Fell off the plane, smelt the wet-wool and knew I was home. The smell of wet wool is something that is slightly sweet; and reminds me of school in Adelaide. The blazers and jumpers we wore were 100% wool; and the fresh rain made a unique smell of dampness. Obviously, the carpets in Sydney airport are wool and there is a leakage somewhere in the terminal.
After getting home at around 10am, beautiful sleep on my own bed in the heavy rain interrupted my attendance at the Microsoft UPConference 2007 at the Powerhouse Museum.
Tuesday started better: up early, and into the UpConference. Choice: head into work and start setting up my new and first Microsoft-owned laptop, or go into another day of talking to a whole bunch of interesting community-minded people and listening. UpConference won, especially as Frank is resting up, and Uncle Mike is in town. A big thankyou from Frank Arrigo and myself to Jill Taylor and Mike Seyfang for standing in for Frank for the Monday presentation. Get better Frank; and interestingly, Jill’s perspective was perfect for the audience. Message here is that there is much work to do in UP group of people to get into this social networking thing: blogs, podcasts, vidcasts, RSS and the whole thing. Uncle Mike, the genius Matt Wong and I will push this along through 2007. There were three highlights today:
Steve Lawrence, CEO of Work Ventures, presenting on Leadership in the Not-for-Profit world. Excellent words on social enterprise, and how these can heal the pains of deep social problems. Steve commented on how Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential program is an excellent example how global corporations can assist in this healing process. Communications and Collaboration are key.
Mike Seyfang discussing Subscribing to feeds, Podcasting. Mike is Australia’s premiere social-networking expert for the learning and not-for-profit industries. A must-have speaker.- Senior Australian of the Year 2006, Dr. Sally Goold telling her story from living on the fringes of society to being one of the pioneering Aboriginal Registered Nurses. Her story bookended and clearly demonstrated that all have Unlimited Potential. No matter backgrounds, personal ability or cultural resistance.
Stories, using the software and networks we have to network between conferences. Some work to be done here. It is a time in the world’s history where the barriers are falling down; and we as technologists have to help as many people as we can. Just as reading and writing was taught in the Victorian Era in England: we must be a part of imparting digital knowledge to lift Australia to it’s knowledge potential. We can no longer ride on the sheep’s back.