3 Days of "Downtime" Starting with Saturday

I arrived in Sydney at my friends Bronwyn and Warren's house late Friday. The cab driver got lost on the way from the airport so what should have been 20 minutes turned into an hour ride, with lots of moments of him turning off the meter and trying to figure out where he was, but resisting my offer to "phone a friend" for instructions. Oi!

It was great to sit down, have a glass of wine, chat and decompress. Wonderful. I realized I did not have to put on make up one more time, I could wear my one set of "play clothes" and that there were no more powerpoint decks to haunt my dreams. The down side was that the excitement, meeting new and old friends and the chance to see glimpses of different parts of Australia was ending.

Saturday we has an easy start of the day, then drove south to the coast at Woollongong were we walked along the tidy little harbour and feasted on seafood. Mmm. I think food became the theme of the weekend. We watched the pelicans, scoped out the lighthouse and then drove back up the coast, stopping for views, tea in the national park. The changes from lush gum forests, to dryer scrub, to the clingy plants of the escarpment were beautiful. There was one cliffside where hang gliders lept off the cliff, road the air currents, then drifted to a beach waaaaay down. Warren offered to buy me a trip, but I had no adult nappies on to protect me when I lost it, jumping off the cliff, so I declined!

Finally we wandered home where I got to meet Rose Grozdanic F2F - Bron, Rose and I chatted for hours! It was too cool for a swim, but I was eyeing that for Sunday.

Presenting in Perth

I know I've delayed a few days before reporting on Perth. I took the weekend off and even today I'm feeling lazy. I think that is a bit justified considering the pace of the last 3.5 weeks.

Last Thursday morning we did a "Hot Topics" breakfast in Perth around the Three Tensions. We had people both from the VET sector and industry and when we did the short conversational breakouts, I heard some great exchanges of stories. We also had fun when we talked about reification by taking a picture and the tech folks in the back showed spirit! I loved how they siloetted against the back window.

Ann Odgers, the local LearnScope coordinator, not only arranged to have the talk video beamed out to their remote locations, but she also hosted a live Elluminate session with the slides, the video and she put contextual comments into the chat box. She recorded it and one of her field colleagues has already said she wants to workshop it. So we put together a little worksheet on the Three Tensions and I look forward to hearing how the experiment goes.

After the breakfast I scooted back to the hotel, changed my clothes and caught the train to the seaside town of Freemantle where I wandered the streets, took in the Freemantle prison, a lovely children's art exhibition at the town hall and a yummy lunch of scallops, salad and a glass of white wine. Talk about indulgence! The picture are all on the Flickr group.

Friday as part of the Western Australia LearnScope gathering I did a keynote on the 8 Competencies and a lightening round 30 minute workshop in the afternoon on the "Individual/Group" topic. That is a very complicated topic to do in 30 minutes and include conversational time. Phew. I think I made everyone seasick. At lunch I was able to sit with local practitioners and hear their stories and always that is the highlight of my day, without fail.

Then it was off to the airport to fly from Perth to Sydney. I could not believe that it was the last presentation. Phew.

I can't believe it...

I am now sitting at a friend's house in Sydney and it is hitting me, after the second presentation in Perth yesterday, the speaking tour is done. I'll be taking time to post my travel and meeting thoughts on Perth in the next day or two and begin my evaluation/reflection, but today is a play day. That said, I had to note that the next phase of the adventure - post tour - has begun. Whatever that means! ;-)

And to the taxi driver who really had no clue how to get me out here from the airport, I hope you made it home again!!

Technorati is Not Finding the Blog

Well, I claimed this blog on Technorati quite a while ago. I have pinged them that I've updated the blog but it still shows the last update as 49 days ago and is missing all the blogs linking here. Grrr. It makes it hard for me to track. Technorati, whassup?

Feedback from Sydney LearnScope Event

It is great to get feedback and the NSW Learnscope folks set up a wiki for feedback. As I'd expect, quite diverse. A perfect example of "designed for a group, experienced as an invidual, even when we are in the same room. Here are the comments as of this evening. Some made me smile. Some were hard to read, as you might expect. It would be great if I could have a conversation with some of the commentors to understand better.

I'm sensitive to the comment about an "American full of herself" (ouch) and puzzled about "elitist" (which I can't quite figure, so if someone has insight, bring it on - this is not a response I've had before). I can understand the rub about bringing in an American when there is so much cool stuff going on here. I think there is a risk just based on the cultural position of the US (not a good one). Our assumptions are powerful. It can be a tough spot to be in. I wonder what the effect would be if we did not know each other's nationality??

The one that cracked me up was the label of techno-hippy. That's a new one! There has to be a visual to go with that one. (Plus, I did dress hippy dippy that day. The outcome of few clothes on the road!)

Nancy White’s session

* Interesting, energetic
* Started well but went on for too long, became boring
* Long, elitist
* Ok – food for thought
* Provided inspiration for possibilities with relevant examples and sources
* Excellent
* Excellent
* Interesting, topical, relevant and well presented
* Entertaining and innovative
* Brilliant – very thought provoking – thank you so much, kept me engaged
* Engaging and interesting
* Comprehensive review of e-learning resources in community environment
* Ok – not practical enough – more practical egs needed
* Interesting and entertaining
* Interesting and food for thought for beginner e-learners
* Good overview of many of the issues we are all dealing with
* Interesting and interactive
* Interesting good speaker
* Really interesting but a bit too long to keep focused. Nancy is a great presenter!
* Interesting for a while then got too much details – where did it end up? We got lost.
* Fantastic – the best. Excellent speaker
* Excellent speaker
* Great concepts – ade me think about things in a different way. Loved the SMS polls
* Sort of interesting but would eb good with an Aussie flavour
* Great well presented and informative
* Some thoughts and concepts that had not considered before. Great how split into 3 parts
* Poor – where’s the innovation? Boring!
* Rather long – not particularly stimulating
* Too long – I can’t concentrate that long
* Excellent entertaining presenter. It was good split up into 3 parts with food breaks which gave you a breather and time to refresh yourself
* Interesting to get another perspective
* Informative and thought provoking
* Good – a little over my head though
* Hard to follow – esoteric. I didn’t warm to her and felt she presented poorly which immediately creates a barrier to an audience (read ‘me’). She was disjointed in my opinion. Not clear on outcomes.
* Nice pace/content/flow – would like some key aspects available on LS NSW wiki please
* Invigorating. Very interesting dialogue on 3 tensions
* Really good – reflective of many of our experiences, shame about choccy
* Too much chocolate
* Empowering
* Insightful
* Comfortable and entertaining – not much to think about but enjoyed
* Fantastic – her delivery style and encouraging participation by audience was great
* Stimulating and engaging
* Loved the SMS engagement – new to me
* Kept inspiring lots of conversation and reflection
* Excellent – educating and entertaining
* Didn’t really meet expectations. Didn’t feel Nancy delved into topic as deeply as I thought she might. Could have explored the tensions in a more focussed way
* Techno-jargon above my knowledge but got a good feel of the tools
* Why do we need an American who is full of herself to tell us what we already dabbled in during our LearnScope projects?
* Very interesting – I like the concept and think it is true if you have interaction you will have social building, looking forward to new version without glitches
* Nancy was great but why did we approve our mobile when we didn’t receive any messages? Felt excluded from the activity. No-one on our table got any messages – was a little frustrating – what was the point of the email and response at rego desk?
* Food for thought. Good presenter
* Absolutely excellent!! Inspiring, informative and innovative
* Entertaining and eloquent
* Interesting – interaction via SMS great. Interaction is still the key esp with technology
* I’m still pondering the meaning of ……..? Spoke too quickly at times and the questions were not clearly explained prior to group discussions
* An inspiring speaker – I was a bit disappointed as I had registered my mobile beforehand (via an email) but I didn’t get messages – a very engaging and entertaining speaker
* Very engaging and inspiring
* Great to be able to spend time chatting with her. She’s walking the talk.
* Great presentation, good to see we are in synch globally
* Good, informative
* Interesting, however I didn’t take much away in terms of useful information – we all described her as a techno hippy
* Fabulous

I've been thinking more about the SMS experiment. The issue that I noticed during our experiment (and mentioned to Alex) was that we must attend more closely to the intent of deploying such a tool, not just for the novelty of "we can do it." I don't think I took/made/found the time to think as thoughtfully about the questions we used and how to blend it into the experience as I would have liked to. That would be something I'd attend to if I used it again. The second were the technical glitches, like the questions going out all at once rather than timed out, and the fact that some folks who did register did not get the messages. It is so easy to create exclusion unknowingly. So it was a very useful experiment and I learned a lot. Personally, I was happy to take the risk, but I would have like to have done a better job. So it goes.

That said, I'm happy going out of the predictable comfort zone. The risk is worth it.

Thanks for the feedback!

(Edited Nov 1 to fix link)

E-Learning or E-Living? Second set of Adelaide Slides

First Set of Slides from Adelaide

This set takes the Three Tensions and looks closer at how we think about designing and interacting from the range of individual, group and network perspectives and how Web 2. 0 technologies impact things. It is a continuing variant on all the slide sets. I'll put them all up when I get home.



I just realized some of the Flickr URLs to some of the pictures got lost as I transferred some images. Please also credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zen/132329452/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/progresso/8365545/

Two Days in Adelaide

Tuesday:
There is something about Adelaide that is echos of places I've been, but I can't quite place it. The architecture is a mix of the lovely porch wrapped Australian style, slightly Victorian decoration, but a feeling like some towns in the rural west of the US. Towns that sprung up as the western states became more populous. I can't quite put my finger on it. Adelaide apparently is also the twenty minute town - it takes no more than 20 minutes to get from anywhere to anywhere in town. Quite friendly.

This morning I did some online catch up with email and such, then ventured out for a quick peek at the Adelaide Central Market – I was lucky to be here on one of it’s 3 open days a week. One end also was the city’s Chinatown where my first stop was a couple’s booth who made these yummy coconut things. Mama mia. They were good.

There I met up with Mike Seyfang (http://mseyfang.edublogs.org/ and http://learndog.typepad.com/learndogpup/) there. I “met” Mike online through Beth Kanter and a shared interest in the application of technology for public good, non profits, etc. He shared a virtual chocolate with me a while back, so I had to meet him. Of course, we met in front of the booth where he took the picture he shared with me, so I had to document that as well!

Mike then took me to meet his pal David Wallace of LifeKludger (http://lifekludger.net/ and http://www.dnwallace.com/blob ). David is a passionate advocate in the disabilities sector and it was my impression in our short time together a very creative and inventive way of looking at how technology (among other things it seems) can open doors for those with disabilities. He is a living example of inventiveness. We had a grand time making a short podcast, discussing all sorts of things including how we were all connected and through whom online. I love connection! The both posted before the end of the day. I had to play catch up! See them

here and here.

Mike then took me around the town a bit, and I especially enjoyed seeing his personal learning space – a bike circuit he makes from home to the beach where he scans scads of podcasts. It is interesting to compare our stories of practice that reflect our preferred modalities.

In the afternoon, Annie and Craig Fergusson took me up to Mt. Loftey for an amazing view of Adelaide, seeing the sweep of the land and the sea and gaining an even stronger appreciation for the interplay of heat, drought and fire in these hills. Then we scuttled over to the Nepenthe winery, though gorgeous vineyards to sip and buy a bottle of great white wine.

Finally, capping this day of spending time with great folk, I had dinner with Marie Jasinski where we talked about all sorts of things. What was particularly helpful was having time to talk and reflect with Marie about my experiences on this trip, what I have learned so far, what I would do differently or the same next time.


· Mold more what I’d want to do. Offering options is not the same thing as discovering together what might be useful. This requires more work on all sides, but I suspect the payoff would be great.
· Make more time for seeing the land. I have been moving too fast this year to think thoughtfully about opportunities. I loved what I have seen, but I’m a silly goose for not taking better advantage.
· Collaborate more with my friends in each city. Why I did not think of this, I don’t know, but only in one place did we negotiate to do. Again, taking time to be thoughtful.
· Build in more reflective moments and ways to evaluate if what we are doing is making a difference. Today in Adelaide we finished with a question that started to do this, but I could have done a lot more.

These reflections are not criticisms of myself or the tour. Just learnings for the future. If I didn’t learn anything, I’d be sorely disappointed with myself! In the coming days as we wrap up the tour, I will also post the highlights!

Wednesday – 2 Adelaide Presentations/workshops

Today we had two 90 minute sessions separated by a 30 minute tea time. First, the CEO of the North Adelaide Tafe introduced me with the funniest intro yet. I apologize, but for the moment I can only remember his first name, Adrian!

The first presentation was framed around the online competencies but cast a bit more about elearning à e living. I must thank Robyn in Sydney for helping me see this thread that emerged. We had quite a few remote sites looped in via videoconference, and a good crowd in the room. The discussion breaks were quite animated, which always tickles me. I have been trying to frame my talks more about ideas as language to design, do, learn rather than simply ideas. Language as a bridge from ideas to practice. Ask someone who was present about my mistake with time!!

Anyway, the second one was on the “Group/Individual/Web 2.0” stuff. Still trying to weave all the ideas together.

Afterwards Annie and Margaret (did I get that right?) took me to lunch, then back into the airport groove to Perth. (I’m typing this on the plane – we have about another 45 minutes.)

Edited Postscript - great notes in a blog from Kerry!

Adding Video Conferencing to the Mix in Brisbane

Australia means lots of people spread out. Despite the majority of the population concentrated in the cities (I believe more than in any other country) there are still many people in very isolated communities. Australians thus have embraced and built competency to use video conferencing.

Monday I lived that with a mixed event – some folks F2F and the rest spread across 25 sites in Queensland. This is a great example of working with the three tensions! Technology allows us to be together, but it is much tougher to create opportunities for individual – it is very group centric both because of the size of the group and the challenge of facilitating individual voices across the sites. So we did site based breakouts throughout the session, much as I have done F2F. The theme was “The 8 Competencies,” and a familiar theme to you readers by now. It was also my host, Madonna Scrase’s birthday. I was quite honored because Madonna usually does NOT work on her birthday. Not only was she there, but she recruited her partner Grant to fetch me at the hotel, where I also said goodbye to my husband Larry who had to head home as his vacation had run out!

A bit into the presentation, I invited all the sites to sing Happy Birthday to Madonna, which was quite fun and she took it in good humor. So we had a moment of togetherness over time and space … a bit of community building. Besides the sites, we had 40 people in the room who had the good fortune to share lunch before and tea afterwards. It was a diverse group and I only wish we had more time for conversation. Tough, eh?

Afterwards it was back to the airport to fly to Adelaide. I was pleased to find free wifi at my hotel, the Rockford, so I was able to get a bit of work done, accompanied I might say by a nice glass of unoaked Chardonay from S. Australia. When in wine country, drink wine!


(Check back for pictures)

Sunday on "Straddy" in Queensland

Another full play-day! Yay! Although we arrived in Brisbane late in the day on Saturday, we tried ringing up a few 4WD tour companies who take folks out to the coastal islands. I got lots of answering machines, but finally hit real human beings at North Stradbroke Island 4WD (http:..www.sunsetsafaris.com.au). Although they had just cancelled their Sunday trip due to lack of bookings, they kindly gave us the number for Stradbroke Island Beach Tours (http://www.stradbroketours.com.au). I was appreciative that a kindly woman answered the phone and yes, they could squeeze us in the next day. We would be a little tight in the 4WD, but we would get out to “Straddy.” She said her husband would pick us up, as she was just about to have a baby!

At 7:45 Jason in bright yellow picked us up. We picked up 8 other people then headed towards Cleveland to pick up the Stradbroke ferry. Jason filled us in on his wife – she is having a Cesarean on Monday… their third baby. Congrats!

Our fellow travelers were a family from Japan, currently living in Malaysia with two beautiful young daughters, Roi from Shanghai and three life long friends on a 3 months vacation of a lifetime in Australia. It was jolly from the get-go and Jason’s enthusiasm and local knowledge kept us bubbling and BUMPING along. On the way to the ferry we stopped at a small pocket park where Jason pointed out a Koala in a tree – our first sighting. Then we bounced across the bay (HIGH winds) with tea and Anzac Biscuits set out on a folding table in back of the vehicle. It was a treat.

We traveled up over the island, bumping and giggling over sandy tracks, saw the rare Grass Tree, Banksias, Kookaburras and various other flora and fauna. We visited the tea lakes, turned brown from the Tea Tree (Melaleauca? Sp?) tannins. Then it was down to the Pacific coast to see crashing waves, sea birds and dig pippies (surf clams) with our toes. I was the only one to join Jason and remember, never turn your back to the sea. I was wet from the waist down, but the heavy winds blew me dry in no time. We then drove up to the northern headlands to take a cliff walk where, in calm seas, one spots whales, dolphin, mantas and sea turtles. But the sea was churned to a mass of white water, so we simply enjoyed the sound and the fury. Then back to a sheltered cove for a beach BBQ where Jason threw the pippies on the barbie with a bit of white wine. Mmm.

On the way home on the ferry, it was discovered we had a flat. So we walked off the ferry while Jason carefully drove it off and we cheered him on as he changed the tire. Then back to town. Quite a day. Thank you Jason and Stradbroke Island Beach Tours. If you ever go their way, spend the day with them!

(Pictures here)

Saturday Breakfast Delights and Touring the Capital

Just before I left the states, I got a blog comment from Alexis Lebedew of the Australian Institute of Sports. He wanted to get together when I was in town as they are experimenting with elearning and online networks/communities to support coaches and athletes. It sounded interesting, so we set to meet for breakfast on Saturday.

Alexis picked us up and we met with his colleagues Gene, Hamish, and Keith, along with some of Keith’s family and friends. We had yummy breakfast and wonderful conversation that bubbled for two hours. They work they are doing, their energy and enthusiasm, was infectious. I could enjoy having conversations like this every Saturday morning. Then Keith volunteered Alexis to take us touring a bit. Nothing like losing your Saturday. He was gracious to take us to Mount Ainslie, then dropped us off at the Parliament Building.

The Australian Parliament building is built into a hill with a sod roof and soaring interiors. We saw both chambers (gum tree green and a pretty darn bright gum tree blossom pink!) lovely gardens interspersed between the buildings and of course, the HUGE flag flying up top. Seeing a country’s capital is part of getting a sense of that country. We enjoyed the tour, and then hoofed over to the National Museum for an hour of art before heading to the airport. This time we saw Australian art from a more European immigrant perspective which gave another perspective. (I’ve been focusing on Aboriginal art.)

The flight to Brisbane was easy on Quantas. I’m gaining a great appreciation for this airline, especially compared to US airlines! We hopped a cab to the airport. While we were checking in, a woman rushed up behind us, with my mobile phone in her hand. Had we perchance left it in the cab? Wow, what a lifesaver. I’m guessing they had already left in our cab and were a ways down the road and came back to give it to me. THANK YOU anonymous Australian hero!

A Great Network Picture from Darwin

Nancy White National Speaking Tour
Originally uploaded by ntlearnscope2006.

This is part of the Darwin team's photo set on flickr.

I love this picture

19102006(028)
Originally uploaded by mobology.

From Sydney. What was happening was that I was sharing my headphone wireless mike with Vicki Marchant while she shared a story with the group.

Slides: Surfing the Second Wave of Online Collaboration

Each site I've gone to I've altered the slides, so I'm not quite sure what to share out. Here is one of them!

Canberra Adventures

My day in Canberra was going to be a long and energizing one. We started with an Elluminate web meeting session on online facilitation in industry with a small group that was fairly new to using online tools. Then we went to a different Canberra Institute of Technology campus (CIT) where I did a keynote on Individual/Group using the Three Tensions followed by a workshop on The Eight Competencies. We again had a great group with lots of energy and stories. It was great fun for me, particularly when people shared stories of their practice.

After the three presentations/workshops, I had a meeting with Shawn Callahan and one of our clients, then dinner with my tour hosts, Cathy Baxter, Jyothi Jayaram and Kerry Trabinger. Kerry Manikis could not make it, but I send my thanks to the entire team for being such warm and gracious hosts both in Canberra, and for this tour overall. Then back to the hotel for a restful sleep. No need to do “homework” on a Friday night. Phew. LONG WEEK!

(Yes, I know I need to add pictures here.)

More Details on the Sydney Event

As I mentioned in the previous post, Thursday was the New South Wales Elearning 2006 meeting at the Randwick Racecourse. I have never been to a conference at a racetrack. Pretty cool. In the morning I looked at all the NSW LearnScope poster sessions and mini presentations. The highlight was a conversation with two wonderful women (pictures to the right - I need to find my notes with their names. I apologize!) who told amazing stories about how they were using online tools and processes to support all of the state outreach programs. Amazing stuff. What was so beautiful was the way they told the stories free of the techno jargon and a clear focus on community needs, not “start with the technology.” (I have not checked the podcast file yet).

At noon I did they keynote, this time with a totally different spin. Alex Hayes, a young techno-wizard from NSW LearnScope set up a group SMS system. We sent questions to every registrant’s mobile phone, they answered then we used the freshly compiled data in the presentation (again, framed around the Three Tensions theme). We also used questions DURING the presentation, including asking if folks learned something or made a useful contact in the discussion sessions, so I was on the spot. One person messaged from the toilet!


Afterwards Larry and Bronwyn picked me up for some R&R. We cruised down to the beach, starting at Bondi then taking the shoreline trail for a few kilometers south. Beautiful. We then went to see “The Gap” and finally ribs back in Bondi. Then off to the airport for the flight to Canberra. Well, more airport foo. There had been a security breach and the entire airport was evacuated. The whole hall was a giant set of snaking lines to go back through security. Needless to say, our flight was late.

Alex Hayes Plays Air Piano

elearning06
Originally uploaded by sridgway.

At NSW Elearning 06, where I did Thursday's keynote, we did a fun experiment using SMS to send a question to the participants, have them answer, then throw the answers up on the screen during my bit. It was one way to start moving the energy in a "keynote" from the speaker and out to include the group. It also gave me another very important example of the critical skill of invitiation and asking questions. We look at these things first as technology, but they are at their core about social architecture and interaction patterns.

Yesterday, I did a keynote and a workshop here in Canberra to a great bunch. I have notes. I continue to have the delusion I will get them up. There are more pictures, many of them my husband Larry's, on Flickr (he is the official tourist, visiting as much as he can while I work, then telling me stories and showing me pictures at night!) You can click into the feed in the right nav bar.

Oh, and Alex, I want to hear that imaginary music!

If this is Friday, it must be Canberra

The middle whirlwind week is just about over. I awoke to a beautiful sunny day, ready for three presentations/workshops here in Canberra. And of course, extream non-blogging guilt. I have one post crafted about last Sunday but can't find it on my laptop. I have notes galore from the meetings in Darwin, Launceston and Sydney, but online time is absolute last priority after F2F time and capturing a few free moments to see the lovely country around me.

We'll upload pictures to flickr tonight. So for now, that's all

Tasmania, no Devils

I was thrilled that two of my “imaginary friends,” Jo Murray and Frankie Forsythe were meeting me at the Launceston airport. This was one of the smallest airports we’ve been to yet, but the baggage took the longest to arrive. It was driven into a huge garage like area, then a dog was led over all the bags to sniff for fruit and veggies. Australia has avoided a lot of diseases on this set of islands, so a great deal of attention is paid to sniffing out “bad stuff.”

Frankie and Jo were everything I thought they were and more. They are warm, complement each other as colleagues and business partners in wonderful ways, and made my short stay on Tassie wonderful. I want to go back. We decided we want to find a way to gather all our fellow online facilitators in one place for a giant party!

In the afternoon, we took a walk up the river to the Cataract Gorge park. It is a lovely Cliffside walk up the gorge, ending at a garden, tea house and, in warm weather, a huge river side pool. The pool was empty that day. We had a drink and a snack, lots of conversation, then back to the hotel where we were joined by our host, Elisabeth Todd, her colleague Jennifer, Michael Coghlan from Adelaide and Clint Smith from Melbourne who were also speaking at the LearnScope conference the next day. Thanks for hosting the lovely dinner, Elisabeth!

Wednesday I led off with a keynote using the Three Plus Tensions, followed by presentations by Michael (on using voice) and Clint (on elearning design). I have to bow down to Michael as he has the cool to do live web based voice production on the spot, even when the connection was “iffy.” Then we had breakout sessions to learn about Tasmanian LearnScope projects. I particularly enjoyed one presentation from a woman whose name I did not get, but talked it a particularly articulate manner, using stories both of success and things that didn’t go so well, in an online project for the textile design sector. I found myself nodding like crazy in the back as her story was a perfect example of how the tensions played out in a project. I only wish I had taken notes. Here is her picture. If you know this woman, let me know. I want to get the details.

After lunch I did a workshop on “The 8 Competencies of Online Interaction” where we mixed the ideas with paired conversations. There were some great stories and again, I wish I had recorded it. I have tried to record some sessions, but my MP3 recorder does not seem to be too happy in this trip. Or I have massive user error. I have not had time to suss that out.

After the event it was off to the airport, a bit of conversation and a glass of wine with Clint and Michael where we talked music and moving from the culture of fear to the culture of love, then they were off and I thought I was leaving shortly for Sydney. Fat chance. Our JetStar plane had a problem. First it took a half hour to find a mechanic. Then they tried to fix it to no avail. So they had to wait for a plane from Melbourne for the part – three hours later. It was late into Sydney where Larry and Warren met me and whisked me to Warren and Bronwyn Stuckey’s place about a half hour south of town for a late supper and stories of how Larry and Warren did the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. You know it is a good story when the first line was “first we had to strip to our underwear!” I’ll have to get Larry to write up the story.

Two Workshops in Darwin

In Darwin, Melanie Brenton organized two three-hour workshops. First of all, Melanie is a wonder. She seems to have a leadership role in a bazillion projects.

It was great to have a mixed audience of TAFE people (for you USA folks, that is sort of like our vocational and community college system, but not exactly), University people and business folk. Each brought a slightly different perspective and set of issues about using online interaction. The morning presentation was about online collaboration with the frame of how to balance between individuals and groups. We used the “Three tensions” as a framework, as well as some context of the “web 2.0” tools and changing networked environment.

We started with the “ball of string” exercise, which I’ve participated in at a variety of events. Essentially the first person takes the ball of string, tells their story/introduction, then tosses it to the next. When we finish, we have a simulacrum of a network and a visual representation of nodes of the network. We also captured the key issues surfaced on the white board .

We mixed some presentation with table discussions. Before I knew it, three hours had flown by. And I was worried that I would not have enough. Ha! Oh, and we had scones with jam and cream for break. Oh baby, they were good. I forgot to take a picture. Darn.

After a nice lunch of barramundi (a meaty, delicious fish) – with garlic butter – perfect when you have to present (pass the mints) we went back for the second 3-hour workshop. Our group was smaller, with a few new folks, but mostly folks who had been with us in the morning. This workshop focused on how we help second wave adopters engage in online interactions. I’ve been thinking more and more that we need to be collecting, sharing, encouraging and disseminating second wave adoption stories. By second wave, I mean people who aren’t into “gee whiz, this is a cool tool, let me play with it.” They are folks who want to do something and if online tools and processes help them, they might adopt them. Often there is some fear or lack of comfort with technology, perhaps suspicion of online interaction and generally a lack of context and experience. I offered 6 “ways in” (see slides) and we invented others based on each person’s context. Finally, we made a list of the next things we wanted to learn.

After we finished, Melanie took me to her house for a quick sip of electrons (download email) and then to the airport where I flew to Adelaide just to spend the night, then on to Melbourne and then Launceston on Tasmania the next morning. Thank you, Melanie!

Crocs, Storytelling Bus Drivers and Kind Food Vendors in Darwin

Written on Monday, posted the following Saturday. Oi vey!



I have a longer entry for Sunday because I have a bunch of airplane time so a chance to write a bit more. So here are stories for the family back home!

When traveling to a town that is a tourist destination, one is always wary of “the tours.” You know, the tourist traps. Having local advice helps you steer towards the interesting experiences, particularly when you don’t have a lot of time. I had to work Sunday morning preparing from Monday, but we wanted to make sure and do something fun in the afternoon.

Melanie suggested that Sunday we either go to the wildlife park, or the jumping crocs cruise. While the lure of beautiful birds and cuddly marsupials was there, it seemed criminal not to see crocodiles while in the Northern Territory. So we booked into the Jumping Crocodile Cruise on the Adelaide River, about 90 km from Darwin. We caught a bus with only four others, driven by our guide, Rod, and headed up the highway. From the moment we pulled out, Rod was happy to share stories of the region, answer questions and, in his words, make things up when he didn’t know the answer. We sat up front and Rod and I kept a patter going the whole hour heading north out of town.

It was wonderful to pass out of the suburbs (which apparently are home to lots of military families, the military being the number one employer, followed by tourism, mines and oil production and some local farming.) At first we started smelling smoke and seeing haze in the air – one of the many bush fires that start during the “buildup” season between the “Dry” and the “Wet.” Lightening strikes that occur before the rains start to fall will start fires all over the region. In the natural state, the ecosystem relies on these fires to open fire triggered seeds, and clear undergrowth for new plants to start. As in the US, long term fire suppression has allowed more buildup of tinder causing fires to do more damage, plus there’s always that problem of people living where fires burn. Controlled “mosaic” burns are now used.

The other factor that cleans up the tinder are the termites, or, as one museum display called them, fixed position cows. Termites digest all the grasses as they dry, creating new soil, while their burrowing and mounding aerates the soil. Of the hundreds of termite species, only 2 eat people’s wooden homes.

We started seeing mango farms and I salivated, remembering my mango shake from the Parap market. Rod said (if memory serves) that there were 24 kinds of mangos under cultivation. We also passed banana farms and a dragon fruit farm. (LOOK UP URLS).

Our first stop was Fogg Dam reserve, the site of a massive rice paddy development in the post World War 2 era when the US left behind piles of heavy equipment and people decided to invent something to do with them. The Adelaide river flood plain was dammed to create paddies and a supply of water to irrigate during the dry season. The one tiny oversight was that the paddies and the dammed area were in flood plains that regularly saw meters of rainfall each year, effectively wiping out the dam and washing away the paddies. Plus the small amount of rice that was produced went to the docks in Darwin’s high humidity, swelled, split and became unsellable. Apparently Art Linkletter, the game show host, was one of the investors.

Today the dam’s legacy is the creation of a permanent wetlands, filled with birds, crocs, a wide range of marsupials, lizards and assorted critters. It is said to have one of the highest animal biomasses per square meter in the world, much of that in the form of small marsupials that eat the wild rice in the flood plains. The lotus flowers in the wetlands were just starting to blossom with pink sticking up amongst huge green lilly pads. We saw a lacy monitor, many kinds of birds, a few small lizards and wondered about the size of the crocs living in the water holes that stayed wet, even during the dry season. It was very beautiful.

Then, after a quick stop at “Window on the Wetlands” – a small government run museum and lookout on the wetlands created by the dam project and local highway berms, we finally headed through a water buffalo pasture to the verge of the Adelaide river, about 40km as the crow flies from the sea, and 90km as the river flows from the sea. The entire length of the river is about 180 km. Three more people joined our six, so as we were a small group, we were told we got to go in the small boat, a much more “up close” experience with the crocs. But first we got to hold Medusa, the water python, see local croc headlines pinned on the walls and have a cuppa. Then on to the river. “Keep your body parts in the boat!”

We were barely 100 feet out into the river amidst the cacophony of the white parrots on the shore trees when the first croc showed up, sensing the sound of the boat and the lure of bony chunks of water buffalo splashed into the water, strung on a pole. Cameras clicked and whirred as we tried to guess when and where the croc would jump. We didn’t have long to wait. Man those suckers are big. The sound of air forced out of fast closing jaws, the snap of yellow, white and even orange tinged teeth, the smooth belly glistening as the animal propels itself vertically out of the water with it’s tail. Quite magnificent. And sobering. No wonder people don’t swim in the rivers, ponds, lakes and oceans here. These opportunistic carnivores would have you as a snack.

We cruised down the river, stopping when a croc was spotted to feed them. They varied in color and size. The older, big males were HUGE. We took a ton of pictures, some of which I have loaded up on to flickr. Then they fed the scraps to local birds of prey who swooped to give us a final show before we headed back upriver to the dock.

On the way back, more story swapping with Rod, who also kindly dropped us at the Mindle Beach Sunday Night Market, where we gorged on more fruit smoothies, shopped for presents to bring home and sampled food from the row of vendors. We had octopus skewers, honey chicken, salt and pepper squid, and my favorite, an Indonesian lamb satay from a Hallal vendor. As Larry and I gorged on the satay, the vendor asked if we were enjoying it. As if. We were oohing and ahing as we slurped the last bits of peanut sauce on the sticky rice cakes hidden beneath the satay. He then asked where we were from and when he heard we were from out of town, he offered us a plate of gado gado (I think… I may be remembering the name wrong and I’m sad I already forgot his name and his wife and niece, who were working with him) to try. His gift. It too, was wonderful, but even more wonderful was his hospitality. I watched him as he interacted with his other customers, most who seemed to know him by name and he them. His genuine greeting. His attention to how he prepared each person’s order, was a beautiful thing. It was a pleasure watching him work because his love for his work was shining there.

Finally, we got a shared mini bus back to the hotel. And I went back to work, preparing for Monday’s presentations.

Playing Tourist in the Northern Territory

Friday we headed to the airport and off to Darwin, via a short layover in Alice Springs. Our host in Darwin, Melanie Brenton, met us at the airport and took us to the Darwin Museum where again, we deeply enjoyed both the art and the local history. For the evening, we strolled downtown, watched a blazing sunset, and then had some Thai food. We made it an early evening.

Saturday, 14 October – Darwin, Northern Territories

What can you say about a place nearly surrounded by turquoise water that you can’t swim in? We arrived in the land of box jellies and other jellies, so swimming in the sea was not an option. October is the end of the dry season, with clouds scuttling across the sky, but no rain. It is warm and humid, but the breezes are nice.

We started the day at Parap market, the local craft/produce/food market. We took a shared shuttle out, a nice alternative between a taxi and a bus. I wish we had those in Seattle – I think we could reduce the number of car trips and help get us out of our cars if we had something like that.

The market, a tangle of umbrella covered stalls, is a mix of produce, seafood, imports and a few crafts. The highlight for me were the food vendors – we had a mango shake with mango, ice cream and milk, and fried Indonesian rice balls in a coconut fish sauce. If we would have had more room, we would have eaten more. If you are going to Parap in the future, go hungry!

We next hopped a bus to the Darwin Botanical Gardens. We got the bus thanks to a local who noticed us sitting at a bus stop near the market and came over to tell us that on market days, the bus stopped a bit up the road. We appreciated that!

The gardens spread up over a gentle hill filled with the widest variety of palms I’ve ever seen. As we entered into the gardens, the birds chattered and kids with Nature Ranger hats ran from station to station for what appeared to be a Saturday nature challenge.

In the afternoon our host Melanie Brenton, her husband Peter and wonderfully talkative 2 year old Victoria took us out into the bay to fish in their fast, new boat. We bounced over the waves and had a great time, catching nothing but relaxation, conversation, cold chicken and gin and tonics. I can't thank Melanie enough for a bit of deep relaxation. I needed it. After time out on the chop, we headed deeper into the bay and then up a creek to trawl for barramundi. We saw a crocodile trap, but only spotted birds, mudskippers and a few flipping fish. Another beautiful sunset and we headed back into port. Ahhhhh....

Melbourne Presentations

I’m sitting here in my Darwin hotel, taking a brief break from the sun and warmth to recall last week’s presentations. As promised, I’ll uploaded the slides (again using SlideShare). It just may be later as internet is a pricey $.55 AU dollar per minute!

Wednesday morning I presented via Elluminate (an online meeting tool) the “8 Competencies of Online Interaction” to the KnowledgeBank Conference.

We had about 50 people in the online room. It is interesting when you present to a group of people you can neither hear or see for the most part. I was greatful to those who spoke up with questions and observations. I mentioned to my host, Tamara Carpenter that I was worried that the presentation was a bit theoretical, but as it turns out, the competencies “named” at the start of this two day online conference were apparently echoed over and over again over the subsequent days and presentations.

On Wednesday afternoon, Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and I did a 2 hour workshop to the VPSCIN group. (www.vpscin.org) About 60 folks, mostly from the public sector, gamely took part in the set of activities Shawn and I brought. We started with a quick 15 minutes on the “Three…almost…Four Tensions” (slides below). This comes out of the work I have been doing with Etienne Wenger and John Smith. The tensions offer a way to look at how we design and live in our distributed group. After this short intro, Shawn and I took the questions and situations that people had posted on the VPSCIN blog prior to the event, and took turns looking at them from the “tensions” perspective. We did not prepare this in advance and did it as an improvisational bit. Then we asked everyone to discuss at their tables how the tensions show up and inform their work with their groups and communities. Afterwards we shared out the things that surfaced in the conversations.

Some of the comments included:
· Now that we've heard about the tensions, we need to analyze how they show up in our communities and DO something with them.
· The tensions are dynamic
· Interested in thinking about tools and methods to monitor the tensions
· In some settings there is the additional tension of security < -- > collaboration
· The example of the wiki based team newsletter is an example of working within the tension of togetherness over time and space.
· The tensions give us a language to speak about tools and barriers
· We begin to notice the small things (tech, processes) that turn us off (and can then think about how to address them)
· New tools and processes --> easy to buy in, easy to sell out
· relationship between anonymity and sharing information
· Tension between the core and the periphery
· Helpful to look at community roles
· Look at why use communities of practice - "WIFM" (what's in it for me) - tension between individual (self interest) and group

Special thanks to our host Frank Connolly, VPS Continuous Improvement Coordinator, State Services Authority. He picked a great location too. The event was at the top of a skyscraper with beautiful views of the city.

Afterwards it was over to Federation Square for a beer! That’s the way to top off a day!

Converge 2006 Conference in Sunshine was next up on Thursday. My hosts were the amazingly energetic Margaret Aspin and Clint Smith. Who knew they were not only professional leaders, but actors and comedians!

I was the day’s keynote to an audience off 200 plus that filled the auditorium. I had the good fortune to have Marie Jasinski and Marty Cielens warm up the crowd first with a humorous sketch on “Rewirement, not Retirement.” This time the title was “The Vortex: Experiments in Online Collaboration.” I went more in depth with the tensions and in fact got so into it that I left insufficient time at the end for the examples I had prepared, and NO time for question. Uh oh. I was a little worried that this talk was the kind that appeals to half the room and lacks sufficient practical grounding for the other half. Can you see I worry about this a lot?

I had the chance to attend other sessions and it was great to see what my Australian colleagues are cooking up around online learning. There is a great deal of creativity in the vocational education sector that I just don’t see at home.

Finally I ran a 30 minute workshop on the “8 Competencies,” this time with a very abbreviated set of slides and comments. We paused after each competency and I asked people to turn to their neighbor and suggest one way in which they were strong in that competency, and one way they wished to improve. At the end, we all had a list of our strengths, areas for learning and people around us with whom we could learn. The half hour flew by. I was having a great time using this approach and I think the group did as well. One person came up to me afterwards and said that after the morning’s keynote, he was not so sure of the applicability. But by following it on with the 8 competencies, it all fell into place. That was a good moment of learning for me. I had not really thought of the two as two parts of a larger whole, but indeed they are. The competencies can also be expressed in terms of the tensions. I’ll have to play with that a bit more.

The rest of the day I enjoyed sessions and the evening’s banquet and elearning take off on Australian Idol, this time Podders Idol. I’ll have to see if anyone blogged about this. It was hysterical!

Slides soon!

Animals, Conversations and Sunshine

Echidna on the beach!!
Originally uploaded by Choconancy1.

I had this crazy idea that I'd be able to blog every day on this trip. Typically optimistic of me. NOT! I woke up at 5:30 am to blog, and got drawn into three skype conversations. So here I go for a very quick post, a sort of placeholder for stories and memories, of the last few days. Plus there will be two more, one for each of yesterday's gatherings/presentations.

First, the tourist stuff. On Monday Brad and Bronwyn Beach of Kuramburra (did I spell that right?) hosted us out in South Gippsland. We went to Inverloch to the beach and saw this lovely critter, an Echidna. Echidnas are one of two monotremes, egg laying mammals. (The other is the platypus.) Larry had walked on ahead of us down to the beach, and at first thought some giant fuzzy sea urchin had washed on to the beach. What was this little ant eater doing on the beach?

We walked amongst the tidepools (lots of pictures on flickr) and heard stories of the poisonous blue ringed octopus but didn't see one. Then we drove into Kuramburra to Brad and Bron's lovely new home and were treated to a great dinner and stories of Brad's community theater antics. In the morning, we went to a wildlife refuge and I saw KANGAROOS! (plus a bunch of other lovely critters.)

Then we came back into Melbourne to the Shawn and Sheena Callahan's home where it was time to do my "homework" of preparing for the upcoming presentations. The work was blissfully interrupted by yummy dinner with the Callahan family. That is much more fun than a hotel evening!

So that's the short, sweet tourist side of things. Next, presentation updates!

An Old Picture

I was reading my blog subscriptions and came across a post that referred to a picture and post of mine from 2005. And I realized the picture was actually related to what I just posted. So I had to post again!

Trust, Friends and Connected Threads

Many of my friends recently gathered in Florence and I have been following their conversations via their blog and flickr. This one snippet triggered my thoughts about a different kind of trust I see in networks of bloggers and blog readers:

Summary of the Conversation about changes of conversation: "Patricia: topic of blogs is nebulous for me. Have had many of these conversations with John and Bev, but I’m still doubtful. I find it difficult in this conversation. Language is one barrier. (Perhaps we continue in German tomorrow?) In this blog discussion I see a question of trust. I need to know with whom I’m taking. That’ the opposite of the blogger’s attitude. Whoever is reading it is problematic. It’s too anonymous. Trust is missing. Can’t solve it right now. Want to get to the restaurant."

I went on to comment (and as of the moment, my comment is in the moderation queue):

Hey friends,

I just have to share this. I’m sitting in Shawn Callahan’s house, he is on a plane from Sydney to Melbourne after leaving you. I just showed the flickr picture to his family (and we laughed and were a bit jealous). So look at that bit of straddling.

I am also preparing for the workshops and presentations I’ll be doing here in Australia and have been jotting down snippets from your session notes that amplify the ideas and topics I’m planning. So in a way, I’m porting your conversational artefacts to yet another setting.

The trust issue, Patricia, is very salient. I was talking a few weeks ago with John and Etienne about a different kind of trust I see in network systems, like blog networks, and I think there is a very strong informational trust. Not that I have to get to know you to trust you ,but I have to get to know what you write about and how you write about it to trust you. But it is a different sort of trust. Not so much about personal identity, but domain related identity. Does that make any sense?

I shall be crediting all of you in my work here over the next 3.5 weeks!

Now I posted the above on my main blog, but had to cross post it here because it is both an example of the way online tools inform our worlds, thinking, learning and practice AND it is about much of what we'll be talking about here in Australia. It is "walking the talk," in a way, but the walking is spread about the globe. Pretty cool.

I again reflect on the connections that brought me to this moment in time. The people who I would not have otherwise met or learned from, the way they are connected to each other in ways that sometimes surprises me. It is beautiful. As I think back to the amazing Aboriginal art I saw yesterday, I remember the paintings that are complex interweavings of dots and lines that make a whole that is stunning and beautiful. Like our human networks.

Tags: cpsquare,, pratodialog, australianoctober

In Melbourne!

After a VERY close call in between flights in San Francisco, (I think we were the last people to board before they closed the door) we made it to Australia. I have to say, Quantas has Northwest beat for long haul experience. I actually had some room to move, personal video screens and a nice dark, quiet plan for sleeping.

We are now in Melbourne, hosted by the warm and friendly Callahans. We went into town this afternoon, strolled on the South Bank and saw some amazing modern Aboriginal art that blew me away at the National Gallery of Victoria, Modern Australian Art. We snacked on rich artisanal ice cream, saw the Sunday South Bank Market and got a sense of the city.

The adventure has officially begun!

All my bags are packed... the plane's not ready to go

All my bags are packed... the plane's not ready to go
Originally uploaded by Choconancy1.

Well, I'm sitting here in the Seattle airport, looking up at the departures schedule, thinking good thoughts. The flight to Australia is through San Francisco, a city that put the airport in the foggiest place in the region. The airport has been a snarl of delays. So cross your fingers the flight is not too late, or else we won't be on the flight to Australia tonight.

Lesson: don't fly on Friday and don't fly through San Francisco.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Blogs and Communities Slides from Knowledge Tree Article

Here are the slides that I shared a couple of weeks ago on the Knowledge Tree, related to the article I wrote for them!

Trying Another Slide Sharing Tool

This time it is SlideShare. If this works, it might be very handy during the tour to share our slides, etc. Let me know what you think... better or worse than the Flickr trick a few posts back? It looks better to me. Also less work for me! The upload is a bit slow, which could be a problem if I have limited connectivity.



(And I have a few invites if you want to try the beta SlideShare service yourself!)

Blog is Back and Getting Ready

I have become a babbling idiot at this point, trying to wrap up my work and get everything ready to go tomorrow. I decided to share a little audio of my state of mind. (I must say, I was greatly relieved to see the blog back up and a nice little real person email from Blogger telling me yes, it was a bug! Oi! Thanks to Dave Cormier and Loretta Donovan who offered and started helping me recreate the blog elsewhere. I'm keeping that as back up!)

Download the audio here.

The 8 Competencies of Online Interaction slideshow on Flickr is the latest set of images I'll be taking on the road. This set will first be used in Melbourne, for an Elluminate session as part of the Knowledge Bank Online Conference: Stories from teaching in the digital age, October 11th, 9am E. Australian Time.

Brainstorming for the Sydney Event

Connections and Conversations » Nancy White : Elearning 06 is a funny capture of the Skype chat Robyn, Alex and I had to brainstorm what we are going to do on 19 October in Sydney. We just riffed off of each other. This event promises to be a fun (and I think unique) one - lots of improvisation both on my part and of everyone present. Will you be there? Ready to have fun and think about TENSIONS!

For more on this event, keep an eye on the NSW LearnScope blog and wiki.