be opened up for functions.

Those considering what a learning center at a university, government department or corporation could look like, should drop in to see the new AIM Canberra offices.