At the launch there will be a talk by IT entrepreneur, Bob Hayward, who was recently appointed Chief Technology & Innovation Officer APJ at CSC, on the current state of the IT sector and opportunities for growth.

Since this is the first meeting for this new regional group, prospective members will have the opportunity to network and to explore the benefits of participating in the Cluster.

Might be worth it for ICT businesses, business users of IT, university researchers and people interested in starting an ICT or ICT-related business in the Illawarra to head along for this session.

More info & to RSVP for the launch: http://www.icti.org.au/events

It’s going to be interesting to see how this idea turns out. In any case there are some interesting answers to the question:

Apart from Telstra, what do you see as the top one or two challenges currently holding back the growth of the digital media industry in Australia?

Answering this question for Digital Bullets #1 are: John Butterworth, Dominic Carosa, Martin Dalgleish, Adam Dunne, Tony Faure, Steve Fanale, Paul Fisher, Guy Gadney, Lee Stephens, Hannah Schwartz, Liam Walsh, Jennifer Wilson and Jenny Williams.

Live TV by Ustream

Earlier this week, a Facebook colleague, messaged me to ask how he might help out more in the community and asked for some suggestions and this is what fell out of me in a stream of consciousness. I thought it would be helpful to you.

1. Start with a faith community you are member of if you are. This is way of investing where you can also get help when you need it.

2. Focus on problem or evil you have passion for. I do lots of career coaching because I fear the evils of poverty and meaningless work.

3. Invest $ in enabling the volunteership of others. I invest in World Vision and tithe at my church for over 20 years now as this enables others.

4. Consistency over time is more important than lots of time at any given point. I have been a volunteer career coach at my church for over 6 years now.

5. Look to serve on a board given your high education and skill level. I serve on a local NAMI board as my son is mentally ill.

6. Engage children & family to multiply the effect as well as to model this life habit for them. I have created skill & resume development opps for my daughter as she works with NAMI and in ministry in our church

7. Volunteer in areas related to your personal and professional development to kill multiple birds with 1 stone. I work at social media, communications and leadership development in my volunteering which I take back to work.

I am a proponent of volunteering as a way to 1) build skills & experience, 2) grow your network, 3) obtain references and resume entries, 4) experiment with career options. I am always amazed at how much my coachees either neglect volunteering as a career opportunity or they volunteer and do not see it as a part of their career.

Please share examples of how you have or plan to use volunteering as the path to a better or different career.

iPhone Hotel Evolution

In the book I’ve just written called Connection Generation that’s due for release at the end of March 2009, I talk about the evolution of communication technologies like the telephone and telegrams to connection technology. I define connection technology as devices and applications that do more than provide communication capability – they provide a connection for people and information to people, information, ideas and experiences via a range of applications. A basic example is the mobile phone that began life as a mobile version of the humble telephone but has transformed into a phone, phone book (contact list), instant message vehicle (text SMS and video MMS), audio message bank (voicemail) and photo capture send and store (camera).

Today, more sophisticated devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry and other PDA’s provide even more connectivity with built-in calendars, email, internet access and a range of customizable connection applications. This development provides society and business with a new way of connecting – not just communicating – with devices that reside in people’s pockets or purses. Here’s a really good business example:

When you arrive at the Malibu Beach Inn in California in the United States, you’re asked if you own an Apple iPhone or iTouch. If you don’t have one, they provide you one for the duration of your stay. On the device, they provide access to an application called Hotel Evolution, which displays a grid of icons that becomes your portable guest information and services portal.

From the menu items, you can access room service menus and place orders (including special requests and dietary preferences), arrange for your dry cleaning to be collected, request additional toiletries, change your do not disturb room status, set-up a wake-up call, receive messages, arrange a rental car and make a booking before you leave. By accessing the virtual concierge, you can view a local attractions map, shopping guide and even the tee-off times for the local golf course.

This capability is available NOW. I future, I have no doubt that they will program the capability for the device to function as a hotel key for secure physical access to your room during your stay! This is one of many applications these connection technologies will provide society and business now and in the future. Some are being developed now – and some are probably being devised in your heads as you read this.

If you know of any connection technologies and applications, please feel free to comment or send me a note. I love to share this stuff.

By:  Iggy Pintado

Osborne c. 1981

I was an early PC adopter – having traded in my trusty IBM Selectric for an Osborne ‘Portable’ computer in 1981. Once I’d – painfully – mastered the intricacies of WordStar, personal productivity – or was it prolixity? – increased substantially. And when – much later – digitized graphics became possible, I was in 7th heaven – what graphically orientated anatomist wouldn’t be?

But… In my dealings with students and younger members of the research community I began to note some worrying trends over next 20 or so years.

• With the massive increase in material available over the Web it became increasingly difficult to separate trash and treasure, and quite a number of the younger generation came not to appreciate the difference.
• Where I had originally held great expectations for digital media to make complex processes easier to understand (embryological development, for example) this often did not happen. Students were reluctant to spend the time required to digest and understand complex processes fully… even when spoon fed. ‘If I don’t get it on the first pass through, it cannot be terribly important.” Or “They just don’t know how to teach it properly.”
• In fact students became increasingly reluctant to read their texts and research papers at all. The Web offered too many diversions and distractions. This is of course both good and bad as anyone who as ‘wasted time’ roaming through the library stacks looking for random treasures will attest. The point here is that many thought all they would ever need could be found on the Web; and if it wasn’t there, well… actually going to the library can be a real pain in the arse.

Thus, whilst a certain breadth of coverage is to be found, depth often is not. And, the ability or desire to assess quality is much diminished. The real tragedy was the all too frequent response: “I don’t see what your problem is here.” The cloud has the potential to become a smothering pillow – too much data, no real way of getting rid of the dross.

This, of course, doesn’t even begin to go into the problems that arise from a serious non-reading habit. Spelling… What’s that? Grammar… You’re kidding, surely. Logical exposition… sentence structure… things that are really important should have flashing lights or jump up and down on the screen to grab your attention. Who cares whether the subject and predicate agree… or are even logically related. What’s a predicate anyhow?

And finally, has anyone else noticed that maximum paragraph length is now pretty much based on the number of text lines that fill your computer screen?

Thus, the grumblings of an old chap suffering from a real communications disconnect… Oops, I just pressed the wrong button on my mobile; need to get my grandson to fix it. Again!
By John R. Haight