Geek week 2

friday already? ah, that's right, i was at an audiology conference earlier in the week.

this week has been a short one, but it has felt more productive and effective than the one before.

some highlights include:

office love



i moved into the main office, which was pretty exciting. partly because the workshop here is bloody cold and partly so that i could be a little closer to the action. it has already resulted in some great discussions and some real progress between us here. for all the improvements in technology and remote workstations, sometimes being able to sit in the same room as someone makes a difference.

actually, it has been interesting to note the different working styles for each of us. as i type, i've got my headphones on, with about 10 different browser windows, 6 applications and 5 documents open at once. (how the hell i would do without the tab command and spaces, i've no idea.)

one of the ladies here (on their clapped out system) runs one application, one document at a time. man, i admire that kind of focus. but am not jealous of that motivation :D

and the other powerhouse here is mostly working on the ground, so is pretty mobile in her system usage. but she's running two machines at a time (one for basic admin) and another for multi-tasking LAMF.

meeting the geek aunty



after lots of twitter and email contact, i finally got to meet with fee, the super-dynamic project manager of the geek program. not just nice to put a face to a name, but also to hear about how this program fits in with the others and to see how hard it is to turn a ship around. this program is the beginning of massive change for the australia council, in terms of how it best does its job, and i can tell you honestly that it's pretty exciting to not have to bend and squeeze and squish myself into an old framework quite so much. it's a bit of a relief to see that at least some people at the federal art funding level REALLY understand that contemporary art is very rarely about separated forms (sooooo last century), but about cross/trans/inter/whatever discipline. it's more and more about the whole of society as an engaged output. thank god for that!

web development in the urban environment



and then today we had our first awesome web development workshop in preparation for our big project of updating the site. the organisation have done a reasonable amount of mapping and discussion already, so i didn't have to reinvent the wheel (thank goodness!). and, i have to say, it was an absolute pleasure running a meeting with peeps who were open, familiar and succinct in web/online culture.

interestingly, for the purpose of starting to really specify our renovated webspace, we decided to use the language of architecture for our semantics. this was based on the idea that the internet is a public space and therefore most sites are similar to buildings and instutitions. we were able to think of navigation as the passageways/windows, discuss 'spaces' as the different means of engagement the gallery has, and to clearly separate roles in making it happen too.

as it stands, i'm currently the architect, interior decorator and removalist. i will be liasing with some engineers, builders and interior designers very soon. it makes life so much easier when you're all talking the same language, i tell you. i'm also amused that the language of urban life translates so well and so easily for us.

i also had another 'i love the interwebs!!' moment when i scored a suggestion for developing wireframes (i'm hoping to give the best possible specifications to the developers, 'cos i reckon there's nothing more time-wasting that the back'n'forth) AND i started a little survey monkey survey design.

next week is going to get really exciting as i start to really play with that wireframe/spec document and organising the copy, media and archiving of the current site. eep! i'm also looking forward to touching base with other OzCo geeks about this stuff too.