Wikis, Virtual library conferences and unconferences

This week we are getting into the topic of Wikis.

The WA Unconference in August was a great example of how a group of like minded library people can be brought together via the medium of a wiki. The whole day was organised, topics chosen and discussed, lunch and tea planned through the Unconference Wiki. Then on the day we all gathered for a terrific "unconference" and the day went so smoothly.

I was reflecting at how much this had all changed from the days when we folk way over in Perth missed out on a lot of professional development activities, with the high cost of domestic flights. Even today the $1,000 fees of the major conferences are prohibitive for most of us. I came across a blog post from a librarian in Melbourne who was commenting on how Learning 2.0 is bringing people together to learn via Web 2.0 networks. It’s from the Infosleuth and sums up where we have come in the last 30 years in sharing experiences and gathering inspiration from others.

Walking the Capes

Cape Walk was not a Cake Walk.

Is this what you have to do to get out of work!!!

This is the fourth year we have done a bit of the Cape to Cape Walk in September. It’s very scenic but a lot of it is hard slog through sand dunes, as Ian can attest. Check out the photos and you’ll see what I mean. I’ll be back at work when the blisters heal!

Getting your head around RSS

A really kooky little video clip to help you get your head around RSS is RSS in Plain English. There are others in the "in plain english" series and they are all terrific!

Heading for the Top End

Lyn and I are headed Darwin to the ALIA Top End Symposium in October to delivery a paper on the 23 Things. The theme is "e-volving education": focussing on the changing ways in which the library and information industry promotes learning and the evolution of how the library industry maintains its own "education" in ensuring that its professionals stay on top of information trends.

Keeping up with everyone's blogs

Now that lots of new ECU bloggers are coming on board, keeping up with everyone's blogs could be a chore. But, there's a solution! It's called RSS and will be covered in Week 3. Read Web Wiz's blog post on Easy Reading which will explain more.

P.S. Western Australia is the Banksia capital of the World and the Mt Barker Banksia Farm is the place to see them all.

Deja vu all over again

It feels like Deja vu all over again.
This week we are launching the ECU Learning 2.0 program with a series of seminars on each campus. For those just coming on board you'll learn some useful skills, like setting up a blog. And you'll also some fun with stuff like Image Generators, eg: this one

Perth Unconference on Library 2.0

Last Friday (Aug 3) a few of us from ECU attended the very first “Unconference” at the State Library. The idea is a open and fairly unstructured day to share information between colleagues. The topic was Library2.0 and the whole day was fun, stimulating, and a free sharing of ideas, (and pizza) between fellow librarians from all sectors.

Presenters were very professional. Some new technologies were demonstrated. Con and Kathryn even ad-libbed in a session called “Karaoke Powerpoint” from some PowerPoints sent that morning from the US!

One amazing aspect was that the whole event was organised via the Unconference Wiki and no face to face meetings took place prior to the day. To get a feel for what the day was like have a look around the Wiki. How do we find the time to learn about emerging technologies? Check out the practical tips on Kathryn’s wiki.