The Official CASE Blog

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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We’re very proud to announce that Kate has picked up a significant award for her efforts in electronic democracy! If you’ve followed what she’s been up to (you’d be hard pressed to keep up, for starters…) you’ll see that engaging citizenry through and leveraging social energy with Internet technologies is a major facet in her politic. Here at CASE we share exactly the same sentiment which is why this award is so exciting.

From CeBit:

“Senator The Hon. Kate Lundy has been awarded the International eDemocrary Award for 2010 at a ceremony during the World eDemocracy Forum. The ceremony took place at France’s Department of Foreign Affairs in Paris overnight.

Senator Lundy was selected from a shortlist of 12 to take top honours at the event, which is considered the foremost awards for leaders and practitioners of the Gov 2.0 and eGovernment agendas.”

From all the CASE staff, well done Kate!

CASE’s Annual General Meeting wrapped up this evening after a small but pleasant gathering. Patron Sen. Kate Lundy arrived just in time to stop the Web 2.0 version of herself stealing the show and what followed was a relaxed, informal talk about human engagement through technology. After Kate’s presentation we briefly looked at the  year behind us, Darrell detailed VISE’s Online Volunteer Management System (developed by CASE over a number of years), our trip to the Dharriwaa Elder’s Group in Walgett, and welcomed new members Hepatitis C Council of NSW, among others.

Business as usual followed, then the nomination of committee members for the coming year. Darrell Burkey maintains his position as President, Amanda Plowright maintains her position as Vice President and I have been returned as a committee member.

Looking forward to the year ahead!

CASE is holding it’s Annual General Meeting Tuesday 22 September. We’re please to announce that Senator Kate Lundy will be presenting a talk on Government 2.0 & Citizen Engagement from 5:30pm, preceding the AGM proper. Senator Lundy has been a patron of CASE and involved in web technologies for quite some time now. We’re hoping for an illuminating talk that looks at the recent developments of her #publicsphere initiative and the federal government’s Government 2.0 initiative. The AGM will run from 6.00pm – 7.00pm at the Offices of Volunteering ACT, Canberra Labor Club Community Chambers, 55 Chandler Street Belconnen ACT.

Feel free to join us! For further information make sure to check out the official CASE website.

Last weekend Sen. Kate Lundy held the third installment of her “publisphere” series. This even focused on ICT & Creative industries.

The Australian ICT industry is extremely broad in scope and expertise – from core infrastructure to mobile, Web 2.0 and of course the creative industries such as gaming, film and digital arts. Australia has done quite well on the international scene, however we could still do more to inspire many smart Australian professionals and companies to base themselves in Australia in the long term and to encourage international investment in the Australian ICT sector.

Having a strong Australian-based sector means a positive contribution to a number of important national goals: economic growth and exports, provide opportunities for skills development and experience in Australia’s workforce and finally, reinforcing Australia’s international reputation for excellence.

You can see the whole overview here and here!

We’re pleased to release the next episode in our occasional podcast series. This time I head out of the studio to visit ACT Senator Kate Lundy. We discuss using Web 2.0 applications such as Twitter, WordPress and Joomla, get her views on the proposed national broadband network and how she feels about funding to community organisations.

To listen to this podcast head over to the official CASE podcast page!

The first Public Sphere event has just finished It’s been an information packed, thought provoking few hours. Here’s a brief rundown of material that has resulted:

• Official Public Sphere event details on Senator Kate Lundy’s site.

• The Twitter feed from the morning.

• Craig Thomler’s liveblog from the event.

• Tom Worthington’s blog (Including links to the slides of the morning’s  presentations)

More posts to follow, just need to let the dust settle!

CASE’s patron Senator Kate Lundy has been online since 1996. While holding a variety of portfolios she’s use the Internet to her advantage, allowing constituents a closer connection to their representitive in a way that politicians worldwide have only just begun to embrace (the emerging Twitter fad, for example). Now she’s had her site updated and has amalgamated her online presence at http://www.katelundy.com.au. It’s worth checking out as it’s full of content and very useful links.

On account of our decade in action The Canberra Times interviewed Darrell and Kate Lundy for a large article in the Computer section on Monday. It looks at CASE’s history and structure and also details our recent work with the Dharriwaa Elders in the remote community of Walgett. If you missed the article, you can download a PDF version of it here.