Tech and interesting things

Its been 3 days since the announcement of the Government 2.0 Taskforce and it seems to have created quite a fuss. Good fuss with lots of discussion and ideas already.

One bit of fuss that was less expected is around the design competition. It seems that we have offended a whole lot of designers. Perhaps we could have predicted the ensuing discussion and more and more , and maybe we would have run the competition anyway.

The motives behind the competition are in the spirit of Web 2.0 - collaboration and participation. Offence to designers was never intended - in fact, we respect the value of designer's work enough to know that a banner will have an important impact on our community engagement and we want to get a great one.

Work on spec, when you work for a living is a serious issue. As a professional who charges a fee for service I know the risks of it. But it is part of the business landscape.

With my Energetica hat on I can tell you that my team and I spend a lot of time with clients, preparing proposals and tenders, all of which contain our ideas, our expertise and a lot of other stuff that should be paid for. We win some, we lose some. It's business.

Our strategy is - we do the ones we think we have a good chance at, and we do a great job of them. We still lose some, but it's business. "No work on spec" is also a workable strategy - but it won't work for us.

FWIW As I noted in my comment on the blog: The design for Parliament House was chosen from a competition. So was the Sydney Opera House. Two things that have made a great contribution to public life.

With my Government 2.0 Taskforce hat on, my response is please participate, not so that we get something for free, but so that you can contribute to an important process of democracy. If everyone who will contribute to the taskforce over the next 6 months demands fees for their services there would be no task force members, no new ideas, no participation and no change.

My previous post explains why I am giving my time and expertise for no financial return.  It is my contribution to a better government.

(BTW - some ppl have reported problems with comments on this site. Please report them as we are not able to reproduce any faults)

Today at the PublicSphere Government 2.0 event at Parliament House in Canberra, Minister Lindsey Tanner announced a Governement 2.0 Taskforce to work through the ideas and suggest policy to Government.

In the scheme of things this is pretty exciting for our democracy. For me it is even more exciting because I have been appointed to the Taskforce.

I will be blogging a lot about this over the next 6 months with the intent of sharing ideas, creating discussion and hearing your thoughts. Right now, and until we get the Taskforce rolling properly, I am coming to terms with the responsibility of it all.

It is an opportunity for me to not only make a personal contribution to the future of our democracy, but also to share ideas with people who are enthusistic, innovative and who think deeply about these issues. I don't mean only the Taskforce members, though they are each a force in their own right, but with the people in the community who have ideas and who want to interact with government in meaningful ways.

To say it is a privelege may sound cliche but it is also an understatement.

The Publicsphere event was a powerful way to start off. There are many ideas and many participants in the dicussion. I can't wait to get cracking.

The CEO Sleepout was last night. This CEO will be sleeping in tonight.

The event was an incredible achievement. The event has grown from a few years ago with several CEOs and a modest fundraising effort to 220 CEO's and $500k in fundraising.

I was chatting with  Bernie Fehon who is the founder of the CEO Sleepout, his is astounded by the success of his own idea. I was reflecting on the process of ideas and how the seed of a great idea needs watering and nurturing a little bit before you can take the risk and run with it. For Bernie it was people around him who recognised the value of the idea and kept it alive.

There was a lot of chatting and I met many interesting people from interesting businesses and as expected with a group like that the networking was intense.

There were few women there. Shortly after I signed up for the event I did a quick count of the list and there were about 20% women on the list, I'm guessing that there were less than that at the event. In discussions with other women, we decided that this is due to the low percentage of women at the top, and also to the fact that the women who are at the top still probably have to take the kids to school in the morning.

Graeme Innes (Human Rights and Disability Discrimination Commissioner) gave a great talk about how homelessness is not a welfare issue but a human rights issue. (His talk will be on www.homelessnessinfo.net.au in coming days).

We heard stories from people who had expeinced homelessness, some performed their own works, each story touched the participants in a personal way, it was that kind of event.

The speakers who spoke about homelessness told us facts, which had a different effect. I was impressed by the comments of so many participants I spoke to about how their ideas of homelessness had changed, and they now realised that most homelessness is invisible, that there are families and children homeless all over Australia, and that the old men with beards and bottles are largely a myth of homelessness.

I thought that the speakers, Linda Burney, John Picot, Dick Smith and others, did a great job of educating us all about homelessness. That an audience of influential people now have a better understanding of the issue is no small thing. The sleeping out part is just a reinforces the lesson.

I slept poorly. I did sleep, but never for long enough and broken sleep is not rejuvenating. I was not cold (I cheated with a hot water bottle), but the cardboard mattress was hard. There was a bit of ruckus in the middle of the night that woke us all up.

We woke to a beautiful clear morning with a waning crescent Moon, Mars and Venus to greet us.

I began to understand that homelessness is a lot more than a physical state. I considered my condition for the day ahead and if I had to spend the day finding the next nights accommodation, applying for jobs or housing, dealing with having no money I would not have been able to make good decisions. This is the experience of homelessness: Being stressed physically and mentally and trying to make decisions fundamental to your survival and your family's well being. This was the most profound revelation for me from the experience, a recognition of the life consuming nature of homelessness.

I raised over $600. People have been incredible generous.  Thank you to all  my donors.

Will I do it again? Ask me after a few nights sleep.

As the CEO Sleepout approaches I find myself thinking more of how I will keep my toes warm than about the homeless I am there to support.

Maslow's heirarchy of need has supporters and critics, but I'm finding that the fundamentals of it are manifesting for me today.

The sleepout should be an experience of self actualisation, one of compassion, empathy and generosity, the things at the top of the Maslow's need pyramid. In our society this is the place I sit. Education, democracy, financial stability has me comfortably in the place where I do not have to devote all my energy to fulfilling basic needs.

 I have no doubt that in the days to come that this is what it will be: an experience for reflection.

But at the moment my thought energy is taken up by "which is the warmest coat", "should I take another pair of socks", "will I be dry if it rains". These are thoughts of fundamental need and much lower on Maslow's heirarchy than I usually put thought to.

There is an insight here. For people who every day are wondering where to sleep and how to stay warm and how to afford the next meal, there is no room to think about "how can I get a job", "what do I need to do to get a home" or "what is my long term future".

This is the essense of the myth that we can all get out of a bad situation, if we just put our mind to it. Not all of us can. Not all of us have the connections, the education or the opportunities to do that. In those situations we can't put our mind to it because there is not enough mind left.

 Donate

More on homelessness

The CEO Sleepout is in 4 days. It is very cold at night in Sydney at the moment and I am getting cold feet, so to speak. But the cold is the point. We are supposed to be getting a sense of sleeping rough.

I've been encouraging my Twitter and Linked-in networks to donate and I am thankful for all my generous donors so far. I have 4 days of blitzing the networks to see what I can achieve.

Getting CEOs to sleep rough for a night is a great way to highlight issues, get some media attention and maybe get people who don't normally contemplate homelessness to turn their thoughts (and hopefully their donations) to those with who don't make it quite so well in our society.

But there is way more to homelessness than sleeping rough. From the last census:

"Most homeless people were sheltered somewhere on Census night, with 45% staying temporarily with friends or relatives, 21% staying in boarding houses, and 19% staying in supported accommodation (such as hostels for the homeless, night shelters and refuges);

The majority of homeless people were single (57,182 people or 55%), while 20% were couples without accompanying children (20,704 people, or 10,160 couples with 384 accompanying adults) and 26% were in homeless families with children (26,790 people, or 7,483 families); and

More than two-thirds (67%) of the homeless population were adults over 18 years of age, with 12% under 12 years of age, and 21% from 12 to 18 years old. Less than half (44%) of homeless people were female."

(these data from www.homelessnessinfo.net.au )

So sleeping out in the cold isn't the only way a person can be homeless, and is not the experience of most homeless people. Most disturbing is that over 7000 families were homeless on census night.

Homelessness isn't about the men sleeping in the park or on George St. It is also about domestic violence, mental health, drug and alcohol issues, poverty, family disfunction, youth and the list goes on - no-one is simply homeless.

Most of us never see the real extent of homelessness.

Here is what I ask you to do:

• Donate
• Consider the impact that homelessness would have on you or your family should your circumstances change. Not sleeping rough homeless, but having to stay with friends or relatives, or living in a caravan park - that kind of homeless.
• Think about people you know of who are at risk of disadvantage - what would being homeless mean to them. Would you take them in?
• When you have thought about it -  Donate again.

Last week I signed up for the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. I'll be staying out all night with a bunch of other CEOs. The idea is that we get a sense of what it is like to sleep rough.

Actually the idea is fundraising, and already $80000 has been raised which is not bad at all.

The only idea we will get of what it is like to sleep rough is the cold and the hard ground. Even then, we are allowed a sleeping bag (mine is a -2) and a pillow, which in itself is more than anyone forced to sleep on the streets.

We don't know what it is like to not have a job to go to the next day, or what it is like to know that tomorrow night's bed will be the same cold and hard pavement. After one night in the cold there will be over 100 CEO's going back to comfortable homes, good meals and a certain future. The experience of rough sleepers is quite different.

Also, our collection of CEO's will be applauded for our work, sponsored and encouraged. Rough sleepers are ignored and outcast - we won't experience that.

A CEO Sleepout sounds like more fund than it should be, like one big pyjama party. I'll be twittering and blogging like it is one big adventure, but I won't pretend to feel like a homeless person.  My night out in the cold is by choice.

But I will happily put it on all of you who will stay warm in your bed on the 18th of June, to make a donation to Vinnies, so that some of those without a choice will fewer nights in the cold.

If you want to know more about Homelessness see the National Homelessness Information Clearinghouse. (content managed on behalf of FaHCSIA by my great team)

Do donate:

"You don't need to be great, just surround yourself with great people" is a quote variously attributed to jack Welch, Rudi Guiulaini and even John F Kennedy. Curiously they are all great people.

Sometimes a phrase from noted in a day becomes the theme for the whole day.

I met for coffee with a friend yesterday and he reminded me of the quote. He is an architect and he was describing a project where he is bringing together some "great people" to create something wonderful, a substantial project on an significant building in a beautiful place. My friend is an architect of note, but without the partnership the project would be out of his reach.

Earlier I had spoken with the CEO of a major NSW not -for-profit and we discussed the idea that a good team becomes more than the sum of its parts. This is one of the rewards of working with terrific people, and the added reward of working with great organisations.

I also had a meeting with a group of potential partners. We were talking about a specific project, but the conversation is now wider and deeper. Partnerships can be complicated, but when  you have clear demarkation of work, where the strengths of one compliment the strengths of the others and there are no gaps, this is the start of something big or great. 

On top of that I signed up for the CEO Sleepout. A night in the cold to raise money for homelessness. The list includes some great people and the opportunity to be surrounded by them is incredible.

(I'll be blogging more about the sleepout - in the meantime you can help by donating.)

Connecting Up 2009 conference was on in Sydney last week. #CUA09, as it quickly  became known in our tagged and tweeted world, is an opportunity for not-for-profits to gather, learn, share and inspire each other, and that is what really happens.

One of the highlights for me this year was the networking and opportunities for conversation. In religious circles it's called fellowship. The rest of us don't have a good word for it.

The other highlight was the speakers. It was a huge program, with high quality speakers from the US, Canada, and our own home grown expertise. Here are my highlights. I'm not going to summarise the talks, I'll link to tne online resources so they can speak for themselves (If you have other links let me know and I will include them):

Doug Jacquiers Welcome address set us all off on a positive note, getting cracking at doing good with technology. Some great examples.

Allen Gunn got us all up out of our chairs, in a long opinion spectrograph. His provocative statements polarised the room. Peopled shared their micro-opinion (only one point), and twinkled agreement. We were all honorary Californians for the time. Allen's energy did not dissipate. And i'm pretty sure it has not yet.

Jody Mahoney facilitated an inspiring conversation on women in IT. Her closing keynote drew together all the threads of the two days. I was impressed by her use of quotes from other keynotes. Her slides are at the end of the CoverIT live Replay.

Mark Pesce impressed for the same reason. His keynote was designed for this conference - not a rehash from previous ones. Not all keynotes are like that. His talk of clouds and towers and the 5 active people you need to start a movement has generated a lot of discussion and ideas at Energetica this week. Mike Seyfang's recording of Mark's talk. And his slides are on CoverIT live Replay

Cheryl Kernot spoke about social enterprise. She had lots of examples from the UK in particular.

Mike Seyfang's talk on social networking tools was very popular and inspite of the technical problems he entertained us and educated us with his velvet radio voice. http://mseyfang.edublogs.org/2009/05/05/cua09/ has all his onlinery.

Allan Noble from Google talked about Google Aps, Ads, and other stuff, not so much about Google ruling the world. Hear his talk. His slides are included in the CoverIT live Replay

Peter Dietz from http://www.socialaction.com/ told us all about some great ideas in using social networks for fundraising and getting participation. He's added his slides and talk to his blog.

Martin stewart-weeks challenged us with some well-considered ponderings on how the networked world is changing the nature of the third sector. As usual Martin's talk pushed the intellectual boundaries and challenged the paradigms. His premise was that the trends in social networking, social innovation and technology are changing the nature of particupation, and the nature of the third sector. I'll link his presentation if I can get a copy.

I thought Monique Potts from the ABC was preaching to the converted when she told us why we should love the ABC. See her slide show. It was nice to be reasured that the ABC is our favourtite place for good reasons.

The Connecting Up conferences get better and better each year. I'll be there again next year.

Just spent more than 2 days at Connecting Up 2009. For those who don't know, it is the most important IT Conference for not-for-profits in Australia. .

The program was exceptional this year. I've been to almost all the Connecting Up Conferences and they continue to get better each year.

Of course there were things - wireless was wonky, climate in rooms was variable. But the things that matter about conferences - the speakers, the conversations, the participants. You could not have asked for better.

I'm feeling inspired as are my team who attended with me. I made new friends, thought of new ideas, started work on new partnerships.

I twittered what I could during the conference. The stream of conciousness from twitter adds a whole new level to the experience, and extends the audience, creating an inclusive conference, and a wider conversation. Take a look at how Dave Wallace (@dnwallace) experienced the conference http://dnwallace.com/blog/

Check out all the online podcasts, videos and presentations: http://www.connectingup.org/conference/online#live

I'll blog about the ideas when I get time (now have 2 days of crazy catching up).

Thanks to everyone I got to talk to, its your thoughts and ideas that make the presentations meaningful.

PS:  Declaring my interest - I am on the board of ConnectingUp Australia. But even if I wasn't I'd say it was a terrific conference.

PPS: For those wondering why there is 2 months gap in blog posts: the blog has been a embarrassingly broken lately. It is better now and will get a proper makeover as soon as we get a free moment.

I have worked in IT for over 26 years. It's good to be a geekgirl. There are those rare times when technology is astounding, baffling you with its simplicity and elegance and making you proud to know about it, and to get what it means.

Sometimes technology can create so many complexities, anomolies and even actual disasters that I just want to go and grow veges and feed chooks and never touch technology again.

Mostly though the story of technology is things never going quite to plan. No matter how good the plan, there are always things unseen, traps and snags. And there is the people factor to throw some sauce on those snags. Some weeks it's amazing that technology holds together. Here are some examples from my week:

• We sent our our newsletter and John got an email addressed to Juanita. There is no Juanita in our database. That is just peculiar, but I think I will call him Juanita forever now.
• A server transfer goes smoothly except for little things that only showed up because of the server move  (DNS silliness mostly).
• One of my dedicated staff got up very early to work, but the server had moved overnight and she did the work on the old one. It was a problem of timing.  It's disappointing that her dedication was rewarded with duplication.
• Networks fail when you need them most - though i think this is  a corollary to the law of the universe that says that the BBQ gas will run out just before the sausages are cooked.
• A brand new office chair gives me a backache (ok that's not so high tech but I want to whinge about it anyway).
• Our brand new client gets bounces from any emails he sends us, even to our backup emails with a completely different service. It seems it's just us.
• I spoke to a helpdesk operator who would not listen and thought I knew nothing. I actually had to tell him to stop talking and listen to me.  That makes me mad.

Sometimes though, we get through the problems and get a very very happy customer. Actually we ended up with 2 this week, so in a week of seemingly endless tech problems, it's not so bad.

It's probably not advisable to tell the world that we don't always get the tech right, or that there are things that go wrong, but anyone who implies that they always get it right are misleading you. Technology just isn't that predictable. I'd rather say that sometimes there are tech gremlins, sometimes it's our fault, sometimes it's our customer's fault and sometimes there is no fault, it's just a byproduct of complexity. Value is in the way we deal with the problems, how we treat our customers when things go bad and how we improve ourselves from the experience.