Homosexuality in the animal kingdom

This won't make too much sense to most non-norwegians, but a very good old friend of mine Petter Bøckman (biologist and live roleplayer extraordinaire) and some other guy have made what they reckon is the worlds first exhibition about homosexuality in the animal kingdom. it is far more common than what people think. I used to live with Petter, and the stories he would tell about midget chimpanzees!

Congratulations, and I hope we'll see similar initiatives throughout the world.

Event : talk : Angela Beesley ; Wikipedia, wikis and the future of free content

Angela Beesley is coming to the National Library of Australia to hold a talk here about "Wikipedia, wikis and the future of free content" which should be interesting to most people. Here's the blurb ;

Topic: Wikipedia, wikis and the future of free content
Speaker: Angela Beesley

Angela Beesley has been involved with Wikipedia since early 2003. She is also the co-founder and Vice President of Wikia, a wiki hosting service which extends the model of Wikipedia into non-encyclopedic content areas.

Until recently, Angela Beesley served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation which runs Wikipedia and a number of other open content wikis.

Prior to her involvement with Wikipedia, Angela was a researcher and test developer for the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales. She has been in Melbourne for almost a year.

OZ-IA 2006 program is up!

I know I've been a bit silent these last couple of weeks, and it's the usual story of working too hard on too many things. There is some exciting news coming up in the not-too-distant future, like another conference talk in Malaysia amongst other things, but right now I just wanted to share with you something else which is pressing;

The OZ-IA 2006 Summit program is up. I know, I know, I've mentioned OZ-IA 2006 before, but the closer we get to it, the more excited I am about it. And you'll notice that my presentation is the last one on the saturday (which is a single-track session as opposed to the ones running on sunday which are two-tracked, meaning everybody is there to pick your presentation apart...), a prime position to say something stupid and become the topic for the cocktail session afterwards. I'm working on various stupid things to say as we speak.

Anyways, when my next two conferences are over and my real-life work is slowing down a bit, I'll pick up on my previous hints of semantic data modelling and its relation to human cognition, social workings and general ontology work. I've had some inspiration come my way lately, so watch this space. Until next time, I hope to see you in Sydney (both for the Web Directions 2006 and OZ-IA 2006 retreat) in a weeks time! (As usual, look for the guy in stripey arms...)

An expat interview

A little while back I got an email from the lovely Lizza asking me if I wanted to let them interview me for their expatinterviews.com site, which is all about people who live in a country foreign to them. I am myself a Norwegian trapped in Australia, so of course I couldn't refuse to, er, whinge.

Bach - Matthaeus Passion - 27-28

I dare you to watch till the end ; this is the amalmagation of styles, singing and music that I just love so much. Ton Koopman is a fantastic bach interpreter, and damn do i want this DVD!

IA Cocktail Hour in Canberra, 7 September 2006

I've already mentioned that I'm doing "Sexier, smarter and faster IA through Topic Maps" at the IA Retreat 2006 in Sydney at the end of September. I've been asked to entertain (read: present something) at the next Canberra cocktail hour, and I'll do a different version of the one I intend for the IA Retreat. So, they won't be the same, only similar. Heh, I even use the same sales pitch for both of them ;

Topic Maps - part tool, part state of mind; it could simply change the way you work with information architecture. This session will be both highly philosophical and down-right practical at the same time; how to grab our ideas and put them down in a practical format we can use and reuse, both as a mental exercise and as a technical delivery.

Topic Maps offer a framework (it is an ISO standard for data modelling and has an XML-based exchange format to boot) in which we can express ideas, concepts, structures, items and navigation; we'll find data and metadata in a sexy symbiosis to present and reuse our ideas smarter through all stages of development, adapt to complex changes faster, and making the whole process a lot more enjoyable. It is especially well suited to highly complex challenges where your domain can't all fit in your head and your Excel spreadsheets are having trouble keeping up. Don't deliver an assortment of documents and graphs ready to be mislead, misunderstood or misrepresented; give them a topic map they can pop right into their solution.

Time/date: 17:00-18:30, Thursday 07 September

Venue: The Boardroom, SMS Management and Technology, Ground Floor, 8 Brindabella Circuit, Canberra Airport

Parking: Please be aware that there is free parking available for the first hour only at the front of 8 Brindabella Circuit. After that (until well after we are finished) you must pay for parking in one of the nearby lots or risk a ticket.

Hope to see you there.

Schedule and happenings

Lots of stuff going on lately, but two more official and important things right now is ;

For a while I've been part of a mailing-list called PM clinic which is a great gathering of a lot of smart people who are all passionate about project management, big and small. So, I was especially happy to hear that Scott Berkun, the guy that runs PM Clinic and who's an alround great guy, is giving master-classes in Australia this spring. To quote ;

Why do so many design intensive projects go so wrong? This one day masterclass presented by Scott Berkun will teach you the best practices and leadership tactics for starting, managing and shipping web and software projects that rely on design skills.

Take note of the following dates ; Sydney: 1 September 2006, Canberra: 6 September 2006 and Melbourne: 8 September 2006 I'm already signed up for the Canberra session, so I just might see you there. (Look for the guy with stripey arms...)

IA Retreat 2006

The Information Architecture Retreat 2006 happens in Sydney on the 30th and 31st of September. I'll be presenting "Sexier, smarter and faster IA through Topic Maps" in which I take my two favourite things and make them one! Quite a number of people have already signed up for this one, so I'm quite excited about it; it's going to be a blast. There's tons of other great stuff too which I'm seriously looking forward to. See you there. (P.S. I'm going to be at Web Directions 2006 as well which is a web design conference in Sydney that runs four days in front of the IA retreat. Coincidence? I think not.)

Scott Berkun is coming to town ,,,

Canberra is about to get an American celebrity visiting. No, not pop music, not politics, not sports, but something far more important ; project management. And Scott Berkun is one of the top dogs of project management, with a book under his belt and several years at Microsoft. What will you get?

"Tons of interactive learning, fun exercises, comical war stories, answers to your toughest questions (including post-class e-mails), the meaning of life, two kitchen sinks, plus a copy of the bestselling artofpm book (Which I’ll sign, spill beer on, or do other activities of your choice with) with every registration."

He'll be in Canberra on the 6th of September. (He's also doing Sydney and Melbourne) To get a spot I think you need to hurry; this is one of those "hotcakes" things. Everybody will want to be there, so if you've ever dealt with or will deal with design intensive project management, this one is not to be missed. See you there.