Okay I'm going to try and organise another Small Business Hangout for next thursday, 10th May 2012 at 11:00am (AEST).
Same deal applies, basically it's a change for people who work primarily online to catchup with other like minded people to shoot the breeze, swap notes and generally build up a network of people like us.
I meant to write this last week however things have been a little busy at Che Collaborynth.
Last week the Councillors at Wollongong Council were presented with a report on the viability of recording the meetings of the Council. The report recommended against the proposal based on the following:
When I'm not working on site with a client, I work from home. This is great because it allows me flexibility in the hours I work and so on.
However it does tend to remove a bit of that human element that people need.
So I thought I would see whether the Hangout feature on Google Plus would work in allowing those of us who work virtually to get some face time with people who share the same issues. It would allow us to chat, swap notes, experiences and possibly network.
Collaborynth now has a page setup on Google+. I'll be using it both to do the business thing, but also to experiment with the various tools available.
The first experiment I would like to try is to setup a regular Google Hangout for people involved in Local Government.
For those of you who don't know, a Hangout is a video conferencing facility that Google provides within the Google+ framework. It allows up to ten people to participate, and through its Hangouts With Extras, allows for things such as Screen Sharing, collaborative document editing and so on.
Okay here's an idea that I've been tossing around for a little while now.
What if we setup an official Open Government Foundation type thing. This would have three roles:
- Effectively lobby government for the development of more open and transparent government
- Provide independent advice (NOT vendor locked) to all levels of government on development of Open Government intitiatives
- Develop and aid the Open Government community in Australia through things like conferences, workshops and a place to share experiences and ideas.
So, as you may know, Qantas (the formerly govt owned, but now privately owned Australian national airline) has not exactly been kicking goals PR wise. It began with the AGM, continued with the lockout and hasn't really gotten any better.
However today I am glad to say that the Qantas PR machine has scored a spectacular goal.
Unfortunately it was in their own net.
This morning they announced a competition on twitter:
Two weeks ago the 4th annual Local Government Web Network Conference was held and it was good.
Organised by Reem Abdelatey of the Local Government and Shires Associations, the conference is Australias only grass roots event with a focus on Local Government use of the internet.
Well once again it has been a little while since I last blogged here, so best I bring things up to speed a bit.
The Site
I've added a new page to the site:
Basically some of the excellent people I've been working with lately.
IKEN
Tomorrow morning I'm going to be heading in to Parliament House in Canberra to attend Microsofts Politics and Technology Forum.
A half day event, it's going to be keynoted by british poli-blogger and radio personality Iain Dale and then we'll get a panel discussion regarding politics and tech in Australia.
I'll be tweeting under the hashtag #poltech
