Cronulla Street Exhibition in Canberra

I dropped into the University of Canberra’s Inspire Centre today and had a tour of the "Cronulla Street Exhibition" by James Steele. The work is a series of photographs showing changes in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla, as documented by photographs by the same photographer, at the same places, forty years apart. The work is on display until 28 September 2012. Also on display on the the large screen in the Inspire main space is a multimedia work, in collaboration with centre staff.

CoMConnect: Exploring Melbourne's Digital Future

The city of Melbourne is hosting "CoMConnect: Exploring Melbourne's Digital Future", 11 August 2012. This is a free "un-conference" on how how digital technology can improve Melbourne.

This may be of interest to teachers, as education is a big part of the Digital City. Also other cities have Digital City programs, including the Wellington Digital Strategy and Action Plan, Digital Manchester and Canberra My Digital City innovation prize.

I booked to attend the event, when I was in Melbourne for ICCSE2012, but the event was delayed due to the Melbourne state by-election. So I will not now be able to attend, but here are some suggestions I have for a digital Melbourne:

1. Fix MiKi Ticketing system: On my recent visit to Melbourne I tried Miki smart ticketing system. This was much more difficult and unreliable than systems in places such as Istanbul and Canberra. I suggest Melbourne and the Victorian government obtain federal government support and funding for making all the state smart ticket systems inter-operable, so that someone with a MiKi could use it in other states (and at the same time they could fix the problems with the MiKi).
   
2. Lego Education Melbourne for Robotics and Renewable Energy : Melbourne has a wonderful resource in the Lego Education Centers. These run courses in robotics and renewable energy using Lego education kits, for school students and teachers. I suggest that similar courses would benefit business and government.
3. Un-conference venues: Modern "un"-conferences require venues with different facilities to last century events. What is needed is a flexible layout which can be reconfigured by the participants, with walls you can write on, display screens and wireless networking. The preeminent example of this in Australia is the University of Canberra's Inspire Center., which as used for the 2012 GovCamp/GovHack. I suggest Melbourne catalog existing such venues and encourage the development of new ones.
4. Teach On-line Communication: A digital city is partly on-line. This requires the citizens, business and cultural community to have good on-line communication skills. As an example, an on-line event, such as CoMConnect requires its own on-line presence (2012 GovCamp/GovHack provides a good example). Melbourne has numerous public and private educational institutions which can teach how to do this. I suggest Melbourne City Council host free introductory courses at its public libraries, for the citizens.
   

Here is the official CoMConnect event announcement:

The City of Melbourne is exploring how digital technology can help keep Melbourne one of the greatest places to be - at work, at play and at home in the 21st Century.

CoM Connect will bring together community leaders, thinkers, designers, technologists, researchers, urbanists and makers over the weekend of the 11th and 12th August to explore Melbourne's digital future.

This is your invitation to join us!

We expect demand for this exciting event to be very high so act quickly to secure your spot.

Important things to know...

• Our hashtag for the event: #comconnect
• We ask that you do your best to commit to participating over both days. We understand this is a big ask and for our part we promise to make sure you are well fed, mentally stimulated and entertained by a diverse mix of fascinating people and conversations.
  
• Due to the anticipated high demand we've had to limit the number of tickets to 1 per person. If you had previously registered to 'save the date' on behalf of friends or colleagues please forward them the invitation so they may register themselves.
  
• In order to make sure we have a healthy mix of backgrounds and perspectives participating over the weekend a small number of invitations have already been issued. The remaining places will be allocated on a first come/first served basis.
• In the event that all tickets are snapped up a waitlist will be used for the overflow. This means if you find yourself unable to make it please let the organisers know so someone else can take your place.

More about the event...

The Aims of CoM Connect...

• Build Community – Start to build a network of people and companies interested in working alongside the City of Melbourne to explore ways we can deliver better experiences and services to those who live, work and play within the municipality.
• Build Knowledge - Create an environment where leading Urban and Digital thinkers, researchers and practitioners can share share their knowledge about emerging trends and what they might mean for the City and its residents and visitors.
• Inspire – Showcase examples of cutting edge ideas, projects and research already taking place across Melbourne.
  

The Format...

• CoM Connect will be run as an unconference or open space event where the topics of discussion and the agenda are set by the participants.
• Each day will start with a blank timetable that we'll populate with the talks and discussions the participants (yes, that means you!) want to lead and initiate.
  
• Our venue at The Hub provides us with a multitude of adaptable spaces that can just as easily accommodate a plenary session for 200 as a conversation between a few people.
• Once the timetable is populated it's up to you to decide which sessions you would like to attend and which talks and discussions you'd like to participate in.
• For each session or discussion we ask that notes are kept and shared so all our creative and intellectual output is captured.

The Outcomes...

• In the days following the event the City of Melbourne (along with everyone who participated) will be presented with a summary that outlines the main themes, opportunities and areas for further investigation. This will help guide the City of Melbourne's future research and engagement activities as we work towards developing a Digital City Strategy.

Democracy with Web 2.0

Greetings from the AGM of Computing Assistance Support & Education Inc (CASE) where Pia Waugh, policy adviser to Senator Kate Lundy, speaking on Engaging in Democracy with Web 2.0. Pia started by pointing out that the Australian Government issued a Declaration of Open Government (DOG). She showed some of the winners from the government sponsored Mashups, including Know Where You Live.

Pia then showed Senator Lundy's website, produced using Wordpress and designed to have a relatively simple layout. She pointed out that Open Australasia's enhanced version of Hansard is used.

Pia then discussed citizen centric services, noting that Australia had been a leader in on-line government. The idea is to put the citizen at the centre of the design of services, rather than a structure based on government agencies. For me, the issue how much of this can be done via software mashups and how much requires the government to be restructured. An examples are an australia.gov.au account, which the citizen to deal with multiple government services with one account.

Pia then discussed participatory government, using the example of the Public Sphere process she developed for Senator Lundy. She emphasized the need for consultation with the public to be conducted sincerely. In the latest example a 106 page Submission on Digital Culture (6MB PDF) was created for the National Cultural Policy.

Pia suggested that using on-line tools two people could conduct a substantial public consultation over three months. This is far less than the staffing needed for a traditional process.

Revolution in the Over-Developed World

Greetings from the University of Canberra, where

Professor McKenzie Wark, from the New School NY, is speaking on avant-garde movements and implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement. He had strong competition, with an interesting lecture on 1930s European architecture in the next room. The introduction included a poem on the state of the USA and status of the indigenous embassy outside Parliament House.

Professor Wark started by pointing out that many thinkers of the 20th century were not formal academics, but on the periphery of academia. He then read "Square du Vert-Galant" from his graphic novel "The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International". He then outlined the Street Ethnography of Paris in the 1950s, with the delinquent end of Bohemianism and Unitary urbanism.

Professor Wark discussed the reclaiming of the common cultural property through (or in denial of) plagiarism. In a way this is a precursor of thinking about open access and creative commons. Somehwere in here The Society of the Spectacle (La Société du spectacle) by Guy Debord was mentioned.

Professor Wark then asked what it means to create groups. Those of the 1950s avant-garde movement were volatile, with groups forming, expelling members and reforming (reminds me of the factions of the modern political parties). He suggested that self organismic groups could be a useful part of modern pedagogy, teaching students that not all organizations are designed as a hierarchy.

After some readings from his latest book, Professor Wark came around to the occupy wall street movement. He argued that the modern commodity world was boring. There is an urge to break through the boundaries and simply occupy the public space. The Occupy Watt Street Movement was not making specific demands, simply "occupying" public open space. He pointed out that the open space occupied is not Wall Street and does not disrupt the stock exchange.

Professor Wark related Wall Street to the occupation of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. He also suggested Twitter was not useful for revolution, as it can be used to spread false rumors.

Parts of Zuccotti Park have now been zoned by the occoupiers, with one area for non-denominational worship, and one near the library for information services. Professor Wark commented that many of the people at the protest in the park were at a loss to know what to do, as there was nothing to buy and no one to confront. He suggested that while the current movement has no clear political aim, the movement could be channeled to some aim (and that there may be some establishment reaction to this).

Professor Wark pointed out that most of the trading at "Wall Street" takes place on-line, with traders at distributed workstations. As a result the protest at Wall Street perhaps has the wrong symbolism. It occours to me that there has so far been no move to occupy the on-line manifestations of Wall Street. That would be more likely to result in a confrontation with authorities, as there are much clearer laws making it a crime to interfere with a networked computer system. The ACS is assisting the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) with Cyber Policy consultation. It is an interesting question as to the extent to which legitimate protest can be recognized and allowed for. Simply banning anything which looked like a protest would be very dangerous.

Revitalizing Regional Australia With the Arts

Greetings from Digital Culture Public Sphere, in Sydney, where Simon Crean, Minister for the Arts, started his talk by using the example of revitalization of the Newcastle city center through the arts. The Minister released a National Cultural Policy discussion paper 11 August 2011 and input is invited from the community.

The Minister mentioned the Bangarra Dance Comany's recent performance of "Belong" (which I attended at the Sydney Opera House). At the other cultural extreme, the Minister mentioned Baz Luhrmann's 3D filming of The Great Gatsby. He pointed out that this involves digital technicians, as well as traditional film production staff.

Universities Australia e-Press

For the Digital Culture Public Sphere in Sydney, 6 October 2011I have suggested support to reinvogorate the Australian book publishing industry. Australian government measures in this area have been ineffective so far as they have equated "publishing" with "printing". The e-book is making printing printing increasingly irrelevant to publishing. So in the Digital Culture Wiki being created as part of a submission to the National Cultural Policy, I have proposed:

• Support for Book Publishing: In the rush to video and digital on-line work the role of the humble book in Australian culture has been forgotten. However, the book is being re-borne as the e-book and Australia can have a viable e-publishing industry. This industry can be supported by Australia's libraries and universities. This will enhance the traditional role of the library as a resource for authors, for allowing them not only to research their work but prepare it for publication, submit it and also offer a not-for-profit service for free open access publishing. This will provide savings, for libraries which currently are required to purchase access to the works written by their clients.
• Reform of university presses: Currently the Australian government subsidizes non-profitable university publishers. These publishers produce works on paper which are not available to most of the Australian population. Under a revised system, universities would merge their presses into "Universities Australia e-Press" with the mission to produce cultural works on-line for free, for community benefit. ANU ePress would be used as the model for the new organization.

Australian Digital Culture On-line Policy Forum Live On-line from Sydney

The Digital Culture Public Sphere in Sydney, 6 October 2011 will be streamed live online. It is tol consider input on digital arts and industries for the National Cultural Policy discussion paper. I am helping out with the moderating for the event.

Australian Cultural Policy Development

A National Cultural Policy discussion paper was issued by the Mister for Arts Simon Crean, 11 August 2011. Comment is invited until 21 October 2011. Senator Lundy is conducing an on-line and face-to-face "Digital Culture Public Sphere" to collect input for the policy.

The discussion paper is available as a web site, and in two versions as PDF: 2 Mb PDF and 1 MB PDF Print version. It is not clear why the print version is smaller, nor why it is needed at all. Neither of the PDF documents are well formatted for reading on-line. This is not just a minor quibble, as one issue for national cultural policy is the role of digital media. If the staff administering the Arts portfolio cannot format an electronic document correctly, they may not be equipped to understand how this technology is impacting on Australian cultural industries.

Digital Culture in the Discussion Paper

The paper makes the point that "More than 70 per cent of the Australian population have access to
the internet.", also that:

"Emerging technologies present opportunities for Indigenous communities to use new media to present their art, language and culture to wider audiences and to enable traditional cultural practices to be transmitted to future generations."

Opportunities for Education Industry in Digital Culture

The report also makes the point that Australia has a relatively well educated population and "Australia needs to encompass this audience whose expectations of opportunity and access are sophisticated and high.". However, the report fails to make the point that the relationship between education and cultural content is not one way: cultural materials for education is a multi-billion dollar industry which Australia is well equipped to take part in. As more education moves out of the classroom and onto the Internet the opportunities will increase. Addressing this market will also ensure Australia keeps its international student market and the export income they provide.

Table of Contents of the Discussion Paper

1. Message from the Minister
2. Introduction
3. Background
4. The National Cultural Policy – developing a vision for Australia's future
5. Goals and questions
6. Australia in the 21st century – some additional context

Australia's first enhanced eBook?

Greetings from the National Library of Australia in Canberra, where cultural historian and folklorist Warren Fahey is talking about his book "Australian Folk Songs and Bush Ballads". This is claimed to be Australia's first "enhanced" eBook.

A representative of the NLA did a gushing introduction about ebooks. Warren provided an entertaining history of his involvement with technology, starting with the crystal wireless and tin cans and string telephone. He then talked about his involvement with bush music and the ABC. But so far no explanation as to what an "enhanced eBook" is. I assumed it had digital audio files, along with images and text.

Warren went on to explain how he obtained a copy of his own field folk song recordings from the NLA and converted them to a suitable format for the eBook.

Warren used what appeared to be an Apple iPad for a demonstration of the eBook. He showed what looked like a traditional book format, with video displayed like a still image (click on the image to play the video) and audio controls (click the play button). The audio used seemed to be short excerpts, with links to on-line stores to purchase the full recording.

Warren said that volume was 600 Mbytes, due to the sound files. The publisher is splitting the book into volumes.

What was a little confusing was that I could only find an Amazon Kindle eBook edition of the book on-line. Warrne explained that Amazon refused to carry a Kindle eBook with links to Apple iTunes (for the audio). So a different edition had to be produced with different links in it.

This is a brave attempt at an "enhanced" eBook. But I am not sure that including the audio files in the eBook file is worth the effort. Instead the files could be downloaded from the web as required.

Warren ended by discussing what effect eBooks will have on book publishing and distribution. This provides a world market for the author, but cheaters challenges for the local bookstore and library.

At question time I asked what Warren's next ebook would be like. He said he wanted to do a book for children, being the 21st century of the Coles funny picture book for kids.

Someone asked how the cost of producing an enhanced ebook compared to a PDF ebook. Warren replied it was must more expensive by PDF ebooks were so static and dull.

This appears on topic for Senator Kate Lundy's Digital Culture Public Sphere on-line and in Sydney, 6 October 2011.

Australian Digital Culture On-line Policy Forum

Senator Kate Lundy is running a Digital Culture Public Sphere on-line and in Sydney, 6 October 2011. This will consider input on digital arts and industries for the National Cultural Policy discussion paper, released by Simon Crean, Australian Minister for the Arts, on 11 August 2011.

There was a Book Industry Strategy Group (BISG) set up by Senator The Hon Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, in 15 February 2010. But that seems to be more about propping up the declining paper based printing industry, not mainstream digital publishing.

On the 11^th August 2011 Minister Crean released a discussion paper seeking public input on a National Cultural Policy. This consultation will help determine a 10 year strategic vision to ensure our arts, cultural and creative endeavours resonate with a 21st century, globally competitive, internationally celebrated and culturally diverse Australia.

The National Cultural Policy itself covers three major sectors:

• traditional core arts such as opera, dance, theatre, literature, music, visual arts and craft,
• creative industries such as games development, film, animation, media content, architecture, fashion, design & publishing,
• cultural heritage such as the work done by cultural institutions (regional metro & national galleries, libraries, archives & museums) and Australia’s Indigenous culture.

The Office of Senator Kate Lundy in collaboration with the Office of Minister Simon Crean is running a Digital Culture Public Sphere consultation to look specifically at the digital arts and industries as well as opportunities for cultural institutions around digitisation, public engagement and collaboration. This consultation will result in a submission that will be presented directly to the Minister as part of the broader National Cultural Policy consultation.

“The Digital Culture Public Sphere consultation is a breakthrough exercise in bringing together ideas and projects, working them through and providing a rich base of information and pathways for Australia’s digital cultural challenges and opportunities. It will provide a valuable contribution to the National Cultural Policy Consultation which is an important opportunity to examine how the Australian Government should support arts and culture in the 21st century,” said Minister Crean.

“We are laying the foundations for the broad cultural arts and industries in Australia at a time when high speed broadband will provide a platform to use our cultural collections and creative skills for new applications, education and research services. I welcome contributions from the digital arts and industries as well as cultural institutions across Australia”.

Library Support Needed for Australian Publishing

Submissions for a Review of the operation and vision of Review of Electronic Resources Australia (ERA) have been invited by 12 September 2011. ERA is a buying consortia of Australian libraries, headed by the National Library of Australia, which buys on-line information services, mostly from overseas sources.

One interesting aspect of the review is that three out of five of the members of the committee are from the education sector (school, TAFE and University).

One aspect the ERA review terms of reference does not seem to cover is how to publish Australian works on-line at low cost. I suggest that Australian libraries and educational institutions should look at how to foster on-line publishing, including free and open access, as a way to reduce costs (as well as boost Australian culture and commerce).

Yesterday I was contacted by an award winning Australian author asking about how to publish their new book on-line. They do not particularly want to make a lot of money, they mostly want to get there book out there.

Australian libraries could provide facilities for Australian authors to publish their work at low cost. Some universities do this, where they provide e-books and e-journals on-line for free. An example is ANU e-Press, which sells copies of book by Australian National University authors on paper, but also allows free access to the web versions of the books.

There are some open access journals from Australian universities, most using the Canadian "Op-en Journal System" (OJS) software, but these tend to last only an few issues, due to lack of support.

Google Creating Culture Online

Alan Noble, Engineering Director, Google Australia and New Zealand, talked on "Supporting Culture Online - How Google is working to preserve the world's cultural heritage, both by making it accessible and providing platforms for the creativity that enriches culture to thrive" at NICTA in Canberra, 19 August 2011. This was unlike the technical presentations which Google staff give at the Australian National University in Canberra a few times a year. This was a talk for a more general audience, saying what Google does, but lacking technical details about how Google does it.

Alan discussed several Google projects to digitise books and works of art at great galleries and libraries of the world. But also projects to put lesser known culture online. This included projects to encourage oral traditions of the third world to be put online for the first time (Alan also speculated about how much is being lost through the extinction of indigenous languages in Australia). A cynic might say Google is doing this simply top have more web content to put ads on and make money out of. But in the main, Google does seem to be genuinely trying to "not do evil" and provide a cultural contribution (even if does happen there is then more content for them to put ads on).

Alan's talk reminded me of a Workshop on the Use of Technology for Museums of the Pacific Islands Region I conducted in 2005 for the International Council on Museums, UNESCO and ANU. The museums of pacific countries are very vunerable to natural disasters, particularly cyclones and tsunami (the Apia museum we visited was on the seafront, less than a metre above sea level).

Alan also mentioned working with UNESCO on preserving cultural works and opening an office in Paris. I suggested that the Google staff might like to pop along to the UNESCO office in Paris. I had noticed that there were some artworks in the cafeteria on a visit in 2000.

Last Man To Die Interactive Art

There will be a performance of Last Man To Die at Gorman House, Canberra, 7pm 4 December 2010. The installation is open today for free viewing at the Gorman House Arts Centre. I had a look today while Christmas shopping at the Gorman House Markets. The usually brightly lit Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS) has been turned into a twilight world lit by video projectors. You are handed a bar coded ticket on entry. Placed under a scanner, this activates multimedia presentations, with projections onto hanging screens. Exactly what this was all about I was not sure of (like all high art, it needs to be explained). Tonight's performance will include live performers in the venue as well as music transmitted live from Sweden. The concept reminds me of the excellent "True Logic of the Future" by Boho.

Adelaide North Terrace Cultural Precinct

My last day in South Australia I spent in the Adelaide North Terrace Cultural Precinct. North Terrace runs east west on the northern edge of the Adelaide central business district, next to the Torrens River. Within a kilometer along the terrace are campuses of the Universities of Adelaide and South Australia, the State Library, Museum and Art Gallery.

I stayed in the Hotel Richmond, which is located in an arcade between the main shopping precinct (Rundle Mall) at the front and North Terrace behind.

On the next corner is the Centre for Defence Communications & Information Networking (DSIC), where I met the director, Dr Bruce Northcote who was giving a talk that evening to the ACS. The previous evening I had given a talk on how the IT industry could help defence. The building housing DSIC has a learning commons on the ground floor, with informal computer equipped meeting spaces for students.

As befits a high technology university building, the one housing DSIC had the most complicated lift buttons I have ever seen: to call am lift, rather than pressing a button for "up", you enter the floor you wish to go to. Presumably the lift control system then optimises the traffic.

I walked through the Adelaide University grounds to the banks of the Torrens Rive, where there are kilometres of cycling and walking tracks. A short walk up the river and around the corner was the State Library of South Australia. In the cafe I happened across Dr Genevieve Bell , Intel Fellow, Digital Home Group Director, User Experience Group, Intel Corporation, who talked in Canberra last week.

ScreenACT Project Pod

ScreenACT Project Pod has 24 places available for the first phase in helping Canberra based digital content developers, with entries closing 10.00am 29th March 2010. The project is designed along similar lines to the InnovationACT annual event run by the ANU. There is a nine page "Project Pod: Application Form and Guidelines" avialable, as well as Key Dates and FAQs about the project.

ScreenAct Vision

ScreenACT offers support with the general aim of helping to develop the local screen industry, thereby enhancing the ACT production industry’s capabilities and employment opportunities.

Project Pod Aim

Project Pod is a professional and project development opportunity that aims to build capability in screen project development, increase networks, and support a group of targeted projects through to a market-­‐ready stage.

The program has four main phases, which start with broad learning goals, then narrow down, focussing on key teams to help them refine their projects to the point that they are ready to take to market. As part of this, several top projects will receive extra funding.

Guiding Principles Screen

ACT supports:

• the film, video production, TV and digital media industries.
• projects that are intended to result in commercial or business focused outcomes.
• applicants who have started their careers and can demonstrate professional experience.

ScreenACT will give preference to:

• participants who show a commitment to the six-­‐month process.
• projects intended for production and post production in the ACT and Capital Region.
• applications that are professional in their presentation, thought and execution.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

About ScreenAct Project Pod

The ScreenACT Project Pod is a six-­‐month program that is open to all professional screen practitioners (individuals and teams) in the ACT/Capital Region. It consists of four phases:

• Phase One – Two workshops
• Phase Two – One-­‐on-­‐one project development
• Phase Three – Industry Feedback and future project plans
• Phase Four – ScreenACT Grants allocated to as many as four selected projects Selection for the Project Pod is competitive.

Phase One will include up to 24 participants. Phases Two through Four will have up to ten participants.

Project Pod will be led by a number of different providers, and tailored to the needs of the individual participants based on their project’s format and genre.

• Phase One will be delivered by Stephen Cleary, who is an international script consultant and developer, and by ScreenACT
• Phases Two and Three to be delivered by local developers with oversight and input from Stephen Cleary and
  ScreenACT.
• Phase Four delivered by ScreenACT.

All participants for all phases to be selected by an industry panel, with ScreenACT acting as secretariat, and with the sign-­‐off of the CEO of Canberra Business Council on final participants and funding.

Phase One costs participants $600 for the two workshops. The first workshop is over four days, and the second over two. Phases Two through Four have no participation cost.

The program covers narrative and story, introduction to development practice, pitching and presentation skills, introduction to producing, networking with industry professionals and Screen Australia representatives, and one-­‐on-­‐one professional development assistance on a project basis.

Project Pod projects can come from film, television or digital media industries. ScreenACT will consider projects that include but are not limited to:

• Feature films, television drama series, mini-­‐series, telemovies, broadcast length documentary, television documentary series, reality TV series and digital media projects.
• ScreenACT will NOT consider the development or production of TV commercials, corporate videos, or training videos

PLEASE NOTE: As this is the pilot ScreenACT Project Pod, ScreenACT reserves the rights to make changes to the project as deemed necessary. ...

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must be residents of the ACT or Capital Region (as shown on the map on ScreenACT’s website: http://www.screenact.com.au/content.php?id=8)

Applicants must have started their careers and be able to demonstrate some degree of professional experience.

Applicants must be Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia, and be 18 years old or older.

Applicants can be individuals or up to a team of two. The team leader must attend all sessions. The second team member is expected to attend all sessions, however there is some flexibility on this issue.

Applicants must be the producer, director, and/or writer of the project. Applicants must also be the copyright holder, or have an option to the rights in any and all works on which the project is based. The charge for phase one is per person regardless of individual or team status....

Key Dates

ITEM	DATE
Applications open	Friday, 19th March, 2010
Applications close	Monday 29th March, 2010 – 10.00am
Phase One successful applications announced	Thursday 1st April, 2010
Phase One: First Project Pod Workshop (4 days)	Friday 23rd – Monday 26th April, 2010
Phase One: Second Project Pod Workshop (2 days)	Saturday 1st – Sunday 2nd May, 2010
Revised treatment due	Friday 14th May, 2010 – 5.00pm
Phase Two successful applications announced	Friday, 28th May, 2010
Phase Three Workshop (1 day)	Saturday, 19th June, 2010
Delivery of agreed project deliverables	Friday 1st October, 2010 – 5.00pm
Phase Four Workshop (3 days)	Friday 22nd – Sunday 24th October, 2010

...

Assessment Criteria

In assessing applications, the ScreenACT Assessment Committee will mark applications against the following criteria:

• Qualification under the general guidelines and guiding principles
• Originality and strength of concept
• Commercial viability of the project
• The strength of the creative team
• Commitment to the entire process
• Likelihood of the project proceeding into production

...

From: Project Pod: Application Form and Guidelines, ScreenACT, 19 March 2010

Disaster Proofing Heritage Collections

The Australian Library and Information Association is hosting a symposium on "Disaster Proofing Heritage Collections" (registration) with Blue Shield Australia & DISACT, 6 May 2010 at the National Library of Australia, in Canberra.

Recently the International Council on Archives passed on a request to the international community for assistance in preserving the cultural heritage of Haiti. In addition to physical work to shore up buildings damaged in the recent earthquake and to remove cultural materials to safety the Statement of Requirements identified the need for IT staff and equipment to assist in digitising and recording cultural materials. When visiting Samoa to teach information technology for Museum staff, I heard of instances where artefacts were removed to "safety" because of a disaster, but were never seen again. As there were no good records, it was not possible to know what was missing or if it was stolen, or mislaid in a warehouse somewhere. Thus the need for records.

Developing updated guidelines for environmental conditions in collecting institutions
Julian Bickersteth
Guidelines for environmental conditions in collecting institutions have for the past 40 years or so been defined within fairly narrow parameters. ...
AICCM has established a Taskforce to develop guidelines for Australian conditions based on current international standards, which are changing as a result of these pressures. Julian Bickersteth is the chair of the Taskforce and will be detailing the progress that has been made to date on developing these guidelines ....

AICCM Victorian Division’s Response to the Victorian Bushfires of 2009: After Disaster Struck.
Alexandra Ellem
This paper presents key aspects of AICCM’s response to communities affected by the 2009 Victorian bushfires and the unique role conservation can play regarding disaster response and cultural heritage. ...

Centre for the National Museum of Australia Collections: a proposal for sustainable collections storage and management.
Greer Gehrt and Eric Archer
The National Museum of Australia (NMA) recently completed a functional design brief for the design and development of new storage and collection management facilities for the National Historical Collection.
As part of this process, the NMA has undertaken extensive studies into the use of passive building technologies. ...

Alert But Not Alarmed: A decade of the Disasters ACT Network.
Bernard Kertesz
DISACT (the DISasters ACT network) is a network of disaster preparedness practitioners operating in south-eastern New South Wales and centred in the Australian Capital Territory. Although largely driven, resourced and enabled by the major Commonwealth cultural collecting institutions, the network participants represent more than 25 Commonwealth, ACT Government and private sector organisations. ...

Meeting and Reporting “Conservation Standards” for Environmental Conditions; The Government’s Key Performance Indicators Versus The Real World
Jennifer Lloyd
It is not unreasonable that the Commonwealth Government expects the custodianship of the nation’s heritage collections to be a responsible one. Maximising the life expectancy of these collections is a priority for all cultural collecting institutions. ...

Blue Shield Australia - Building Disaster Resilience into the Australian and Asia-Pacific Heritage Sectors
Detlev Lueth
The Blue Shield is the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross. The distinctive emblem was specified by the UNESCO’s 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. It is also the name of the International Committee of Blue Shield (ICBS), set up in 1996 to advise UNESCO on the protection of the world's cultural heritage threatened by wars and natural
disasters. With the permission of the ICBS in 2005 Blue Shield Australia was established. BSA’s vision is to influence disaster preparedness and emergency management in Australia in order to ensure the
preservation of cultural heritage within Australia’s areas of responsibility and influence. ...

Not If But When! Some Observations on Collection Disaster Preparedness Around Australia.
Kim Morris
Disaster planning for collections has been a feature of cultural activity in collecting institutions in Australia since 1985 when the National Library suffered a serious and devastating fire. Major national and state institutions recognised the need to prepare for collection disasters and began developing
response and recovery plans. ...

AICCM and a National Response Network
Kay Söderlund
Spurred on by the year that saw the Victorian bush fires and the Queensland floods, AICCM has started work on a project to develop a National Response Network in order to more effectively help communities and museums that have been devastated by disasters. Kay Söderlund, National President of AICCM, will briefly outline the project and the plan for the coming year. ...

Planning for Floods in a Drought: Cooperative Regional Responses to Disasters
Roger Trudgeon
The secret to good risk management is planning to deal with events that you would normally deem to be impossible. In the midst of the state’s worst drought in years, the Gold Museum, Ballarat was flooded on New Year’s Day in 2007. In the context of climate change and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events it is essential to think ahead as to how we face such catastrophes. ...

From: Paper abstracts and biographies, Disaster Proofing Heritage Collections, Australian Library and Information Association, 2010

Roundtable: Freedom and control in the Australian internet

Fibreculture will have a roundtable on "Freedom and control in the Australian internet". 16 December in Sydney. I found about this event while walking down King Street in Sydney and bumped into Chris Chesher. Technology has its limits. ;-)

The first meeting is an open roundtable, chaired by fibreculture facilitators, and will be an extension of discussions on the new fibreculture web forum. This physical event will begin with the opportunity for those who posted to the online forum to make opening statements, and will transition towards a themed open discussion.

Read Group Themes

Admission is free, but you must join the freedom and control group.

Adult digital media literacy needs

The Australian Communications and Media Authority report "Adult digital media literacy needs" (1 October 2009) has found a significant number of Australians are missing out on the benefits of the Internet, due to a lack of skills and motivation. ACMA are concerned by this as these people will be left behind as digital media becomes more important.

This has public policy implications. It is very easy for a government body to assume that if they provide information or a service via the web, then everyone can use it. ACMA's solution seems to be extra education of the digitally illiterate for this minority. But this may not always be possible and there are other options. It is likely that there will continue to be people who are unable, or unwilling, to use digital media (including those who do not find it of use). One reason Roger Clarke and myself suggested providing Internet access at public libraries was that these facilities are staffed with highly trained information professionals to can help the public with information access (called "librarians"). There will be a continuing need for such people.

ACMA's suggestions for convincing people to use digital media appear at best naive and misguided. What ACMA seem to have in mind is a public information campaign to try to convince people to use the Internet. The Australian government is currently spending billions of dollars on programs to provide digital education for everyone from school children to senior citizens. It seems unlikely that a "Where have you been online today?" campaign will add much to this or be a good use of public money.

Also ACMA cannot be too smug about its own information literacy, as they way they have provided their report is not exactly best practice for online information distribution. The report is provided as a monolithic 63 page electronic facsimile of a printed report in PDF (452 kb) and Microsoft Word (704 kb). Neither of these is easy to read online and contain a copyright notice which seems to be designed to discourage their use. The PDF version of the document has security set to prevent copying of text from the document, this is a pointless encumbrance which makes discussion of the document more difficult, without increasing security in any way.

From the report:

Contents

Executive summary

• Background to research
• Objectives of the research
• Research methodology
• Key findings
• Attitudes towards different digital media
• Overarching reasons for limited usage
• Awareness of the benefits of using digital media
• Overarching attitudes among non- and limited users
• Barriers relating to the low usage patterns of digital media
• Attitudinal segmentation
• ‘Resistors’
• ‘Defensive’
• ‘Thirsty’
• ‘Potential Transitioners’
• ‘Economisers’
• Summary of the attitudes of the segments
• Suggested ways of encouraging take-up of digital media by non- and limited users
• Specific communication needs of each segment
• ‘Resistors’ and ‘Defensive’
• ‘Thirsty’
• ‘Potential Transitioners’
• ‘Economisers’

Background to the research

• Overview
• The need for research

Research objectives

• Research objectives

Methodology

• Overview
• Sample
• Rationale for sample
• Digital media usage
• Comfort levels with digital media
• Life stage
• Reasons for non- or limited usage of digital media
• Socio-economic background
• Location
• Gender
• People from non-English speaking backgrounds
• Disability
• Recruitment of respondents
• Discussion guides
• Research timing

Current attitudes towards digital media

• The importance of the internet and mobile phones
• Usage patterns of different digital media
• Non- users’ usage patterns
• Case study: David
• Limited users’ usage patterns
• Case study: Leanne’s usage patterns of digital media

Overarching attitudes towards developing digital media literacy

• Descriptions of people who are heavy and light users of digital media
• Descriptions of the ‘heavy’ user of digital media
• Descriptions of the ‘light’ user of digital media
• Overarching attitudes and reasons for limited usage
• Difficulty in understanding why usage should be a priority
• Perception that it is too difficult to change their ways
• Awareness of the benefits of using digital media
• Key driver affecting digital media usage
• Barriers relating to the low usage patterns of digital media
• Low usage of digital media on a day-to-day basis
• Lack of understanding of the underlying assumptions about how digital media work
• Lack of understanding of the commonplace language and terminology associated with digital media
• Hierarchy of skills, knowledge and understanding
• Importance of developing an understanding of digital media

Attitudinal segmentation

• Attitudes towards becoming more digital media literate
• Descriptions of the attitudinal segments
• Case study: ‘Resistor’
• Case study: ‘Defensive’
• Case study: ‘Thirsty’
• Case study: ‘Potential Transitioner’
  
• Case study: ‘Economiser’
• ‘Active’ versus ‘passive’ decision making

Suggested ways of encouraging each segment to engage with digital media

• Overview
• Specific communication needs of each segment
• ‘Resistors’ and ‘Defensive’
• ‘Thirsty’
• ‘Potential Transitioners’
• ‘Economisers’
• Summary of communication needs of each segment

Findings and recommendations

• Summary of findings
• Researchers’ recommendations

• Appendix A—References
• Appendix B—Recruitment screeners
• Appendix C—Discussion guide
• Hierarchy of skills, knowledge and understanding

Adapted from: Adult digital media literacy needs, ACMA, August 2009

Australian Indigenous Languages Database

AUSTLANG The Australian Indigenous Languages Database was launched at the National Indigenous Studies Conference today. One of my former students at ANU worked on this

The AUSTLANG system assembles information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages from various sources. The core of AUSTLANG is the AUSTLANG database (online Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages database) which is linked to Google Maps. The system also facilitates access to other databases, PDF files and links to websites, which all provides information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. AUSTLANG enables users to search for a language by a language name or a place name, or by navigating Google Maps, and to view a variety of information on the language. AUSTLANG users can also launch a catalogue search of the AIATSIS collection catalogue, MURA.

Social networking for local government

Bernard de Broglio, Internet Coordinator at Mosman Council, will give a free talk on "Dr Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love The Gov", at the National Library of Australia Digital Culture talk 25 September 2009 in Canberra. He will talk about new forms of participation online for local government. My view is that local government is the most important but least resourced when it comes to Government 2.0. These techniques could also be applied to the fourth level of government in Australia (cluster housing).

Digital Culture talk

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love The Gov
You can credit Barack Obama for bringing sexy back to government - it's 2.0! - but the change has largely been driven by self-organised communities collaborating across disciplines and borders. Who are these people? Well, us. Citizen activists, ethical hackers, open source public servants, digital library and museum workers. The web has allowed collaboration between people (and their machines) on a scale never possible before. Customers, constituents and people within the public sector are all beginning to feel a new sense of agency. It's not e-gov, it's we-gov. But let's not be a tease. How does it work, now? Bernard de Broglio, Internet Coordinator at Mosman Council, will share some of his stories of internet life at the local level.
Bernard studied English at university but ended up writing HTML and CSS. He has been working at Mosman Council since 2002, pushing more acronyms (okay, abbreviations) like API, XML and RSS. His interest in the social aspect of network communications was sparked by FidoNet and the Sydney BBS (Bulletin Board System) scene of the late 80s and early 90s. That early promise – of new forms of participation online – is now being realised. Based in Mosman Library, he has been fortunate to be surrounded by information professionals who understand the benefit of the open web and the need to take Council's web presence beyond its website. The cakes are good too.