edna.edu.au

Eviction

Inspired and gratified by blogs, emails, tweets and rants from a wide range of people - both friends and strangers - I am gradually resigning myself to the fact I need to make some decisions on where to go now. My issues are nothing compared to edna team members who are losing a lot more than a blog and aggregation space, however I have three months to pack up my professional life online and either ditch it, archive it or republish somewhere else. Thank goodness I have never been a prolific blogger!

I know I have been lucky to contribute to the design of this home, have some very clever people build it using public money, and then to live here for 3 years in return for providing some community building support and PD. What has been sad is watching the abandonment of the building process just as it was starting to become liveable, and facing the fact that in 3 months we will watch all that investment turn to rubble with no opportunity to salvage code, content or community.

So what's next? Free accommodation or living in a workhouse don't hold much appeal at the moment, and I'm not even so sure about renting or cloud-dwelling. E-portfolio on a stick? Should I read anything into the announcement today of me on the web - have never felt inclined to get too close to the G up to now.

Other professional profiles I have checked out (many of which reinforce the transience of online homes):

• About me: http://about.me/pru
• Academia: http://adelaide.academia.edu/PruMitchell
• ALTC Exchange: http://www.altcexchange.edu.au/user/184
  BTW I don't feel any better that me.edu.au cost much less and lasted longer than Carrick Exchange.
  
• edna.tv Mahara: http://www.edna.tv/mahara/view/view.php?id=13
  This one could perhaps be salvaged with an arm-wrestle for the domain
  
• Elgg: elgg.edna.edu.au/pmitchell 
  Interestingly this is stlll consistently the highest ranking in terms of hits despite not being updated since 2007. Probably because it has the exceptionally highly ranked edna brand in the url which me.edu.au eschewed for a combination of brevity, cuteness and independence reasons.
• LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/prumitchell

And of course I now have to go around to all those places where I've left my house key as security/identity when I used my me.edu.au profile as an openID. Lucky I kept a list of those here in my blog...

Tags: edna life blogging
Posted at 01:29AM Jun 17, 2011 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

Ada Lovelace Day

Well I took the pledge back in January, and finally Ada Lovelace Day has arrived.

According to the Facebook Group which started me on this:

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. 

My tributes are very personal, but sitting here in the shadow of the South West TAFE, Warrnambool it is really fitting to remember the woman who first nurtured me on my journey into IT. In 1986, I was not yet finished my Grad Dip in Library & Information Science, I had typed a couple of essays on a Commodore 64 and I won a position at the South West Institute of TAFE Library as a Project Officer. My job (aged 23) was to visit every department in every TAFE College in Victoria and root out any micro-computer software in existence (much of it programmed inhouse), catalogue it and compile a union list for the state.

 TAFE Librarian, Elaine Hosking overrode the many doubts I had and kicked me off on my quest. Her modelling of the importance of embracing innovation, of strong community involvement, and over the top levels of library service have continued to inspire and influence me over the subsequent 23 years.

Elaine died of cancer in 1993 and the library now houses a beautiful tapestry in three panels, celebrating and commemorating her life. I wasn't surprised to read in the information about her childhood that she was one of the first girls from Birchip to go to Melbourne University. She was very quick to encourage, support and celebrate the rural and indigenous women who were battling great odds to study for the first time at TAFE.

And because I'm greedy, a second tribute:
To Janet for the Matrix Post plus the conference papers and the commons game.
For leading me and so many others (including the Australian Government) to a vision for a more open education future. 
A most fitting day (if somewhat ironic way) to be celebrating this.

Tags: ict heroes blogging events open education librarians copyright
Posted at 09:34PM Mar 24, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]