Chapter 1: Alexarctica

I board a flight to the continent once called “Antartica’, which I’ve been told was once mainly inhabited mainly by penguins. My ticket says flight time will be three hours, which for the year 2099 is a rather slow flight to get anywhere in the world; “increased flight safety” due to an unfortunate mid air collision on Air Highway 66 has caused more care than normal to be imposed on the all powerful flight industry.

I take a minute to situate myself in my seat which has my custom leg, back & arse cheeks molded into the seat for my flying pleasure. Of course this is just an insert I’ve requested from the airline to make the standard seat more comfortable. If I were a frequent flyer, the airline would 3D print the seat of my choice, but you have to travel around the world at least once a week to be considered for even basic ‘frequent flyer’ status these days. The average executive ‘frequent flyer’ usually have their own cabin including up to thirty custom printed 3D or 2D printed objects of their choice.

To say the least, 3D printing has been the most significant innovation of the 23rd century; well perhaps as significant as clean hydrogen energy. Sadly, very few people care about the history of the motor engine anymore, you would think an invention that saved our planet from disaster would be more appreciated – I can only hope that people a century ago would have cared more for our beloved planet?!

Recently, my personal reading passion has been the history of the motor engine. In fact, I must quickly decide which of the two paperbacks I am going to read if I am going to take advantage of this extremely long three hour flight in front of me. The two biographies I had quickly purchased from the travel bookshelf, include:

“Henry Ford: from assembly lines to distributed additive manufacturing – a one hundred year 3D printing revolution.”

And the second biography, titled:

“Sir Tim Berners Lee: the inventor of the hydrogen engine.”

I decide to read the book on Sir Tim, I sit down, do a little wiggle to adjust my buttocks and recline my seat to the recommended 60 degree reading angle and wait for take-off. I hardly hear the sonic boom as I am transported away into the story.

…Despite the air traffic congestion above all fifteen of the mega airports on the continent of Antartica, I’m feeling rather smug that I was able to finish an entire book in one sitting (a rarity these days). Sir Tim’s biography was riveting to say the least. The initial discoveries that occurred in the first decade of the twenty second century at the CERN scientific laboratory just outside of Geneva were more significant to world history than I knew. The red letter date (1991) when Sir Tim discovered the simple system that would allow a hydrogen atom to work in a syncrotron engine – now commonly known as the “hydro-sync” motor. I even laughed out-loud when I read about how large the original syncrotron engine was back in those days; to think, you can now fit one in your pocket – let alone the two dozen hydro-sync engines that powered this plane.

What I particularly liked about Berner’s-Lee biography was the additional social-historical narrative that was weaved around Sir Tim’s life. How the simple hydro-sync motor almost single-handidly ended wars overnight (of which the author made a rather compelling argument that most wars were started for taking resources from other countries, such as oil). However the part I enjoyed the most was the way in which the biographer described the hydro-sync motor as the ‘right hand’ of modern society, and that the technology of “3D printing” as the left hand. In combination, (these two technologies) brought about the economic revolution that we live in today. A world defined by travel and experiencing as much of the real world as possible.

I took a moment to contemplate how our world would be different if 3D printing or Hydrogen motor technology had not been invented. The biographer claimed (and I’m looking forward to checking out this theory when I land in Alexartica), that both technologies (3D printing & Hydro-sync motors) enabled the airline industry to basically take over all other industries, including what the author called “the banking industry”. Of course, you hear of stories about New York and the stock exchange, but all that remains are pictures in books since Manhattan is now under water. The biographer ended his book with a rather amusing story about how Sir Tim gave up another invention of his called ‘the internet’. A technology that would end the need for paper, naturally I smiled given the place I was about to visit and my own personal research topic.

…

Alexarctica is the largest airport in the world (and the largest airport out of the 15 mega airports on Antarctica). Alexarctica is also the main entrance to the largest single building in the world, the Library of Alexandria – dwarfing even the Great Wall of China as a piece of string. Of course, everyone knows this is the second building in our history to carry the name ‘The Library of Alexandria’, the first being the building in Egypt circa 300 b.c. Though, from what we are told both of these libraries have a similar remit to their patrons, the inscription on every entrance to Alexarctica:

“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.” (Hypatia of Alexandria)

I smile with approval in recognition for the first female mathematician of my own profession.  This inscription is above the great door as I walk into the Library of Alexandria at Alexarctica (though of course this building is not just a library, but museum, gallery, archive, travel agent, and crossoads for anyone and everyone in society, regardless of creed, race, religion or affiliation). Naturally, the great ‘i’ is the next thing I see as I approach the ‘information desk’. The librarian that greets me not only has a perfect voice but is impossibly multi-cultural in her beauty having been hand picked for her international genes, green Irish eyes, lush Philippians lips, thick Japanese hair, smooth Brazilian skin, strong Australia legs… I’m interrupted before I can finish my observations.

“How can I help you today, Sir” she says in a perfect English accent.
I quickly pull out a letter that has all the right signatures and hand it over to her, almost too dumb-founded to speak.
“Ah, Mr. Dewey welcome to Alexarctica.  I trust you’ve visited us before?”
I attempt to soften my American accent “yes, yes of course”.
“And I can see by this letter that you are here to see our Archival team?” she asks.
“Yes please” – I hear my voice echo in the massive space covered floor to ceiling with marble.
“Of course Mr. Dewey, I’ll telephone the archive exhibition team immediately and have them take you to your appointment. However, if you would like to take a minute to see our newest gallery exhibition it will take a little while for the archive team to send someone from their offices in sector five.”
I nod my head and walk towards the direction she is pointing me.

To try and summarize the Library of Alexander on Antarctica is futile. Besides, there are more books, radio, movies and television shows which feature the Library of Alexandria than can be cataloged. The start of every great best-seller this century begins in some part of this building (usually a long lost and forgotten exhibition); I’ve yet to read a mystery novel that doesn’t have entire plots lines based on the mysteries within this ‘library or libraries’. My favorite mystery novel being The DaVinci Code, part two.

I’m about to walk into the exhibition which I’ve been instructed to see when I notice an introductory movie about ‘the Library of Alexandria’ about to play. This short film is one that every child the world over has seen, and it has fond memories for me, I decide to indulge by reminiscing, so I sit down to watch it again.

“Welcome to the Library of Alexandria” the narrators voice begins while the video shows the main entrance I just walked through. The narrator slows down her words: “You are about to start the greatest adventure of your life, not only is this adventure provide the most exciting moments in your life, it is also an adventure that that will last you your entire life” the camera zooms out showing the size of the port at the entrance of Alexarctica (including the adjacent airport), then zooming to show the entire building which takes up about two thirds of the landmass that is Antartica, and finally the camera zooms up into space to show the satellite images of the building nicknamed ‘the thumbprint of god’.

“Today you begin a journey that has more paths than you can imagine, today you will begin to make the most important decisions of your life”. It is here in this library that we are able to bring together all the great cultural objects of the world under one gigantic roof” a montage of statues, paintings, books, buildings and every other kind of cultural object goes by in the blink of an eye “It is here where you will decide where in the world you should go next so you can make the most of your leisure travel pursuits!” The video fades into a multitude of songs and sounds to represent even more cultures and different parts of the world.

The narrators voice ceases the musical montage “But how did the Library of Alexandria begin? – I hear you ask” as videos of Antarctica are shown before the building began. ‘We’ll let’s begin with *how* this building got started” A video does another quick montage of photos showing that we are going back in time. “The Library of Alexandria was built in five years, which makes it the fastest building of this size ever built. Of course, this was only possible because of the 3D printer robots that we all know and love, our little robot pets which can print any object we so desire on demand.” A video of a golden-retriever-3D-printer-robo-pet is shown, with a little face on one end for children to respond to along with a little tail that can extrude various materials out of its tail to build up the layers of an object (like the layers of a cake). The child in the video touches the mouth of the robo-pet three and the ‘dog’ quickly extrudes a vegetable food substance out of its tail which quickly is built up layer by layer to look like a rattle, the child grabs the veggie rattle and bites into it.

“The builders of ‘The Library at Alexander at Antarctica’ was built by early versions of our beloved robo-pets; working like bees or ants these robots were able to swarm around and melt down the abundant ice in Antarctica and then extrude the water again as ice blocks so as to build up the great walls and structure of the ‘Library’.  The robots continue to build and rebuild walls to this day using the same method (following the fractal pattern of the building).  The perfect shape of the building as seen from space is called a ‘mandelbrot fractal’ and is only possible because it was 100% machine built. The entire building was made without a single person setting foot on Antarctica, the entire effort coordinated via ham radio and satellite connections. Of course you and I know the building by its nickname ‘the fingerprint of god’. During the narrators descriptions the video shows thousands of robots as they swarm around building up walls of ice by extruding ice blocks.  Some truly impressive historical footage.

The video continus with the narrator segueing “Once the great building was complete, and of course suitably insulated, the doors were opened for business. Every country in the world started sending boat loads full of their most precious cultural objects, though of course none of these objects were the real object, rather they were all copies. Sculptures such as the statue of David from Italy, paintings such as ‘War’ by Picasso, scaled-down buildings such as the Kremlin from Russia, historical artefacts such as the freedom bell from America, even geographical replicas such as the great barrier reef exhibition from Australia.  And all of them a 3D printed copy, some perfectly accurate, other scaled down and done in different materials and colors to entice the tourist.  But all copies.

“Why might you ask, were all these objects copied, 3D printed and brought to a single place?” – The answer may seem obvious to us today, however at the time it was a very novel idea – and alike all good ideas a simple one.”  The narrators voice is enhanced with reverb for the next sentence, “No one person can see all of the world, it is too diverse, too rich and too beautiful – naturally, the most important thing for any individual to do in every country is to decide how they are going to craft their own personal journey through the great cultures of the world.”

At this stage the camera show a view of where I am sitting and starts to zoom through the various exhibitions and halls, far faster than any thing could move.  “Here at Alexarctica a person can go through several dozen exhibitions in a day to help them decide where they should go to next. It is this planning of one’s travel life that makes us who we are and enriches the short lives we get to live on this planet.”  The video slows down, moving to a final set of doors, which opens revealing a vast circular space miles in circumference and thousands of feet high; with books from floor to ceiling, reaching up to the heavens where the largest sky light ever seen allows light to cascade down across the books around the room and onto the desks on the ground.  The voice-over proudly states: “And of course, the final destination of every tourist is the great reading room.

I’m tapped on the shoulder distracting me from the engrossing video, and I look up to see a bearded man in a corduroy coat with leather arm patches.

“Interesting story isn’t it” he smiles at me.

I return the smile and respond, “yes, and incredibly timeless given how old it is” .

“Well we’ve updated bits and pieces of it, every time the tape wears out we tend to splice in a little bit more” he replies.

I stand up and hold out my hand, “I’m Mr. Dewey”, he shakes my hand ‘thank you for coming Mr. Dewey, I’m Professor Flanders.

================================”Once upon a time, when people were restricted by how far they could travel or even what countries they were allowed into, they didn’t bother to plan out their travel journeys.” a shocked cartoon face appears. “think about how carefully you plan your work or even your day, yet most people before the Library of Alexarctica would not take the time to plan their own lives. Afterall, you’ll only get 50 days off of work per year to travel where YOU wnat (only ten years of your life!). Think of how little a child learns in the first ten years of their life – so plan your travels well! A montage of a family picking where they want to go and getting on a plane begins when I am tapped on the shoulder.

“Mr Dewey” an older man smiles at me “its fun to revisit childhood memories isn’t it.”

I smile, as I recognise the mans picture from the letter he has sent me: “Hello Mr. Brindley” I say.

Mr. Brindley cordially replies: “Welcome to the library at Alexarctica, we are very glad you are able to come”

“Of course” I smile, very eager for the information over the next half hour “I’m very interested to hear why you would need the help of theoretical graphing mathematician for a confidential practical problem at the great library!”

Mr. Brindley, starts to usher me away “naturally, but first we must take you to our department” – I’m given a seque scooter and lean forward to follow Mr. Bridnley as he zips down a straight hallway with no end in site.

My favorite talks at OKCon (Geneva)

Most of the sessions at OKCon were nice, but there was was one session that made the entire trip worthwhile for me. In short, the following is my recommendation for the people you should go and google right now.

First up was @floppy whose tag line is going to be my next t-shirt: “we need to bring the world of Open Source to Open Data” – followed up by the reminder that the Open Data world hasn’t even got a sourceforge, let alone a github ecosystem and all the tools that Open Source developers have at their beckon call to work with code.  I love this analogy, as data is its own kind of code and deserves as much attention to tooling as code. Best of all @Floppy is actively working on enabling data spreadsheets to be forked via GitHub/GitLab in the same way that code is, which means all the tools that GitHub provides could be applied to tabular data as its own kind of code base. In short, watch this space as the future of data is going to be via developers playing with it in active real world communities like this.

Next up was @maxogden who is one of those developers who is creating what looks like the future of tabular data through his new file format .dat (short for data). The simple code library that @maxogden is creating does the transformations that data developers spend hours doing, e.g. geting excel spreadsheets into databases and vice versa. In short, Data Developers waste a lot of time on ‘code glue’ moving spreadsheets and small tabular databases (access/sqllite) into more powerful developer tools like MySQL or even better JSON databases like CouchDB. The DAT tool is alive and kicking and saving developers hours of their time; it scratches an itch and should be used by everyone today making .dat files the de facto mime type for data!

Finally, is my personal favorite which is Karthik @_inundata who is leading the data revolution for scientists via the #RStat tool (via his project @rOpenSci). For those of you who have not utilised R (and are in Academia) you should get involved today (or you are living in a cave!), as “R is for Research!” (see below).  @_inundata’s project (funded by Sloan) over the next year is dedicated to both: a.) building an international community, and b.) building CRAN repositories which enable research experimentation and publication process, such as:

• pulling in data from phylogentic trees or
• augmenting personal data with larger datasets like the Worldbank data or
• more easily formatting publications with markdown so that LaTeX no longer need be mastered to publish a thesis (see: knitr+markdown+Rstat <– this is brilliant), or
• adding metadata to our research data and publication that easily cites your toolchain without having to go through a librarian, or

I’d like to pontificate a little more on Karthik’s work as it is something we plan to actively role out via Melbourne’s Postgraduate Programming Club – and ideally participate more in the community that @rOpenSci project is achieving!

Why R aka #RStat aka #RStudio?

R is for ‘Researcher’ IMHO, because it is a fully fledged programming language for researchers. Here are some of the things I’ve discovered about it over the past six months as I’ve gotten involved with the quickly growing community!

First off I should state that I believe every researcher from Humanities to Social Science to Physics to Mathematics will need to learn how to code on some level.

Writing code will be as important (if not more important) as knowing how to write a research paper. Here are some of the things that researchers of the future will say about why they are using R:

• We need a programming language that can be reproduced, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language that are as easy to repeat as sharing and opening up a file, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language that we are able to cite, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language that allows us to write tools for subject specific activities, R is for Research
• We need a programming language that is lab book like, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language that integrates with the publishing process, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language that allows us to easily change our mind and amend via review, R is for Research
• We need a programming language that shows research data and research code next to each other, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language whose syntax and notation is akin to academic scientific notation, R is for Research.
• We need a programming language that participates with the professional software engineering community and their keystone programming languages (e.g. python, php, perl, javascript, etc), R is for Research.
• We need a way to track any and all research scripts assuring that they are archived for future consideration by researcher both in that discipline and outside that discipline, R is for Research.

But, do you think R is for Research?  Why or why not? <– Please either leave a comment or tweet me on @dfflanders 

Bio: David F. Flanders 3D Printing Evanglelist

Thanks to a little video I did a couple of years ago, I’ve been asked to speak at several events on ‘what 3D Printing has to do with you & your sector, and how it is going to change everything – again”.  Ever since my TEDx talk I’ve been scanning the web daily for the new kinds of objects that exemplify the paradigm shift that 3D printing will bring about to everything.  I’m so confident in my compendium of 3D printed examples I like to playfully challenge anyone to give me ten minutes of their time to tell me the following: a.) what sector are you in, b.) what do you personally contribute to that sector, and c.) what wild ideas are you personally passionate about.  Based on these three things, I’ve yet to meet someone who I can’t “convince” that 3D printing is a very real option for them to innovate in their sector.  In short, 3D Printing applies to everyTHING! Challenge me, I dare you 😉

On to my speaker bio (for David F. Flanders, my friends call me ‘Flanders’)

Short Bio:

David F. Flanders has been involved with 3D Printing since 2009, when he first met Dr. Adrian Bower and the RepRap project in the UK[1].  “Flanders” (as his friends call him) has spoke on ‘the disruptive rise of 3D printers’ at multiple ‘innovation events’ including TEDx as well as on radio broadcasts such as the BBC’s Click programme.  David’s key message is about how individuals now have the capacity to be their own ‘Digital Blacksmiths’ who can wake up each morning with a new eureka idea and then proceed to design, smelt and print the product ready for selling by the time they go to bed.   In addition, David is very passionate about teaching others to both use and build 3D printers so that anyone can join this innovation revolution – become a Digital Blacksmith today!  In short, “3D Printers will change everything in your sector, again!“

[1]= RepRap is a self replicating desktop 3D printer that prints its own parts… cue Terminator soundtrack 😉

Long Bio:

3D Printing: Are you ready to innovate like never before?! – David F. Flanders has been involved with a specific type of 3D Printer (and its community) called RepRap since 2009.  The moment David met Dr. Adrian Bower he knew that the world would never be the same (listen to Flanders and Dr. Bower talk on the BBC’s Click Radio programme).

Flanders alongside his fellow “Digital Blacksmiths” built a first generation RepRap known as the ‘Darwin’ and since then this printer has ‘printed’ four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren (and a quad-copter!).   Flanders continues to roam the globe encouraging people to participate in ‘3D Printer Parties’ which “barn raise” 3D printers in a weekend.

Flanders will teach anyone from six years of age to one-hundred-and-six years of age to design and print their own objects.  David firmly believes the revolutions that desktop 3D printing will bring about will be by inspired individuals working independently and in collaboration with other talented individuals (“wisdom of crowds”).

Most people who have worked with 3D Printers (and it goes back almost thirty years now) have been focused on something called ‘Additive Manufacturing’.  The difference with the RepRap is that it is NOT ‘additive manufacturing’, in fact it is not manufacturing at all, in the same way that owning a desktop paper printer is not the same as owning a newspaper printer (think about what desktop paper printers did to the market).

The coolest thing about the RepRap is that it is a project whose goal is to create a 3D Printers that can print itself (…cue Terminator soundtrack).   The reason this Desktop 3D Printer is so revolutionary is because it democratizes manufacturing, for those of us lucky enough to have a laptop and a 3D printer on our workbench; we suddenly have the ability to be innovator, designer, smelter, manufacturer, market and be the salesperson all in one!  Think about that – to have the ability to have a Eureka moment and within the same day design the object print it and sell it to someone else.

Some additional things I’ve done in 3D Printing that might be worth picking and choosing to add to my speakers bio:

• Currently working at the University of Melbourne where Flanders is hoping to enable the next generation of brilliant inventors to change the world with 3D printing.
• Runs a summer school where students are given the ability,to innovate and print 7 products in 7 days.
• {to add more anon}

TED talk on 3D Printing and the Future

Your truly giving a talk at TEDxHamburg on the Future of 3D Printing.

Announcement of my new role as ‘Research Community Manager’ at the University of Melbourne

I’m pleased to announce my new job as “Research Community Manager” at the University of Melbourne.

Note: please do take a moment to update any contact details you have for me: https://dfflanders.wordpress.com/about/ <– this link is where I try and keep an up-to-date version of my contact details, for when you are wondering which email of mine to use 🙂

Hello to my new colleagues at the University of Melbourne, I look forward to meeting with you in person.

Ok, so what is my new job about? As an elevator pitch to ‘Jane Citizen’ (aka so my friends & family outside the sector will know what I do!):

The University of Melbourne’s Research Community Manager will make sure the left knows what the right is doing, that duplication is limited, that people feel a sense that you want them to do the best, most innovative research they can muster; all within a climate of innovation, accuracy, freedom, and limitless information empowerment!

But why have a Research Community Manager (or more importantly, why doesn’t your University have a Research Community Manager?) – Let’s consider some numbers from the No.1 University in Australia:

3,500 Staff
5,000 Research Staff
16,000 Taught Postgraduate**
800 Doctoral and Post Doctoral Students*
———————————————————-
=> 25,000 Researchers (that’s a very large community)

This number is massive for a community[2], and when you consider how many more people these +25k researchers collaborate with beyond the walls of the institution internationally it almost feels impossible to imagine how change could be affected… or is it?

Researchers might not see it yet, but there is an interwoven community waiting to emerge via tools+data.

To quote from Dr. Steven Manos (my new boss and leader of the #ResBaz movement[1], from which my new job is founded):

“The paramount objective of this position will be to inspire researchers with new ways of doing their research through building the community around the new core research paradigms of tools+data. Researchers and research students** interact with information technology every single day, and they are becoming more and more dependent upon digital tools to do their work. These digital tools along with the IT skill levels differ widely between disciplines. The traditional IT helpdesk simply cannot support the breadth of tools and the depth of support needed by the community. The University has already undertaken a multi-million dollar programme of works in the last three years to build IT services tuned to the needs of researchers, including cloud and data storage infrastructure. However, there’s still a long way to go in solving the researcher’s problem of ‘what does this mean to me?’, and mapping their research problem to solutions that are supported by the technology.

The above problem provides us with a great opportunity to establish communities that are cross-disciplinary which can support one another in new technology adoption (helping create a more porous University, bringing researchers out of their departments to work across new tools+datasets. This model will engage and inspire researchers, help solve their everyday research problems and (most importantly) address the needs of the digital era within which we live. After all, researchers don’t consume IT services, they consume collaborations.

It’s safe to say that taking this approach across an institution the size of Melbourne is a world-first.  This is pivotal role that will have a direct impact on the University’s ability to achieve its strategic aim of being one of the leading universities in the world.”

So what are the pragmatics of this post, how do I even begin to support Dr. Manos’ world-first vision!?  First and foremost, is the team I’ll be working with (who thanks to previous engagements I’ve already had the pleasure of working with, and am looking forward to doing so more).  I’ll introduce my new team via a further blog post, hopefully over on their blog.

Second, is the audience.  If the above vision is going to have an effect on 25K+ researchers then we’ve got to find a way to get their attention.  I believe that attention can be obtained through early career researchers, or more specifically though the seventeen-thousand postgraduate and doctoral students at the University.  In short, we must approach the community from the bottom-up if we are going to get top-down attention[4].

To achieve top-down engagement we must balance out how we engage our research community from the bottom-up, this will be through the 68% foundation of our community: postgraduates.

**So why do we feel that postgraduates are the key to affecting the entire research community?  Well, other than the democracy of the situation (68% of the community are postgraduates), is that postgraduates are the ones sitting in the lab atop the data+tools most of the time, and are also the people who can get the professors attention (well sometimes, see cartoon below).

Even at 17k people the community is too large to engage, hence the need for champions.  In the coming months, as part of the #ResBaz initiative I’ll talk more about how we are recruiting postgraduate students as research community ambassadors.  We’ve already had some success via events like #ArtsHack – stay tuned to the #ResBaz channel!

In the next couple of months we’ll roll out several more initiatives aimed at recruiting postgraduate students as champions.  For example, we are working on a similar postgraduate workshop utilising tools such as #RStat through global movements such as Software Carpentry via Mozilla and ‘School of Data’ via the Open Knowledge Foundation.  This is perhaps one of the most important parts of my job: that we remain outward looking and collaborative in our approach.

Melbourne University geographically sits atop the city of Melbourne – the ‘most livable city in the world’ and our research community will accordingly embrace that entire hive of minds.

Finally, I’d like to state some personal objectives for what I am hoping to achieve in my new role (I’m not sure I know how to track these metrics, but I want to ‘go big or go home'[5]):

There are three main metrics in which I would like my new job as Research Community Manager to impact:

• No.1: The University of Melbourne will increase its world ranking as a top-tier University.
• No.2: The graduates from the University of Melbourne will be the most highly sought after skilled talent in Australia.
• No.3: The research community at the University of Melbourne achieves more start-ups than any other University in Australia.

Wish me luck!!! 🙂

Footnotes:

[1]= Please see the #ResBaz initiative which Dr. Manos has spearheaded, an overview is available here: https://dfflanders.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/resbaz/

[2]= As a long time community manager, a more realistic number for a community manager is somewhere nearer Dunbar’s number of ~200 people, which can then be inferred to around 2,400 people (200 champions via the smaller events they can put on of about a dozen people => 2400 ‘communally’ engaged).  The question will be: ‘how do we break past this number to affect even more of the research population!?’

[3]= not to be confused with a pyramid schema, more akin to the network effect.

[4]=  As a manager responsible for writing the justification of this community, I’d like to comment on the importance of having both a top-down strategy for engaging world class researcher as well as bottom-up initiatives for engaging researchers who will soon be the new world class researchers.  Culturally speaking, my observation of Australia’s research community (in comparison to the UK & USA) has been one where the top-down is preferred over the bottom-up (government funding through eresearch initiatives seem to prefer this approach?).  I don’t wish to suggest one is better than the other, just that you need both bottom-up and top-down to affect change.  Accordingly, the strategies I will put forward in my new management role will aim to provide this balance, and further-to  encourage other Universities to consider (via their own #ResBaz initiatives) how they can help better balance their research engagement processes across their entire research community (not just the top of the pyramid).

[5]= I’ve pleased to say that through this job I’ll be able to apply for permanent residence status in Australia making Victoria one of my new ‘homes’ alongside Colorado and England.

GovHack the Olympic Trials of Developer Events?

DISCLAIMER: I’m quite sure my analysis has errors / and that my opinions are odd / but that’s what the comments section is for – hoorah!

It has been over three weeks since GovHack and I’ve only just now had a minute to stop and write some quick thoughts down.  To say the least, Govhack was an incredible achievement.  The team in Canberra, lead by Pia Waugh, has taken an event that was a very good event and turned it into a world leading data event <–  it is this potential which has me truly excited.  This post explains why.

GovHack Olympiad Champions: Team Unlockd

Let me explain: being a citizen of the US & UK [1] means I’ve seen my fair share of developer events over the past decade in all three countries, however nothing has topped this event.  “Why?” might you ask: quite simply because Australia has once again punched above its weight in terms of per population developer talent.  The small population of this country, means that Govhack as an idea has spread further and faster than anyone of us could imagine.  Give this event another two years with this amount of success and you’ll be able to ask the average person on the street if they know about GovHack and the answer will be “yes”.  As evidence to this, let me quickly list some of the coverage this event received from the media:

 

• SBS broadcast the event on their Sunday evening news to the nation (see above)

• TrippleJ’s Hack programme broadcast a show.

• The Age newspaper (and other news outlets) wrote dozens of stories on the event.

• The no.1 University in Australia called on all researchers to consider the value of utilising government data for new research.

• Videographer extraordinaire Simon Pockey documented the Melbourne event, see video below.

• Hundreds of blogs and thousands of tweets <– which are still happening!

 So why is the nation interested in GovHack and what makes it a worthwhile story?

• First off, GovHack is the friendly competition among talented, smart & creative people.  This event (with a little more crafting + fan base) will be as enjoyable to watch/participate in as is going to a football match on the weekend.  In fact, I think this competition is so interesting it could and should be an Olympic sport[3] <– I’m actually quite serious, imagine some of the great code-sporting events that could be created, e.g. the developer decathalon, the code high jump, the data greco-roman wrestling… etc.

• The second reason (which I’ll cover over on the OKFN blog) is that this event represents a growing community that will be heard by politicians, academics, corporations and anyone else who believes in a better Australia.  This event is far more than just a competition, it is changing the way we think about how we live our civil lives.  See the OKFN-au blog for more.

For the purposes of this post, let’s pretend that GovHack *is* a series of Olympic events, imagine how much more exciting we could make this event to the rest of Australia! 

The GovHack Medals Table:

Let’s look at the big winners this year.  Here is the medal table for national prizes[2]:

1. Perth: 11 x Gold (33) + 2 x Silver (4) + 4 x Bronze (4) = 41 points

2. Sydney: 4 x Gold (12), 4 x Silver (8), 1 x Bronze (1) = 21 points

3. Canberra: 3 x Gold (9) + 4 x Silver (8) + ,2 x Bronze (2) = 19 points

4. Brisbane/ Goldcoast: 4 x Gold (12), 1 x Silver (2), 2 x Bronze (2) = 16 points

5. Melbourne: 3 x Gold = 9 points

6. Adelaide: 3 x Gold = 9 points

7. Tasmania: 2 x Gold = 6 points

8. South Australia: 1 x Gold = 3 points

Side note: like the Olympics there is always one event that everyone watches (i.e. the 4×100 medal relay).  IMHO the event at GovHack to watch is the prize at the top of the list: ‘Best Open Government Project’.  As you all know the Gold medal was a tie! ← shocking!!! A tie between the Unlockd team from Melbourne and TheOpenGuys in Canberra means we’ll have to watch closely next year to see who finally is the top of the podium.  A rivalry begins 😉

Overall the national prize winners were:

GovHack Medals Table: 1st: Perth, 2nd: Sydney, 3rd: Canberra

Congratulations one and all, just know Melbourne will be back next year more beautiful and brilliant than ever.

The GovHack Money Table:

The above ‘medals table’ is only half the story. Another way to look at the winners is the amount of prize money that each state gave away locally.  Which States were the big winners in terms of their State Government, Companies & Sponsors supporting transparent and open government data?

1. South Australia (Adelaide): $1000*+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+$2000+800+1000+2000+$2000+$40,000+$10,000+$4000+$2000 = TOTAL: $98,800
2. Queensland (Brisbane+Gold Coast) ← Multiple cities for GovHack (the way forward!): $2600+$1000+$500+$385+$5000+$6500+$6500 = TOTAL: $22,485
3. Western Australia (Perth): $500+$1000+1000+1000+~$6500 = TOTAL: $10,000
4. New South Wales (Sydney): $1000*+$1000*+$5000*+$3000+$1000 = TOTAL: $11,000
5. Australian Capital Territory (Canberra): $1000*+$1000+$5000 = TOTAL: $7,000
6. Tasmania (Hobart): $1000+$500+$500+~$500 = TOTAL: $2,500
7. Victoria (Melbourne): $1000+$1000 = TOTAL: $2000

Despite Melbourne coming last this year, we were still the most beautiful 😉  I’d also extend a hand out to my favorite island in the world Tasmania – let us commiserate together in being the most beautiful of Australian locations! Tasmania really did a wonderful job organising, especially given the actual fire they had to fight off!!!

*= these were prizes listed as national prizes put up by states, and won by local teams.

In short, to stick with this Olympics analogy, the winners are….

1. Gold goes to South Australia, far and away the winner this year! This level of local support is something for the rest of us to aspire to!

2. Silver goes to Queensland, who should also get credit for being the first multi-city event, something we in Melbourne are hoping to achieve next year with our bay-sister-city Geelong.

3. Bronze goes to Western Australia who IMHO have proved to be just amazing this year and deserve a virtual round of applause from all of us for being the champions they are in both the money and medals table!

Closing Ceremony

In closing, I can only express how wonderful it was to be part of this event.  For me the competition is wonderful, and the talent that everyone brought to the table was world class – as country we would have won an international GovHack Olympics.  Next year is going to even be better.

But more than the competition is the community.  Even in the Olympics, the thing that people walk away with is not a memory of all the individual winners but how the event brings people together in new ways.  For me, win or lose, GovHack is just a wonderful, creative, energised group of people who want a better world – I look forward to seeing all my fellow Melbourne GovHack-ers soon, and see the rest of your next year (if not sooner).

May the odds be ever in your favour 😉 ← please do note the irony in this post, as the one thing GovHack demonstrates is that data is something you can tell stories with, as I have done above 🙂

Thanks once again to our  local Melbourne sponsors, please follow their twitter accounts to show your appreciation:

@ M e l b I T S R e s e a r c h

 @The_Crunch_Blog

@OKFN_au

[1]= and hopefully I’ll be an Australian citizen soon as well 🙂

[2]= While some purists may think the Olympics is only a bron and not a brain event, see the 1948 Summer Olympics.

[3]= Please note national prizes which were location specific (NSW & Canberra) were not included in the table as the prizes primarily went to local winners.  I’ve included these prizes in the money league table instead.

[3]= Teams I’ll be cheering for next year include:

• http://hackerspace.govhack.org/?q=groups/giving-them-better-chance-life-analytics-meets-early-childhood-development
• http://hackerspace.govhack.org/?q=groups/pixtory

The Best of GovHack Melbourne

This post is a #FriendlyRivalry post to all the other GovHack judges and competitors (Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Canberra, Brisbane, Gold Coast, oh yes and our favorite rival Sydney 😉 ).  As a Melburnian I’m wonderfully proud of what the Govhack competitors at Melbourne achieved, and I want to make sure you know about the following before you cast any of your national votes!  I’ll do the same, so please do re-post your top competitors.  Good luck to one and all.

As we all know the nation is about to have an election, but who should you vote for?  Are you going to let the media tell you or are you going to make your own decision based on the actual data?  Here is a quick quiz that just might get you thinking twice about what party you really belong to?

• Take the quiz here: http://govhack2013.russellsim.org/
• Vote for this team here.

The best hacks are the ones that ‘scratch an itch’.  The first day was full of frustration for the way the data was provided.  This team decided to solve a problem that every GovHack competitor will be thanking them for.  Team Unlock built a platform for unlocking data.  Unlocked transform crappy government spreadsheets, PDFs and other data formats into nice clean CSV & JSON and then automatically builds a profile over the data to show how it can be used as different graphs and spreadsheets.  Oh yes and they built a faceted search engine atop – tpo that.

• Check out how this system works here: http://youtu.be/z11hqoNhNxU
• If you think Government should be using this platform to open up their data, vote for the team here.

Are you thinking of moving to the no.1 city in the world? Of course you are, but Melbourne is really a bunch of communities packed together – which community might you best belong to – are you a hipster, a wealthy retiree, a hick from the sticks…  its not as easy as you might think to decide which part of Melbourne and environs you will personally best fit.  Here is an interactive data map that will help you decide just that:

• Play with the interactive map here: http://yuri.io/census
• If you enjoyed finding out where the hipsters and old people live, vote for this team here.

This is just data journalism at its best: giving you the power to see a whole world of immigration data in one visualisation.  Watch this before you listen to any more news which covers just a single story about asylum seekers.

• Watch this amazing visualisation here: http://youtu.be/C2URyBfJ4Ug
• If you like data journalism based on facts, vote for this team.

Ever wanted to turn your data into a ring, earrings or a dog tag (maybe now, but now you will want to!). This tool enables you to print your data into one of these objects using a 3D printer!!!  How many companies are going to want one of these to replace business cards?!

• Be amazed at the power of custom printed data here: http://youtu.be/qgK2h7orqzI
• If this blows your mind, vote for this team here.

This is a beautiful expression of Australian life and death (if only there would have been more time to show each branch as a state/territory, and different leaf colors as different ages).  None the less, I find it peaceful to watch a metaphor of life in this way:

• Find serenity here: http://die4art.com/hackgov/index.html
• If this brings you some peace in a hectic world, vote for this team here.

An infographics that children of all ages will love, check out the wales around Australia, see them swim and hear their sounds, educational and fun!

• Who doesn’t love wales, listen and watch them in the waters of Australia now: http://youtu.be/37vGQUd72iM?t=40s
• If you enjoyed this and like wales, vote for this team here!

Want to hear what data about urban growth sounds like?! Here is your chance.  A wonderful creative way to think about code and data as art (note: music starts at 2m28s):

• Listen to data as you never have before: http://vimeo.com/67485781
• If you think this is creatively inspired, vote for this team here!

For any radio station out there (are you listening TripleJ), see this map app which shows where people in Australia can actually listen to your radio:

• See radio waves in a way that only hackers can create: http://koordinates.com/maps/hack/#/maps/hack/layers/
• If this data is useful, vote for the team here.

Melburnians do you know if your public transport links are crap?! Well now you can know so you can show your local authority how they can make things better!  Check out this infographic of where the best public transport links are.

• Understand your public transport links here: http://youtu.be/nUVZavhGego
• If you want your public transport to be better, vote for them here.

As someone who has just moved to Melbourne (and fallen in love with this city) this infographic of the Yarra River is truly beautiful as it tells a story about Melbourne is a way that only data from nature can.  Every Melburnian should take the time to scroll over the dot points on the graph and see how our beloved Yarra changes as it flows into our beloved city.

• Appreciate the Yarra in a new way here: http://yarravis.herokuapp.com/
• If you are love Melbourne, vote for this team here.

Australians often talk about how much of Australians minerals get exported to China, but do you want to see what that would actually look like on a map, well here you go (enjoy!):

• See what the data really says about exporting our mineral land: http://youtu.be/anNvHQ0ZnB8?t=1m28s
• If this infographic made you think again about Australian natural resources, vote for this team here.

This is a tool that every journalist should be thanking this team for creating – a custom glossary of what politicians say.  A great tool for anyone in politics, journalism or even researchers needing a great study tool:

• A tool you’ll want to use later: http://youtu.be/9g0Tt3syInI
• If you think this tool is darn useful, vote for this team here.

Here is a map you’ll want to print up and ad to your personal art collection at your home (I know I will!), this looks to be the first in an iteration of this map that will end up being absolutely stunning.  It is already on its way, check it out here:

• An artwork for your home: http://youtu.be/yRLypcIxtpk
• If you want this team to continue designing this map, vote for them here.

This app is wonderfully simple and practical as the team that made this actually solved their own problem.  Perhaps the team that came the furthest to compete, from the UK and needing a way to find out about stuff they made this location aware app:

• http://youtu.be/W22bjvB6WeE
• If it made you smile, vote for them here.

Great to see ‘good honest questions being asked of government’ supported by data:

• http://youtu.be/Bqrlu9liE4s
• If this team got you thinking, vote for them here.

Some great coding to bring the data together to help tourists know when they should visits different places in Australia:

• http://youtu.be/T0OxVlRj4_Y
• If you’d like to see further work on this app, vote for the team here.

Love the idea this team had, just a shame that time ran out on them.

• http://youtu.be/4skFDRIEedQ
• If you want to see them finish it off anyways, vote for them here.

A idea to help you in thinking about ‘what is the gap’.

• http://youtu.be/dVgexlvZBtA
• If this got you thinking, vote for this team here.

All pictures provided by the fantastic photographing fabulous Fiona!  See more pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67400170@N05/sets/

Should the Australian Government be Using OpenStack?

@PiaWaugh asked me to facilitate a panel discussion on OpenStack and Government. Naturally, I decided to turn it into a ‘Jerry Springer’ style debate on “Why isn’t government using OpenStack in Australia?”. Interestingly enough, the audience was swayed in what they believed from the start versus the finish (we held a vote for/against at the start and end of the debate). You’ll have to watch the video to see which way the audience (of about 50ppl) voted 🙂

Flanders’ rants

Disclaimer:

This page on my blog is intended to act as a repository for rants. I’ll be the first to admit that these rants (by their very nature) are *not* well thought out and intended more as a place for me to vent about what frustrates me. The point in posting these rants is that at some stage (once I am a bit calmer), I can come back to view these rants in a more methodical and mindful way. The value in these rants is therefore not in the intellectual ideas, but rather in the emotional ideas that provoked their ‘knee jerk’ reaction.  I hope to learn from these rants by posting them publicly, and  (hopefully) through my friends and colleagues I can separate the emotional from my ideological responses.

These rants will not be published in my normal blog feed so if you want to receive them via email you’ll need to leave a comment and then tick the “Notify me of follow-up comments via email” box.

NB The other reason for having this page on my blog, is my perception that twitter is increasingly becoming a failed space for having short topical debates that often get kicked off on twitter and usually erode after three or more people join in the discussion.

Rant no.1: Why developer events are not beholden to being sustainable.

Of the ten years I’ve been doing hack events in the US, UK, EU and now Aus** the reoccurring problem that continues to float-up in all these events is people asking (mostly managers): “why don’t these events sustain the products they produce?” – my answer (and I know not all of you will agree) is that these prototypes are not “products”, but rather “pre-seed incubation ideas”.

If people really want to see these ideas “productized” (in the global American sense of the word), then they need to realise that the next steps are incubation programmes in preparation to pitch for seed funding (if they get past that stage then VC / Angel funding, i.e. product business models can come into play).

Our upcoming GovbHack showcase in Melbourne has targeted both the government innovation department (DBI), seed funding via the Melbourne Accelerator Programme (MAP) and data.vic.gov. If we can get these stakeholders talking we believe we can turn some of the hacks into “products” (though this is a journey of 2-3 years, not a weekend hack).

NB Please know that I am not advocating that all the GovHack entries should pursue a “productization” end goal, but should instead be seen as foundations for societal change and charitable support, hence my involvement with #OKFNau and the promotion of ideas (not products). This is also the reason why the Melbourne GovHack pushed the ‘beautiful data’ theme where ‘hacks’ are metaphorically-equivalent to an ‘article’ in the newspaper re data journalism (instead of a product to put on the shelf).

None the less, I also want to see viable product emerge like @GetUnlockd, and we should all want to see this, as it will be the thing we can all point to and say “that began at GovHack”, which is what politicians and business investors will care about the most.

/dff

**sorry for pumping my own tires, but hoping to get your attention!

Slideshare analytics

I’d almost written-off Slideshare[1], until I got the below email from them reminding me of past presentations and the ‘long tail’ readership that presentations can have (note: are the 3819 views on ‘Agile Prototyping in Academia’ actual human readership?):

OkCapital: Lost your job – want to find the city that meets ALL your needs?

11 months ago, 21 slides, 1766 views, 7 downloads

Cultural Victoria: Linked Open Data and Libraries.

1 year ago, 8 slides, 656 views

The Past, Present and Future of Archives for Universities: The Archives Forum at The National Archives – 02 March 2011

2 years ago, 40 slides, 1988 views, 5 download

s

What should be at data.ac.uk ? –  a briefing paper

2 years ago, 11 pages, 373 views

What is Rapid Innovation?

2 years ago, 21 slides, 1114 views, 10 downloads

Introduction to the Day: The ’Deposit Tool Show And Tell’ Meeting

3 years ago, 11 slides, 1107 views, 1 download

Agile Prototyping in Academia

3 years ago, 28 slides, 3819 views, 6 comments, 30 downloads

Web 2.0 use in the Public Sector

3 years ago, 62 slides, 802 views, 2 downloads

CRM4UNI Project Introduction

4 years ago, 8 slides, 740 views, 7 downloads

Turning the Pages: transforming the British Libraries 3D virtual book collection into a social learning platform

4 years ago, 11 slides, 946 views, 2 downloads

Birkbeck College, University of London: So we have a repository what next?

5 years ago, 23 slides, 930 views, 7 downloads

The SOURCE Project (Sharring Objects Under Repository Control with Everyone): A bulk migration tool for repository scholarly objects.

5 years ago, 16 slides, 1565 views, 4 downloads

 

[1]= I currently use GoogleDocs presentations, in fact most of these were produced as GDocs and then spat out as PPT.

 

I wonder what would be more effective in terms of dissemination, a.) publishing presentations (like my previous post on ‘ResBaz: a new model for research community tools & services) or b.) publishing out to Slideshare to see what GoogleJuice they generate?  <– I suppose this also depends on how easy it is to read and view via mobile devices, sharing to twitter, etc.