edna.edu.au

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]

How to write a conference paper

[Relocated post: Originally published on 30 June 2007]

• Do a thorough literature review - comprehensive for Australia and your sector, and at least checking international papers and key documents from other sectors, or complementary fields. There is no point presenting what others have already written, but building on their work benefits everyone.
  
• Pull together relevant work and themes from existing presentations by colleagues
• Set up [del.icio.us/diigo] tags and let people know what you are researching so others can contribute relevant material and follow your research.
  
  
• Draft an outline of the paper, and organise collected quotes, documents, readings, links and ideas under key headings. At this stage I find it best to keep the references firmly attached to quotes as footnotes, even if this is not the final format required.
• It is not enough to just collect material. Remember to make time to actually read and note these.
  
  
• At least four weeks before the paper is due, take a writing day away from the office, (and may be even offline!) to write a first draft from the material collected.
• Create a 'to do' notepad document where you note gaps that require further research, quotes to research or references to follow up.
  
  
• Blog the big questions/issues you have identified at this stage and invite comment.
• Continue to collect, read, think, follow up on the 'to do list' and clean up the paper.
• Remember to check back to the abstract and the conference requirements to ensure you have not strayed too far from the original submission.
  
  
• At least one week before the paper is due, do the final cut including correct referencing and styling and give it to at least one proofreader. You need to leave time to make the changes that they will suggest, and follow up any leads they provide to key references.
  
  
• Submit the paper in the required manner and ask for confirmation that it has been received. Find out how and when the paper will be published, and whether you are permitted to publish online either before or after the conference.
  
  [If it is a refereed paper, you will need to re-work it in line with the comments received back from the reviewers, and resubmit. There may well be a very short turnaround for this process.]
  
  
• SAVE a copy of the final paper clearly labelled as such in your official personal repository/file space. Then back it up.
  
• Provide a copy of the final version of the paper to the editor of your organisation's document archive/repository and website if appropriate, and advise of any embargo on publication.

Note: Sometimes the paper is not required until after the conference in which case you have the luxury of including any feedback, comment or issues raised by participants in the final version. The paper will also be more up-to-date.
However, by this stage you will quite probably never want to look at this paper again and will wish you had finished it before the conference.

Tags: research how to writing events papers conferences
Posted at 01:57PM Feb 01, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

How to respond to a conference call for papers

[Relocated post: Originally published on 30 June 2007]

• Create a record for the event in your organisation's calendar and in your own professional and personal calendars noting due dates.
  Set reminders for at least 2 weeks before each stage.
  Check whether anyone else in the organisation is planning to present or attend.
  
  
• Read through the conference website and brainstorm some topics around the theme of the conference, strands or the brief given by the organisers.
• Check out presenters and papers from the same conference last year to get an idea of what they might expect.
• Spend some time doing a scan of the literature for your preferred topics, and reading key related material online, in academic journals and books.
• Have a discussion with a colleague, a manager and someone from the target audience group about the topic to check out whether it is of interest, relevant and meaty enough to sustain a full presentation.
  
  
• Draft an abstract, then check back against the theme, requirements, length of session
• Future proof the abstract because a lot may have happened before you get to present it. Keep it generic enough to protect you from planned development that may not be ready in time.
  
  
• Decide carefully whether your presentation style and topic is best suited to a formal paper or a workshop. Do you need/prefer hands-on or computer-based session?
• If refereeing of papers is offered, do you want to take advantage of this process?
  
  
• Come up with a snappy title that suits the theme of the conference or strand, and sums up the content of your paper. You are trying to attract attention and get your intended audience to choose this session from a range of other offerings. The title also needs to work as the title of a published paper if it is an academic conference.
• Check your snappy title in search engines to ensure it is not too cliched.
  
  
• Draft a biographical statement that matches the conference, audience and the paper being proposed, ie include things that will mean something to or impress this particular conference programme committee and ultimately their audience.
  
  
• Send in the proposal in the required format and ask for confirmation that it has been received. Many conferences are organised by volunteer programme committees and proposals and papers do get lost.
• If you haven't heard about whether the paper is accepted three weeks after the date that was promised, then contact the organisers to check.

Tags: conferences call for papers events abstracts how to
Posted at 01:50PM Feb 01, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

Should you answer a conference call for papers?

[Relocated post: Originally published on 30 June 2007]

The invitation arrives! Perhaps it falls out of a journal you are reading, or in a generic posting to a forum or list, a 'why don't you' from a colleague, a personal invitation from the organisers or a strong suggestion from a manager or mentor.

Will you submit a paper for Conference X?  It's not as easy as that single question makes it seem.

Before you get to step 1 consider:

• Are you interested in doing this?
• Do you have time to do the preparation?

• Do you have something new/different/unique to say?
• Is a conference the best way to say it?
• Should you present alone or with others?

• What are the benefits for you? Does it represent a professional development opportunity?
• What are the benefits for the organisation, for the profession?
• What other opportunities might this provide, eg further presentations, networking, publication, marketing?
• What is the likely reach in terms of audience numbers, influence. Is this worth the time, effort, cost?

• Are you going to be able to attend the conference?
• How much time away is it going to involve?
• Who is going to pay for the conference? Is there a reduced rate for presenters?
• How much is going to cost when you factor in travel, accommodation and relief salaries?
  
• Can you combine this with holidays, other activities?

Tags: call for papers conferences presentations events
Posted at 01:43PM Feb 01, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

SLASA calendar 2009

Playing with Google calendar options for 2009 SLASA events

Link to SLASA Events Calendar

Embedding doesn't seem to work:

Code:
<iframe src="http://www.google.com/calendar
/embed?src=h8bnqhhp08lbifhjh9n2lh6is0%40group.calendar.google.com &ctz=Australia/Adelaide" style="border: 0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Message: Your browser does not appear to support JavaScript but this page needs to use JavaScript to display correctly.

----------------

HTTP Status 404 - /www.google.com/calendar/embed

Type Status report

message /www.google.com/calendar/embed

description The requested resource (/www.google.com/calendar/embed) is not

 ....

Note to self: more investigation required. Perhaps a clean-up!

Tags: professional associations events librariessa libraries slasa calendars
Posted at 12:36PM Nov 22, 2008 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

Software Freedom Day 2008

Melbourne was a good place to be this week - particularly for those lucky enough to hear Charles Leadbetter talk about his book  We-think at the State Library of Victoria. Thinking about organisation and action without organisations was interesting, as well as the advice to constantly ask the question "Is there an open source way of doing this?" He summed up by affirming that being open is good for democracy, is good for equality and is good for freedom. Inspirational stuff.

It would be good to still be there today to celebrate Software Freedom Day with Brianna (Wikimedia), Kathy Reid and Gerry White.
Plenty of other activity around the world too
http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/map.shtml

Software Freedom Day seems a perfect time to think of and thank those freedom fighters who have inspired us.

Tags: victoria events open source software
Posted at 12:17AM Sep 20, 2008 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]