The Official CASE Blog

Engaging In Democracy with Web 2.0 Initiatives

Darrell — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:26:18 +0000

Thanks to Pia Waugh for joining us on her day off at the CASE 2011 AGM.

Pia Waugh started working with Senator Kate Lundy in April 2009 as a technical policy advisor. She is passionate about open government. Prior to this she was a consultant at Waugh Partners in Sydney, Australia. Read more about Pia on her blog “what are we doing today, brain?”.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDpkiH4ido

Part II of Pia’s talk is audio only. It can be found on the CASE podcast page.

Invitation to “Engaging in Democracy with Web 2.0″ and CASE Annual General Meeting

Sam — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:04:15 +0000

Ever wondered how Australia’s most cyber savy Senator does it? Come learn the secrets and how these initiatives can work for your organisation. This is a unique opportunity to learn from a very special person about the fantastic Web 2.0 initiatives currently being used in our democratic processes.

Everyone is welcome and the presentation will be followed by the 2011 Computing Assistance Support and Education Inc Annual General Meeting.

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Engaging in Democracy with Web 2.0 Initiatives
Guest Speaker – Pia Waugh
3.00pm Wednesday 26 October, 2011

Pia Waugh started work as an Adviser to Senator Kate Lundy in April 2009. Prior to this she was a consultant at Waugh Partners in Sydney, Australia. She has also worked as a Research Coordinator for the Australian Service for Knowledge on Open Source Software (ASK-OSS), the Open Source strategist for a large systems integrator and still works to develop the Australian FOSS industry and improve Government policies towards Free and Open Source Software.

Weston Creek Community Hub
Main Meeting Room (across from ACTCOSS)
6 Gritten Street
Weston Creek ACT, 2611

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CASE Annual General Meeting
4.30pm Wednesday 26 October, 2011

Weston Creek Community Hub
Main Meeting Room (across from ACTCOSS)
6 Gritten Street
Weston Creek ACT, 2611

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Cable Rats

Darrell — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:19:12 +0000

At CASE we will do whatever we can to ensure members get the best service possible for the best value. So when it comes to small network cabling jobs we simply do it ourselves to save members the mark up associated with smaller jobs. If a job is too big for our team we will be happy to arrange a friendly cabler and supervise the work on behalf of members.

Darrell the cable rat

CASE staff are certified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority to install your network cabling and provide documentation to ensure your project is compliant with standards.

Ian the cable rat

So next time you hear something rattling around in your roof, it just might be one of our cable rats.

New Mandala Turns 5

Sam — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:31:58 +0000

CASE President Darrell Burkey wears multiple hats like most people working at CASE. By day he manages large systems for the Australian National University which are used to support the research work of academics at the College of Asia and Pacific. Anyone who knows Darrell will know about his passion for using technology to support social issues. That passion has been documented in the very respected NewMandala blog in a post here.

Members of CASE are very lucky in the sense that Australian based organisations don’t have to fear speaking out should they feel they need to. While we face many challenges here in the land down under we can only feel a sense of gratitude for this country when reading about the struggles of others. New Mandala is a great example of people using technology so support social groups operating under duress overseas and is a wonderful display of human solidarity. It’s a blog well worth keeping an eye on!

CASE’s official site goes to 1.6

Sam — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:45:22 +0000

You may have heard by now Joomla has reached it’s long awaited version 1.6 release. Since CASE has adpoted Joomla as our web content management system we were all excited to give the new version a go. After some effort we’re pleased to announce that our official site is now running 1.6! The look and feel are similar to what existed in the past but everything running in the background is shiny and new!

So far we’re more than happy with the software and are excited about the possibilities it represents for members. Now as before, Joomla represents a great option for developing a cheap and effective web content management solution that we’re proud to offer here at CASE.

New site for the Chronic Fatigue Society, Canberra

Sam — Sat, 07 May 2011 02:44:57 +0000

Recently, The ACT Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society approached CASE with a desire to redevelop their website. On a limited budget but with a very clear goal in mind, CASE was able to use our experience with Joomla combined with a new piece of software to complete the project in-house and without a graphic designer. For the cost, both groups are very happy with the result! The ACT MECFS Society provides monthly meetings, support courses and additional resources to those suffering from chronic fatigue and related conditions here in Canberra and has been for many years. So, we’re pleased to note the launch of their refreshed website here http://www.mecfscanberra.org.au and look forward to to working with them in the future!

Linux conf 2011 videos

Sam — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:20:38 +0000

Don’t forget that if you weren’t able to attend this year’s Linux conf, you’re still able to access some videos from the event. There are so many gems of wisdom thrown in here that we all need to hear. These are really interesting and friendly people well worth our time in listening to!

Online Keynote Presentations

Vinton Cerf (‘Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet.’)

Geoff Huston(‘A a pre-eminent researcher on IPv4 exhaustion and is undertaking research into Internet infrastructure, IP Technologies and address distribution policies.’)

Eric Allman – Sendmail (‘The original author of Sendmail, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Sendmail, Inc., and co-author of Sendmail, published by O’Reilly and Associates.’)

All Online LinuxConf2011 Presentations can be found on Blip TV as they become available.

As always for further information on the links and quotes above, see the official lca2011 site.

CASE @ lca2011

Sam — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:02:35 +0000

CASE president Darrell Burkey has travelled north to attend Linux Conf Australia 2011, a large and very popular IT event.

“linux.conf.au (lca) is a conference about Open Source Software, including Linux. It brings together the world’s community of Linux and open source enthusiasts who make considerable contributions to open source software.”

Flying to the recently flooded city of Brisbane for the full event we have no doubt we’ll come away with a treasure trove of information, new contacts and new ideas we can apply to ICT in community-service sector. We use a wide range of Open Source solutions in our day-to-day operations and strive to stay abreast with developments in this fast moving and very exciting industry. Friends of CASE have also been in attendance at the conference, Pia Waugh has been tweeting comprehensively as usual and Andrew Tridgell has given a presentation on coffee and Linux. Mark Pesce, who we heard from and were impressed by at Connecting Up 2009, also a keynote speaker at lca2011, has been keeping up quality coverage via his Twitter feed here.

For more information about the event please check out the official page. We’ll provide further coverage here as we put the material together!

CASE Starts 2011 Faster Than Water

Sam — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:23:49 +0000

If you work in the community-service sector in Australia you know that generally the months of December and January can be slow. Not so this year at least, at CASE. Over the past three weeks we’ve diverted some of our resources in order to help efforts to aid Queensland flood victims. Volunteers for Isolated Student’s Education (www.vise.org.au), a long time member and friend of CASE, have been responding to families in need. With VISE’s guidance, CASE has modified the “Online Volunteer Management Service” software we wrote to help manage VISE’s tutor/teacher placements to remote families. With the advent of the floods which VISE CEO Mike Stock AM describes as:

“…unbelievable. TV pictures cannot hope to tell the whole picture…“

members of VISE will now be able to indicate their wish to assist in the flood recovery efforts. This readily accessible list, available to the relevant authorities, will increase the overall capacity of the response especially in remote and inaccessible areas of Queensland and New South Wales.

We’re more than pleased to be able to play a role, however physically distant, in this effort. We wish the VISE team, some now working in danger, our best wishes. We’ll keep you updated as things develop!

Making Links 2010, Day 3, Post 2

Sam — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:50:46 +0000

The presentations on gaming mechanics for social action were fascinating. The idea of using game mechanics to achieve social action at first appeared novel but after a few minutes of schooling we were made aware of significant change achieved by making challenges/chores/laws “fun”. A wonderful example offered was an experiment by a car company who created a “Speed camera lottery”. Over a period of days a speed camera measured those speeding and those not, recording the details. Those who broke the speed limit were issued with fines as normal but those who obeyed the rules went into a lottery to win some of the money surrendered by those who were fined.

The change (for the better) of driving habits in the area were profound. This was one of many ideas floated out during the session. Words like “gamification” “interestingness” and “pointsification” are all real words even if this spellchecker doesn’t agree. Collecting, points, leader boards, levels, exchanges and flow are other words also used to describe the game mechanisms that people use to encourage participation in an activity.

The counter gaming presentation, apart from being heavy on theory (not a bad thing, and a great reading list is provided) was actually quite confronting. Videos such as “dead-in-Iraq” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTnuUMM7frk) and “Shoot an Iraqi” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtvvVbeaSHk) showed us how games and social media designed to re-enforce the institutions of war and conflict can actually be ‘hacked’ in various ways to turn the message on its head. Given the academic background of the material used, I’ve got to do some serious reading before I can say anything more in-depth! We’ll get a copy of the reading list up on the blog when we can!

FII’s Joomla presentation was comprehensive and energetic, demonstrating their in-depth knowledge of the web content management system. Working with the software for many years they have developed a range of open source and commercial components, modules and plug-ins which Andrew gave us a brief overview of. The question about open source versus proprietary CMS software was asked, the answer was that the entry cost of open source is much lower than a commercial solution but you have to trust in the community behind the free software to support your needs into the future; in some cases organisations require service level agreements that can only be properly arranged in a paid environment. On the other hand the community behind Joomla is so large and friendly that finding good help isn’t that hard.

By the end of the day everyone appeared happy and tired. The closing plenary summarised a lot of the feelings I’d heard expressed out during the tea breaks. A good group of people that have come together to share some great ideas. There’s plenty of work to be done by ourselves and by the conference. One discussion earlier today perhaps alluded to the goal we all share; by working hard enough and encouraging enough positive change we’re actually all working to put ourselves out of business, making our support groups unnecessary and irrelevant. Some groups put a timetable on that goal (2020 for example) and the more cynical among us perhaps don’t. Personally, I don’t mind – Tweeting and blogging isn’t all I do. Getting back to the other side of the continent is next on the list, for example. Then, probably sleep.

Thanks to everyone involved, see you next year!