edna.edu.au

The Public' s sphere

I've been watching/participating in a new form (combination) of media work it's way out of the usual boring space beween ads.

Some people might call it government, as it's being organised by the media advisor to Senator Kate Lundy. But regardless, the main thing which is different is that Pia use the technology, as best she can, to be inclusive, rather than talking about it. The other one is by Nic at gov2.

You'd have to attended Publicsphere 3 - for the creative industries - to really get an idea of what I'm talking about. The jist of it was to run a distributed conference between Wollongong, Melboure and Brisbane; getting presentations and feedback back to Kate's web site, from the three sites at the same time,  rather touring and duplicating around the country. The aim is a bit like educationau were trying to do with their last report to deewr; Kate's is to Minister Carr shortly. But the means were a bit closer to a modern world. Sure the technology was strapped together and fell over a few times, and the tools and process is still messy. But at least we are begining to see some real imagination and originality work its way out of the institutional .gov.au swamps.

I always thought that change might come from the .edu space and then infect the .gov domains. It's the reason i thought edna might be a place for innovation. But it seems I was very wrong here. I can see now that .edu's are just like every other industry these days. They'll stick with doing with what they've always done, until the money no longer comes in from the public purse; at which point they might notice that the habit of presenting reports to a bureaucrat or representative doesn't really have any influence. What these guys want is a way to implement reform. That means, these days, doing like Pia is doing, and running a distributed conference in a workshop like atmosphere, with people from different professions, and sharing a learning with different agencies. This means that this new format and media combination also takes the place, or includes, the handover of a report to (say) a Minister; primarily so different professions can share an understanding of how they adapt to one another. And when I say adapt, I mean Innovate (it is the original meaning).

I suppose this is the way things have always changed, especially when new forms of media are tearing down the beliefs in old institutions. First it's the old habits of governance that change, then the educational institutions adapt to support and professionalize the new habits. God I'm a slow learner.

Tags: learning
Posted at 07:38AM Sep 21, 2009 by simon fenton - jones  |  Comments[0]