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Showing posts from 2009

Wellington Agile Barcamp, Sat 12th December

Asked by the awesome Scrum Coach, Sandy Mamoli , to do my little bit and spread the word - the details: 12th of December from 9.30am to 2.30pm Fronde , Queen's Wharf "After"-party at the Chicago bar Site: http://barcamp.org/BarCampAgileWellington2 Registration on the site or per email: rsvpwn@agileprofessionals.net Twitter: agileWelly Have fun if you're going.

“© kiwiright”, Documentary About Copyright Laws

“© kiwiright” is a 12 minute documentary about how copyright laws have been contorted to benefit the financial needs of corporate rights holders and no longer benefits the public nor the artists who create the work itself. Employing a fair-use argument, “© kiwiright” intercuts interviews with New Zealand lawmakers and technologists with Disney clips defining and commenting on copyright law. The filmmaker calls “© kiwiright” a "proof-of-concept" film remixing footage from other films released under Creative Commons licenses to build an argument against “guilt upon accusation” laws and to promote freedom of speech and expression. For more information, visit: creativefreedom.org.nz eff.org/action See the original Creative Commons works that "© kiwiright" builds upon at: cyberlaw.stanford.edu/documentary-film-program/film/a-fair-y-use-tale ripremix.com/

Guilty Upon Accusation In The UK - Say No

Here in New Zealand we were one of the first countries that the forces that be tried to implement the "3 strikes and you're out" law with regards to alleged copyright infringement via the Internet - in essence if you're accused 3 times by a copyright holder of illegally copying their work you will have your Internet disconnected by your ISP. I have no qualms with copyright holders protecting their goods BUT the issue is that the disconnection would occur immediately on the third accusation and before any evidence is produced and way before you have a chance to defend yourself - therefore you are guilty because someone has accused you. In NZ the law was defeated by a concerted effort (called "#blackout"), a change of government and the support of many high profile supported including Stephen Fry. Today Stephen Fry tweeted the following: I'll keep at this till a million sign! We mustn't let Mandy do this WRONG thing. Please sign & RT: http://is.

Online Collaboration Tools – We Want Your Recommendations

Helping Ben on a project and the team would love to know your thoughts: ... part of a group looking at building a collaborative platform for data sharing for a local Government organization, it seemed logical to approach the project in a similarly collaborative way. Wanting to “eat their own dog food”, a joint group of individuals shared in the project; Mike Riversdale, Aaron Brunet and Ben all joined forces to work on a project initiated by a forward thinking local government staffer required to manage an extensive natural resource. The great thing about this particular project is that, without giving specifics out, it seeks to improve the management of a scare natural resource. So please pop over to Ben's CloudAve post and let the world know YOUR favourite online collaboration tool: http://www.cloudave.com/link/online-collaboration-tools-we-want-your-recommendations

NZ Government Opening Up Their Data

As you are probably aware the New Zealand government have, through their Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), created a one-stop-shop listing all the data accessible from government agencies. Nice. This initiative was almost entirely driven from the awesome work of a small independent group led by Glen Barnes and Nathan Torkington ( http://open.org.nz ) with the Open Data Catalogue as a “one-stop shop for locating government data”. So where is this official site: http://www.data.govt.nz/ Browse datasets Add a dataset Suggest a dataset They are also using Twitter to announce new data sets: @Data_Govt_NZ Nat posted up his views on the initial release and ComputerWorld have popped up an article today. Included is this quote from the totally switched on Jason Ryan ("State Services Commission communications man") which has quickly become my favourite about 'open government data': “It’s not about the technology. It’s not about data quality. Or privacy. Or commercial

So Tweets Are The New Thing To Steal

It used to be blog posts but, hey, thieves have gotta get with the times as well you know!

Open Letter To All New Zealand Google Apps Resellers

Have recently sent the following to all NZ-based Google Apps resellers. In the spirit of openess AND knowing the current list probably doesn't cover everyone: SUBJECT: NZ Google Apps eco-system wants you You're a Google Apps re-seller and I work for one ( WaveAdept based here in Wellington) This would normally mean in the NZ IT/tech industry we should only ever see each other over the fence of competing RFPs However, I believe Google Apps users within NZ are suffering from a lack of local support, information and "mates to call upon". There are also myths galore ("What if NZ loses its one Internet cable to the world"), misrepresentation ("Google Apps is just not allowed within the NZ Government agencies) and plain old "who knew that?!" ("Wow, I didn't know Google was more than search!?") Whilst Google can provide a swag of information it is up to us, the local representatives, to mould this collateral to suit our particular au

Great Company Name With Top Logo

From an email correspond to the The Register ("Biting the hand that feeds IT")

Consumer vs Corporate - The Power Has Long Moved From One To The Other

One of my long time and constant sayings about the sea shift within IT Departments of corporates/Government agencies around New Zealand is that they have not grasped that the power has long moved from them to the consumer world. Back in the day the only people with enough money to afford computers were very large organisations and these electronic beasties performed very specific (usually batch orientated) computational work that, to be honest, no-one outside of these organisations really cared about ... except on pay day. In the 1980s companies, such as Microsoft, could see that this computing power was becoming cheaper and cheaper as well as smaller and smaller and quickly jumped on board to supply software to this burgeoning massive market - smaller organisations. It wasn't long (late 1980s and into the 1990s) before every organisation worth its salt had a computer, normally one with Microsoft software running. But this was still the corporate world, you still went to the office

In Christchurch Next Week - Love To Talk Google With Us?

As part of WaveAdept 's drive to create an "ecosystem" of Google Apps users around New Zealand two of us are on the road from next week. First call, Christchurch - Thursday 29th / Friday 30th, October With any collaboration discussion and particularly the breadth offered by Google Apps the discussions can be wide ranging and so we are targeting our time around the following topics: What the hell is Google Apps? How can it help my business and how much does it cost ($70/user/year!) We already use it but not sure we're getting the most value out of it, now what? I know/use it personally and know my work would benefit but ... how do they get it? Of course, like all the best conversations nothing is written in stone so don't hold back :-) We've deliberately left time for those that we don't know to get some free time with us. (those that know and have already booked us are cool as but what about those that just want to hear more - this is YOUR time) How to g

How To Facilitate A Barcamp/Unconference

I have been privileged to help create a number of successful barcamps ( Wikipedia ) alongside an ever growing number of committee members here in Wellington over the past few years both public and internally at client sites. I've also attended others around the country which have been mostly awesome but sometimes missing a certain "something". During this time I've managed to crystalise what I believe helps create and facilitate (NOT "run) a successful barcamp - here it is, by all means share it around. Oh, one more thing - barcamps are traditionally held within the realm of the geeks but there's NOTHING about a barcamp that limits it to such an industry and, much like you can hold a traditional conference on any subject under the sun, so you can with a barcamp. What do you need for a barcamp? I've always said you only need the following to get have a barcamp A venue A date A logo People On reflection I should also add, "a need" - dur. The date

UP Free Event: Wellington To The World (Tue 17th Nov)

Last year's inaugral event was quite fun AND was my first introduction to Aptimize which has gone from strength to strength since then - check out the presentations from them and the others at the W2W YouTube channel . So, who will be this years stand out performer from those that will present during the live technology showcase featuring pitches from selected and groomed Wellington technology companies? Another top reason to pop along (apart from the attractive price of $0) is to hear Richard MacManus talk around this year’s theme, ‘Going Global with Your Technology Business’. Other speakers are Ben Young (entrepreneur, author and marketing guru) and John Watt (nanotechnology pioneer and MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year). Reserve your free ticket at: http://www.up.org.nz/w2w09/ Tuesday 17 November 2009, 2:00pm - 8:00pm Civic Suite, Level 2, Wellington Town Hall, Wakefield Street, Wellington [ map ] Unlimited Potential's W2W event aims to build bridges between academia

Don't You Work For Them?

There's a little confusion about who I work for which is my error in not communicating with you all the changes I love having around my life. So, here ya go: WaveAdept is who I work for (cloud computing, Google Apps re-seller). I am not the only person working for WaveAdept. MiramarMike is my professional, sole trader existence ("open" advocate) Knowledge Cue (SharePoint gurus) is who I am proud to be an associate of Anyone else you may have associated with me are either past, present or future clients. WaveAdept is, however, also partnering up with like minded companies so you may catch my name alongside others in the near future. For a little more on the difference between Mike @ WaveAdept and MiramarMike read my earlier post, Welcome To WaveAdept

The Hierarchy Of Digitial Distractions

Thanks to Lulu (from Lushai.com) for this link from the quite fabulous InformationIsBeautiful.net blog: Click on the diagram to see why you need to Get. Off. Line ... now and again

Software Freedom Day 2009

When: Sunday 20 September 2009, 9.00am-5.00pm Where: Michael Fowler Convention Centre, Wakefield St Twitter account: @WLGSFD Twitter event tag: #sfdwlg09 Flickr tag: #sfdwlg09 Google Group: http://groups.google.co. nz/group/software-freedom-day- wellington RSVP essential: http://www.softwarefreedomday. org.nz/ Software Freedom Day is an annual, global celebration of the use and development of free and open source software, open standards and open participation. This year, Unlimited Potential and a large number of community groups and companies around Wellington are coming together to organise another great event. Come and take part in the hackfest, installfest, a makerfest, barcamp and techtalks, and our 2 new streams: a kids programme and a student programme. Visit the Software Freedom Day website to find out more and register - RSVP is essential: http://www.softwarefreedomday. org.nz/ Many thanks to our event sponsors - NZOSS, SuperHappyDevHouse, Unlimited Potential, WellyLUG, Am

Links From The Company

Posts that in the olden days would've been posted here are now appearing over at the WaveAdept blog, such as: Get Help With Google Apps Services Designed For The Teams Of Tomorrow, Not The Office Workers Of Today Google Apps Interest Grows And Grows Bruce Sterling On Why Hyperbole Will Die Enjoy

10 Tips For Hosting On-line Discussions

An excellent set of tips gleaned from a number of clients that are dipping their toes into the "online/real-time discussions" (think whole company same time IM and/or blogging). Ensure someone guides the group towards its purpose. What is the outcome we want to achieve? Help create a sense of community at the beginning - introduce fellow members, introduce the topic (include some of your thoughts) and encourage people to share their thoughts Acknowledge contributions and support discussions with further questions (eg how to achieve this etc) Stimulate/throw open discussions. Manage what's 'lost in translation': its much easier for things to be misinterpreted on-line - assume goodwill/positive intent in the first instance to avoid triggering conflicts check out assumptions being made in the discussion Inclusion – appeal to both common ground and diversity e.g. "has anyone had any experiences/thoughts that have been similar/different?" 'Moderating'

Is Your Intranet Full Of Broken Lego?

Here's one of the most awesome analogies I've heard for a while about "semantic web" ( huh? ) from an old TED Talk given by Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning : XML is like the nubs* on top of Lego bricks that help you join it all together And the nubs of a Lego brick is great example as they are standard in size, everyone knows how to use them and they are ubiquitous. Taking that analogy a little further, I think that when we want to use information from a website or, more importantly to those within the walls of an organisation, the Intranet we experience: PDF/Flash/Silverlight - completely created toy, no Lego involved, it is what it is and there's not much anyone can do about it Bad HTML - a toy made out of specific/customised Lego bricks that aren't much good for anything except that one toy HTML - A box of Lego with instructions for 3 or 4 toys but you'll need a lot of skills to build your own creation XML - basic building blocks that can be pu

Yes, I Am Going - NZ Open Govt Data Barcamp and Hackfest

I'm going are you? FREE: Saturday 29th August: Barcamp - registration 9:15am+ / sessions 10am-5pm National Library of New Zealand (70 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, 6011, Wellington - map FREE: Sunday 30th August: Hackfest - registration 10am+ / into 10:30am-4pm Southern Cross Bar (35-39 Abel Smith Street, Te Aro, 6011, Wellington - map Sign up at http://open.org.nz/barcamp Get your own website badge at http://groups.google.co.nz/group/nzopengovtbarcamp/web/yes-i-am-going---code-to-add-to-your-website

Last Day For Your "Plain English Awards" Submisions

Today is the final day for your submissions to 2009 Writemark Plain English Awards so I urge you all pop over to http://www.plainenglish-conference-awards.org.nz and nominate your entries and be in to win an award presented on 18th September 2009 at the Museum Building, Wellington: Category 1: Plain English Champion Best Organisation Best Project Best Individual or Team Category 2: Best Plain English Document Public Sector / Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Private Sector Category 3: Best Plain English Website Public Sector / Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Private Sector Category 4: Best Sentence Transformation (the easiest one to enter!) Category 5: People’s Choice Best Plain English Document Best Plain English Website ‘Brainstrain’ Document ‘Brainstrain’ Website

It's On! NZ Open Govt Data Barcamp/Hackfest

Yaay, we have confirmed dates and venue: Saturday 29th August - barcamp Sunday 30th - hackest National Library (Wellington) Subscribe to NZ Open Govt Data Barcamp and Hackfest Email: Visit this group - ttp://groups.google.com/group/nzopengovtbarcamp The following is from the group to promote the group (excuse the use of <table>) ------------------- You may use these promotion boxes by pasting the supplied HTML into your own webpages. Button for your Web page <table style="background-color: #fff; padding: 5px;" cellspacing=0> <tr><td> <img src="http://groups.google.com/intl/en/images/logos/groups_logo_sm.gif" height=30 width=140 alt="Google Groups"> </td></tr> <tr><td style="padding-left: 5px;font-size: 125%"> <b>NZ Open Govt Data Barcamp and Hackfest</b> </td></tr> <tr><td style="padding-left: 5px"> <a href="http://gro

Welcome To WaveAdept

It's been a long time coming but Dave Livesey ( @daveadept ) have finally launched our new company - WaveAdept ( @waveadept ) What is it already doing: Connecting your people, tools and information to make you more productive. Whether you use Microsoft Office, Open Office, or a different set of tools, we streamline your business with simple tools that you will actually use. Very similar to the work MiramarMike.co.nz has been doing ... which begs the question, "So, what does that mean for this blog and MiramarMike.co.nz?" WaveAdept will be the name on the business card for organisations that want to use our services. MiramarMike will be be used to represent myself in all facets "professional" that fall outside of WaveAdept. To give you some guidance, Mike from WaveAdept will be: The person engaged by companies around collaboration Presents at "cloud computing" events (come along this Friday - http://wellingtoncloud.eventbrite.com/ - $0, 2 hours) Who

Here We Go Folks, It's All On ...

Here we go folks, it's all on ... strap yourself in for the ride of your life ... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... If you thought Google had lost it's mojo, it's panache, it's disruptive nature by being bloody wealthy then you were wrong. THIS is battle lines drawn. THIS is bringing it on. . . . .... but THIS (Google Chrome OS) is where we (some) think it's going: ... today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be This battle will take around 18 months (ever had a child, it's such a short time looking back eh!). Can you feel the difference, are listening to the way your IT people are talking, feeling the weight that incumpents are carrying ... the world is changing folks, are you? BTW: I remember being at a IT conference in the 1980's when someone stated that they, "... want to get to their email instantly, withou

3 Reasons To Go To The NZ SharePoint Conference PLUS The Agenda For Your iPhone/PDA/Outlook

[Updated] There is also a Twitter a/c to follow, @NZSharePoint , AND the Slideshare event (sign-up required, sorry). All with official hashtags of #NZSPC #SharePoint The two days are a must for anyone currently using SharePoint, thinking of moving to SharePoint or considering SharePoint and, to be honest, if you're moving your Intranet/collaboration environment into something useful and a "doing place" you will be in one of those camps. Thursday 2nd / Friday 3rd July http://www.sharepointconference.co.nz/ Register ($500/person - 20% for parties of 5+) Venue: Duxton Hotel , 170 Wakefield Street, Wellington 6110, New Zealand And now the three reasons! 1: Two days of fantastic local and international speakers for only $NZ500 Really, there are some amazing speakers for you and, like Webstock, I am amazed how New Zealand manages to draw such talent to us - we must be so cool. 2: Your SharePoint peers from around New Zealand will be there The best conferences happen in the

Being The First Is A Lonely Position

It takes courage, tenacity, a self belief when others are giving you a hard time but when it works all of a sudden those on the outside become the lonely ones. To those that we regularly drink with that are working in Wellington/NZ-based startups we'd like to say, "The dancers are coming!" Thanks to Zoli at CloudAve for the video

How To Run A Birthday Party AND A Business

One of the well known analogies used by Dave Snowden to how knowledge management works well within companies/organisations/communities is the "Child's Birthday Party". He recommends They did not respect or sit still for the devotional sacrifice as the 'definitive' reworking of that analogy ( original here in a PDF ). In a nutshell: ... we have a birthday party strategy. The goal is for everyone to have a safe and enjoyable time. We have specific and measurable objectives we want to accomplish. We have identified the key milestones from now until the party. We have a timeline to follow, including a tabletop exercise. We are assuming a three-hour operational phase followed by a two-hour recovery. That evening, we will conduct a hot wash to identify any lessons learned to build into next year’s birthday party planning. ... Socrates: It did not go well? Glaucon: Let me count the ways. It rained for most of the day. More children and parents attended than we planned

Bailing Out Your Business with Open Source

A great slide deck I've just stumbled over looking for something completely unrelated which answers all (well, OK, some) of the questions non-Open Source fanboys typically ask. (as an aside, Slideshare made this sooo easy to post - one click, an authorisation as it was my first time and type this in without once having to go over to Blogger, very me/user-centric) Bailing Out Your Business with Open Source View more Keynote presentations from mjasay .

Plain English - Write A Letter Of Support + Nominate For The Awards

Speaking and writing "plain English" is such a fundamental to open information that the idea of having to promote it seems plain weird! But heh, not all policy analysts, business analysts or internal communication advisers agree with me and the desire o use 20 business wanky words when 1 or 2 plain English words will do seems insatiable. Not that I am advocating the dumbing down on English, if there is a word that fits, use it and then people can use Google ("other search engines are available") to find out what it means - always good to be educated. But, we obviously do need to advocate for plain English as tweet examples/outbursts from my immediate circle constantly highlight :-) And advocating has never been so easy - write a letter/email and nominate best use of English - voila, done, sorted, in the bag :-) 1: Write A Letter In Support of Plain English Power This from Rachel of Plain English Power : Update on our lobbying efforts - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

3 "New" Online Collaboration Tools

It's been an interesting few weeks in the consumer "online collaboration" world. Stop! If you're reading this from within the (not so) cozy walls of a company thinking that the crazy, fast moving, unfocused consumer world of online collaboration won't affect you for a long time then I'd recommend you stop, take a look around at the newbies within your organisation and see where they spend most of their online time. And if your (IT Dept) response is more site blocking think of it as another brick in the dam's wall holding back a river of online services flowing faster and faster - "she's gonna blow captain!". Or, you may be an enlightened organisation and on to it. And so, you need to know what's already coming through the cracks in your wall and more importantly what is just around the corner. Once you know you can then divert the flow you want, use it for the betterment of your company and discretely let those parts of collaboration y

3 Simple Steps To Save 570 Wellington Community Websites

Here at MiramarMike.co.nz we know that the Internet, and in particular the Web, can have a huge positive affect on the work community agencies perform every day. And so when we read over at Scoop that the Wellington Council is reviewing its support of Wellington Community Net (a free website hosting and support service for community groups) we know it will be a huge retrospective step that will hurt these agencies. In a nutshell the situation is (as outlined by Mike Rumble , Director of Wellington ICT ) So if our funding is cut next year – as the council proposes – the Wellington Community Net will no longer be viable. The service will have to be handed back to the council. The council will then end up with more than 570 community websites to support, but with no money to do so. This is what YOU can do to help Note: the deadline for submissions is 5pm Monday 18th May Read (and comment on) the Scoop article Sign the official e-petition Submit a comment on the LTCCP Submissions page

3 Steps To Making Intranet News Useful

Everyone that has an intranet probably suffers from an ill used and badly conceived "news" section purporting to give you the latest happenings within your organisation but is generally ego-centric publishing's from upon high that have little if any impact on your day-to-day job. Of course this is unlikely to be 100% of the time for 100% of organisations but if it is, GET OUT! But hey, it's my role in life to take these issues and, for your organisation, make it better and to that end I started writing this posting before discovering someone had beat me to it. Yep, James over at Step Two Designs (Sydney, Australia) wrote the post I was going to waaaay back in July 2006 - Intranets as a news channel 2006, so has much changed in 3 years ... no, not really, the issues are still the same: ... issues arise because the news section is implemented as a ‘default’ element of the intranet home page. Little consideration is given to the design or management of this news channel,