Last week I went to “Vivid Sydney” and, in particular, Genevieve Bell’s presentation as part of the “Festival of Big Ideas” with the specific challenge of talking about the “Ten Commandments: Keep it real”. I have written about Genevieve in numerous posts, and continually find her refreshing approach to the study of technology both insightful […]
“When scarcities are abolished really interesting things happen in history.” (Nigel Shadbolt) At the recent 2013 Web Science conference one of the most worthwhile sessions was that on “How the Web will revolutionise society”. In particular, it was Nigel Shadbolt’s commentary about the inter-relationship between technology and society, and the implications for society when the […]
This week I have spent locked up in a freezing cold computer lab at the ANU undertaking a course on “Social Network Analysis”. And, funnily enough, as we managed to better cope with the difference between the air conditioning and summer heatwave, we also managed to demystify the intricacies of SNA. The course was presented […]
I read this article this morning which states the following, and I am quoting in full: Health workers on the New South Wales north coast are being told they cannot call colleagues or patients “mate”. A memo was sent out by the Northern NSW Local Health District last week, reminding community and allied health workers […]
“I have no way of judging of the future but by the present.” (Edward Gibbon) In my last blog I wrote about “Gov 2.0” and, in particular, my conviction that “Gov 2.0” is not about tools and technologies – it is about “reinventing government for the digital age”. Two weeks ago I attended the Web […]
Last week I facilitated the third Presentation Skills training workshop for Fuji Xerox Australia. In this one we built upon some of the theory and strategies by “live-testing” a number of presentations delivered by both myself and a few brave others in the group, including my colleague Leon O’Reilly who gave an authentic and very […]
Yesterday I had the very great privilege of partaking in the first ever “Poetry in the Cathedral Cave” presented as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival 2012. Readings in caves are probably as old as humanity itself, but this was a first for the Festival, and it certainly was quite something. It began with a […]
Last weekend I attended the fourth of Julian Doogan’s “Living Myths” lectures in which he focused on the theme of “The Goddess and the Bull” throughout history. Doogan suggested that the persistence of these interacting images of the female goddess and the male “Bull” throughout human civilisation were as much a reflection of the increasing […]
In the early 1990s I had the privilege of working with a group of aboriginal artists in Moree, northern NSW. I came across this group, the Yurundiali Aboriginal Corporation , because I had applied for a job as Director of the Moree Art Gallery, and I ended up working with the Yurundiali instead. The Gallery, […]
“Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.” (Joseph Campbell) Yesterday I attended my first lecture in the “For God’s Sake II: Living Myths” series at the Art Gallery of NSW, part of my move towards reconnecting with my love for, and interest in, arts and culture, and to integrate this thinking […]
