Is the ICT profession ready for the 18th Century?

Catching Up
This post is by way of a pit stop for regular visitors to PeoplePoints - of which - to my blushing astonishment there seems to be more and more. In any event, this last fortnight has been a bit of a whistle stop tour of New Zealand, and I have been conscious that my visits here have been a little episodic.  So call this the catch up.

NZ Computer Society - lecture/presentation series.
First up, I have been on on one of NZCS  national series when they invite people to come and share their thoughts with NZCS regional branches.  I chose to offer some thoughts on Open Data - and its potential, especially from an ICT perspective.

And so, this last 10 days I have been in Dunedin, Christchurch, Hamilton, Auckland, closing off in Wellington last night.

Is the ICT profession ready for the 18th Century?
The presentation opened with a speculative challenge as to whether we - that's anyone involved in boot-strapping the next phase of the Internet as an open digital public space - are in touch with the historical parallels of the 18th Enlightenment and of how the subsequent gold seams of science and technology came about in part by, in addition to the long march to democracy, embedding public education and literacy as a key public good?

Developing 21st century digital public literacy
Turning to current challenges, my thesis was/is that the current definition/policy frameworks around open data - especially around government  owned or managed data sets - needs to radically expand to include all the cultural/heritage  data  assets contained in the myriad of cultural institutions - libraries - galleries - archives - museums, which in turn are one of the great products of, and containers for, the inheritance of the 18th century Enlightenment.  

And that, not only were these rich cornucopias of assets and opportunities key ingredients to the development of a 19th and 20th century public literacy, in turn they are key contributors to the development of  21st century digital public space,  and its mystic twin - public digital literacy.

Tool Boxes
Moreover, I was/am strongly of the belief  that - if we are serious about picking up the challenges to 21st century digital literacy - then tucked inside the  search /find/share/transform/co-create mantras of various national and international digital content strategies -  we need a whole bunch of additional tools than are currently showcased in storehouses/archives coming into view from the likes of Open Data USA  or UK Open Data.

Should this interest, be advised there is an audio file of the presentation - and of course the obligatory slide deck. When I put the two things together, I will post them here.

Social Media Junction.
I also presented at the Social Media Junction event in Sky City here in Auckland on Monday. My brief was to offer 10 public/nor for profit examples of people using social media/ social networking tools/behavior as part of their core activities.

BBC - History of the World
And yes, as the image above suggests, I used the seminal British Museum History of the World Project as an example. And for the record, be advised that the second parallel BBC series just launched.

The audience, though primarily from the private sector corporate world seemed receptive.  There was a very active Twitter tag #smj If this subject interests, then check it out. 

Playing at House
Somewhere along the way I have re-grown a beard. Now I have sciatica in my left leg, and am limping along. So somewhere along the way, and if I give into the temptation to buy a cane tomorrow, my transformation into House is complete

Tamati Kruger says return of Te Urewera pivotal to Tuhoe settlementwith NZ Crown

The issue
For those who need context, you need to be aware that here in New Zealand  Ngāi Tūhoe, have been in active negotiations with the New Zealand Crown for the last 18 months over their claim under the Treaty of Waitangi for a fair and lasting settlement of the raupatu, or confiscation, of their lands by the NZ crown. This is a long and vexed issue, which the NZ Herald Maori correspondent YvonneTahana  neatly summarises this morning, here. 

Te Urewera
Suffice to say, after 18 months of negotiation. both Tuhoe and the other parties, including many crown agencies, believed a draft heads of an agreement was in place  with signature and ratification due this week.  A key  part of the settlement would be the return of the Tuhoe lands in Te Urewera, their tribal homeland in the Urewera Mountains on the East Coast of New Zealand. Currently, much of this area is included in the Te Urewera National Park.

At the 11th hour - last Monday Prime Minister John Key unilaterally declared the return of the Te Urewera to Tuhoe had been taken out of the draft settlement. This move, which also took John Keys co-alition partner, the Maori Party by surprise, continues to provoke fierce debate here in New Zealand. And as the video above shows, events are still very much in play.

Other voices.
Earlier this week, Tariana Turia , the co-leader of the NZ Maori party wrote a moving piece in the NZ Herald on the deep connection Tuhoe have with theirancestral land - here.

Minister Chris Finlayson at Auckland Writers Festival
The New Zealand minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, [OTS] is Chris Finlayson. He is also Attorney General and Minster for the Arts. On Thursday night, in the latter portfolio, he opened the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival.

It was a slightly awkward affair. First, he took a clumsy swipe at the political affiliations of elder statesman to the NZ literary scene,  Karl Stead. Secondly, and to my surprise, he made reference to the pleasure he once had  listening to the NZ historian Dame Judith Binney give the Michael King Memorial Lecture in 2008.

I was, and remain totally bemused by this reference. I also was at this lecture. In it Dame Judith Binney gave an account of her current research among the Ngai Tuhoe, and couldn't have made it clearer where her sympathies lay.

Moreover, her recent work  Encircled Lands: Te Urewera, 1820-1921 - also speaks forcefully and at length as to the many and often betrayals of trust between the New Zealand Crown and Tuhoe. For more on this see this excellent review by Catherine Masters, here

Dog Whistle?
I'm still trying to work this out - was the Minster giving a long coded dog whistle that he disagreed with his Prime Minister - or was it just crass insensitivity on a stick?  Hopefully the former - but could we please maybe have a bit more clarity to his intention and his position?

Web 3.0 - a 15 minute documentary by Kate Ray

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

source
This came via OpenCalais,  who call it a ' dynamic and thought-provoking video thatbreaks down core concepts of the so-called 'Web 3.0' and Semantic Webmovements, featuring interviews with Tim Berners-Lee, David Weinberger,Clay Shirky and more.

On cabbages and kings with Jim Mora today

Afternoons with Jim Mora - Radio NZ National 
This afternoon Jim Mora and discussed the news around the items below, including the late insertion of a the web site for the Tuhoe people whose negotiations with the NZ Crown for the return of their ancestral lands is a current hot news topic.  See here for a sample from the NZ Herald, as well as the recommended web site above.

The audio
The notes are below, and the audio  is here  OggVorbis   MP3 - or click the wee player:

1. The iPad and the competition The Slate fromHP .

Last week I touched and used, however briefly,  an iPad and I amunderwhelmed.
I was so looking forward to this - BUT - not in love -maybe not even bothered about asking for a date. It just doesn't feel ready for the revolution it is claimed to kick start

That said NewZealand has a launch date -July  as does Australia - and yes they get itbefore us. - May 28th. Good coverage on the options coming up with the SMH, Sydney Morning Herald, here

Competition from HP
More seriously we went on to compare theiPad strategy with the apparent rethink of HP's device The Slate whichused Windows 7. HP just bought Palm and the rumo mill is alive withspeculation that they will go head to head with Apple with a new device
See this story from CNET News for context

2.XT - Report on the XT failure released by Telecom
UK-based Analysys Mason Report shows  XT network not ready for theamount of traffic it was asked to handle and that immature managementpractices failed to catch the problems in time.

Useful Summary on Kiwi Blog

1. Thenetwork failed because the network and supporting operationswere not ready to manage the levels of traffic it experienced
2. Softwareissues contributed to network instability
3. Although theXT network was designed to initially provideplanned coverage that matched the CDMA network the initial configurationof the XT network and, some network build issues, led to coveragevariability
4. Some aspects of the network architectureare overly complexmeaning that any faults are difficult to find and rectify
5. Immatureoperational management systems and process failurescontributed to the impact of network issues.

Plus summary and full report from Telecom , here

3. Australian Gov 2.0 TaskForce.
The AustralianGovernment have come out in favour of the key recommendations of theAustralian Gov 2.0 TaskForce. Details here.

Creative Commons 

The endorsement include the recommendation that all Australian government data /informationshould be open for reuse - with minimal copyright restrictions andshould, by default , unless there is a proper reason not to - use theCreative Commons License.

This is a very big deal - opens up shed loads of Australianknowledge assets into the market - mapping data - and puts to rest thenotion that Governments should make money out of their information .

Thisissue of open data goes to  NZ Cabinet in July.

New Zealand CreativeCommons
http://www.creativecommons.org.nz/

4. TED 
Some brilliant new sessions/talks on TED from the 2010conferenceFebruary, including this one from Stephen Wolfram and his quest to makeall knowledge computational -- able to besearched, processed andmanipulated. - See TED, here

5.  NGAI TUHOE
Last but not least, as per the opening comment to the post, the Tuhoe Establishment Trust  have a very good web site which explains their plans for the development of the Tuhoe people. See especially the section on their vision - which, among other things, explores the centrality of regaining control of their lost lands. 

National Digital Forum 2010 Conference Linking data, linking people

New Zealand National Digital Forum
The NDF in New Zealand, Aotearoa is a collection of 150 organisations, including museums, libraries, galleries, archives, and their partner organisations  It's probably one of the best conference spots in the the local cultural/heritage web - mostly because the people involved are both active learners and participants. In short, most of the people in the room  - usually around 300 - have either got something to learn - and something to say - often both. See the web site here, and the Ning site for more, here

The next conference is in October, 2010. The organisers have just released the following - and have asked that it get circulated as widely as possible. So here we go!

National DigitalForum 2010 Conference
Linking data,linking people
Monday 18 – Tuesday 19October 2010
Museum of New Zealand TePapa Tongarewa, Wellington

The 9th annualNational Digital Forum conference will be held in Wellington Monday 18 –Tuesday 19 October 2010 at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The NationalDigital Forum (NDF) is a coalition of museums, archives, art galleries,libraries and government departments with more than 150 memberorganisations committed to collectively building New Zealand’s cultureand heritage online.

Linkingdata, linking people will raise discussionand explore opportunities for the creative and cultural sectors to linkand make available digital content to the benefit of New Zealanders andthe rest of the world.

The interactiveformat of the programme will encourage delegates to take part in openknowledge sharing, discussion and debate. 

The 2010 conference programmewill include stimulating keynote speakers, discussion sessions,practical workshops and demonstrations.

Key Dates

Mark thesedates in your diary now!

7 May 2010             Call for contributors opens

24 May 2010            Early Bird registration opens

24 May 2010            Sponsorship opens

14 June 2010           Call for contributors closes

12 July 2010           Conference programme available

3 September2010        Early bird registration closes

18 October 2010NDF 2010 conference opens

Call forContributors / Presenters

Interested inpresenting at NDF 2010?

We are lookingfor speakers to participate in expertforums on key topics around linking data and linkingpeople.  There is also an opportunity for you to share stories of your projectwith other attendees, describing what you have been up to, what youhave achieved and share the lessons you have learned from successes aswell as failures in demonstration sessions.

Proposals must be submitted bycompleting the online Submission Form 

Derrida - the father of Deconstruction

Save Middlesex Philosophy

Save Middlesex University Philosophy School
Staff and students, both current and former are occupying Mansion House on Trent Park campus,  part  of Middlesex University, in protest at the planned closure of the philosophy department. More on this , here.

Today there 9,902 on the Facebook campaign, here- and a parallel 12554 signatures on the online petition, here


This gets personal
I should say this gets very personal for me.  I did a BA in The History of Ideas at Middlesex  in 1984-87 when it was still good old Middlesex Polytechnic. I loved every day there.  To do post graduate work you had to head on down to the likes of Brighton to the University of Sussex, and freeze in the tiny bedsits on East Slope to take the much more prosaic MA in Social and Political Thought. Even now, the sounds of a group of Chinese voices chattering next door can take me straight to that narrow little study,  the little built in desk and the tiny sixties minimalist single bed.

Since since, after the change to Middlesex University, the North London  Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy is now one of the main focal points to the study of the European or continental philosophy. Despite this, management at Middlesex University have decided to cut allphilosophy programs, including their MA and PhDdegrees.

This essentially means the end of the Centre for Research inModern European Philosophy, a hub for internationally scholarship and the best RAE rated research department in the University. Current supporters include some of the most prestigious names in international philosophic scholarship. Thirty of the same recently wrote to the THE to say:

"We theundersigned deplorethe recent decision of Middlesex University toclose its Philosophyprogrammes, including its prestigious andsuccessful MAs. The abruptclosure of these programmes is a matter ofnational and indeed internationalconcern. Not only does it contradictthe stated commitment of MiddlesexUniversity to promote ‘researchexcellence’, it represents a startlingstage in the impoverishment ofPhilosophy provision in the UK.


We have participated in events organised by the Philosophy group atMiddlesexand we can testify to its unique combination of strengths,and to thesignificant and distinctive contribution it makes tophilosophy in theUK. Its set of MA programmes is currently the largestin the UK. Philosophyis the highest research-rated subject atMiddlesex University. In RAE2008 Middlesex was rated first inphilosophy among post-1992 universities,with 65% of its researchactivity judged “world-leading” or “internationallyexcellent”.

It iswidely recognised as one of the most important centresfor the study ofmodern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speakingworld.  Itis one of only a handful of Philosophy departments left inthe UK thatprovides both research-driven and inclusive post-graduateteaching andsupervision aimed at a wide range of students, specialistandnon-specialist.

We call on Middlesex University to reverse this damaging and ill-judged decision to close its Philosophy programmes, and to renew its commitment to widening participation in education and to excellence in research.

• KeithAnsell-Pearson,Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick
• AlainBadiou,Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, ?cole Normale Supérieure,
  Paris
• EtienneBalibar,Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Université deParis-Nanterre &Distinguished Professor of Humanities,University of California Irvine
• MiguelBeistegui,Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick
• AndrewBenjamin,Professor of Critical Theory and Philosophical Aesthetics,Monash  University
• AndrewBowie, Professorof Philosophy and German, Royal Holloway,University of London
• JudithButler,Maxine Elliot Professor of Rhetoric and ComparativeLiterature, Universityof California at Berkeley
• SusanBuck-Morss,Jan Rock Zubrow ’77 Professor of Government CornellUniversity,
  New York
• BarbaraCassin,Directeur de Recherches, Centre National de la Recherche
  Scientifique, Paris
• SimonCritchley,Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the PhilosophyDepartment, NewSchool for Social Research, New York
• ChristopherFynsk,Professor of Comparative Literature and Modern Thought andDirectorof the Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen
• SimonGlendinning,Reader in European Philosophy, London School ofEconomics & Directorof the Forum for European Philosophy
• BorisGroys, Professorof Slavic and Russian Studies, New York University
• MichaelHardt,Professor of Literature, Duke University, NC
• HarryHarootunian Emeritus Professor of History, Chicago and New YorkUniversities
• JoannaHodge, Professorof Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University
• ClaudeImbert, EmeritusProfessor of Philosophy, ?cole Normale Supérieure,Paris
• MandyMerck, Professorof Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London
• DermotMoran, Professorof Philosophy, University College Dublin
• MichaelMoriartyFBA, Centenary Professor of French Literature and Thought,Queen Mary,University of London
• AntonioNegri,philosopher and political scientist
• JacquesRancière,Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Université de Paris VIII
• KristinRoss, Professorof Comparative Literature, New York University
• LynneSegal, AnniversaryProfessor, Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck College,University of London
• PeterSloterdijk,Rektor der Staatlichen Hochschule für Gestaltung,Karlsruhe
• GayatriSpivak,University Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University,New York
• IsabelleStengers,Professor of Philosophy, Université Libre de Bruxelles
• PeterWeibel, Chairmanand CEO, ZKM/Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
• JamesWilliams,Professor of European Philosophy, University of Dundee
• SlavojZizek,Co-Director of the International Centre for Humanities,School of Law,Birkbeck College, University of London.

People to email
As well as joining the FaceBook page, signing the petition et al, you might also care to write to:

Michael Driscoll, vice-chancellor of the university –m.driscoll@mdx.ac.uk
Waqar Ahmad, deputy vice-chancellor, research andenterprise – w.ahmad@mdx.ac.uk
Margaret House, deputy vice-chancellor, academic – m.house@mdx.ac.uk
Ed Esche, dean of the School of Arts & Education –e.esche@mdx.ac.uk

Friday moment: TEDxNYED:Education is all about Openness - Prof David Wiley -

France adopts law allowing return of Toi Moko

From The New Zealanders Illustrated - George Angas - 1847- this image sourced form Te Ara, here.
Auckland City Library digitsiation of The New Zealanders Illustrated - here

Tukuna mai he kapunga oneone ki a au hei tangi

Send me a handful of soil so I may weep overit
reference

Toi moko
The vexed issue of when, or under what conditions, a national or universal museum can or should  return artifacts to their origin, comes into fore this morning with the news that the French Parliament has approved the return of more than a dozen toi moko, or preserved Maori heads, to New Zealand.

The story goes back to 2007 when the Rouen Natural History Museum decided to repatriate a head in its collection. It was blocked by the French Ministry of Culture, and it has taken until now to get the legislative framework and the cross party support to create a national policy which will allow all toi moko in French collections to be repatriated.

Note - repatriated does not necessarily mean reunited with the subjects whanau [family]. Given the complex histories of war, conquest, and subsequent trading practices, there are huge issues within Maoridom here in New Zealand around identifying the point of origin of a toi moko, and who in turn has the responsibility of looking after the head, and accepting it for burial.

In recent times, Museums are the last candidates for any long term care and custodianship of toi moko.  Indeed in many instances local Maori groups - especially hapu [sub-tribe] consider any storage of human remains not just an insensitivity; it creates a condition whereby people won't go to the Museum because it is seen as a cemetery, and the human remains, and by extension the whole building, tapu. 

That said, many New Zealand museums have very sensitive protocols around handling human remains, including policies which actively seek repatriation and de-accession.  See for example, Auckland Museum, here.

Moreover, in regard to toi moko in particular, Te Papa, the NZ National Museum, act as negotiators and conduits to the eventual homecoming and burial of toi moko. See here for more on this from Te Papa.

So, one more step in the long chain of discourse and practicalities around a topic which can only be approached with respect.

Source 
As a measure of the importance of this issue here in New Zealand this morning, Te Papa, [Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa] acting chief executive Michelle Hippolite spoke on Radio NZ National MorningReport

Download: OggVorbis   MP3

A 2.5 Year-Old Has A First Encounter with An iPad

Thanks to Bindy B

OLPC Oceania - Team One Beep and the Microsoft Imagine Cup

Mitiaro High School Mitiaro, Cook Islands

 Imagine Cup NZ  winners hooks into OLPC
Monday morning just got a whole lot more interesting courtesy of this three leg story which connects a remote island school in the Cook Islands and their One Laptop Per Child, OLPC,  project with Auckland University engineering students and Microsoft New Zealand.

First up the Auckland University engineering students. Known as Team One Beep, they are  the winning team at last Fridays Microsoft NZ Imagine Cup, who now go onto the worldwide final in Poland in June - with more on that, here

Team One Beep
The Team One Beep,project,  in a lovely twist, deliberately focuses onthe One Laptop PerChild programme and its 1.4million deployed laptops,

Their software solution packages a file of educational data as audio to be sent via radio waves. This can be received on any cheap AM/FM radio which passes it on to the laptop. The file is then converted back to its original form once it has been received on the childrens' laptops, ready to be viewed.

AM/FM Radio? For sure, sounds a little esoteric in the age of digital. But that's the point - by stripping it down to transport over radio frequencies, it allows text, and hopefully soon, audio/video and eventually code to be picked up by any old radio and then onto a OLPC mesh.


Mitiaro, Cook Islands
And so to the photo above and the Cook Islands. The kids in the photo are from Mitiaro High School. Mitiaro is a small remote island in the Cook Islands, which in turn sits bang in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. The OLPC Oceania project is working with 17 island countries, including the Cook Islands and these guys are one of the latest schools to get with the programme.

And yes its more than interesting to see Microsoft NZ getting behind an open source programme like OLPC, although it should be noted that according to the OLPC Road map, the OX 1.5. will run both Linux and Windows. Haven t seen this in action yet - but hopefully soon.

Sources
In any event - not a bad Monday morning story - more  on the Imagine Cup end from Computerworld, here . OLPC Oceania blog is here.  And for balance, a  bit of a step back and re-think on the OLPC roadmap  is here.

Funny old world
Lastly, I just asked myself, would I rather go and visit Poland for the final, or Mitiaro? Answer, Mitiaro any time. You have no idea how blessed the welcome is in Pasifika.

Speaking with Jim Mora on Radio New Zealand National - Afternoons

source

Jim Mora
These are the notes for this afternoons programme with Jim Mora  on Radio New Zealand National. There are two ways to get the audio. Download: OggVorbis   MP3 Or - click the wee player:

1 Facebook - if Google = Search - Facebook wants to be Facebook = social .
They will do this by encouraging web site makers and developers to use new tools they unveiled at their developer conference F8 last week.

see
http://www.macworld.com/article/150801/2010/04/facebook.html
http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/21/facebook/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/194770/how_facebook_plans_to_dominate_the_web.html

2. Great web sites - principles/practice - from Webby Nominees
Using three examples from Webby 2010 Nominees, - we ask , 'what can they teach us about the four main principles of great web projects: design - content - collaboration - community.


3. Quick Hits

3.1. Pew Report on Institutions
Reference and the header to the study - here

3.2. The Daily Mail 100 cancer stories
Got this via Twitter and then Facebook - so its a bit like the social web in action.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=269512464297

3.3 Nessie!
No less than the Chief Constable of Inverness believed in Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, and wanted him protected according to secret memoirs just released by Archives at Scottish Archives.

See UK Telegraph for the bones of the story, here.

Plus National Archives Scotland site
http://www.nas.gov.uk/

Preserving the British Library’s C19 Newspaper Collection

"In 2004, the British Library secured £2 million funding from JISC to digitise its fragile C19 newspaper collection and make it available online. The collection is one of the top ten in the world and is used by journalists, historians and researchers world-wide.

The British Library has digitised two million pages amounting to 80 terabytes of data. This film looks at the challenges the Library has faced to preserve the collection for the future and the decisions it has taken."

Source: Planets

Planets
'Planets is a four-year project co-funded by the European Union underFramework Programme Six. It is coordinated by the British Library anddelivered by 16 national libraries, archives, technology and researchinstitutions. The project has developed a suite of software tools andservices to help organisations preserve digital content for thelong-term'

http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/

Auckland Writers and Readers Festival - 12th- 16th May, 2010

The Auckland Writers Festival
When bumping into friends colleagues and acquaintances of late I'm noticing we are starting to talk about the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival coming up on the 12th - 16th May, 2010.

I love these 5 days - for sure McGovern Online is a sponsor - and for sure - I'm always proud of the web work we do: but there is also a real community of practice running around this gig.

Patrons and sponsors have, by in large, been there for ever; the organisers, budget and distance notwithstanding, continue to want to push the envelope; writers on the festival circuit come away glad they did this one; and audiences just keep on rocking up every year.

And every one a reader! Things ain't over yet! See you there.

Programme - tickets - news - etc- here


Auckland Writersand Readers Festival 2010 from Paul Reynolds on Vimeo.

The Impact of the Internet on institutions in the future- Pew Internet and American Life

The Impact of the Internet on Institutions in the Future
Pew Internet & American Life Project

" By anoverwhelming margin, technology experts and stakeholders participatingin a survey fielded by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & AmericanLife Project and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Centerbelieve that innovative forms of online cooperation could result in moreefficient and responsive for-profit firms, non-profit organizations,and government agencies by the year 2020.
While their overallassessment anticipates that humans’ use of the internet will promptinstitutional change, many elaborated with written explanations thatexpressed significant concerns over organisation’s resistance to change.They cited fears that bureaucracies of all stripes – especiallygovernment agencies – can resist outside encouragement to evolve. Somewrote that the level of change will affect different kinds ofinstitutions at different times. The consensus among them was thatbusinesses will transform themselves much more quickly than public andnon-profit agencies... '

report summary and pdf link,  here

Source/context
I sourced this from the ever excellent series, The Source from the NZNL. Reading it, in part, as preparation for an upcoming series of conversations/seminars I am involved in with the NZ Computer Society, Details, here.