Colleagues,
I have been here at the Realising our Broadband Future forum for the past two days and many of you have seen the twittering at #bbfuture.

Places at this conference have been by invitation only and I have been pleased and proud to represent our profession and ALIA here – amongst the government, technical and education experts.   It has been an important forum for libraries to be at – Jan Fullerton led the first of the e-community stream yesterday, there has been discussion of libraries in the context of the digital education revolution, health services, copyright issues in the digital era and very much about how the new NBN will change communities and our working lives.
Public library access to the internet has also been a key discussion area and you can see and still comment on the wiki http://www.broadbandfuture.gov.au/wiki.html
More on the forum on the ALIA Board Blog and in inCite and the ALIA website over time

Sue Hutley

ALIA Executive Director  http://www.twitter.com/alianational

The ALIA Public Libraries Summit opened today with a keynote from Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and Parliamentary Secretary for the Voluntary Sector.

The purpose of the Summit is to demonstrate the many ways public libraries play a central and valued role in strengthening communities, developing people and achieving social inclusion. It brings together around 50 library and non-library participants including Federal Ministers or their representatives, local government representatives, partners or allies from the non-profit sector, key cultural/ethnic/racial groups and public library stakeholders.

Follow the summit discussions throughout the day on Twitter ! @ALIANational staff and other attendees are Twittering throughout the Summit using the #Summit09 hashtag.

…and we want to hear from you!

After the IFLA decision last week, it’s been wonderful to see so much enthusiasm,  ideas and creative suggestions for a 2010 event flying around the blogosphere, Twitter, Facebook and the e-lists.  Thanks to LINT for a great post that kicked off some discussion here.

As ALIA President Jan Richards said last week: “True to the Australian spirit of “lets’ move on”, the lists and emails are alive “where do we go from here?”

We’ve set up the ALIA 2010 wiki to start the conversation about  “where to from here” and we want you to be involved.  The more voices in the discussion, the better!  It’s a central space to discuss & share ideas for the kind of event you would like to see, brainstorm creative and innovative ways to do things differently and maybe even put your hand up to be more involved.

• What’s the password? The ALIA 2010 wiki is open for editing, no passwords required.  However, please identify your contribution with your name and the date so that we can follow up the good ideas more easily!

• I’m confused. Where do I post? The wiki already has some pages set up for discussion about different aspects of the event – What, Where, Who – etc.  Click on the link to the relevant page first, then click the Edit tab and start typing.    If you just have a general comment, try the General Feedback page.

Your input is what will make a 2010 event a vibrant, exciting and rewarding experience, so don’t be shy!  We want to hear from you and look forward to continuing the conversation.

Kate Sinclair

(ALIA Board of Directors)

ALIA SA recently ran a Basic Wikis 101 workshop which was a great success! The workshop is part of the ALIA SA Basic 101 Workshop series which gives participants the chance to learn about Web 2.0 technologies in a hands-on environment. Check out photos of the workshop in action here…

Attendees were introduced to the concept of wikis and used our Basic 101 Workshop Wiki to play and experiment. Everyone had a great time, learned a lot and there is already heaps of interest in the next workshop – Basic Flickr 101 on the 10th May.

If you are not in SA and would like to hold a similar workshop in your local area, please let me know. It’s been a really popular program and we’d be glad to share the notes, handouts and online spaces we have designed for these workshops with others.

ALIA SA is presenting the following workshop as part of our Basic 101 workshop series (other topics planned for 2007 include Flickr, Podcasting, RSS & Second Life)

A practical hands-on workshop which will show you:

• what a wiki is
• some possible uses for wikis
• look at Wikipedia in a new way
• post to our workshop wiki or create your own!

WHEN: Thursday 29th March

WHERE: Computer Lab, Eynesbury Senior College, Franklin St, Adelaide

TIME: 5:30 for 6:00 – 7:30

COST: $6.00 ALIA members, $8.00 Non-ALIA members

Refreshments and PD certificate provided
RSVP to fiona.butcher@alia.org.au by Monday 26th March