Stephen Blyth's Blog

We all know time is scarce and so are resources. When it comes to starting, extending or changing an ICT initiative there’s a temptation to dive straight in. At the Technology leadership for the (sustainable) win workshop, run on the third day of Connecting Up Australia conference, NTEN Executive Director Holly Ross, was encouraging (or [...]

Now that they’re sweeping out the aisles at the Crown Convention Centre, all that I’m left is memories, screeds of scrawly notes and a heavily annotated programme. Well, that’s what I would have written before Twitter. Even though I often wonder how many tweets I will see in the second half of my life (too [...]

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a conference where people haven’t cited time as an obstacle to trying out new things. It’s a hoary chestnut and it seem to doesn’t matter what the subject is. When it comes to talking about digital technologies and online communications, as we just have at two days of [...]

Although the pragmatics of using ICTs were barely touched on at the National Not-for-profit Conference 2011, held in Auckland 17-18 March, the essential nature of the Internet as a disruptive technology was raised time and time again. Tonya Surman, fittingly beamed in over the Internet via Skype, addressed this most directly. She told delegates that not-for-profit [...]

When I deliver a training package for the first time, I always expect a few wobbles along the way. Yesterday was no exception. I’m not entirely sure if I managed to demystify some of the processes on the Cycling Advocates Network (CAN) website or not. My workshop on getting the most out the CAN website [...]

Waiting for the first guests to arrive at a party is always agonising. Nervous glances at the clock as nibbles sit untouched. Glasses empty. Silence. Will anyone come? At the EYC unConference, held on a glorious spring Saturday, the worry wasn’t so much would people come. But would participants dive into the process of setting [...]

There’s something really addictive about being involved in an event that grows before your eyes. As the organiser for the Engage your community (EYC) unConference I can’t help myself from looking at the list of potential topics to see if anyone has added anything new. Today a new topic suggestion arrived on the wiki: a [...]

How hard can it be to find 200 people sitting at their desks logged into a computer with a web browser open. On a Monday afternoon. Tummies full from lunch and legs stretched after a stiff walk around the block. Willing to join a short online conference. For just 10 minutes. I’m about to find [...]

To say that I use Google everyday is an understatement. As soon as I start my web browser Wellington’s weather flashes up on the screen as part of my iGoogle start page. When I actually start desk writing or researching when I’m at my desk I tend to search random topics at least once every [...]

If the web industry in the USA is anything to go by, there doesn’t seem be a recession. Of the dozen or more speakers from Silicon Valley at Webstock conference not a single one mentioned anything to do with an apparent economic downturn. Job losses? Shrinking incomes? Not in start-up land. Indeed we heard about [...]